New Chiller mod...

Quick update here to a modification I've been meaning to do forever now to my beer wort chiller. Did a solder job on the coils and took off that crappy copper wire strand that's been barely holding the thing together since I originally screwed it all together. I know this first pic is pretty dark, but just wanted to show the 'handle' portion on the top..



















..and here's a pic of the rather sloppy but perfectly functional solder job on the coils themselves. What a bear to get one coil soldered together to the one next to it and only have the next one break loose the solder you just did when the heat goes through the whole thing! Grr. But, it's done now and works well. It feels solid enough to stand on. Really an improvement, I'll say.



















Now, to brew with it! Stay tuned...

Updates and a few fallen soldiers..

As mentioned, there's a couple fallen this past couple weeks. The first, as the pic indicates, is the passing of the famed "1903 Wheat", brewed on the big brew day we had back in the Spring. Brewed up by me and Dan, it was a good beer and served it's term well. Another unit that went just recently wasn't even a beer. It was that damned orange Craftsman 3/8th's drill. I was using it to crush the grain for the Avalon Pale Ale and it was giving me all sorts of issues, but finally I had to take it apart to put the motor brushes back in (!) to get it running again. After that, I was going to us it to drill the axle holes for the coop, but she's since refused to fire back up. As such, I'm now int he market for a new drill. I'm not sure if I'm going to go cordless or corded... but I'll definitely need something before the next brew session, or it's gonna be a long, hand cranked crushing process.

The chicken coop is still working well with the new wheels on. Still haven't fond the camera, so I can't post any new pics just yet of that mod.. but it's much nicer to move now, and nobody gets hurt as a result of the effort. Sheesh.

Speaking of chickens, they're all getting on the big side now. The wander around the yard every morning now, for the past 4 days when I open up the door to change the water-er and feeder. It was my weekend, so I let 'em all out for pretty much the whole day for all three days and we had no issues at all. No hawks in sight, and no dog attacks. We had "Boo Boo" the cat next door come over for a look, but she didn't do anything with the hens.. plus, she didn't stick around long after I dragged out the Rustler with the big battery and started zinging that around the yard. The girls finally found out where the momma's veggy garden is, so they made the trip around the back and gorged themselves on ants and slugs back there. I think Sarah said they might have had a snack of parsley as well, but I'm sure that was just to wash down the taste of the slugs with and freshen up their breath.

And lastly in chicken news, that RIR chick that bashed herself into the cage last week or so and scratched up her ear? She's fully healed up now and back in working order. No harm no fowl! ;)

I also attended neighbor Franks' annual Uncle Mike's Lake house party this past weekend too. Third year for that, and third year we've had a great time. Me and Frank brewed up a 5 gallon log of a Pale Ale to bring with us, and that appeared to be a pretty good hit. It was tapped around 1300 hours and killed at about 1830 hours or so.

Also in beer news, the Avalon Pale Ale I've brewed up for vacation next month seems to have ground to a halt in it's fermenter downstairs. I've been monitoring the ferment temps with a thermometer and filling the ol' Styrofoam box the fermenter is in with ice packs to keep the temps down.. and seems to work pretty well. I'm pondering if I'm going to thrown a couple of oak chips into that fermenter for a couple days just prior to racing to give it something to talk about. I also might dry hop it a bit, but I'm a little low on volume as it is at 5.25 gallons, and I don't wanna push it too far with losses to hops. But then again, how much beer can one family possibly consume in just one week?

};-)

In radio control news, that new LiPo battery is still going strong like an animal. Love that new fangled cell stuff. My old Triton (at only 2.5 amps charge ability for LiPo cells) is really showing it's age and totally not keeping up with the times. A newer device is definitely going to have to be in my future if I end up playing with more LiPo stuff. Fortunately, there's some really nice, dirt-cheap chargers out there for Lithium cells only and some really sweet products from Accucell company. I think that's the name, anyway.

Well, I'm off to shape, boil and bake some bagels Ive got going right now.. now go click the Google link!

Long time since posting.. got some wheels though!

Here's an artistic pic of the interior of the coop and several of the girls therein, taken by one of the girls. She took the pic at eye level to her, through the egg access door at the back of the coop, shooting out through the chicken entry/exit door out into the pen area. Good picture!

Well, I'd take some pics of this new modification and post 'em, but the wife made off with the camera, and I don't know where it is. In either case, I'm partially through putting some wheels on the coop now, after pulling my back out of joint and getting myself jammed up and out of work for a couple days. I think it weights more than I though. Like, well in excess of 200lbs. I've got the wheels and the holes drilled for the axles, and now I'm just shortening up the access door a bit to clear the way for the door to open and close to let the chickens in and out through. Not too bad a modification, really.. pics to follow, when the Boss returns the FAMILY CAMERA!

In other chicken news, one of the Rhode Island Reds seems to have jammed itself into the fence, slightly injuring herself in the process, when she was harried by a tiny dog. The chicken was in no real danger, cause she was inside the coop, but she didn't know that.. and subsequently skinned herself upside the left side of her head, just above the ear. She seems to be fine though, and is doing well. Sheesh!

I wanna tell you about the Southern Tier Series One and Two oak aged beers that me and Tim got together and tasted, but I can't seem to find my tasting notes on 'em right now. Darn it! Good stuff, the both of them, though I feel as if I'm partial to the Series Two beer between them. Have not had Series Three yet, so I can't comment.

