First time ever we live in a house and not a condo- no shared walls, no neighbors with windows looking into yours, and we have a lawn!
The weather has been phenomenal the past 2 weeks. It was in the low 80's but it was a dry, hot 80's and the breeze was warm too. We both got a little sun despite wearing sunscreen. On the drive to work there is a distinct weather line just west of Multnomah Falls and when the Portland area is clouded in this is where you seemingly go through a portal to another world... one with a 500' ceiling of clouds. Meanwhile east of there is nice and sunny. We've experienced this from both directions. We're so happy to be living in a sunnier region!
Settling in: Last weekend we wondered downtown for First Friday, shopping at the Wacoma Bookstore (we picked up two books: Curious Gorge and a fishing book) and grabbing a pint at the Pint Shack. Saturday we did our first hike of the season- a very easy loop in The Dalles called Chenowith Loop. I took a few pictures of wildflowers, but I really need to get a macro lens so I can get close to them. The hike was supposed to be about 3 miles, but we missed the point to loop back and went 1.5 miles extra by the time we figured out our mistake. Sunday, we took the trail to downtown and spent time wondering around the waterfront park area before heading back up to the house. Then went to Stonehedge for our 2nd anniversary dinner of lobster and halibut.
River: This week I (Sam) attended my first meeting and promptly joined OWSA- Oregon Women's Sailing Association. The meeting was a blast! There were a lot of women there and although some of them are the types who just hang out on the boat sunning and mixing drinks while their significant other does the sailing work, there were a lot of women who are very savvy sailors. Everyone was intelligent, well-spoken, easy to talk to, and quite entertaining, if not down right hilarious. I'm so excited to get involved with the women and learn how to sail this summer! Guess I'd better dig out my book of sailing knots...
One neat surprise was running into a friend from about 9 years ago when I was in my sophomore year of undergrad. Ems and our group used to hang out at the LCC during breaks from class, knitting, drawing, making music, and having lively discussions. She's an amazing artist in every way- music, drawing, acting. She helped put together a group of 4 women (herself included) to do a performance storytelling called At The Helm for the OWSA meeting and they all did an impressive job. So well, that others were asking how they could learn to do the same.
On a slightly different river note, next week I will be trained on water quality testing as I will be volunteering with the Columbia Riverkeeper. Matt is also joining me in adopting a stretch of river to clean and record habitat data.
Beer News: Last night was this month's OBC (Oregon Brew Crew) meeting. I took the very last of our Blueberry CDA to share. (If you aren't familar, CDA stands for Cascadia Dark Ale, which for the uninitiated is essentially a black IPA, but specifically focusing on Cascade bittering hops. You can read more here and here.) I let two people taste it before I did, and I was so embarrassed... it was so flat and you could barely taste the blueberries! I guess the CO2 tank going empty and sitting in a growler for 24 hrs really packed a whollop- it was barely a hint at it's former glory. Everyone was really nice though and Leigh gave me some pointers about cold steeping the grains overnight instead of hot steeping just before the boil. This will get the color, but leave out the roasted taste that you might not want in your dark beer. In our case this will allow the blueberries to stand out more instead of being overpowered by the roastiness. Caren gave me tips on adding dried blueberries to help build up the blueberry flavor. For the first attempt, we used frozen blueberries and after thawing simply smashed them with a hammer. For the most recent batch we pureed the frozen blueberries at Mike's, our previous neighborhood brewer over at Vertigo Brewing, suggestion. Caren also gave me pointers on members to avoid (always helpful- some people can't be trusted) and we all had an interesting discussion on yeasts. In the first version of the CDA we used Wyeast's NW Ale and at the suggestion of Mike (Vertigo Brewing) we used the 1056 American Ale to help give it a fuller body. Apparently the 1056 Wyeast is the most commonly used one in the NW area because it's forgiving and universally pleasing, but they seem to think it's overused and that brewers either aren't adventurous enough or don't understand enough about yeast. For example, of the 18 Ale yeast strains and 11 Lager yeast strains available from Wyeast Labs (who just happens to be in the neighbor of the Mid-Gorge), most breweries will tell you they use only one of each and never any of the others. I'm not a yeast expert yet, but it does affect the taste and body of the beer. I, personally, think most Rogue beers often have an odd taste to them that I don't enjoy, but I've never been able to put my finger on it. (Note: I am a big fan of their Voodoo Donut series and most folks think I'm nuts, but seriously, how can you not love a chocolate, peanut butter, and banana beer?!) I mentioned this and they both said "It's the Pacman yeast." Rogue (Matt's Oregon favorite) uses almost exclusively their proprietary Pacman yeast. Leigh has noticed there seems to be a general consensus among women that they don't particularly care for Rogue's brews, while the guys seem to love it. We're blaming it on the yeast.
They also are quite opinionated about craft brewers UNDYING LOVE (ie over-reliance) for hops. A great IPA will be hoppy, but it will have a balance to the bitterness, the idea of which seems to be lost on some folks. Using a lot of hops doesn't make a great beer, but what it does is easily hide the flaws of the beer. Leigh suggests if you really want to know the quality of the beer at a brewery, taste the one that has low hops like a Kolch because you can't hide the flaws behind the hops. (Turns out Kolch is a favorite style for both of us.) For this deception reason, she is not a fan of Ninkasi despite enjoying their brews. It doesn't help that they admit that they change their recipes every batch and have no idea what yeast or hops they put into it. How are you supposed to become a better brewer and make fantastic beer if you don't keep records?!?! And if you're running a brewery you need five solid beers that you don't change the recipe on. Tweaking a recipe to improve it is different (changing only one variable at a time), but completely leaving each batch up to fate is going to be disaster.
Crosby Hop Farm (from Woodburn, I believe) gave a presentation on hop growing which was fascinating. They are planning a tour for all us home brewers at some point in the future, but anyone can arrange a tour. At the end, they had free hop rhizomes for those who wanted them. A rhizome is basically part of the root system that can be cut, transplanted, and create a whole new plant. I went with the Nugget hop even though we've never used it in a recipe. According to the description on their website "Nugget is a famous American high alpha variety developed in 1983 at OSU. This hop has become increasingly popular for its spicy, herbal aromas ". We're trying to decide where we might grow a vine that reaches 20 feet in height.
In other beer news, we've just kegged our two batched to be canned at the OBC canning event this weekend: a citra pale ale and, as I mentioned, the blueberry CDA. This means the kegs will be empty again and ready for new batches really soon!
Now, for some pictures...
Our small collection of non-deet bug repelling candles. They don't work super well, but they do have a very nice ambiance!
The succulant from our wedding got too beat up on the move to Oregon to survive, but I love them.
Left to right: Kalanchoe hybrid "Behartii", Kalanchoe longiflora coccinea, and Aloe Vera.
So. much. room.
This is where you'll stay if you visit and choose to save money by not staying at a hotel. There's an air mattress and your own AC unit.
Matt won this by being one of the first 10 people on Saturday to walk into Naked Winery and say "I love Oregon Wine." He also got a t-shirt. There are perks to having a Facebook account, you can keep track of local businesses and know when they are doing something awesome like this. This is the same way he won a Hammerhead Ale pint glass from McMenamins on the beer's birthday.
This is Einstein, the neighbor cat that looks A LOT like Lucy. He likes to hang out on our porch or sit at the back door and stare inside. Matt thinks he has a crush on Lucy. I think he's waiting for them to come outside and play.
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