Posts under ‘Lifestyle’

2009 is starting off as a great year for the garden. As you can see here, the plant babies are growing strong. We started the plants in the green house, rather than using plant lights, and you can see by comparing these photos, just how well they are doing.

My two youngest, inspired by [...]

This year, we are starting our plants in the greenhouse and they are growing great.  In the past, we’ve used lights to start them, but this year we wanted to see if we could do it without electricity.  
The greenhouse isn’t quite up to the task of a hard frost, so we bring the plants [...]

My son made the most fabulous loaf of sourdough bread.  So fabulous, that I didn’t get a chance to photograph it. I had to hunt Flickr for this photo.
Sourdough bread is made without yeast, or at least not commercial yeast. Instead, it’s made from a wild yeast starter.
To make the starter, my son used [...]

Once the snow melted and the ground dried, it was time to replenish our supply of wood.  I really enjoy cutting wood at this time of the year.  It is nice to get out before the air gets hot and the bugs come out.
A freshly sharpened chainsaw makes cutting wood so much easier.  I can [...]

I’ve tried to run Linux off and on over the years. It’s a kind of geek merit badge, you aren’t a true geek until you can do all of your work in Linux. During my most current trial, I was having trouble with the sound. It worked until I plugged in my [...]

katbaro on Flickr.com has this photo of Laura Ingalls-Wilder’s birthplace and says:
“In case you are wondering, its not the real house but a reproduction on the actual land. Since she didn’t write the books until she was in her 60’s I’m sure the original cabin was long gone before she was popular. You can find [...]

For a recent project, I wanted a nice dark wood stain.  Everything I found in the stores contained V.O.C.s.  Convinced it just didn’t have to be so, my wife suggested that I use water color paints, followed by a coat of oil finish.  It works fabulously.  This photo shows oak and pine boards, the pine [...]

This weekend, I racked (transferred) the cherry mead from the fermenting bucket into a glass carboy, to get it off the fruit and start clarifying.  I started with a bucket because it has more room top for bubbles while fermenting and it is easier to get all 12 pounds of cherries in and out.
Materials:

carboy
airlock and [...]

Earlier this week, we were having trouble with the sump pump. To keep it working until I had the replacement, I made a splint using 1 1/2 inch PVC and hose clamps. Once I actually had the right parts, this was a pretty straight forward repair. Click here to read more.

The Cherry Mead stopped bubbling this week, so it took about 4 weeks to ferment completely. Any time now it can be transferred (racked) into a glass carboy and allowed to clarify. It smelled great while bubbling, so I have high hopes for it.
The chickens started laying the week before Christmas. I brought the chicks home [...]