Beer organization

Not sure if this is weird or not, so I thought I would just throw it out there . . .

We've had a couple of parties in the last couple of weeks, and we had a supply of beer. So in order to encourage an even distribution of consumption, I alphabetized the beer in the fridge (Bud Light before Dos Equis before St. Pauli...) The original thought was that Patrick and Joe would replace the beer one at a time, in order to avoid a crashing pyramid of beer. Instead of taking the three minutes to replenish, I think they took the 30 minutes to try to rebalance the beer each time.

So that's weird, right.

Strawberry Season

Thanks to Mom needing to blow through a balance with a local farmer, I found myself with 16 quarts of strawberries to do something with.

Although Patrick and Joe did well just eating them straight, I did decide to mix it up a bit. So after two strawberry pies (not bad for a first try), a quart of sorbet (awesome), a quart of gelatto (wasn't that great), and some freezer jam, I ended up with several frozen berries for later in the year.

Still don't understand why people buy the glaze for a strawberry pie at the grocery store.

Mushroom Project: Phase II

Not the most exciting phase of the mushroom project, but I do need to check for sterility before committing real mushroom spores.

Basically to make mushrooms at home, you need to make of mixture of brown flour and perlite and sterilize it in ball jars that have holes on top. Once they've boiled for several hours and cooled, you can innoculate them with spores. Since you don't want bacteria to beat up the mushrooms, you need to make sure you're sterile. This pic shows the aquarium within an aquarium that maintains temperature and humidity (I thought it was a pretty clever design). Next step - actually growing from spores.

Lilacs survive the cold snap

After a couple weeks of some freezing weather, we thought the Lilacs would be toast this year. Fortunately, the variety (Miss Kim) is a later one, and didn't come out until a bit later.

The picture might be a bit boring, but the fragrance was pretty cool this year.

The vegetable sampler

Well, with the last frost date officially passed, I could complete the seed planting of the six vegetables I had ordered from seedsavers, who specialize in heirloom seed varieties.

Like I mentionned before some plants will just go in 1 gallon pots for the window boxes, while others need to go in the ground - here's the rundown:

Chioggia Beet
Lettuce Mix
Scarlet Nantes Carrots

are in the pots and . . .

A&C Pickling Cucumber
Cherokee Purple Tomato
Dragon's Tongue Beans

are in the ground.

Cross your fingers

Memories in a Bottle

Not sure exactly where I got this idea from, but several years ago I started collected rocks, soil, grass, or whatever from places Patrick and I had visited. Although we travelled quite a bit before living in France, we did add pretty significantly to the collection while being in Europe.

I need to still find some additional samples, but I think we're up to about 30 jars of places - like, Valley of the Kings in Luxor,
Yosemite National Park, Chateau LaFite Rothschild's vineyards in Bordeaux - you get the idea.

The only rule (which I broke only once) was that they had to be a place that we went to together. Turns out I have some grass from Stonehenge that I went to without Pooky.

First seeds are up

Fortunately we returned to the US at the right time - at the start of Spring. So we could start most of our plants from the beginning.

Several years ago I had built some window boxes on the side of the house, and I usually filled them with various flower combos. This year (with sun being at a premium) I decided to start vegetables in the one gallon pots just to see if it will work. Current plantings include beets, carrots, and lettuce. Not sure if the first two will like container growing, but we'll see.

Only a few broken things

The shipment arrived about a month ago, and even though we still have a few boxes left to unpack, we're mostly done.

Only major damage was to the baekehoffe that we got for Andrea and Tim (to replace the one that was smashed in their shipment). Fortunately, Patrick will be back in France next week, so he can just have them ship one directly.

The only other weird thing was that I was missing one or two other items - like my copper oven pan. It was with all the other kitchen stuff, and it was definitely not left in the apartment - not sure what happened.

Oh well, insurance claim to the shipping company should take care of it.

Wine Inventory

I know this is disturbing.

Returning back I realized that I had a lot of wine in the basement that needed to be drunk (forget about the stuff we brought back from France). I figured I had 100 bottles in the basement before France, and I added another 100 bottles. So here's just a pre-organization picture.

I decided in order to help drink the stuff that has peaked, I should do some sort of inventory system. After talking to a few wine people and searching on the Internet, I decided on manageyourcellar.com. Unlike other sites that only have about 10% of the wines in their inventory that you actually have, this site allows you to search through a huge inventory and then add a wine for everyone if it's not found. In the spirit of Web 2.0 (aka wikipedia) in ends up making a huge wine inventory. Oh, and the best reason . . . it's free.

So after spending an afternoon entering all the wine info, I now have all my wine cataloged (even added bin locations, so I can find the wines later). You can also share you cellar with other friends just to see what they're drinking. Kind of cool.

Phlox is up

I'll probably get the blooming and posting of these plants out of order until I can catch up, but a couple of weeks ago the phlox bloomed. It's an late Spring plant that has been slowly filling in for the last six years - this year was pretty fantastic even with the last minute chill we had.

