Christmas, cameras, work, New Years

Well, Christmas is over.
The kids are happy. Well, for now. They had some great gifts. One gift "the girl" had was the Nintendo Wii. One gift I gave "the wife" was the Wii fit. And one gift she gave me was a Zelda game. I grew up on Zelda. And I love it. If I am standing up or even sitting down to play this game, I forget to drink! And if I am not drinking beer, well, I guess that is a good thing. Which brings me to my wife's gift of the Wii fit. I set up the game and the little pad, box, thinging that you stand on. Well in doing so you need to set you "person" up and then stand on this thing. Long story short, it set an age for me of 61!!!!, Oh and it said I was the O word. You know. The word that comes after over weight.
Now, I know I am fat. I have been fat since my first marriage. For three years of high school I was at 165 Lbs. at 6 foot 3 inches. I know weigh,,,, wait for it............ wait.......... 245. And I seem to have lost an inch. I am now at 6 foot 2.
Is the extra weight making me slump an inch?
I don't know. But I know I am fat. I have known that I am fat for 15 years. I don't need a computer game to tell me that. I don't need said game to make a noise when I step on to the pad, but it did. I don't need this game to make my little person that I made even fatter then I did when I created it, but it did. SO. As of Jan. 1st. I plan to change many things. The amount of beer I drink is the first thing to be changed. I don't really eat. Not much anyway. But I also don't really move around much. So I figure a change here and there, I should be good!.. Well, I hope.
And did I say that I like Zelda! hehe, It has been around one way or the other for years.
I did add the kitchen camera. It like the dining room camera, isn't always on. But it will be more and more in the next year. The problem with the kitchen camera is that it isn't a wide angle lens. It only picks up half of the kitchen. I can't afford to buy any other camera at this time, so it will need to do. I have thought about adding a second kitchen camera and set them side by side and somehow put the two images together. Now, I don't know how to do this, and the one person I know who does is a little busy as of late. I don't want to bother him with some thing so small as my website. So the picture you get for now is the pic you get.
Every New years is about he same in my house. I wake up the wife as the ball drops, and she rolls over and goes back to sleep. Not much will change this year. Lets just say that I will be awake. AND I will be sure to stay awake most of the night.
I will say it out loud. I will type it here. If I do, I might make a change or two in my life.
By July 10th or so I hope to be 20 to 30 Lbs. less.
The only way to do that is to move more! Drink less, and ???????? I don't know. But I do know that I am in the worse shape of my life.
Wish me luck.

New camera added.

Well after plugging away at the computer for hours I figured out my problem and got a new camera going. I was working with ports on my router, settings in WebcamXP, settings in the web page, and finally figured out the problem. I had set up the IP on this system the right way, just in the wrong place. I added a wireless USB drive to this computer to network. That is where I needed to set up the IP. Not on the internal network card. I learn, slow, but I learn. So, I have one webcam set up in the living room. The link to the kitchen camera goes to this same camera. I will change that when I get the other webcam going. Wife is far from happy. So the camera hasn't been up much today. It was our day off after all. I wish she liked the site as much as I do, but she doesn't. When the dining room and kitchen camera are up I plan to have them off most of the time. Sad, but I need to give a little. I plan to build something for the living room PTZ soon and stick it outside. That is where I was always going to put it, it has just got pushed back on my list for a while. But look it here, after two years or so this site has finally started becoming what I always wanted. Well, except the design part! But a little at a time I guess.
For Christmas this year, my wife told me to order some things to finally get into all grain brewing! I can't wait to make my first batch. Might be able to shot for the middle of January.
I am sure I will be missing those last little things, and wont even know it until I am in the middle of the brew.But it will be fun. Oh, and I am still missing one more brew pot. So I guess I will need to spend a$100+ to purchase a used beer keg. They are far to hard to find now-a-days.(Legal kegs anyway). So I will need to buy one. I wont bother to bitch about the keg I HAD for this. But I will tell you I will never see it again.
Enough for now. Look for the kitchen camera soon. I will keep adding cameras as long as I can! Wife did say that once the cameras make it to the second floor, or third floor, she is gone. And since I do like her, I guess I will keep them down stairs!

Sad, little happy, but sad.

I broke into my second bottle of Rogue Imperial India Pale Ale. I only had two bottles, and I took one bottle to a meeting and was nice enough to share. Had I knew how good this beer was, I would have drank it in the basement.With no one to watch, and without pants. Don't get me wrong, I like to share. But at this time my cash runs low. And this beer is GOOD. $16.00 good? I don't know. If I was rich, it would be GOOD everyday. I haven't been brewin' beer, so my taps run low. I spent too much time on Mead. But in a year or so, I will have a good bit on hand to drink. On the plus side I hope to be jumping into all-grain in the next month or three. I hope my beers go to the next level.

