Thanksgiving Party

Well, the event was a partial success. I was kind of bummed about the weather not cooperating, but hey, we needed rain. So thanks to everyone who came out and shared some love, drank some beer, and enjoyed living. We are probably going to try and do it again over the Christmas Holidays, so I'll keep you updated.

Beer, Biodiesel, Party...

It's been a great week out at the farm. Beer has been bottled, more beer has been created and is currently fermenting, and biodiesel is pretty much done. Will and I constructed a drum stand to dispense fuel from, and I have to say, I'm really proud of it.



I'm doing a lot of research on horticulture, so that we might begin growing a portion (if not all....) of our own food for next year. Exciting!
Kate is part of an art show this week and we all made it out on opening night to support her. It was really a good time with lots of quality art and quality people.

The highlight of the week (for me) was Geoff's orchestra concert last night. Dan, Will, and I got to the show too late to get tickets (sold out) but we were able to sneak back stage to enjoy the show. The group did an excellent job interpreting Chopin and the all time classic Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Bravo I say, Bravo.

Thanksgiving at The Center is exactly one week from today. Everyone come out and enjoy the festivities.

branching into video

I made a little silent video this week, while Jeff and I were cleaning the drums for our biodiesel operation.

It reminded me that I still wanted to make the video of our first liter of biodiesel, so I borrowed Jeff's computer to make it.

The chemistry is quite simplified... if you have any questions, feel free to comment, and maybe we can make a tutorial out of this.

website, firewood

Well, the website is finally live, and it even has a little bit of content.

I've been trying to think of a system that will prevent bottlenecking at the webmaster (me), and so far the best answer I can come up with is to just become a better webmaster... a good sign will be more content online soon.

Also, the chainsaw has been terrific.

Sorry about not posting much lately. We have been pretty busy around here (I'm glad to say) and I've been neglecting some things unfairly (like this page). So, here is the update:
Will and I made beer. Our first 5 gallon batch is currently in the "conditioning" phase and (if everything turns out right) will be ready to drink in about another 3 or 4 weeks. Brewing was a lot of fun and it was a great rainy day project. It's an American Amber Ale style brew (think Fat Tire) and if this batch turns out to be a complete failure, we'll try again! Now that autumn has arrived temperatures will be more favorable for fermentation, so I plan on making quite a lot of beer in the coming months.
In other news, we have a brand new chainsaw. It has already seen quite a bit of good use and it is worth its weight in gold! It's like a hot knife through butter. So yeah, if you're ever in the market for a chainsaw, go with a Stihl.
Will has drained the pool and is working on cleaning out all the muck before more leaves fall and make it even worse. I've been up on the roof a lot lately blasting algae off of the tile. Its pretty slow going, but it is really making a big difference.
We're not really much closer getting the biodiesel operation running simply because I've had a lot of difficulty finding a few odds and ends to finish up the processor. I never thought finding a few 55 gallon drums would be so difficult! I've got a good lead right now and hopefully we'll be up and running shortly. I still need to rig a post production filter system up as well, as soon as I figure that out...
Thanks to Dan and Landon for coming out this week and volunteering some of their time to help out.