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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.