On the website side, I have a third desk top computer up and running. The keyboard and mouse needs to be replaced. The monitor is old and a little big, but it works for now. And after running some major software on this computer (Thanks Travis), I only found about 1700 problems.The computer is still over loaded with programs and software that isn't needed. I wish I could take it back to a copy of XP and nothing else but I have no idea how to do that. So, I am running it as is. I added a few programs, but haven't add webcamXP yet.
I hope to have two webcams up soon.(soon as I pick up two of the cheap ones). One for the dining room, and one for the kitchen.Later when I find some video cards, I will add a few more cameras. But so far it is just running Seti at home, and what ever else is in the background that I haven't gotten rid of yet. I don't have a restore disk, and I am not smart enough to restore the computer without one. But like I said, it is running. I am going to fix up a slide show of family photo's in the next week or so, set up a link to the desk top, and let her run. Hell, only 4 people come here anyway, and they don't look around too much. But I will just pretend this computer is a big picture frame.
Sorry, I will read this later. But for now I will just post it. I am sure it is a messed up as all my other post, but I really don't care.I just post because I can.What hte hell is grammer??!!!!!
And yes, I love the ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
See ya...
B

Sick

I wont go into details. I wont tell you how much time I have spent(sitting) in the little room in the house with a trash can in my hands as fluid leaves my body two different ways at the same time.
Oppps, sorry. But I will tell you, it is bad. Real bad. And as a big drinker, I have had my days of tossing my cookies. But never with this much force. For two days I have sipped on water, only to loss it later. I did manage to eat two crackers on Tuesday, but nothing else. I am sure I picked this up from my boy. When you send them off to pre-school they are going into a germ factory. He has also been expelling fluids with lots of force.
You know it is bad if I haven't had a beer for close to three days now!
Well, the cameras are still up. I need to reset some of them every day. And once in a while one of my computers will crash taking 3 cameras with it. But, I am still working on the site. Hope that by the 1st of the new year I will have the kitchen and dinning room cameras up. I will not leave these cameras on at all times, the wife doesn't like the ones I have, let alone add more.
Speaking of the site. I have my first donation! After many months, someone decided to send me some money! It was a little bit of a joke when I added the Donate button, and didn't believe anyone would ever click it. So I guess it is ok that the button was somewhat of a joke that the person who donated sent me $0.05 US

Rest in Peace Jackie.

Lost a family member this week.

The kids are crushed.
She lived a good, long life and will be missed.

Christmas???

Time is going to fast for me. Not sure how many more ticks I have left on my clock, and it keeps going past me. I still need to get the lights and decorations up! Thursday is our day off, and the day we try to get those little things done. So I was going to get the outside lights and stuff up, but the day has already been planned out. Hope to have something up in time to take it down....
Today was a bad day at work. As most are now, but this day ended very bad. I will post more on that later. Not in the talking mood about sad things tonight.
Looking at taking the guest book off. Just taking up space, and only a few have signed it. But people can't get to this blog most of the time either.
For Christmas I would like 365 bottles of Rogue XS IIPA. If you gotta ask, well you don't know beer. But let me tell you, it is by far the best India Pale Ale I have ever had. So if you have $5,475 dollars or so, and you can even find this beer, feel free to send it my way!!!!! hehe

Site problems

I can't get on my site today. I could from work, and when I got home. But it is now off.
I am not sure what is going on just yet. I thought it was a server issue, and the server monkey just needed a Nanner, but now I am not sure. The server is not here at my house, it is at a friends. The only reason I am confused is because I see that a few people are watching my cams...?. I have three people on the back computer and two on the front computer. If it is a server isssue, why are these people able to get on? I thought it was my laptop so I tried other computers, IE, Foxfire, and now I am lost. Anyway, I am sure this isn't a big deal. Just goes to show you how little I know about web shit.
Camera's are up and down. Server problems once and a while. Power supply issues. And a geek wanna be who can't figure it out......

Camera move

I have moved the Back Yard camera indoors. the cold was just to much for it. I think. Not sure if it is the power supply or the camera. The video did not get better after the move.So I went and changed the camera. The PTZ1 that I used instead has better video, but it is loud when it moves.
I have a number of these cameras, and each one has one little problem or the other. It is getting far too hard to find these Picturetel cameras. You might find one on E-bay once and a while, but those days are gone.I also have some Ptz2's. These cameras are even better, but they have tiny little belts that stretch out, once that happens the movement is shot. Everyone I have is in need of new belts.
Need a flat panel computer monitor, and a few more video input devices, and I will have a few more cameras up and running.
Also working on a Mash Tun. The cart,cooler, and pumps are done. I have a manifold and sparge arm built, just need to finish them up.Drill some holes, cut some slots, etc.
The fittings, new burners,grain crusher, hoses, etc. Will cost a bit, so I am on hold the finished project. Same with the computer.
But, I gotta say. Besides money problems. Problems at work. Employee problems, etc. I have been feeling good. Fat as ever, but feeling good.
Now, just to get past Christmas, take care of the problem issues at work, and figure out how to make more money.
Till next time.

Happy Thanksgivin'.......

Almost time to cook. Well, not really. I deep fry. Once you drop a bird in 4 gallons of oil, you will never go back to the oven. This year I will be cookin' up a 14Lb. bird and a 6Lb. breast.
That is the other problem with deep fried turkey. Don't seem to have the left over meat like we did in the days of oven cooking. So I am going to toss the extra breast in while the bird is resting.
And oil doesn't take as long as oven cooking. The bird will be done in less then an hour. Will also free up my oven for other things.
Will start the bird around 4pm. YUMMMMMMMM.

