Eye for details

I'm up here all week living the country dream. I baked a Toftis to sustain me and I am being disciplined about writing. I will take breaks to strip the living room door, show the cottage, sand the bathtub, clean Ebba and other general detailing around the house.

Like this... We received our shades from Country (Rock n Roll-far out-smokem if you gottem) Curtains. It's gettin oh so homey around here. 

In the same box was also the curtain rod for the bay window so we can finally take the thumb tacks out of the pretty sheers that Rosemary sent and hang them properly. 

Last weekend we shoveled a hole in the snow where the patio is because the weather was too nice to keep us inside. We decided to enjoy the first Micheladas of the year.

Just get your basic Mexican brew, i.e. Tecate, Sol, Carta Blanca. Pour it over ice, squeeze a load of limes in it it. Top it off with bloody mary mix and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. It's delish.

It's a tasty thing but right now we are also on a mission. James has somehow figured out how to save money by drinking beer. We are going to brew it at home. Inspired by our seasoned home brewer neighbor Jody we are taking on our first batch this weekend. Up the road a bit is Pantano's Wine Grapes, a home winemaking store that has recently expanded to also accommodate home brewing. We got ourselves a pilsner making kit from Jerry - a kit that contains the tools and the ingredients to get through a first batch. 


And back to the Michelada. So you make the beer in a big bucket, right, but there comes a time, a week or so later, when it has to go into it's final destination. No, strike that, final destination is James' gullet. It has to get into a vessel where the actual fermentation happens. We went to our local beer distributor and picked up a bunch of bottles. Still full of beer. So here we are, step one of the process - empty the bottles. Cheers! Don't be shy, come by for a Michelada cause we need to drink 5 gallons of Carta Blanca before next weekend. Thank you to Dirk who has offered to lend us a set of beer bottles to start us off for batch #2. You just saved us a lot of hang overs.


My herb garden is doing awesome by the way. 

Cilantro. Almost enough to make pico de gallo. Can 't wait!

Parsley. Some went in to a broth I made last night.

Itty bitty basil. Enough to make a mouse portion of pesto.

Dill!

You're gonna have to enlarge this picture to see the chives. But they're there. Hm... I know they're there.

Sick of my starling pictures? Well toooooo bad. The sunnier it gets outside the prettier he is so the snapping continues.

Sunset seen through exceptionally dirty kitchen window.