I think t'wife was trying to kill me this weekend... That was a LOT of work to squeeze into one weekend for sure!!

Saturday was a run to Jerry's (of course) to spend another $100 on chicken and garden stuff... picked up a dozen 2x4's for the side bracing on the chicken run and a beefier heat lamp thingy... after some work around the house, it was off to Hop Valley to spend some time w/ friends Les and Tami who are back in town after 10 days... thanks for picking up the tab Les!!

After all THAT and almost dark, we put up version one of the cold frame. It looks like crap but it was dark cold and wet so we threw it together in about 10 minutes... watching it over the weekend steaming up it at least seems to be working...







Sunday was cleaning 5 kegs, kegging 10 gallons of the Honey Orange Wheat, cleaning the chicken brooder, oh and why not brew up 10 gallons of the Red and smoke a pork roast while I'm at it... I've come up with a pretty reasonable clone of Hop Valley's Stepchild Red if anyone wants the recipe... gotta keep t'wife happy...

One of the kegs I cleaned went Mt. Saint Helens on me when I opened it.... this pic is from about 5 minutes after the lid was removed... that's what an infected beer will do - luckily that's only the 2nd one I've ever had in something like 300 batches...




I was going to give my spent grain to this woman I met at Hop Valley, but she wasn't available so ended up connecting with this guy at Shooter's and he was all over it - he'll take all I can give him. Turns out he and a dude raise about 25 hogs a year so I'm gonna try and work something out... I'm a beef guy but t'wife prefers pork,