Still problems with my two outdoor IR cams. They freeze up once or twice a day now. Is it because they are getting too cold? I don't know. The PTZ has video problems in the cold also. I will bring the camera in for the winter in a few days. Nothing much to see out back now any way.

Also problems with people getting on my blog here. For whatever reason when you click the link to this blog, it adds a 20%, or %20, or on foxfire, it adds something. Then you get the blog can't be found. If you remove the extra crap at the end it will take you here. Not that you will know this if you can't get here in the first place.
Not like this is the place to be, but it is a fun little hobby.

Guest Book, and um, well, I don't know.

I thought it would be fun to put up the guest book. Thought I might get to read a few post from the people that visit my site. Forgot that no one comes here. From the three that have signed it, one was family. So I guess two people ain't too bad for a sad little site in West Virginia. But yes, I know nothing goes on in front of the cameras that people really want to see.

Wife's B-day is the 19th. Hope to spend some time with her. She will be out with the mother most of the day, and I guess I will go to work. Not that I can pay bills with out money, but I do have some taxes that are due the 20th, so I better find a way to pay them I guess. It is just hard to go back to walking the streets after putting on this much weight.

Been working a bit on a mash tun for all grain brewin'. I will post pictures later, but it wont be ready for a good while. Still need a lot of fittings, hoses, etc. and money is getting tighter then ever before. But I hope by next summer I can make the jump to all grain. Better beer dontcha know. Or so they say.

Christmas (not the holidays) but frickin' CHRISTMAS, is just around the corner. Guess I better sharpen my axe. This year I might need to "borrow" a tree from someones yard....hehe

I have been wanting to write about the world today, or more to the point the USA, but I can't get out what I want to say. And no amount of bitchin' will matter. Even from me. The king of bitchin'.
On a positive note, I was tryin' to pick up a few things for the wife's b-day, and I was in a different state close to a great beer store. I stumbled on some bottles of Rogue XS Imperial India Pale Ale. They had four bottles. I had cash for two. I will kick myself later for not mugging,holding up, or otherwise coming up with the money for the other two bottles. But, at $14 something a bottle, I should be happy with what I did pick up!



I like beer.
I am not pregnant, I just like beer.
B

Some wrote me and asked about my cameras. So here they are.

Living room Picturetel PTZ1. Just stuck it on a tri-pod today.
Back Yard Picturetel PTZ1, with the Back door IR cam below.

Back Door IR cam. Something from e-bay.

Front porch IR camera.


Back room USB lifecam.

Front door USB lifecam.

If anyone cares, I will post more about hardware and software later.

Chili Cook off tonight at 6pm

Not that the day is here, I will tell you about my chili. Didn't want the others to see it until tonight. But they don't read, visit, or look at my site! So not sure why I act like this chili will be stolen...I like to pretend sometimes that people read this, and that things like my receipts are looked for...I started with an idea for a pumpkin chili, and found one that looked good. Then I changed everything about it.. I just cant leave things alone. The meat was changed from cubed turkey to Mild ground Italian sausage and ground turkey breast. After that, I go out on my own. I added onions,garlic cloves,yellow and orange peppers diced up and cooked up in olive oil. Chicken broth pure pumpkin, black beans, lots of diced tomatoes, green chili's, diced jalapenos, and think salsa. Also dashes of parsley,chili powder,oregano, cumin,red pepper,paprika,red hot, etc.
It is now on the stove again for a slow warm up over the next 6 hours or so.
Going to carve a pumpkin to serve it out of.
If the awards for best chili look half as good as they did last year I want one!

Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day.

The first Saturday of November is Teach a friend to homebrew day. Is it always fun to get others hooked on your hobby. The more people that brew, the more beers you get to try!
Since I belong to the local Homebrew club, it would be a great chance to try to drive up our membership. Food, beer, and brewin'.
But, we will not be doing that. Instead we will be having the chili cook off this day. It will be at my house, same as last year. It will be fun, and I shouldn't gripe. Just don't understand why this club doesn't do more. Or try to get our membership up.
Anyway, I will be cooking up a pumpkin chili this year. It is the season and all.Might even have a pumpkin beer to match it with.

Wet and nasty day.

Been rainin' on and off for about 18 hours now. Pool cover is starting to collect a good bit of water. Last year I didn't take care of it like I should, so this year I will try a little harder.
I kegged two beers yesterday. An Extra Pale Ale, and a big IPA. Hope the hop flavor comes out in both. I fill force carb them some time today, then we will know.
My back has been messed up for a month or so now. It is in the muscle. But always hurting. After moving the beers, lifting them up and over the edge of my chest freezer, oh, and helping Travis remove the steps from his pool, I am hurting. Hurting bad. I had to roll out of bed into the floor this a.m.. Plan to eat something soon just so I can take something for the pain.

