Appom Cider

So, in the simplest sense it's just:

four pomegranates

5 gallons of cider

and one packet of wine yeast.

That really doesn't tell the whole story. It's not a process I've mastered, but so far my first attempt at least created an ok cider, and more importantly taught me a thing or two about the process. That one was just cider plus yeast and time.

a real test of patience actually.

It actually tasted horrible the first time I put some in a glass and tried it. It was horribly bitter, very sour, and otherwise uninteresting. With time, though, it's become much better. I expect it will get much, much better.

It's also super cloudy.

Compared to making beer, it's been maddeningly simplistic. In beer making I feel like I know the control factors for every aspect of beer production that I have decided to care about, and how to get the results I want. "put it all in a bottle and just wait, it'll work out" were not comforting words to me. I had little interest in doing this sort of thing poorly. I wanted to do it well or just not do it, so I started studying. The first thing I found was that there are TONS of people who will tell you that all you have to do is put apple juice and yeast somewhere clean and dark and cold and just wait for it to become cider. They buy one of the many available clear brands of juice found in grocery stores, add yeast, and it becomes hard cider. They're not wrong. That works. If it's one of the glass bottles, you could probably just remove the cap, sprinkle in yeast, stopper it with a blow-off hose, and wait. You will get some kind of cider. It might smell like rotten eggs but apparently that goes away after a while. The only thing you really have to control and worry about is allowing the yeast to live and multiply while not letting bacteria do the same.

I made one initial attempt like this, with just one gallon of apple juice and some yeast. It was awful. I believe it was infected by some bacteria. I needed more control.

I found cider.org.uk (thanks again, Google) and started getting a better handle on things. Cider bacterial control is traditionally handled by pH. A strong enough acid will deter bacteria. You want to get the PH under 4 but not by too much and this was done by using apples with a higher acid content.

I don't have those apples. I don't know of any local suppliers for this kind of juice. This is a problem. The available solution is to add some citric acid. Did that. Also some brewers will add potassium metabisulfite. I would prefer to avoid this but I have some on hand. I used some with the last batch, from 5 gallons of cloudy local pressed and pasteurized cider. Once that started to age well and I'd ran through why it is the way it is, it was time to give it another shot.

January 3rd, I bought 5 gallons of local-ish fresh pressed cider at $7 each and 4 pomegranates at $3 each. $47 in juice. I split the pomegranates and harvested the seeds using the beat-it-with-a-blunt-object method. It's quick, it breaks down some of the seeds but I don't care because the next step is...

crushing it to a pulp

and extracting about 3.5 cups of juice

(delicious juice)

So, this smells and tastes and looks pretty good so I'm fairly excited about this. Also, yes, apparently from my process 4 pomegranates = 3.5c juice.

So this needs to be pasteurized as well, and I only have one method for that.

That's pretty much it. I can heat it to about 180 for long enough to eliminate bacteria. It was at 180 for at least 20 minutes. Maybe that wasn't enough. We'll see.

In the meantime we need to be cleaning and sanitizing the fermenter, which was just emptied of its previous contents, which I named Jovovich.

I use a process of cleaning with OxyClean, which breaks down proteins and thus eliminates bacteria, as well as it can anyway. I follow this with a rinse and a soak with a 12.5ppm iodine solution (assuming I achieve my intended proportions).

Just soaking

and yes, it's that easy, reliably

So, the oxidizing cleaner soaks about 20 minutes, then the iodine soaks another 10. Everything to be used, like my thermometer and my cup I'm going to use to start my yeast, goes into the bucket for both cleaning and sanitizing. While this dries I get to start up my yeast. I put it in some sanitary water plus pasteurized apple juice and my yeast packet and I stir occasionally to add oxygen. Everything involved has been sanitized or pasteurized so I'm confident it's clean, just yeast should be growing there. I also gave it some yeast nutrient, because apples don't really carry what yeast needs. It should be plenty happy.

After the bucket dried for a while I added the 5 gallons of apple juice and all of the pomegranate juice. Rather than need a sanitized rubber spatula for the pomegranate, I rinsed with apple cider to pull all of it from the cookpot. After checking pH (about 4) I added some citric acid to bolster the acid content. I also added pectic enzyme, in hopes it will help clear the pectin haze in my cider. this was to be added 1 hour before yeast. I don't know if this will work in this case, depends on the pasteurization process.

