I used to bake a lot of bread, but eventually got out of the habit. Then the pandemic happened… and like everyone else, I suddenly had the time and need to again bake. But… if I’m going to take he time to bake bread, I might as well bake beautiful bread. For the past few […]

Just keeping track of the initial sake experiments: Day 0 (2021-02-01) Preparing the rice. After a false start, I am planning to do things right. This time the rice will be soaked and steamed in preparation of day 1. 8pm – 2.5lbs of sweet, short-grain rice was rinsed and set up to soak overnight. It […]

Just keeping track of the initial sake experiments. Unfortunalty, this first attempt didn’t make it far. Feel free to learn from my mistakes: Day 1 9 cups (dry) of sushi rice was prepared. This took 3 batches in my small rice cooker: 3 cups rice + 3.75 cups water for a firmer rice. Why plain […]

I’ve been homebrewing beer, mead, and wine for a while now – but, the one item on my list yet to try at home is Sake. I am in no way an expert on the beverage, but I really do enjoy the dry/fragment beverage. So, let’s dive in… Overview For anyone who stumbles across this: […]

Been a few years since I brewed this wonderful CDA. Followed the 2011 recipe, but swapping out the Cascade with our own NHB115. The alphas are almost identical, so converting the recipe wasn’t a problem. Details The chocolate should be mixed with the light malt. However, the patent and roast need to be finely ground […]

I try to find time to climb Mt Adams each year. It is a beautiful mountain and the climbing route offers majestic views and a reasonable challenge without being too technical. In past years, I always opted for a standard two-day climb. During the first day you haul a heavy pack up the “lunch counter” […]

Let’s start at the end: while exploring one of my favorite caves in the area, we discovered a new, unexplored section. The size of the cave section was not immediately apparent as entering the area require ropes. Upon returning, we discovered that it was a single 20’x20′ room. Still, it was cool to be the […]

The need You may have noticed that I am a bit obsessed with hops. Currently, I am running three small yards for our experimental hop breeding program. Hops are wonderful to grow, but can be a real pain to pick. Hand picking takes about 1 hour per plant – meanwhile, picking machines cost hundreds-of-thousands of […]

We just completed a modest basalt wall in our back yard. Over the course of the build, we learned many, many things. I wanted to take some quick notes for the next time we tackle a project like this. The rock Real basalt is a beautiful and extremely strong volcanic stone. It is also much, […]

Spent the weekend in the off-limits area of the Columbia River burn. I was with other members of the Oregon Trails Club doing repairs and maintenance on the Nesika lodge site. Two of the three buildings were lost in the fire, but the main lodge amazingly remained undamaged. We spent most of the weekend clearing […]