Going to host a chili cookoff here at the house on November 1st. The beer club is coming over, so should have lots of beers and chili on hand. Can't wait.
B

Back in WV

Our trip to Asheville,NC is now over.
It was a great trip. Lots to see and do for me while the wife was in class.
The food, beer, breweries, and people are all worth seeing. Or, eating,drinking...?
I have never seen so many damn hippies in one place before, but not a problem.
I ran to work today to try and catch up on a few things, and will do that same Tuesday. Then back to work full time on Wednesday.
Oh,,,, it is late and already Tuesday..
Having more troubles with cams freezing up, and that damn %20 that shows up when you click the blog link. But, I now have a third computer to set up somewhere in the house. My mother and her husband had to drive 3 or 4 hours to bring their dog to us to look at. It is a sick puppy. Anyway, we made it back home from our trip and met the family at the house and ran over and opened the hospital. An hour or so later, they were back on the road. Left me an old computer to fix and play with. Will use it here for the website, or as a back up for work. If I do use it for the site, will need to get my hands on some more video input devices, cameras, etc. But that is the way I am headed. Will need a new hard drive, memory, and a copy of windowsXP. So it will be a while.But who knows, might have two to four more cameras up soon....
Feeling better last few days. Well, my back is shot, and my knees are gone, but I am tryin' to feel better about life. I bitch a lot, little to damn fat, and get mad to easy. Seems like the mountain air helped me in the head.

This post should not be read by anyone under 18, will be bad words............

I wanted to do this site when I was on the road all the time. I wanted to see my family. I wanted friends and family to be able to stop in once and a while. I also liked the security side if the cameras. Well look here, 5 hours on the road, 5 states in one day and I am in Asheville, NC.

And every damn camera I have, all fucking six of them are down. ALL FUCKING SIX of them.
My babysitter, asked if once in a while she could shut down the livingroom camera, and I said no. NO.... Just push the chair in front of it I said. Well five hours on the road, and I fire up my laptop. Three cameras are gone. This morning, the other 3 are gone.
How can I see my kids, how do I know the house is OK? The cats? The dogs? Wife wanted to be able to see the kids as we called every day. Now we wont be able to..... These damn cameras have been up for a long fucking time with no troubles.... A power outage here and there, but always up.... Now I want them, and they are gone.
I don't give a shit if some people don't understand this little hobby. Hell, I am not sure why I want cameras up in my house..... But I do know one thing.... It is MY FUCKING HOUSE...........
Can't wait to hear the reason. Power went out, kids messed them up,,,,, But all six cameras??? Two computers???????
Bullshit.....

!@&$#!*$!* !@#$%^*&^ DOG !!!!!

Well, woke up this A.M. to find my computer (Pluto) was not connected to the net. So I go to check the router and find that it is the cat-5 cable that has been chewed. This is now the third time. I was able to slice and dice it back together before running the boy to school. And you can't begin to know what I want to do to this dog.It isn't just my cat-5, it is everything. Brand new dog beds,the boys toys, anything IT can get in its @#&*^)$ mouth. Then the holes being dug in the back yard. Or the fact that he somehow gets out of the yard and we need to chase him.
Just how many times can you splice a cat-5 before it stops working? I have no idea, but I will tell you this. It will not happen again. I have some dried Super Chili's, and dried Super Cayenne(sp?) peppers in the kitchen window. I plan to grind these up to a fine powder, mix with a little something sticky, and paint all my wires in the back room. I just hope to god the little thing tries to bite into one after I am done.
Gotta get working.
B

Been a while.

Figured I would write something. Not sure what yet, but something will come.
Been having more problems with the software that moves the two cameras. It is a program called BDLCAM. It is a free program, but the guy ask for donations. As much as I like and use this program, I have yet to come up with some cash to send. I know I should. Someone puts this much work into something, he deserves something. Anyway, over the past few weeks this program kicks out on me. I will be at work, check the cams, and the controls are gone. The cam will be stuck in the last position that someone put it in and no longer move. I check it when I get home and it says "run time error". I then reset everything, and it works again for a while. Can't write the dude and ask, because I haven't sent him money. But I don't get many hits on this site, and people are not upset that the PTZ's freeze up, so I am not worried about it right now.
Halloween is coming up soon. So we have put up the pumpkins, and some decorations. wife loves this time of year, the weather is great, and I guess I do also. I just hate what comes with it. Shutting the pool down, the the trees dropping the leaves, the plant starting to look dead. And then comes winter. That sucks even more.Hell, if it is going to be cold, we should get some damn snow! But we never get enough to make winter worth it.
I have yet to find some good wide angle cameras to put in the kitchen or dinning room. Haven't been looking to hard, but I do look. Would love a few more cameras going. A new computer upstairs, and I can add even more. But that is down the road.
Talk at you later.

Cams up, cams down, cams up..........

Been a fun two weeks with the cameras.
So far the power has been out twice, and our (wifes) new dog has decided to EAT my cat5 wire going to one of my computers. Now, I love cats. And I do run an animal hospital, and I am married to a Veterinarian. So, I will not say one bad thing about DOGSSSSSSSSSSS.
So, I guess I will stop talking at this time about them.

