Exploring the Land of the Long White Cloud

In anticipation of tearing down the bathroom walls, we decided to have a little fun. So at the party a couple weeks ago, we left out some felt pens and started a few scribbles to give people the idea that they could graffiti up the walls with no consequence! The last time I remember seeing walls this art-ed up was when my brother was about 3 or 4 I guess and he coloured his feet and the wall purple (or red, I can't clearly remember anymore!) Luckily, people kept the felts on the walls and even obeyed the "no writing on the door" instruction. (Just in case we decide to refinish this one rather than replace it.) We are keeping it going because, well, we have until at least August or September until the walls come down. Might as well make it a little bit fun. Dustin put a stop to the possibility of finger painting though! But I guess if it's not 1 am after a long night, he might be a little more tolerant of the idea. Until we get some finger paintings up,

Things have been getting more interesting on the brew front here. We currently have an imperial smoked stout fermenting, as well as the leftover grain from that made into a light ale. Dustin and I are getting stoked that Beervana is getting closer because we are volunteering there and attending on the second day. The boys have started a using a different mash tun method over the brew in a bag that they had done initially. I don't know if it's a permanent change or just for particular brews. These were all the hops that went into Domo Arigato, Hops from Okato Plus, to get an idea of the hops' flavour we made a tea as well. If any of you reading this are good at graphic design and want to have a good at making a logo, get in touch! It's nearly time to start making labels for the beers ;) I am sure we'll share more beer stories with you as we go. The stout is definitely going to be photo-worthy I reckon.

Although I may have turned 31, that doesn't mean that I don't have the energy to stay up until 4am dancing and partying! It's been too many years to count since we've hosted (or been to even!) a costume party. We used to love Halloween partying in Surrey and I wanted to get back into some of that fun with a birthday costume party. Although they call it "fancy dress" here. Not content with just costumes to make the evening, I secretly enlisted a few girlfriends to help me make it a dance party. Thanks to a spare room, a borrowed speaker and amp, and the strobe setting on a couple of headlamps, we made it happen. Check out the playlist here . Now, some of us had our costumes planned and made ahead of time and others decided just 6 hours before the party. I will let you figure out which was which. The skeleton is going to a pirate party. And this pinata doesn't need to be smashed to give out candy. The dinosaur was friendly as was the

Killer birthday gifts we received: Board of Directors is almost as cool as the Brewmaster. Almost. Maybe we'll get a logo made for fun sometime soon, we do know a few people who can probably put something together. I was going to share the very rough mock-up but Dustin threw out the paper already. Just think an M with a maple leaf as the left side and the F with a fern as the left side. A friend made a stout with licorice in it recently! We're eagerly awaiting the smokey stout that's fermenting at the moment. I still am pushing for a raspberry ale but we need to coax some berries out of our raspberry bush (or prickle sticking out of the terrace, which is more accurate) before it'll get that far up the priority list. Maybe I need to get another member of the board to second my nomination.

We're officially into winter now but luckily we have some reminders of summer and autumn and the garden goodness that we (or our friends) cultivated: From left to right... Pickled Peppers : I had never picked a peck of pickled peppers until I made these. It's just too hard to keep up with a chili plant in its prime so I pickled as many as I could squeeze into two jars. They are very nice and occasionally you chomp into a ghost chili (aka bhut jolokia) because, well, that plant was going strong too so I had to grab a few. Feijoa Chutney : This is from the kitchen of Bridget and Andy who had a feijoa tree blessed much more than ours this year. Among a feijoa cake they brought over, they also turned them into a beautiful chutney that I am going to serve alongside some cheeses this weekend. Papa E's Onion Marmalade : From Eric by way of another friend's recipe. This stuff is amazing - I most recently put it onto toasted cheesesteak hoagies. Yum. Papa E's Pic

What's it like having chickens? We were as clueless as most people who grew up many, many miles from the nearest proper farm. So we've been learning and it's been quite fun to find a new animal to live alongside. So, of course it starts with the coop and run. They need somewhere to take cover, do a little scratching and somewhere to perch (up off the ground) at night for sleeping. Once you have that, you have to figure out food and water. Often people tell us they eat anything (and everything) but we have had them turn their beaks up at a few things from time to time. We buy a feed pellet and supplement that with bits from the garden, spent grain from brewing and scraps from the table (I feel slightly less guilty if I don't finish my meal but we still don't have that many scraps). That's a lot of chicken meals! The water was a drama because at first we just used a dish and they routinely stepped in it and tipped it and such. So we bought a hanging one

This is one of the recent brews, complete with a "label" and description... It was made with the hops we harvested from our friends' place. Name: Domo Arigato Hops from Okato Type: Fresh Hopped Pale Ale  -  7.2% Malt: 5.5KG Pilsner Malt (NZ) (*Base Malt) / 0.45KG Pale Crystal (UK) Hops:  200g (unknown variety) + 150g Cascade Dry Hop Yeast: Safale S05 Yeast Tasting Notes Have you ever been bitch-slapped by a samurai while dropping on his wave out on the kumara patch? If yes, then you know what this beer is like. If not, it’s a light Okato hopped Pale ale with opening citrus notes and an earthy finish that will  smack you a bit heavy on the bitter and leave you searching for another dojo to hide in. Domo Arigato!

Well this one isn't that muddy but it's Dustin cutting his raspberry black forest cake: I found some photos of us in the mud run: Dustin, Andy and Ed near the beginning stretch of the race Bridget and I close behind them with Davina and Lisa just behind us One of two slides on the course Yep we had definitely hit some mud by this point! Unfortunately those were the only ones I could find of us, it would have been better to catch us just before the river crossing when we would have been muddiest! We had a nice birthday for Dustin yesterday. The whole weekend was bluebird skies and fairly warm for this time of year. He got to go fishing on Sunday on a boat with a mate! Then yesterday MF brewing did a double batch (an imperial smoked stout and a leftovers batch of some dark ale) and I cooked up the fish Dustin caught for lunch before stacking up a tall cake and then we had some friends over for steaks for dinner! A lovely day to ring in year 31.