For my sister

My nephew, Wyatt, meeting Santa for the first time.

THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOUR CHRISTMAS CARD. Holy shit is it awesome. AWESOME!

Baldwin/Baldlose

Here's my Te'j. I bottled it in a little carboy I have (it's really a 64 oz root beer bottle but it works really well for this) and let it ferment for two more weeks, after the initial week on the counter top. I took a little nipper of it before I racked it. It's good. Might not be my everyday drink but it is definitely the best thing I've brewed so far. I still have the applejack buried in the back yard so we'll see how that goes but if it goes badly (and it probably will) at least I have this win under my belt.

The first te'j I made was way way too sweet and dry and just bad. You could smell chemicals in it. Very bad. This new stuff, even before I set it to ferment, smelled good. Like a broth or something.


I feel like Asher looks like a little Cossack with the pants tucked into the boots. Figured mom would like it.

A peaceful moment. I took the pic to remind myself that they exist.

Walking to the park and Charlie says, Watch this dad! Not long ago she refused to walk all the way to the park now she's rounding the bases before she even gets there.

Jungle Jane       

Ash playing tee ball with a gourd. Gourd still in mid-air! He swung so hard he spun around. 


First Santa sighting of the year. Charlie was not so relaxed with him (we saw another Santa tonight and she was way more relaxed). Asher wouldn't even go near him. What does she ask for? A hula hoop. I think Santa was actually taken aback by how simple her request was. "Do you know how many years it's been since someone asked me for a hula hoop?"

Ash and I having fun with sunglasses.

Suspicious of the new fish in the library's aquarium.

On a frog.

Charlie has a lalaloopsy doll. It rotates around into being her favorite every once in a while. Well, she found the dolls info in a coloring book (name, birthday. I remember they did this with my sisters Cabbage Patch dolls too, so it's like a thing?). Anyway, of course she finds the info like three days before the dolls birthday. So what do we do? Bake elaborate cupcakes and invite people over. For a dolls birthday party. Which, I believe, makes us the coolest parents ever.

Sucker Face

We dogsat (really babysat) Sydney, one of Dianna's good friend from work's dog. He's getting used to being here, this is the third time he's stayed here, and he actually ate while he was here. Of course, that also meant that he pooped while here, you know, food goes in and the plastic baggie comes out.

The kids love it though. I'm not sure who's more skittish at the beginning, the dog or the kids but by the end of the four days they each thought the other was old hat.

A collection of pic with Ryan. 

KidsCity Poltergeists.                                      And drivin' a bug.

In a hay maze.                                            Playing with playdoh.

A few years ago, Dianna tried to make hot sauce for Sean. She roasted jalapenos and pretty much cleared our house. It smelled like roasted chemicals. Sean ate it in one sitting. With chips. So last year I tried to make a serrano hot sauce to similar results.

This year I got a recipe from America's Test Kitchen DIY book. It's a pound and a half of jalapenos. And a pound and a half of habaneros. Add garlic, salt and whey then let it ferment for two weeks. I can't even get my head near the bowl after processing it. I have no clue how it will be in two weeks. Brutal, I hope.

Last time we went to the mall Asher wanted to go up and down the elevator. Charlie didn't so I let her sit at the bottom, on a bench, as we rode. This is how cute she looked.

Rib-i-dib-dib

 Winterizing our lawn.

Goofing off in our kitchen.

Damnuel Adams

I've started making hooch. There's really no other name for it . . . wild fermenting extra strength wine? Post-apocalypse weak shine? Whatever it is, it's pretty alcoholic and never very good. But I'll keep trying.

First off was T'ej. The recipe I got was from a Wild Fermentation book and it was pretty simple. Honey, water and some organic fruit (organic fruit doesn't have pesticides on it to kill the wild yeast) so I used raspberries. It was pungent. Like nail polish remover. The recipe in the hyperlink there sounds much better . . . and since I have some buckwheat honey that's not so great it tea (it's got a pretty deep taste) I might give it another try.

I bottled one big bottle (seen in the sink there) and one beer bottle. I left the customary 2 inches of air space in both. I left them in the utility sink down stairs to rack - the longer they "rack", basically sit there, the dryer they are - for about three weeks. Then I painted the shelves upstairs and had to move the bottles to wash the paint rollers. 

I took the bottles out, eye balled them to see all the yeast and stuff floating in it, then put it on the floor. 

Well about an hour later, when I was at Home Depot, I got a call from Dianna. "Why is there glass all over the basement????" 

The little beer bottle exploded. And how. It shredded the glass. I found pieces probably 20 feet away.

That's when I decided to strain all the sediment out. Try to stop the yeast from building up enough CO to blow the big bottle.

Then I tried it. And, damn, was it astringent. Imagine drinking nail polish remover fumes.