Not much new going on. Been working hard at home and work. Tryin' to get things done. The beer brewing has dropped a bit, but hope to pick it up again. Just need to order a few things. I do have about 45 Lbs. of honey on hand, so I see a few meads being done soon!
My boy has a birthday coming up in Oct. and I really hope some family can make it. I can't wait till he is older, I have my eye on some great lego's. (for him.........not me.......)I miss the 800 to 1000 piece lego kits. And they have some Star Wars kits out!!!!
Anyway, thought I would write something.... If only to say I did.
B

Irish Red anyone?

The water man has delivered 6 jugs of spring water to me. (I know, it is just tap water from some other city), but I do use it to brew and drink. Soooooo, I believe I will brew a batch Tuesday. Also need to rack two beers to the secondary carboys. I am sure to run out my kegs before these beers are ready to keg, but that's ok. Drink too much anyway.
I have a video capture device, a few cameras, and about everything I need to get a 7th. camera up and running. Problem is they don't have the best angle. To put one in the kitchen or Dining room might need a wide angle cam. And if I am on cam, a really WIDE angle.
Been playin' with face book. It is sad to see I have no friends.....
B

Small Changes under way

Have made some small changes to the site. Nothing the two of you might notice, but I was wanting to add, change, or fix some problems. Nothing big yet.Just changing the layout of this blog, adding links to cams that are planned, and tryin' to do something with the front page. I did manage to add a picture, but some might miss it because it takes a little to long to load.
I still can't figure out why the blog link from the site sometimes puts a %20 on the end..? This takes you to a page that says the blog doesn't exist. But it isn't like I am typing out a great novel here, so I guess it doesn't matter.
The cams have been a little dead as of late. Well, more so then normal. The kids have went back to school!!!!!!!! wooooo hoooooo. So we are not around much. I pick up the girl at 2:40 pm then the boy at 3 to 3:30. The wife takes the girl to school at 7:30am, then I leave with the boy at 8:40am or so. Then I am off to work.
Speaking of work. Money is getting tight. With the cost of gas, too many competitors, and I guess bad mojo, we are having a hard time. Not sure what to do at this point. Besides find a rich person who likes animals and wants to toss about $780,000.00 my way?!
Anyway, the cams are still running, I am still brewin' beer, and I hope to have two or three more cams up before the end of the month, year? Who knows.
See ya.....

3rd. Brew day this month

Had a chance to brew today and jumped on it.
Brewed up a Pale Ale. A big hoppy pale ale that is. Put 5 oz. of different hops in this one. The smell that was coming out of the pot was wonderfullllllll. I used..........

1 OZ. COLUMBUS (60MIN)
1 OZ. GLACIER (15MIN)
1 OZ. CASCADE (10MIN)
.5 OZ. CASCADE (2MIN)
.5 OZ. STERLING (2 MIN)
.5 OZ. CASCADE (FLAME OUT)
.5 OZ. STERLING (FLAME OUT)

The last two hop additions called for dry hopping. I hate dry hopping. It does get some nice hop smell into the beer, but I hate trying to transfer beer when it has an once or more of hops hanging around in it. So I added them at flame out instead. Will still get a good bit of aroma out of these hops.
Still looking to get my new Beverage-Air running. Just need to order the fan, and some new gas and beer lines. Money is getting very tight, and if I do get this thing running I will then want to fill it with 15.5 gallons of beer. Well, that will cost me also, so I am in no big hurry. I could just brew more and more. I have a hard time keeping 4 kegs of homebrew on tap. I doubt I could keep up if I wanted eight beers on tap!

Brew day, again

After not brewin' for the last month or two, I made my second batch this week. It was an EPA. That being an Extra Pale Ale. It went well, a full 5 gallon boil. Three oz. of Cascade hops went into it. Not enough hops, but it should be good.
If I can get to the store in the AM, I will try to pick up 21 pounds of fruit and make my big ass mead. 21 pounds of fruit, and 21 pounds of honey. This will be BIG!

The porch camera is now up. I finally ran the wires for it and drilled a second hole in our floor. I love the IR camera on the porch and back door. Lets me see in the dark and make sure people aren't coming to my house at night.

Like I need this.

Just picked up a kegerator. I couldn't pass up the deal. All it needs is a good cleanin', and a new condenser fan. Will run about $68 dollars for a new fan, or might be able to find a used one for less. I can then use this fridge for a 15.5 gallon keg, two pony kegs ,four of my kegs, or to lager in.

Need to make a crap load of changes around here. Didn't think life was going to be this way. And I can't seem to fix anything anymore. So, I will try to fix the only thing I can, myself.

blahhh

Well, I wanted to brew today. I done went and got all my stuff out.(English?)(hillbilly?) And decided to boil some water in the keg to clean it out good. Even dropped in my chiller into the water to get it good and clean. That is when I found out I was out of gas. NOT that gas, I have plenty. BUT I don't have enough propane.Here I have three gas tanks, and only has a little gas left. I did get everything clean, but not sure if I can brew today. IF the wife gets home soon, I might run and get some gas. But it is almost 6pm.So who knows.
I might need to put it off till Wednesday night....
Gotta say, I can't control anything anymore, but I can drink... Doesn't help anything, but at this point, I don't care.
B

Homebrewin'

I am running on two taps. Two are dry, and one is about to blow. The last tap, well, isn't something I will drink fast. It is a Dark Cherry Stout. A little on the dirty side because I didn't secondary. I fill need to filter it, or let it sit for a while and transfer.
Anyway, I need to brew. Even if I made up a few batches today, it still wouldn't be ready for a while.But most of my carboys are dry, and I need to start filling them. So, come Tuesday I plan to brew two batches. And if that goes well, I will brew two more this Thursday.I need to do a batch of Mead this week also. So I should have something to write about here for once instead of bitchin'.And some photos to add to the site also.
B

Deck is done.