In other news, I've got a beer fermenting downstairs right now, the Avalon Pale Ale, brewed in a five gallon batch by myself, solo, for our vacation trip next month on the shore. A bit of a sluggish take off on the ferment activity, but seems to be OK now. I've got it in the ol' Omaha Steaks Styrofoam cooler surrounded by ice packs to try and keep the ferment temps down to a reasonable level. She's sittin' happy now at a measured temp of 68 degrees, according to a digital thermo taped to the side of the carboy. This seemed to work well on the last beer too, as I have been fighting a weird flavor in the recent beers I've done here when I wasn't really monitoring the high ferment temps in the summer heat...

Also, in radio control news, the LiPo 7.4 volt cell I scored on eBay for dirt cheap arrived and I'm really happy with it's performance in my Brushless Traxxas Rustler. It's clearly faster than the NiMh cells, as it wheelies on command now and has a hard time keeping it's front tires on the ground.. seems the Low Voltage Cutoff (LVC) seems to be kicking with a lot of juice left in the pack though.. I should be jammin' at full speed for more time than I am, which is still a good amount of time from a 5000 maH pack, though. I'll definitely get some ore of these things, but I think a better charger is in order first. my Triton 1st gen is only capable of 2.5 amps output which takes over two hours to charge this big pack up... I need more power!

That's all for now, kids.. now go click my Google link!

The BIG chicken coop aka "lawn gouger"..

So here's the finished (well, maybe..) coop, out in the side yard. With chickens inside! The feeder and waterer are underneath there, dangling from the bottom of the coop, right next to the exit door there on the lower left. Works out really well!















And here's what happens when you try to move the darned thing. Heavy!! And digs up the lawn. This 30 foot move from one spot to the next took me 15 minutes and two very torn up hands. I need some wheels on this thing in the worst way.















The chickens are getting smarter now, having been outside for 4 days now. Each day so far, one more chicken has been able to get into the box at night by herself than the night prior. And this morning, they all came out of the box by themselves, without any "help" by me pushing them. They must have been hungry!

Speaking of hungry, they appear to love the clover weeds in the lawn. They'll eat those bare and leave everything else alone for the most part.. so when I moved the coop, it left this weird rectangle in the lawn that had regular grass and a conspicuous lack of clover, which much of my lawn is made up of. Darned weeds.

Fathers Day stuff..

Happy Fathers day to me and my pops! Hi

Got a few new beers, fancy ones, for presents. Panil Sour Red Flanders style, 2006 vintage. Allagash Curieux from the current bottling, and Southern Tier Series 2 Oak aged.. all 750mL stuff. I'll take some pics and review 'em as we go.. maybe get to the Sour this coming weekend (for me..) and see how she is. Got great reviews on BeerAdvocate. We'll see.

Hit up a new breakfast place in Canton for the morning meal as well.. good stuff. The cheese in the omelet was fancy and tasty as all heck.. I'm fat now. No pics this time, sorry! Just a brief update.. more to follow.

Poultry netting.. What?

They call it poultry netting. Looks like wire mesh stuff to me. Whatever! It's up, it's over, it's covering my coop's wood frame! Ack!















Not the most elegant stuff on the planet.. but it'll keep the hawks out, I guess. Raccoons, that's another story, or so I hear. We'll see. That's why I've got a snipers nest set up in the 2d story bathroom window, I suppose... bring it, raccoons! I dare ya'!

And here's one of the beasts after her 4th birthday.. 4 weeks, that is:















Still small, the size of a pigeon. But most of the feathers are in there. I've decided to keep 'em indoors one more week.. the feathers aren't totally in place.. still some downy feathers still kicking around, and with the temps dropping into the low 50's outside, I'd just as soon not chance it. I'm ready to go, otherwise. Have all the big bird feeders.. just need to put 'em in place is all. More pics of that stuff as the days go by. What is with this June weather we're having?

Click the Google ads, you sissys!

Mike

Paint on the chicken barn, and a new brew..

Hey kids!

Got some new paint on the coop, with some sweet white trim. Check it out:















..still gotta put up the mesh netting to keep the birds in and the bad things out, but that should go up pretty easy this weekend.

..and a few pics of the babies themselves, now three and a half weeks old. We're dangerously close to putting 'em out in the coop this or maybe next week. Gotta see what the weather is like and how many feathers they all got. We'll make that call in a few days or so I think.















And in other news, I killed another keg. The Rambler v1.2 that was brewed with Will is a kicked one now.. was subsequently replaced with a log of an English style Ordinary Bitter that I made with Jody. I can tell you already, this beer is fantastic! I've been loving it recently.

Since I was a little low on reserves, it was good to get a call from my boy Geoff, who came by to brew up a Dark Wheat beer with me.. not sure it was any *particular* style, but it's a wheat beer, and it's gonna be dark in color. The main ferment is over now.. just waiting on it to wind down a bit before I keg it now. Here's a shot of us in action!



















For some reason, my hops are the saddest things ever to make an attempt to grow out of the ground. No pic for you, but man.. they're hardly 4 feet out of the ground. Really sad, I tell ya'.. I think I failed when it came time to dig 'em in there and didn't do anything with mulch or compost or peat moss.. etc, etc. My mistake. We'll fix it soon, with some spiffy new chicken poop compost nutrient!

That's all for now...