After successfully brewing a small batch of sake, I decided to try my hand at growing koji. There are a lot of good resources out there to get started, but I wanted to document my success/failure. Spores for yellow koji are easy to find. White koji, on the other hand was harder to track down. […]

For years, we’ve wanted to visit the canyonlands of southeast Oregon. We had heard that this vast area (250,000 acres) of public lands contains desert landscapes rivaling Zion and Bryce. However, from Portland it is a 6-7 hour drive and we wanted to make sure we had enough time to explore the area. Turns out, […]

Picked up two types of premade Koji: Inspired by this video to try again at growing my own from spores. However, this is “pre-made” and I can skip right to mixing it all up! The suggested ratio is: Process: Source for white koji spores: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1516312119/white-koji-starter-20g-to-make-15-kg?ref=cart

My dad was interested in heading to Mt Adams and I am always up for some time on that particular mountain. We were planning to go on Friday, but the weather looked better on Thursday, my dad met me at my place that evening after work. It took me a little while to get gear […]

The John Day river is an amazing place to paddle board. It has a 70 mile section of wild, red rock canyon that is only accessible by rafts, drift boats, and yes – stand up paddle boards. This trip was even featured on OPB years ago. This was my third SUP camping trip on the […]

It’s been a long while since I climbed the South Sister (way back in 2012). Originally, I grabbed a permit to climb with my father. Unfortunately, he was not able to make it. This was probably for the best, as the conditions were less than optimal, but I didn’t know that when I started. This […]

This time of year, when I drive down a local street, there is a perfect view of snow covered Helens. When I spotted this climb report on mastodon, I decided to take the day off work for a quick climb. Started driving around 3:30am and took the longer (but straighter) route up I5. Arrived at […]

It’s been a few years since I last went up hood, but the conditions looked promising. When the weather held up, I found myself at Timberline lodge at 2:30am, Friday night. I wanted to start earlier (to catch a sumit sunrise). However, with temps well below freezing, I had reservations. With firm snow, I made […]

I’ve built decks before and had to look up the span on overhang tables. Today I ran across the following document that lays it all out nicely. Thought I would keep a copy around for reference.

There is a 40 mile section of the John Day river that is perfect for paddleboarding (if the weather cooperates) This section travels through high desert hills and deep basalt canyon wilderness. It stays in the wilderness and is filled with views and wildlife. For 3 days we paddled without seeing a road, house, or […]