The deck is now done. I finished it last night, and even did some clean-up. So hard to be lazy when things need to be done. I ran power out to the deck, but only installed one outlet so far. I still need to sink a post in the ground for the power to the pool. Also have an eight foot ground rod to install.Seems a little over kill for one pump, but better safe then sorry I guess.
Hope to be finished up before this weekend.
Been tryin' to find a beer. Well, more then one, but one I really want to get my hands on. It is called Vertical Epic 08-08-08. They come out with this beer every year. 07-07-07, 06-06-06, etc. They tell you to save a bottle of every year made, then sit down and compare. I have tried one, and it was great, but I can't see sitting down with ALL of them. It is just hard to find any good beers down in this area. That why we brew our own I guess.

Want to be a business owner?

I don't. I thought it would be fun. It isn't.................................
Besides the mountain of debt. Besides the fact that employees don't want to work anymore. Besides the fact that people come in and want you to do everything for free. And besides the fact that no matter what you try to do, NO ONE is happy. What do you do when you have $30,000.00 worth of bills on your desk for THIS month alone, not counting payroll, and loans, and you don't have half of that in the bank? You have employees that don't understand why they are not driving a BMW? When your wife is driving a 1998 Dodge neon.....
We should never have came back to West Virginia....This State doesn't care about small business.They only care about taxes. The people of this state don't care to hold down a job for more then a year.Hell, you can always quit and go to Wal Mart, or McDonalds for a few months. Or find a way to get on some government assistants.
I am happy to have a place to vent, bitch, let it all out and not worry about anyone reading it.
So enough of that. I have started work on the right hand side of the deck. Just a small triangle to build in. Well, it is a bit bigger then the left side. And a fence is in the way, but I plan to have it done before the weekend. I set some 4x4 post in the ground yesterday, and hope to get some lumber in today and Thursday. I have been told we are having a cookout this Saturday. About twenty people or so. It is the wife's side of the family. I have met most of them, and I never care to cookout and drink with people, so it should be fun. I will post pictures, or just drop in and watch. The cameras will be up.
See ya,
B

Home today..

Nothing much going on today. I have been working on the deck around the pool this week. I have one side finished and plan to start the other side today. Just small wedges of deck that need to be built out to the pool. Also working on a box to wire power out to the pool. It has been on an extension cord for a year, and they say that isn't a good thing to do. I also need to add the ground rod to the pump motor. All these things should have been done last year. But hey, better late then never...
Will be digging holes and setting 4x4's today. Might even get a little lumber up. Who knows.
Sticking with home brewed beer today I believe. The Chili beer, and a Victory beer called Hop Wallop, just hasn't been doing it for me. I do have some special 22 oz. bottles of beer on hand, but I will save them for a later date. Besides, the bitter I made on May 3rd. is finally coming around. It just isn't bitter enough. But I don't believe I have found anything bitter ENOUGH.
I signed up for Face book. Just wanted to see what it is about. It has made me a little sad to tell the truth. I knew I didn't have many friends, OK, almost NO friends, but when you are forced to look for friends to add to face book, or sit around and see if someone finds you, It drives a point home. I have always been a bit forgetful, busy, and don't go anywhere except home and work. I guess my personality isn't the best either. Either way, why cry about it. I believe I do have one friend, and he is the best they come. So, I wont bitch. Lets just see how long it takes to piss him off..........
Going to start taking tools out back, till later.
B

Beer review

Since I like beer, and I need to update this blog once in a while, I am going to do a beer review once and a while. No one reads this anyway so I will do what I want.....waaahaahhaaahhaaa...
Anyway, the beer of the day is....Cave Creek, Chili Beer.It is Brewed and bottled by,Black Mountain brewing company-Tecate,Baja California, MX for Black Mountain Brewing Company-Cave Creek, AZ
The bottle is clear glass,12oz. with a rather plain label.A green Chili pepper wrapped in red color, on a gold background. The label says this is a Premium Lager Beer with Chili pepper added. Also, as stated above, a product of Mexico. Now, as far as the pepper, yep, it is in the bottle. Looks to be a green chili pepper about 2.5 to 3 inches long. Opened the bottle and get slapped across the face with pure chili smell.I guess that is why I picked up this six pack. I love beer, and I love HOT. Well, with the first taste to the last, it is HOT...Is it a premium lager? Who the hell knows. The heat blocks out any flavor of beer. IF this was a big IPA, it still would be hard to taste the beer. I believe this six pack will last for a time. I was working outside digging holes to finish the deck around the pool while tryin' this beer. It did nothing to cool me off, or even touch my thirst.
But, like I said, I like heat so I will drink this beer. Just not all at once. The website for this beer is on the bottle. I haven't looked yet, but it is.... chilibeer.com

