Hang Me Out To Dry

Lately we've been making a few household investments. I'm working on a slipcover for our (horrendously cat-scratched) couch, DH finally fixed the ceiling fan light in the living room, and we bought a portable clothes line.

We're always looking for ways to be more "green", and, hey, we're cheap frugal, so the idea of not paying to run the dryer is very appealing. However, we're also renters and sort of lazy, so digging holes, mixing concrete, and installing big poles when we'll eventually move away anyway was probably out. Then one day I stumbled up these umbrella-style drying racks. Our dilemma is solved.

For the time being we've set it up in the laundry room. I gave it a trial run over the weekend and it holds a full load of laundry quite well. Once it's a little less snowy outside we'll put it to the test outdoors. I think one of these would work great for apartment and condo dwellers with a patio!

Ringing in the New Year

I will confess, New Year's Eve has long been my favorite holiday. Many people find this odd, preferring Christmas, or Thanksgiving. New Year's is just a party, fun but not special. Or perhaps people become disillusioned with New Year's, having year after year made grand resolutions that ended up out of their reach. To me, though, New Year's is a wonderful opportunity to look back at the past, thankful for your experiences, and look forward to the future, contemplating with hope your goals. I love the energy of New Year's Eve, the twinkle in people's eyes.

2009 wasn't the easiest year for DH and me, but it was incredibly rewarding. It was our first full year in Indianapolis, a place where we are forced to admit we still don't feel at home. DH spent much of the year looking for employment, which took a toll on us both, but is now very happy in his new job. We watched the economy with baited breath, wondering if things were going to keep getting harder before they got easier. We got married! And spent 5 fabulous days with our wonderful family and friends. I am still a little awestruck when I think of all the support, love, and excitement with which we were showered by so many people. Coming 'round the bend into 2010 things are looking good. Our partnership is strong and we are hopeful about our goals as a couple, both small and large. We are satisfied.

Happy New Year everyone! Here's hoping you've had a chance to pause and enjoy the holiday in whatever way you choose.

Secret Santa

Well, today is the annual IRT holiday party and I'm all set for the big Secret Santa gift exchange reveal. I decided to put my creativity to work and made this holiday flower arrangement and kusudama ball ornament (you may remember the giant kusudama pomanders from the wedding ceremony!) I hope the recipient will enjoy these!

Go Ahead, Have a Cow, Man!

During this holiday season I wanted to take a moment to say a few words about an organization that DH and I support: Heifer International. This organization provides livestock and training to families in need around the world, offering them a sustainable source of food and income. You can browse their catalog of charitable gifts here. Heifer's work helps ensure the health and education of children, empowers women, and builds communities.

You might recall that our wedding registry included Heifer, and I am proud to say that DH and I also donated 5% of all monetary gifts received to Heifer. The next time you wonder what to get that person in your life who has everything, consider a flock of ducks, some rabbits, or even a cow!

Adventures in Home Brewing

The big project in the Owen-Harmon household lately has been our first attempt at home brewing. The beer won't be ready for another week but I thought I'd post some photos of the brewing process.

Our adventure began with a visit to Great Fermentations, our local brewing supply shop. We'd purchased some equipment on Craigslist for quite a bargain and needed ingredients. For our first brew we selected an Oatmeal Stout, because, well, we like oatmeal stout and darker beers are more forgiving of minor mistakes!

This first beer is brewed from extract (as opposed to all grain brewing) which means that the kit we purchased contained several bags of pre-processed malt. Because it's an oatmeal stout the kit also contained a bag of specialty grains (the oatmeal, some coarsely ground, dark roasted barley).

Here are the grains in 2 cheesecloth sacks, kinda like big tea bags.

Here's Bill tossing them in to 3 gallons of 160 degree water.

We left the grains to steep for 45 minutes or so and got on with the business of sanitizing the equipment. The majority of home brewing failures are the result of improper cleaning and sanitation.

Here's the fermenting bucket, filled with sanitizer and some of the other brewing tools.

Frothy, grainy goodness. This steeping process creates fermentable sugars for the yeast to eat, which is what makes the beer!

Stirring. And stirring. And stirring some more.

The grain bags have been removed, extract powder added, and once all the extract (like, 5 pounds of it) is dissovled the mixture is brought to a boil. Which took an hour. Then hops are added and it boils for an hour.

Chilling the wort.

After the hour of boiling the wort must be chilled quicky to prevent contamination and oxidation. We put the covered pot in a sink full of ice. Chilling takes about 30 minutes.

Once the beer is below 80 degrees it's time to aerate it (stir and splash it so oxygen gets in it for the yeast.) We swished and poured it into the fermenting bucket and once it was under 70 degrees we pitched the yeast.

These special brewing yeast packs are specially selected for the type of beer you're brewing and come with an activating solution in the pouch. This gets the yeast multiplying before it's tossed in to the wort.

Finally, it was time to cover the bucket and let it sit. It stays in the bucket for 2 weeks prior to bottling, plenty of time for the yeast to work its magic.

See the bubbles? The yeast is in action!

We bottled the beer last weekend, at which point a small amount of additional sugar was added to spur on a little more fermentation in the sealed bottles. This is what creates carbonation. We did taste the beer before bottling and, while it was totally flat (it should have been at that point), the flavor was very nice. So long as we got our bottles clean enough and the priming sugar mixed well I think our beer should be pretty darn good! We're so optimistic, in fact, that Bill is all set to brew another batch this weekend, a Chocolate Porter. mmm ... with any luck we'll have 2 batches ready before Christmas.