Sharing What We Love To Do
The experience of a life time … a successful Striped Marlin Fishing Day!!
On the way out, in the harbor, this cheeky guy was stealing fish out of our Live Well (where our live bait was) … so Brian gave him a kiss!
The strike! …
Got him in the boat …
The hook Brian used, and flying the flags of the catch. The green flag is for a “Trophy Fish”, the red is for “Catch & Release”, and the blue flag is for the “Marlin Caught” …
What a fish! … It measured 8′, tip of the bill to the tail!!
We had a fabulous all-inclusive vacation with Mom & Dad in Cabo San Lucas in March of 2017. As we self-isolate with yet another 8″ of new snow, it’s fun to look back at some of our photos … and remember the sun & heat!
Here are Mom & Dad, in our resort, looking SW towards Lands End …
Brian, on our balcony …
El Arco, on the tip of the Baja! …
One day, we rented a car and drove up the Sea of Cortez side of the Baja Peninsula to La Paz; then we came back south through Todos Santos and along the Pacific side of the Baja. What a fabulous drive!!
In these top photos, Brian and Mom are standing with the Sea of Cortez behind them, and Dad is at our lunch spot, also with the Sea of Cortez behind him; both near Los Barriles. The bottom photos are in Todos Santos, at The Hotel California! It was Mom’s first and only margarita of the trip!!
In this collage, the top photos and the bottom left photo are from our driving trip around the Baja … and the sea lions are from our fishing day (more from that day in Part 2!)
Sunset over the Pacific Ocean!
Here are some of the birds we saw on our trip …
And, a final sunset from our resort, looking at Lands End …
“Aengus taught me! It’s his fault!” …
“All you have to do is … go outside on a cold morning (Aunt Kari said it was -14°C/7°F), then bash the sh*t outta the cone when you come in the door, and … voila!” …
“Aunt Kari put me back in her t-shirt and warned me, to the very inch of my life, that I muss’int wreck my stitches!” …
“But see … Aengus did a much worse bashin’ than me!” …
“And now it’s nap-time!” …
“I think I just out-smarted Aunt Kari, so I could be in her shirt and not in the cone!” 😂
While the hard cider has been carbonating, we finalized the name and created labels … Winter Blues Hard Cider!
Not apple though, it’s … Bumbleberry!!
Then it was time to prime and bottle the beer …
As with the hard cider, we used 22 oz glass bottles… and filled 33 of them! That’s the equivalent of 60 x 12 oz bottles of cerveza!!
Then it was into a warm, dark place to carbonate! Here it sits with the hard cider …
On to another batch of wine! We are repeating the Pinot Grigio kit, and in mid- to late May we’ll have a taste comparison (brand new to ~ 9 months old).
The cerveza gets a name! Corriendo La Tuza Cerveza!! And it gets a label!
So, what’s the story behind the name? Well, we have these little ground dwelling critters that like to run around on the snow once it warms up a bit. The dogs like to catch them too, but that’s a story for another day!
Running Gopher! In Spanish! Corriendo La Tuza Cerveza! 😆
Yet another snow storm! This is the 4th time in the last 5 weeks that we’ve had a dump of over 6″!!
It snowed most of the day yesterday (Good Friday), but it didn’t “stick”. Then the temperature dropped enough at supper time … and by the time we were up this morning there was 8″ of new snow and the sun was shining!
These photos were taken at about 10 am, and in the 2½ hours since they were taken… it has clouded over and snowed, then the sun peaked out with it snowing at the same time, then more cloud & snow, and now the sun is out again and we’re back to blue sky! It’s gonna be a mixed up kind of day!
And we are wondering … will Spring ever arrive????????
“Whatch ya got in there, Katie?” …
“It’s gotta be a mouse! Come on, I wanna join in!” …
“Oh, a bit of room now! Katie, give me a try!” …
“My turn!!” …
“I know there’s a mouse down here!” …
“Maybe if I just dig a little faster!” …
“Oh … gotta take a breath!” …
“And after all that work, Mom & Dad got the wine!” …
We also started a beer kit in March!! Mexican Cerveza!!!!!
Brooke & Kyle were over the day we started our beer, and were of tremendous help! Thanks Brooke & Kyle!! But, sadly, once again, no pics!
On Day 5, after the bulk of the fermentation was done, we racked the wort into a carboy for secondary fermentation …
It is clearing up, and continuing to ferment.
It will sit in secondary for several more days. Then we’ll prime it and bottle it. Just like with the hard cider, we’ll add dextrose so that the beer will carbonate in the bottle.
And the name of this beer? You’ll have to wait and see!
We started our first hard cider kit in March — Mixed Berry Hard Cider! Sorry Susan, this one’s gonna be a bit too sweet for you!
First step … fermenting in the Primary Fermenter … it starts out as apple cider (juice) …
Next we racked it into a carboy to “rest” …
17 days after we started, we Primed and Bottled! Priming the hard cider meant that we added some more dextrose (sugar), and the mixed berry flavoring and a sweetener. The dextrose was added because we are carbonating the hard cider in the bottle … the remaining yeast “eat” the sugars and CO2 is given off, but it’s trapped inside the bottle!
We used 22 oz (a little bigger than a UK pint) glass bottles with caps, and got the equivalent of 60 x 12 oz (355 ml) “regular size” bottles.
The hard cider is sitting in the dark, carbonating away … we’ll check on it in a couple weeks, then move it to the basement to age for another month.
We had a bit at the end that wouldn’t fully fill a bottle, so we carbonated it with our Soda Stream, added some ice, and had a taste test! The verdict? Lovely! A bit sweet, but that will lessen as the dextrose is used up, and most definitely “immature”, but that will improve over the next 6-8 weeks!
And the name? Stay tuned! 😄
On a sunny, sorta warm Monday in February, we headed out west for a drive to The Hummingbird and Ram Falls. Armed with cross-country skis for Brian, snowshoes for me, and lunch, we had a glorious afternoon!!
We drove in to Peppers Lake, but dang it, I forgot to take photos! 😕
We got a little ways up The Hummingbird before we had to turn around … the road isn’t plowed up there and there hadn’t been much traffic. We sure didn’t want to get stuck someplace without cell service and without a soul in sight to help us!
Here are a couple photos from up the road into The Hummingbird …
After going into The Hummingbird, we headed back to Ram Falls. Here are some photos from a wee ways upstream of Ram Falls …
Then we skied (Brian) and snowshoed (me) out to the walkway over-looking Ram Falls. It was windy that day … in this first photo you can see snow blowing off the peaks in the distance, especially on the left side of the sun.
It was a short ski/walk, but lovely to get out and get some mountain air!
One day while we were in Texas… on the way back from Waco … we stopped at this cool spot. There was a bar and several food trucks … the bar served from all the trucks and the trucks used the bar for alcohol! What a great concept!!
Mom tried their “Effen Good” cocktail … Effen Cucumber Vodka, lime, simple syrup & soda (Mom skipped the jalapeno). What a refreshing drink!!!! So, we just had to try our own …
We did some googling, and a new vodka favorite arrived at Redtail Rise! …
… Cucumber Infused Vodka!!!!
We infused vodka with english cucumber for 3 days … and that was strong enough! Wow!! Great flavor!! We’ve put the jar in the freezer, googled recipes using Cucumber Vodka, and now we’re just waiting for Summer!
Well, okay, we are tasting it! 😂