Kegerator Up and Running...

With extra room in the new house we set up our 2nd refridgerator in the laundry room. Of course not only does it give us extra storage space for those trips to Sam's Club but I also get to set up The Kegerator!! It makes moving & home improvement projects fun! If you're interested in setting one up in your house you can email me or visit one of these websites for more info. $100 and an old fridge and you're in business!

http://www.realbeer.com/edu/kegerator/ - FAQ's

http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/conversion-kits.shtml - decent prices & selection

The Victory Garden update

With all of the busyness going on over the past 2 weeks, the garden has cruised along nicely. One of the things that attracted me to the house was the nice back yard. The previous owner had quite a garden in years past and the evidence is still there. There's an old wire fences around the area he used along with scattered seedling pots & plant markers. Right after we closed on the house I planted a few quick seedlings knowing that I would be quite busy for the next few weeks or months and if I waited until I had time I might end up planting in the hot SC summer. I've added a few plantings and seeds over the past few weeks and have also started to clean up the yard a bit too. The wire fence is now becoming tomato cages & my hodgepodge garden is starting to shape up. I've added a few pictures with labels of where everything is laid out. Right now I just found spots for things. I didn't do much prep work on the soil and the layout isn't as organized as I had hoped, but next year I will have much more time to plan everything out.

What am I growing this year you ask? Well where to start.... 4 tomato plants - 2 Brandywine & 2 Roma; 4 pepper plants - 2 Anaheim, 1 New Mexican & 1 Sweet Banana; 2 rows of English peas; 1 row of green beans; 4 rows of onions - Vidalia variety but since we don't live in Vidalia, GA they aren't real, but they will taste good anyway!; 2 watermelon plants - both Charleston Grey; 1 Cantaloupe plant; 2 Zucchini plants; 3 Cucumber plants - 2 Straight 8, 1 Picklebush; 1 Crookneck squash plant & something I'm hoping does really well - a vine of Mt. Hood hops that I can harvest for homebrewing fine beers! I will probably add a few more things as the summer progresses. I'm think 1 row of beans won't be enough and maybe some pumpkins too. Something that we lucked into was the 2 Pecan trees , 1 Peach tree and a mess of blackberries in the back yard. On a non-vegetable note, two years ago I grew some monster marigolds from seeds out of a catalog. These grew to about 3 FEET high!! I save the seeds and have planted them again along the back fence. They have started to sprout so I know they are still good. If you're interested in putting some in your garden then send me an email and I will happily send some off to you. You won't be disappointed.

Very busy weekend.....

It's been a few days since I've posted anything but we started the big move into our house Friday and we are 90% moved now (we don't have to be out of the apartment until the 25th but we are finally sleeping in the new place). I have Wednesday & Thursday off so hopefully we can finish the rest of the moving then, only leaving the cleanup of the old apartment left for next week. The last time we moved we got screwed out of a good bit of our security deposit, but being much wiser to some of the tricks of the trade I plan on being a prick about every little thing this time with the idea that once the management figures out I won't let anything slip , they will be less inclined to try to chisel us out of money. There is still a good bit of trim to paint and small fix-its to do. Today's tasks were fixing a leaking toilet tank flap and installing the smoke/CO alarms.

Things still to do in the house

• Paint the trim, doors & cabinet doors in the kitchen
• Paint a 2nd coat on 3 walls in the library
• Paint the master bedroom
• Paint the sewing room
• Remove the old tile from the main bathroom shower & walls in time for the contractor to fix the water damage in the floor.
• Dig up all of the old bricks & cinder blocks the previous owner used as landscaping trim in the backyard (did they actually think it looked good??)
• Trim and tear out many old and overgrown shrubs/weeds/plants/trees in the yard.
• Cut the grass
• Replace the rear brakes on the truck (not really a house issue but needs to get done VERY soon).

Just a few Pictures

Not much going on here today. Just finishing up a 36 hour work weekend so I'm a bit spent. At least I have the next 2 days off (to work on the house, aurgh!) In an effot to link up with old Pickles & Beer stuff, here's a link to some wedding pictures from last March. Here's some others from our vacation to Shenandoah National Park . We plan on heading back there again this summer. Definelty one of the best places we have ever been! Highly recommended!

A new horse in the stable.

Wednesday I bought a 1973 Ford F100 truck. Yes this truck is older than me (but not Kimberly ;-) Even with the faded yellow color I am a bit smitten with it. It's not pretty, there are numerous little things to be fixed; a bit of surface rust, the heater doesn't work, the tailgate doesn't open but I'm up for the task. Maybe it's the romance of the past. The old dial radio has push button station selectors (3 AM & 2 FM stations). Pop the hood and you can clearly see all of the mechanical parts as if they were labeled, not shrunk and squished together like modern engines. The interior dash is made of metal and all of the knobs are simple and easy to reach. The instrument cluster is spartan with just a speedometer, fuel gauge & temperature gauge. Of course Patton and Sheridan were positively mystified as to how to roll the windows down (at 6 and 9 years old they know nothing of "rolling" windows down with a handle, "where's the button?")

If you've talked to me over the past few months it may have surprised you to see my new vehicle. After all, I was thinking about turning an old Mercedes diesel into running on vegetable oil or at the very least buying a diesel truck to run on B-80 biodiesel (we have quite a few ethanol and biodiesel suppliers here in Columbia, SC). The big 360 ci V8 engine won't get the best fuel mileage but the engine was just rebuilt less than 5,000 miles ago. I looked into maybe converting it to a flex fuel vehicle for ethanol but that would require replacing every part that comes in contact with the fuel to either Teflon coated or stainless steel, quite expensive. Of course I really just drive to work & back and a few errands a week. If we go anywhere as a family we usually take the minivan. If I can fill up the gas tank every 10 days or so (like I do now with the Mustang) I'll be happy. I'll have to make up for my fuel usage in other environmentally friendly ways (I'm in the middle of making my compost bin for the garden).

I can't quite say for sure what caught my eye about this bright yellow monster but I am smitten with it, with all of it's flaws and fix up projects. Maybe it's an extention of buying a house, needing something to haul of the house project stuff. I am a bit puzzled how easily Kimberly went along with this, it was almost her idea! "As long as it has at least 3 seat belts" was her only requirement. Maybe that's why I love her. I'll post a few more pictures as I do more work to it.

~james