Another real nice weekend, biked at the beach.
Garlic:
Harvested 97 new heads of garlic, last fall (October 13, 2013) we planted 98 cloves, not a bad result. We still have some garlic left from the last harvest, though it has been sprouting for awhile.
The spinach and lettuce were done and so we moved the zucchini to the garlic bed and the eggplant plants to the barrel planter.
Smoked Duck:
Brined and smoked a duck this weekend.
Bought a whole 5 lb duck, separated breasts(they were a bit thin) and leg/thighs, rendered fat from all the remaining skin, everything else went in the freezer for stock.
Brine:
0.7 liters water
60 g kosher salt
16 g sugar
7 g pink salt
2 cloves of garlic, halved
bunch sage, smooched
bunch thyme, bruised
3 bay leaves, man-handled
3 g juniper berries, stepped on
1/2 cup Madeira
Receipe from Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn
Sat the breasts and leg/thighs in the brine for 6 hours.
Let them rest in the fridge for 12 hours
Smoked them for 2 hours using Mesquite.
Came out very tasty, ate the smaller of the 2 leg/thighs for lunch Saturday and Sunday.
Last time I just brined the breasts.
Estate Management:
Minimal this weekend.
Put shade cloth in the skylights, filled a crack betwixt the sidewalk and the curb cut with cement, light gardening, mowed the east lawn.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Start of Summer 2014
Spend Saturday morning trying to free a stuck tub drain stopper, the kind that has a cylinder inside the drain pipe (trip lever tub drain). The cylinder had not been used for a long time and after using WD-40 and vinegar it finally came free. I pulled it out, cleaned it up and reinstalled it.
Current Blooms:
A new Edelweiss, "Mt. Everest" from Edelweiss Periennials.
A Gentiana, Gentiana veitchiorum 'Goetterdaemmerung' I bought it because of the name. It is the last opera in the Wagner Ring Cycle. Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried, and Gotterdammerung. It will have deep blue flowers.
Another Edelweiss from Edelweiss Perennials, this one is Leontopodium discolor and is native to Japan. The flowers are just past their prime.
Iris and a day lilly.
Beers in the Fridge:
Still have porters in the fridge, but have added summer beers and ales to the collection.
Trader Josef's Blonde Ale - just OK
Smuttynose Brewing's Summer Weizen Ale, brewed with chamomile flowers, better but didn't notice the flowers
Konig Pilsner brewed in Duisburg, Germany. Smelled very flowery, taste was just OK, easily forgetful except for the flowery aroma. Don't expect to buy it again.
Current Blooms:
Beers in the Fridge:
Still have porters in the fridge, but have added summer beers and ales to the collection.
Smuttynose Brewing's Summer Weizen Ale, brewed with chamomile flowers, better but didn't notice the flowers
Sunday, June 8, 2014
The Second Sunday after Memorial Day, The festival of St. Mattress the sleepy
A productive weekend compared to last weekend.
Installed 2 attic replacement windows, had purchased them easily more than 2 years ago and was saving them for the next time I was made redundant. Yesterday seemed like a good day to work in the attic(not too hot) so I put them in. Things went fairly smoothly. The expanding foam I sprayed into the window weight cavities kept oozing out of one location, I guess I did not wait long enough for the foam to dry. Otherwise all went well.
Installed foam gutter protectors over each gutter drop outlet on both sides of the house. The foam guard is supposed to be used along the whole length of the gutter, but the problem is really just the drop outlet which gets clogged by one or 2 large leaves or a small clump of debris and then the whole system backs up. The foam cross section is a right triangle which would have allowed debris to flow to the drop outlet, so I cut 2 inches off each end and flipped the pieces and glued them back to the guard creating a square cross section at each end. When I positioned the guard over the drop outlet I trimmed the square cross section to match the contour of the gutter. I hope this keeps the drop outlet clear.
Had yet another idea for a trough design, I wondered how it would look if I lined the mold with small sized bubble wrap with the smooth side facing out. I hoped the pot would pick up some of the texture of the bubble wrap. Also included the fiberglass mesh tape embedded between layers of the hypertufa mix. Tried to keep the sides thin, but they ended up quite thick.
I used tape to keep the bubble wrap in place while I built up the sides of the trough.
Came out looking like a honeycomb pattern, more detailed than I had expected.
This was the small trough I made on Memorial Day.
Beers in the Fridge:
Actually felt like buying beer this week, all I had left were 3 kinds of stouts, not my first choice for these warm spring days. Even so didn't feel like drinking any of it till Friday.
I picked up;
Boddingtons Pub Ale owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, I buy this frequently.
Paulaner Hefe-Weizen wheat beer. In Germany the labels are Hefe-Weißbier, I guess people want imported German beer, but not that German.
Installed 2 attic replacement windows, had purchased them easily more than 2 years ago and was saving them for the next time I was made redundant. Yesterday seemed like a good day to work in the attic(not too hot) so I put them in. Things went fairly smoothly. The expanding foam I sprayed into the window weight cavities kept oozing out of one location, I guess I did not wait long enough for the foam to dry. Otherwise all went well.
Installed foam gutter protectors over each gutter drop outlet on both sides of the house. The foam guard is supposed to be used along the whole length of the gutter, but the problem is really just the drop outlet which gets clogged by one or 2 large leaves or a small clump of debris and then the whole system backs up. The foam cross section is a right triangle which would have allowed debris to flow to the drop outlet, so I cut 2 inches off each end and flipped the pieces and glued them back to the guard creating a square cross section at each end. When I positioned the guard over the drop outlet I trimmed the square cross section to match the contour of the gutter. I hope this keeps the drop outlet clear.
Had yet another idea for a trough design, I wondered how it would look if I lined the mold with small sized bubble wrap with the smooth side facing out. I hoped the pot would pick up some of the texture of the bubble wrap. Also included the fiberglass mesh tape embedded between layers of the hypertufa mix. Tried to keep the sides thin, but they ended up quite thick.
I used tape to keep the bubble wrap in place while I built up the sides of the trough.
Came out looking like a honeycomb pattern, more detailed than I had expected.
Beers in the Fridge:
Actually felt like buying beer this week, all I had left were 3 kinds of stouts, not my first choice for these warm spring days. Even so didn't feel like drinking any of it till Friday.
I picked up;
Boddingtons Pub Ale owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, I buy this frequently.
Paulaner Hefe-Weizen wheat beer. In Germany the labels are Hefe-Weißbier, I guess people want imported German beer, but not that German.
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