My summer recently

There's something magical about watching movies outside. Not sure why. It's just more fun. This past Saturday, GardenGirl and a few other people went to a local shopping plaza and watch The Dark Knight outside. Every Saturday night during the summer they show a movie outside. Next week is Ironman. They set up a large inflatable screen and have a projector. We brought a bunch of food and had a picnic there.

I came home the other night from work and there were about thirty turkey feather all over my deck, mostly in the corner. Now this weird enough except my deck is on the second floor. But flying up there alone wouldn't cause their feathers to fall out, I would think. So either there was a turkey fight on my deck, or it saw it's reflection in my sliding glass door and started freaking out.

Not too much going on here besides that. Been getting used to the new house and the associated work that goes along with it. I've also been trying to get in shape for RAJHADAB. Not sure exactly when it's going to be, but you all need to start riding soon.

And all the little ones are on the way. Good luck to everyone and I'll see y'all soon.

Also, I never knew fresh beets turn your pee pink. I'll have to eat them more often for the fun of it.

Great weekend!

Not much else to say. Our friend Big B came down with his new girlfriend... we'll call her 'Buffy'. We kept her away from Mercy Brown just in case. Here we are taking a break from the river trip to burn stuff. The river is in prime condition this year with all the rain. Just go on a windy day because the misquitos are brutal otherwise.
Kaptain Krunch and the Mrs are down for the next few weeks. They brought their new boat, a Hudson Bay Freighter. Of course Kaptain has it all customized for hardcore fishing and messing about. Here we are after a morning on the saltpond we took it for a trip up the river from bradford. The little 4 stroke pushed it upstream easily. We went as far as the trestle bridge, then floated back downriver. Kaptain had the great idea to use this boat for next year's Fartab. I think its a great idea to get the camping gear to the site with zero effort or excessive car-dropping.
Zak thinks the boat rocks too:
One of the customizations is decking up front for a fly fishing platform. Or sitting up on a recliner sipping a beverage. Perfect.

The High End of Low Tech

I had a Thermodynamics professor who explained the earth would be a better place if you could help 4 billion people who cook/heat/live by firewood use less fuel wood than if you got a few hundred thousand yuppies driving hybrids. Think about it. He's not the only one who thinks that way. Many million$$ have been spent developing high efficiency wood cookstoves for those for who burning wood is a way of life, not a choice. The very impressive folks at Aprovecho have developed a simple, low cost, wood cookstove that can boil a gallon of water in 20 minutes (2x as fast) and using 1/2 the wood as the next closest 'technology'. Again, not a big deal to you or me who have the choice of electric stove, propane, or wood, but to those out there who have no choice, cutting one of their biggest daily expenses in half is a HUGE improvement.

Last week I ordered one to try out from Stove Tec (retail end of Aprovecho) and test fired it this weekend. It works on a very basic principle: Hot fires burn clean and efficient. The concept has gotten the name "Rocket Stove". I highly recommend you make or buy one for yourself to try out. I really want to brew a batch of "Off the Grid Ale' over this thing.... it would be perfect for that.

Switch Topics:

Time to harvest some of the early crops. Here is what onions look like when they're growing. This patch is companion planted with carrots. Yup, carrots grow in between the onions, and there is no room for weeds to grow. It works. You know when to harvest the onions when the tops fall over or when they send up flower stalks. I did the math on onions.... we eat about one or two a week. A bag of onions 'sets' is about a buck, and is enough onions for a year for us. It may not sound like much, but for something so easy to grow that takes up so little space, it is pretty satisfying to grow your own.

Stuff I learned this week.

When a turtle is hiding in his/her shell, then pokes out and starts walking, it *really* freaks out a beagle. In Snoopy's mind, I'm sure he thinks he just saw a rock get up and walk across the road. He started barking at other rocks to get them to wake up and walk. It didn't work.

Goats will go into the kitchen if you leave the door open.

Shiloh is happy when it stops raining every five days.
When it stops raining it is time to go fishing.