Chinese Tea

Just when collecting wine and cheeses were not enough, Tim Whittaker has got me hooked on Chinese teas. These aren't your garden variety Earl Grey crap from Twinnings - these are straight from the Middle Kingdom, where they actually keep track of which tree the leaves came from.

These particular varieties are called pu-erh, and they basically get aged like wine - although very drinkable now.

Citrus Trees Made It

Not only did the orchids make it 18 months without my constant watering, the citrus trees didn't fair too badly either. They never look good towards the end of winter, where they just try to make it through until they do on the upstairs porch - so I think we made another year.

New Family Member

Say hello to the latest member of the family - O'Beraun.

He was a stray that the Humane Society picked up back in October 2006. And after going crazy in the shelter for several months, they sent him to a private kennel, where he sat around and watched the Animal Planet all day long. Unfortunately, not too many people trekked down the road to see him, so his adoption took even longer - actually, I think they were just waiting for us to come along.

Winston and "Obie" are getting along famously - although Winston is definitely the top dog. Well, Patrick and I are the top dogs, so Winston is more like a "gamma" dog - with Obie bringing up the rear with "omega".

We waited 30 days to have Winston settle back down into the house, but we were planning on getting another dog for some time - really, since Samantha passed away two years ago. I had seen him weeks before, and Patrick decided on him within a matter of minutes after seeing him.

It's all fate.

Shipment Arrives

It didn't take too long for the shipment to get here - about two weeks from when we arrived. There was something ridiculous like 28 boxes (mostly large). Unpacking went pretty quickly, since it was already organized into rooms.

Turns out the worries about my wine duty were unfounded. They estimated my duty on the wine to be about $100 (and I still (knock on wood) have not received a bill). I don't think Weber (who arrived 3 months earlier than I) has gottena anything either.

Growing Mushrooms

Project #482 - growing mushrooms. And no, these are the edible ones, not the "I can fly like a bird" ones. Come on people, there really are other mushrooms than button. Anyway, temporary snobby rant is over...

I figured if the french could do it for their weekly markets, I could do the same thing at our house. I did decide to start small, so the first step was to buy a simple kit online. Pretty easy actually . . . they get some spores going and then inject them into a woodchip kind of material (think gerbil flooring) that's in a big bag. After a couple days of religious water humidification, the mushrooms will start growing through the holes in the bag. Wait a couple of weeks, and you cut and eat.

This particular variety was a blue oyster mushroom, and it was pretty idiot-proof - even dried well, when the production got ahead of me. I did learn (like they say in the directions) - humidity is everything. A big plastic bag goes on top, and you still have to mist at least once a day. Once this operation gets going I'll have to do something a little more automatic that involves one of Patrick's old fish tanks.

But right now, the next step is to start with an easy-growing spores and innoculate the big plastic bag myself. I've already ordered Hypsizygus tessulatus, which is commonly known as Shimeji or Beech Mushroom - I'll keep you posted.

Obie Eats Shoe

Puppies are so predictable . . .

I don't think it's possible to have a dog, and not have them eat something. Turns out Obie likes shoes - in this particular case, my running shoes. Yes, I know I don't run - that's not the point. If we don't leave anything out by itself (and hence resembling a dog toy), we're usually OK - but every now and then we forget and leave him tempted. Hopefully, it is a short phase.

Orchids are blooming

Special thanks to Hilary for taking care of a lot of our plants - and typically the most difficult ones. After faithfully watering our orchids for 18 months (they are spoiled), we (not her) were rewarded with it blooming again. This particular orchid is a dendrobium hybrid from Australia (I think).

Joe's Birthday Party

Had the Fegersheim gang over to the house last month to celebrate Joe's birthday - I think everyone was there - Gaby, Jim, Theresa, Jill, Chris, Andrea, Tim, Cindy, and Joe. Actually we had to invite him, not only because it was his birthday, but because he's living in our house until he goes to school in the summer.

We tried to do the Matteo's Lasagne, but I don't think it was the same thing. Just need to find the right ingredients, which are a little hard in the US. I think I'm going to go back to my old lasagne standbys from Cook's and Vegetarian Illustrated.

Since Joe's birthday falls around Easter (yes, this is an old post), we even got him a bunny cake - apparently he would fight over it with his twin.

Magnolia in bloom - sort of

In front of our house, we have a beautiful Magnolia tree (magnolias americanus). Although it is relatively common in our neighborhood, which has been around for awhile - the tree is not very common in general in Indiana. It is also a tough tree to count on to bloom each year - I think we have a 50% each year of the tree fully blooming before a frost comes and turns the new petals to black muck.

This year was one of those middle years, where it kind of bloomed, and then kind of frosted, and then kind of turned black. This is the best picture we had.

Also interesting enough, Magnolia trees that were a little more than two blocks to the south or north of us, actually had a pretty good year. And we think the major reason why was because a hail storm had come through in March 2006 in that exact area. We'll see if next year is better.

iTV rocks

Probably not the best picture, but we did get an iTV from Apple. Basically if you don't follow all things Apple, it copies all the music, tv shows, movies, and podcasts from your computer (iTunes required) to your TV.