Die

To the wonderfullllll people who sit around and write Trojans, virus programs, worms, etc. DIE>>>>>>>>>>>
Yet again if it wasn't without help from Travis at travcam.com , I would be without my laptop.
Nice little bug called AntivirusXP 2008. That and a few other little things on this computer (MIMAS) shut me down purty good. But, I have learned my lesson. No more bare back on the Internet. Now, I need to start with backing up all my machines. All named after Planets, or moons. The laptops being the moons. Get it? Care at all? NA, me either.
Just a quick post. Just like the site, nothing to see here.

Went for a quick bike ride with the wife last night. I believe she is tryin' to kill me. Went up some big hills, came down bigger hills, and took a bug to the eye. It was getting dark, going around 15 miles per hour in the park, and something was coming at me at ?? inches per hour. Hit me smack in the right eye. It hurt a bit... Sure the bug wasn't happy about it either.

Photo test

First year Cascade hops. I wont get many hops from this plant this year, but every year after will only get better.

I figure when I start producing enough hops to take care of my own beers, the price will come down. Oh well, it is still fun to grow your own. And when picked and dried, I am sure the smell will be more then worth it! God they smell good...

Nothing too much to update.

But, My head doesn't hurt much any more.
I have picked up the lumber and plexy glass to build something for my street cam to go in to. You know the one, it says street, but it is in my living room.... I hope to have it out front by the end of the week. Also put the porch cam up for good. I will figure out later how to install a camera back in the living room. Wife doesn't seem to mind it as much as she did in the beginning.
I still have plans for a kitchen and dinning room camera, but I figure those cameras will not be up and running all the time. Don't believe she wants to be seen that much. But still, it will be a while. Don't have the cash for a new computer and cameras.
Going to brew up a batch of Mead today. Lots of fruit will go into this one..... Just hope I can let it age as long as it needs to.

Big weekend

Wow, I am done. Saturday was the Mountain Brewer Open. I believe this is the 11Th year that the local home brew club has had this event. I started the day at 7:30 a.m. delivering over 100 beers to the event. The beers were judged during the day, with a nice lunch and dinner at the end. We had a good band to close the night out. I only stuck around for 14 hours. Then I walked away without sayin' good bye. I always seems to do that. When I believe it is time to go, I GO. I know it is rude. I know I should have stuck around to help clean. I was just wiped at this point.I do need to work on the walking away thing. I have always just left with out so much as a good bye. Party, event,family events, doesn't seem to matter. I just go.... Ass hole huh?
Then Sunday, I had a small party for my staff. Not sure it went well, but it was free food and drinks...Does the staff come because they feel they need to? Did anyone have fun??? Who knows. I do know lots of Whisky and Vodka was gone the next day. I also cooked about 5 pounds of hamburger, and had Brats go missing, so someone was eating.
My head still hurts.
I have 5 beers that need to be brewed. I will be running all four taps dry soon, and I need to get these beers made soon!
MY HEAD STILL HURTS...........
The next beer club meeting is this Saturday. And my head still hurts......
I will be going just for a sip of some fireball Mead...

Ramble

Wow, the cameras are being hit hard this week. Not sure why, but traffic is up a good bit. I still don't know why I wanted to put them on the net, and I sure can't figure out why people would even want to look at them.Not a lot going on here. But it is fun, so I will keep it up.
We put 14 miles on our bikes Saturday. Lots of things are hurting today, but it was great. My bum is getting used to the seat, but it still hurts. It doesn't help that I have 250 Lbs. being placed on a little hard seat. Or that I am pulling the boy.
Going to sort beers today for the Mountain Brewer Open today. Next Saturday is the big day. I will spend 14 or 15 hours on beer!
I plan on putting four beers and one mead in this competition. I might place with the mead, but doubt my beers will do very well. I didn't brew for this event.Just entering what I have on hand.
Till later....

Problems and Fun

Lots of computer problems this week. And lots of fun to balance it out.
I will start with the problems. I installed a new capture card on one of my computers to drive the front door camera. It worked great, for 30 minutes. Then the computer locked up, over and over again. Sometimes with blue screens, then just freezing. After talking to Travis, I tried moving the card to a different slot on the motherboard. Same thing. I have removed the card and no longer have problems. Is it the card? My power supply not big enough? Memory to small?(Computer, I know my memory is to small). Not sure what to do at this time. I guess try to find a card made by someone else and give that a try.
Now as far as the fun. We have been playin' with our new bikes for a week now. And besides the pain from the seats, we are very happy. I have put a new seat on the wife's today. It is the third seat, and hope this one works better.Tryin' to dial in all the things on a bike to make it perfect. We really do enjoy the rides together and soon I guess the whole family will be able to hit the road.
Had a beer club meeting Saturday night. It was a blast. Shrimp broil with all the fixin's. Lots of great beers on hand. I introduced a new guy to the club, and I believe he had a great time also. Hope he joins and starts brewin' again soon. I took my mead and everyone loved it. I guess I will stick it in the M.B.O. competition this month. I got home from this meeting around 11:30, and spent some quality time with the wife till 2AM........We have been having a lot of fun this past week...A LOT of fun.....wink,wink.....

