Bring on the coffee!

So, I made a significant investment. I purchased 130 pounds of Kenya AA. At $2.75/lb, it wasn't cheap, but by I saved $.25/lb by buying the whole sack. It arrived at Harvest Moon on Friday, and I couldn't wait for Thor to get up so we could go get the sucker. I underestimated the size of the thing, so a kind man helped me carry it to the car. It came in an awesome burlap sack as pictured below>
Everyone who has seen it, asks if they can have the bag when I am done. The answer stands at "no", so don't bother asking. I plan on selling fresh roasted coffee to friends for about the price of Folger's. This way everyone wins, and I can reinvest the profits into our roaster. In the past week, we have roasted around 5 lbs and it gets better every time.












But, as you can tell by the picture of our roaster below, it is quite rudimentary. The thin scraps of metal welded together to make our frame, as well as the piece of crap stock pot drum do not stand up to the heat very well. They both warp, and expand at their leisure with no amount of predictability. As a result, we have had to adjust the machine--meaning hit it with hammers, and bend it with a crowbar-- whenever something goes wrong. There are two problems that have reared their ugly head.

1. The drum expands, the the box shrinks, so the gear motor locks up. BAD.

2. Beans fall out of the machine like a sieve. ALSO BAD.

These complications have had Andy and I thinking, and today he had a wonderful revelation. it is pictured below. Pardon the quality, I took it with my phone.


What is it? That is the cursed wood burning stove that started the fire that destroyed my in-laws old house... It lay in the ashy muck of a basement for a month after the fire, and has resided in a patch of trees at the back of their property ever since. This picture isn't complete--we had already stripped it down a whole lot. Anyway, it will make the PERFECT shell for our full sized final roaster. Andy thinks he can secure a huge piece of pipe that will become our drum. If he takes care of that, I confidently believe that for less than $200, we can build a roaster that will effectively rival commercial roasters that retail for about $10k. I wish you could have seen Andy and I's faces as we removed the sheet metal sides to expose the perfect answer to our prototype woes. I can hardly contain my excitement.

Nonetheless, our prototype does the trick. So, if you live in or around Canal Winchester, I will sell you FRESH roasted top quality Kenya AA for $6/lb. Of course, you may try before you buy, so give me a call, or pay me a visit. I will roast at your request and to your preferred roast. Thanks for reading!

Identity Theft? No way.

Days after receiving my first batch of coins, Stephanie gets an invitation to open an account with Capital One. Imagine that, a credit card offer. They offer no interest for 12 months. So, I go online and fill out all of the info. A few days later we receive the card. Stephanie was asleep so, I went ahead and called them to activate the card. In a world with an increasing transsexual population, I didn't think my male voice would be a problem. Listen to the lines of security protecting this card from the wrong hands:

1. Phone number - They use caller ID to make sure that you call with your home phone number.
PASS

2. SSN - They asked for the last 4 digits of Stephanie's SSN.
PASS

3. Zip Code - Billing zip code
PASS

At this point, I think you would usually have jumped through all of their hoops, but my voice not fitting the name Stephanie had them suspicious, so they kept going.

4. Previous Address #1 - This was multiple choice. They asked what city a previous street she lived on was in... Strangely, the street was "Joshua". She never lived at a Joshua - I loved on a Joshua Trace!? Anyway, we got it.
PASS

5. Auto Loan - They asked how long the terms were for Stephanie's auto loan.
PASS

6. Previous Address #2 - They wanted her parent's entire address.
PASS

7. Driver's License Number - I had to dig into her wallet...
PASS

8. Ridiculous previous address details - They asked me to, "Name a street that intersects 'St. Paul'" (her parent's house) I gave them three.
PASS

9. Family!? - "Do you have relatives in Crookston, MN?"
"My in-laws are from there."
"Can you give me a name?"
I proceed to name my mother, and sister
PASS

10. A woman with a man's voice?
FAIL

So, they still were not convinced, but apparently could not point out the obvious reason they were not. So, they left me with one final test.

11. Go to a bank with the CC, Driver's License, and Social Security Card, and have someone call us to verify your physical identity!
PENDING

Note: Stephanie woke up to feed Thor half way through this conversation, so I could have just handed the phone over to her. She was helping with the answers throughout the last half. But, seeing how far this would go was more important than activating the stupid card so I could capitalize on the US Mint and their introductory rate.

Capital One, I am impressed.