As with most things Apple, it exceeded our expectations. The interface is stupid easy, the picture quality is really good, and it has just changed the way we watch TV. We decided not to get cable TV - not only was it too expensive, but it also just made us watch shows we really didn't plan to watch. Now we just give each other a $20 monthly allowance to subscribe to TV shows on iTunes - much easier. And we basically just watch about 2 hours of TV a week (3 shows, since you don't have commercials).

The only issue is that we totally have little idea on what's going on in the US with things like Anna Nicole Smith, etc. - just don't hear about it.

Trader's Point Farmer's Market

Well, the first market has been found.

We actually checked this place out back in December during the worst part of Winter. You've got to figure that if they are actually selling stuff in December, then their spring/summer/fall should be pretty decent.

This market is actually an organic dairy farm that is on the northside of town, which is a 25 minute drive. When I remind myself that the usual market I went to was a 5 minute walk, I'm having some adjustment issues.

Current produce is limited because of winter/early spring, but we did get eggs, organic cow, rabbit, lettuce, carrots, and mushroom patties. I just need to coordinate with my Mom, so we both don't have to drive that far each week.

Orange poppies are in bloom

Lovely flowers, nasty leaves (which resembles a weed) - the trick is to put them behind something else to hide to foliage once the flowers are done doing their thing.

Granted they are not the most puppy-proof - I think Obie sneered at one flower and it lost all it's petals, but they've been in for years now and have filled in a couple sections of the garden really well.

The Emanuel Cherry Tree

Inspired by M. Emanuel's garden and Pierre Linger's family's fruit orchard, I ordered several months ago some varieties of fruit trees. More on that later, but here's the cherry tree (prunus cerasus North Star Pie Cherry) that I potted and left close to the house. We'll see how it does until, we move it to our forever location in the distant future.

Not to be sappy, but it will remind me always of Patrick's garden.

The return of the pencil cacti

While we were back in the State last spring (2006), we got a start of a pencil cactus from Hilary. Even though we didn't plant it for about three weeks and shoved it in our luggage, it eventually grew (and grew well), once we gave it some sun, soil, and water.

The only issue was that cacti usually don't like to be left alone on an unheated terrace over the Xmas holidays by themselves, and they announce their displeasure by turning black and dying. A bit dramatic to get someone's attention, but I suppose I don't like to freeze either.

Anyway, with us over at Hillary's for dinner one night, we did get a couple more starts of the pencil cacti. This time I started 4, so that I'll have a couple of years before unintentionally freezing them.

Dining Room

Same story as with the living room. I had intended on a lot of the house before we left for France (it was tired), but I basically had to put it off for two years.

Sorry the colors aren't the best, but you get the idea - lots of red. In fact, it's the same red that we had in the living room before. Hate the ceiling color, which should have worked - but is just a nasty pink - bubblegum pink - or as Gaby likes to say, Mexican Pink. That's it - it's going - but not for awhile. Although my mother hasn't seen it, she's heard about it enough to know that it needs to go.

Best part of the room - the dining room table. The old one we had was falling apart - literally, and I've always wanted a large round dining room table. With the leaf in the middle, the table seats eight comfortably. Nothing on the walls really - working on an idea for that that could take some time.

I always tell myself that if I had not lived in this house for several years, I never would have made such a dark living room. But I know that we use it for dinner almost exclusively, so a dark, small room makes sense. The table is awesome - we've already had some dinner parties, and it's just really comfortable.

Living Room

Well, we arrived back in the US on Saturday afternoon, and by Sunday morning I was taking pictures off the wall to prepare for painting. A couple days later, and the living room was finished.

After initially freaking out Patrick on my priorities, he remarked that I had to leave my scent in the house to reclaim it from Joe. Whatever - he should know that some smells can not be covered up.

Details on the living room... the walls were painted "Jim Weber Oxford Shirt Blue", with a ceiling color two hues lighter. All the woodwork was repainted a glossy white (pain in the ass). A new couch (that you can barely see) is from Kittle's Outlet - usually not the best place, but the brown suede couch was killer. And the artwork over the fireplace is the first in a series of prints by John Domont titled "Celadon Green".

Some yellow flowers blooming

Sorry, don't remember the name of this plant, but it does remind me of one advantage to leaving your garden for two growing seasons . . . when you come back, new plants are almost full grown.

We redid the back part of our driveway just before we left for France, and everything was tiny and immature - now we actually have some coverage.

Winter is Over

Literally and figuratively.

In case you hadn't noticed, the blog entries have been a bit sparse (read: non-existent) recently. With the exception of our farewells to friends in France and trying to move back home, our camera also blew up. No camera, no posts. Not so much because a picture is required for a post, but it was the easiest way for me to document events and write them down later.

I've also taken a break from posting as I try to figure out what is the next evolution with this blog. Originally it's purpose was to keep our US friends and family informed of our escapades in Europe, but now it's just as important (if not more so) to keep our friends in Europe informed of our escapades in the US.

I've also been inspired by the new label functionality on version 2.0 of blogger, so I've come up with a new plan...stay tuned.