Finally, after an hour, the warmed-up yeast is into the bucket with all the rest and it's sealed and in the back room at about 62 degrees. It is holding airlock pressure so there's at least SOME fermenting going on but not a lot yet that I can see. It started at 1.050 specific gravity, so if it ferments down to 1.01 that would hit 5.3% abv. I'll update further when I get it moved over to a clear carboy, so we can see the color. It should be AWESOME. It smelled great going in.

January 6th: 3 days later, it smelled nice and I could see significant yeast activity.

January 7th: It smells awful.

I've been reading forums a long time and I have yet to find the response "I waited it out and it remained awful" for anything in this range. All discussions I've found seem to conclude that bad smells in cider often happen but generally will pass.

I regretted omitting the potassium metabisulfite. I corrected that. 1/4 tsp sprinkled into the batch. Sealed off again and agitated to distribute. Hopefully this smell clears. I think I'll just accept the necessity of a little sulfite in the future. Then again, maybe I'm just being paranoid. Maybe it'd be fine without.

January 12th: While preparing to transfer the cider to secondary, I decided to check the gravity, the smell, and the taste.

It smells fine. Quite nice actually! There's a sweet aroma which I think is from the pomegranate but what do I know. The current gravity reading is 1.000 as near as I can tell with my drop-in hydrometer. If all of that is proper fermentation I've hit about 6.7% ABV. It's cloudy, like my last, but not in a way I'd worry about. I'm fairly sure it's just a pectin haze. It tastes nice, but not in any particularly exciting way. I would recommend at least twice as much pomegranate. I'm considering buying it in a bottle next time, rather than fresh.

I feel I should be a little more clear about the smell, because I really considered dumping it. It's common for a cider to smell like rotten egg (sulfur), and many cider makers describe the F&A stage (feet and ass) but I would've described the aroma from this cider as something more like wet, dead rat. A few times I've come across a mouse in the mousetrap a couple days later than I wish I would have, and it's basically that smell. After the first time I noticed it I spent the day waiting for my wife to call me at work and insist we throw it out. I had let her know, before I left for work, and I told her it doesn't necessarily mean it's ruined or anything but it's just quite bad. Even after that warning I was pretty sure she'd feel the need to do something about it the next time she walked in that room. But, here we are not even a week later and it smells pretty much pleasant again.

January 13th:  I had some head-space left in the carboy after transferring. This is not desirable because it's basically a place to have oxygen which can support bacterial growth. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and top off with more pomegranate juice. Before this the cider had a peachy hue. Now, it's really taken on a rosy color. This is more what I was going for in the first place, so I'll just note that the juice of roughly 10 pomegranates is (probably) the right level for 5 gallons of cider. I think that was actually my first guess, 2 per gallon. That's roughly a half gallon of pomegranate juice. This brings up another question I've had about cider. I don't actually know if I have any preference at all toward cider made from fresh pressed sweet apple juice. It's cloudy, it's not cider apples, most likely it's made from red delicious or some other similar type of apple, or a blend. I don't yet know for sure if  I actually prefer this to the run of the mill Old Orchard or Treetop apple juice I had as a kid, but I've been putting down extra dollars to buy the fancy local fresh pressed, pasteurized, un-preserved stuff. The apple juice alone for this batch was $35. Next experiment: cheap grocery store frozen apple juice concentrate cider. It's clear, it's preservative free and 100% apple juice. It's probably higher gravity, and I can toss in an extra can or two of concentrate to enhance the flavor. 

I fully intend to make cider from real, traditional cider apples. I want to try all the classic varieties, especially foxwhelp, and eventually I want to cultivate my own trees once I've figured out my favorites. That being said, I'm not particularly interested in cider snobbery, and if I like drinking cheap from-concentrate apple cider I'll be quite pleased to find that out. 

Let me tell you about Poison Oak Deer...

I want to tell you about Poison Oak Deer. It's a new species, my daughter made them up after we arrived in North Carolina. The Poison Oak Deer has teeth and claws and everything like a bear. They're very dangerous and they stalk travelers along the road. They're very fierce and also they have wings. There seem to be many of these deer around North Carolina, but so far we have been able to avoid them, narrowly.

They have been known to cause structural damage to buildings, and have also been responsible for some of the felled trees in the area. I haven't quite been able to identify the signs though. Only Phoenix can clearly identify their handiwork it seems.