Financial Scheme

A few weeks ago I was pointed to the US Mint's direct ship program. In order to get $1 coins into circulation, they will ship them to you at face value. Why would I be interested in buying $1 coins $250 at a time? Because it is essentially a free cash advance that even earns Cashback bonus! I experimented with my Discover card this month. The limits are confusing and for some reason my $3k order was reduc ed to $500, but they have raised the limit to $5k now. So, this week, I will deposit the coins into my checking account and pay off the debt. Now, this may be a lot of work for a whopping $5 in cashback. But, with an introductory rate of 0% for 12 months and a creidt limit of $10k or so, you get a free $250 or so! This leads me to my next post...

Coffee Roasting attempt #7?

Coffee roasting has come a long way!  My father-in-law was laid off two months ago, and as much as I hate to admit it, I have benefited greatly!  He is a union plumber/pipefitter and is great with all things metal.  He also is an avid coffee drinker.  All of these things made it easy for him to catch the home-roasting fever.  We fumbled around with a fluid airbed roaster design for awhile but he quickly let go of that and began pursuing a more conventional design.  Before I knew it he unveiled the roaster below.

Well, it was not quite this glorious to begin with.  Having watched many drum roasters on youtube and even studied their blueprints in books, I was able to offer lots of constructive criticism that has led to the current design.  The amazing thing is that as pictured, the only thing we didn't have on hand is the thermometer!  I purchased some bearings and a gearmotor today from Surplus Center.  That site is amazing and has incredible prices.  I bought bearings online a month ago and thought I was getting a good deal.  Well, they suck compared to similar priced ones from that catalog.  Currently, the drum only rotates at about 4 rpm, and the new motor will ramp that up to 64.  I am excited for that!  It easily roasts a pound at a time with good but slightly inconsistent results.  I am banking on the higher rpms to fix this.

So, if you love good coffee, buy it fresh from me and I will cut you one heck of a deal!  God bless.

80 Degrees

There are few things that can bring such instantaneous joy in the worst of circumstances like instance below. Of course, this video is just the tail end of some great laughter--you never get the best part on video. Stephanie and Thor had just returned from a walk and Stephanie told me that is was 80 degrees outside. Next thing we know, Thor is giggling. For some reason, those words tickled his ears as you can now experience for yourself. What a bundle of joy!

A Lesson in Failure.

I failed Calculus B today. I have coasted through years of college with minimal effort and have still ended up on the Dean's list many times. A decent IQ, and a good foundation laid by my parents have made education a breeze up until Calc B. This is the first course I have ever failed and I am almost happy about it because finally someone is not going to let me get away with being lazy. The class is required for my major so I will be taking it again sometime in the near future. I am excited for the challenge! I did not complete a single homework problem the entire quarter. The only effort I put into the class was logging a few hours at justmathtutoring.com. The place is amazing. If you need any help with any math, it is definitely the place to go.

Much beer and coffee roasting news is to come soon.

Updates

Weight Watchers - As I expected, my metabolism is off the charts. For quite a few weeks I followed the program with a lot of determination. Consuming just under 2000 calories a day I was losing about 2 pounds every 3 days. I very quickly dropped to 240 pounds. Then I started to get a little bit cocky. Despite easing off the diet quite a bit I still managed to hit 237.5, but I have been afraid to get back on the scale since. But, we must endure.

Coffee - Andy and I are in the process of building a fluid air bed roaster out of junk from the thrift store. It has been a learning experience to say the least. If you think you know a lot about everything start perusing forums that deal with electronics and you will be quickly humbled. Last week we were able to set up a system that thoroughly agitates around a half pound of beans with only air. Now all we need to do it turn that air from 70 degrees to 400. Easier said that done.

Homebrew - Last Saturday, Earl and I brewed our fist all-grain batch. All we know so far is that it is fermenting. Good news. My homemade mash-tun worked wonders. I also purchased an 8 gallon stainless steel stock pot for boiling the wort. It is a beautiful piece of equipment. Tomorrow, forty-two 55 pound bags of malt will arrive on a semi. Only 4 of them are mine, but I organized the whole ordeal on this wiki to save money. If you live nearby and want to save mad money on malt, join us next time!

Beekeeping - You didn't know about this one did you... Well it is only a dream up to this point, but I do belive I am going to take classes from the Scioto Valley Beekeepers Association in a couple of weeks. I hope to build a top bar hive similar to the one here. The only major difference is that mine will have observation windows so Thor and I can learn all about how bees work!

Spiritual - Stephanie and I are praying together almost every night before we go to bed and this simple gesture does wonders for us. There is something attractive about a praying wife. We continue to attend Bible Study with friends every Wednesday night. I look forward to it more than anything else in a week.

Monetary - Dave Ramsey convinced me that whole life insurance is a waste of money. So, I am cashing out our policy. Add that money to our tax returns and in a short amount of time, we will pay off $6000 worth debt! There are few better feelings in the world. Praise Jesus.