Mead

I finally kegged my 1 year old mead. It has been under c02 for two days now and coming along very nice. It is a little strong in the ALC. %, but I believe it will blend well with the honey over time. That is if I can leave it alone. I thought about getting a lock for that tap, and giving my wife the key. If I had more room for a fridge I would bottle this batch up and keep it cold away from my other kegs. This keg will take up room in my chest freezer untill I do something with it or drink it. I hate to put a years work into something like this mead and drink it too fast. But god, I do like the Mead. I might put this mead into competition soon.

Going to add a capture card to my livingroom computer today. I hope to have two cameras installed out front in the next week or so. I have been movin' forward with the site more this month then I have in the last two years. Need to keep it going.
Also ordered one USB capture device from E-bay today. I will use it to make the back door link work. I wanted to order more then one, but money is always an issue, and I want to make sure this thing works.
I still plan for a third computer, and a few (3 or 4) more cameras this year, or next. But at this pace I might need to put a donate button on my page! And I don't believe the 5 or 10 people that come here would donate. Nothing really to see here. But it is fun to do.....

Pain

The wife an I have decided to pick up some mountain bikes. Not to save gas money like so many are doing, but just as a way to do things together as a family. Do to baby sitter issues, we can't ride them to work much, but it would be nice to save that gas. Anyway, I picked mine uo Tuesday. I rode it for about 30 or 40 minutes and put it up for the night. The wife also took it for a spin. Now, I am a big guy. 6'2, 245lbs. Some might say fat, I prefer plump. The problem with this bike seems to be the thing they call a seat. Now, when I rode the bike, I thought it wasn't the most comfort in the world, but hey, I can live with it.And then I woke up the next morning...I think I now know what it is like to be in prison. I had a hard time walking the the bathroom. Wife is also hurtin' a bit from the short ride. I just hope it gets better. Or my ass gets harder. Either will do. Picked up the wifes bike today. And I have a one wheel bike coming for the boy. It will attach to the back of my bike to make the ride even more interesting.
Made a few more changes to the website. I am still tryin'! Looking for a USB capture device to get two more cams up soon. And still need to build something for the Street PTZ. So when you click street, you see the street. And not my livingroom!

Backyard camera

Well, I have my picturetel camera mounted out back for good now. It is 90% done anyway.
I have managed to crack three pieces of plexy so far. I need to keep the bugs and weather out of this camera, but plexy doesn't like to bend so much. So, $15.00 out the window on the plexy so far. People have been hitting the camera more now. Guess it is just because the view is different. Not that many people hit my cams anyway, but I put them up for myself and for fun. Sitting at work, I do miss being able to see my office,beer, laundry room. So I will dig up a webcam for this room now that the PTZ is outside. Next up is to mount the Livingroom PTZ out front so I can keep an eye on our cars and the neighborhood. Will replace that camera with a cheap webcam in the livingroom also. People don't need to pan and zoom in my livingroom anyway...

Evil baby

I knew all babies had to be evil. Cute, but EVIL.....

Beer, mead, and camera update.

Look here, a second post in the same year.....
Since I am starting this over again, I need to say that I like beer. I like it so much that I also homebrew my own beer. It is kind of hard to find beers here in WestVirginia that you might find in other states. Don't ask about our stupid laws.
Any way, today I racked,(moved) Two beers to new carboys. One is a Barley Wine that is about a year old now. It is running about 13.2% ABV. Strong, thick, chewwy, with just a hint of hops. The second beer I moved was an EnglishBitter that I brewed on May 3rd.for BigBrew Day.It tasted thin, hopped, and clean when I tried it. I will keg this beer in a few days when some of the dry hops drop to the bottom. I was going to rack a third beer when my auto-siphon broke... I took gravity readings on both these beers and a Mead that was made in March of this year. It is very nice, if not a little high on the Alc. might need to add some honey later in the year. Going to try to brew a Stout today and move a Dark Cherry stout today also.
On the camera front, I plan to mount the back yard camera in its enclosure this Thursday. It will show the backyard and pool much better then it does from the window.

8 months ???

Wow, when I said in October of '07 that this was going to be a little slow, I never thought it would be this long before I started up again.
We have just returned from our first REAL vacation in 13 years or so. We took the family down to Kitty Hawk, NC. Was wonderful to play on the beach. I forgot how fun sand was. That is before it starts to get into everything. The house we rented was far more then we needed, but great. We only used the pool once, and the hot tub 2 or 3 times. I wanted to use the tub more, but I was burned after the 2nd. or 3rd. day. Pictures are going up on the site.
I will be getting a few cameras up in the next week and a half. One way or the other. These will be outdoor cameras, and I am looking into another computer soon to add more cams. But lets hope it will not be be 8 more months before I work on this site!