 So I'm going to lose that recipe.


And a few months back I posted a bunch of pics of the kids and I picking fruit. Then I did the Peach Cake and posted those pics. Scan back, it's there. Well, I used the peels and pits to make this recipe. Basically, peach pits and peels, sugar and water. Then bury the jars. The ground keeps them at a set temp and they ferment away. All you have to do is dig them out, strain them and drink.

You need to stain or, as the video puts it, you get the runs. He's very serious on that point.

So I dug them up.

This is what they looked like, pre-straining.

And I got about 2 quarts of highly liquorified peach . . . wash. It's not as strong as the t'ej but not as stomach knotting, either. I'm sure it'll do nicely in my compost bin.

BUT, I still have high hopes for the apple hooch I have buried behind the garage . . . though I'm wondering if it's ok that the seeds are in there . . .


Music videos! I made my dad my version of a Steve Earle Best Of a while back (which was not easy to fit on one disc) so I've gone pretty deep back into his music. Especially his last album I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive. Great stuff. And a hair cut I've given serious consideration to (hell, I'm halfway there on the beard).

Chugga Chugga Boo Boo

So what did you do today?

Me? 

Oh, I helped Asher build a train track using every single peice of train set we have. Which, turns out, is a lot.

He'd hand me pieces and I put'em where they fit. 

Starting in his room. Out the door.

Down the hallway.

In to the living room.

And under the coffee table.

So the only downer is, I got a bunch of tracks off someone on ebay and they sent the solid wood bridge up ramp, the solid wood bridge but no solid wood down ramp. Which is annoying. But, other than that, each track was able to loop back into the main track.

Asher was very excited (this photo is for his Things I'm Thankful For feather at school - the white blanket is the thankful object - but he was about this happy when we were done. Mainly because he was able to kick over the tracks later on).

Hay-YA Pinata

Ha! My lovely wife had some pictures of the pinata, moments before it was beaten to an absolute pulp. I have to say, Charlie and I only did one layer of paper for the pinata. So that, and a layer of black spray paint was the only thing that seperated the nerf bat from the 10 pounds of interier candy.

Some long pipe cleaner legs and a red hour glass and we had a nice Black Widow pinata.

The pinata was so heavy that the line I hung it on was taut and about 7 feet high. Once the pinata was on it dipped down to about 4 feet. I'm sure there's a physics way of figuring out the weight from that but this is not Nova Science Now so deal.

 To get the soft shell pinata onto the rope I had to wrap it a few times with wire. I'm guessing that's what kept it together, not my master pinata glue making skills.

 And take abuse it did. Each kid got three whacks. There were, what, like a dozen kids? I could go back and look at the pictures but that's too much work. Anyway, each kid got three solid whacks. I mean, bat to the body pops!

It held up BEAUTIFULLY.

All the Hallowing Eve

We start with the pumpkins. Because, where else would you start with Halloween? There's a few plastic tarps taped together on the floor and the guts go in the middle. It's like a pumpkin killing zone. Just so we're all clear, the best use for a pumpkin is to be scooped clean, carved up and left on your porch to slowly rot. Eating a pumpkin leads to athletes foot.

This year, Dianna wanted to have a Halloween party, so party we did. Kids party games and a pinata . . . which I didn't take a picture of . . . (although you can see part here)

Each balloon had a prize inside: bouncy ball eye, candy, the classic spider ring. Also, this was a bitch to put together.

Oh, OH, you can kind of see the pinata to the right of the rig! See the big spidery thing on the book case? Yeah, that's it. Black widow pinata. Man, I was proud that. Again - wish I'd taken a picture . . .

Attaching it to the wall proved . . . difficult. Tape and tape and tape and tape and hooks and tape and in the end I just held one side up.

There were some tense moments as the kids ran at my wall with a thumb tack but calmness . . . no, not calmness but a sense that if they misbehaved they wouldn't get candy prevailed.

All for it to get housed.



Asher was happy.                                                                   Then he wasn't.

Then he was again!

Ryan. Chilling. Emmy and Enwa (which I'm sure I misspelled) from down the street.

The crowd.










Fastest, best looking and most unique mummy wins! Actually, the winners were the parents who watched their kids spin around for ten minutes. It's funny.

Charlie- bundled.

The mayhem.                                                 Keith wrapping Jack.

Also, when the kids de-mummified, each one was sweating like a beast. Turns out toilet paper two inches thick is a pretty good blanket.

Asher decided to sit this one out.

Charlie, Jenny and Reese.

On Halloween night.

Waiting to give out candy.

Most of the kids from the party live on our street (or know someone who does) so they all stopped by to eat more of my candy.

The haul at the end of the night. For some reason our camera decided to make everything look like the sun was in our livingroom.