A Poison Oak Deer is not quite as big as a bear, On average they weigh about eighty pounds. They eat fish and regular bears and trees and poison berries 'cause that's good for their tummies because they are poisonous. Also lightbulbs and cars when you leave them parked, and workshops and coffee houses, and grass and fences. As you can imagine they are quite fearsome. When they are in their house, they will attack.

Although the adults tend to travel alone, the kids have friends and stay in packs. The young friends live in the trees, and the mommies live in a real house made of bricks and dirt. When people climb up with shoes on their feet the Poison Oak Deer will attack to defend its home and they are very tough. If you come upon one of the bigger ones they will attack and try to eat you and you must run fast.

So far none of these Poison Oak Deer have been caught on camera. We may try to provide a sketch in the next couple of days.

To Capital One Master Card, a Letter.

Hello Capital One, is Brooke Simmons there? No? I'll ask again, is Brooke Simmons there? No? That's funny, I know you just told me she is not available at that number, Capital One, but I feel compelled to keep asking you. Oh yeah, that's right, this is what the people at Capital One Master Card have been doing to me for almost two years now Capital One. I have told you, Capital One Master Card, time and time again, that this is MY cell phone number and I don't know a Brooke Simmons or a Brooke Simons. I've even told you that if I ever did meet Brooke Simmons (or is it Simons, make up your mind!) I would go so far as to tie her to a chair and get you on speaker-phone so you could finally talk to her about how much she still owes you (though I really don't think I could follow through with that, Capital One, I'm just not the torturing type.) I've told you these things again and again, and yet you keep calling me, Capital One Master Card. You keep calling me and asking me if you can speak to her.

Did you know you paid one person to call me three times one day? Did you know you also paid a Capital One manager for 30 minutes of discussion on how Brooke Simmons hasn't had this number for over a year? It's a funny thing, Captial One Master Card, I really am starting to wonder if you haven't spent more money calling me over the past couple of years than you can ever hope to collect from Brooke Simons. I'm pretty sure you're low on her list of debts to pay off, and she seems pretty good at avoiding your Capital One bloodhounds. Don't get me wrong, I've never met her, Capital One Master Card, and I likely never will. I'm just basing that on my long experience with talking to companies she hasn't paid back.

I want you to know, Capital One, that based on my experience with your company I could not possibly consider doing business with you. I did find it funny when Lisa ironically quipped "thank you for choosing Capital One" before handing me to her manager today. Yep, just today. That's right. Little more than two weeks after I took the time to call your Capital One Corporate Office at 1-703-720-1000 on March 9th to complain about the number of Capital One phone calls I've been getting for Brooke Simons, in spite of the fact that I was assured that I wouldn't receive any more phone calls from Capital One representatives looking for Brooke Simons, you are still calling me, still asking me if you can speak with her. I have heard the song and dance about "it can take up to 24 hours to remove the phone number from our system" enough times. I have also heard the recanting of that statement, and the alternative that it can take up to 72 hours enough times, Capital One.

So let's make a deal, Capital One. I am at the beginning of an SEO campaign to make people aware of just how determined you are to keep asking me if you can speak to Brooke Simons. This can be a very long SEO campaign, and I might even start a bidding war with you on pay-per-click traffic with the big 3, or it can be a very short campaign. It's up to you. Each time I get another call from Capital One, I will put as much time as I can deem reasonable into making this story known.

refreshing

 
Have I mentioned how great it is to live in a national park? A couple of nights ago I finally followed through on something I've been wanting to do for the past couple of weeks.
Capitol Reef National Park has a lot of high and dry hikes, a number of slot canyons, and some great overlooks, but I start to feel a bit of desert depression now and then. Yes, the huge cliffs and the monoliths are breathtaking, absolutely amazing, and the view from my back porch is simply awesome, but once in a while I feel like all I'm seeing is dry, dry and more dry. My cure for this is Sulfur Creek.
I had gone up the creek once or twice, but not very far, and I kept telling myself I needed to go through the whole trip. On monday I finally did. I rode my bike up highway 24 to the Chimney Rock trailhead, crossed the road, and followed the wash down into sulfur creek. I actually jogged most of the trip, it was a bit late and I was mostly looking for some real exercise, but whether running, walking, or stopping long enough to pull out the camera, the view was amazing. So glad I took the time.

Made it.

 

Here it is. That's my nearly 25 year old scooter parked in teasdale. It was quite a ride. I'd have to say I really appreciate this piece of honda machinery. It never went very fast, 68 was faster than I'd really want to be going on such tiny wheels. Honestly it starts to feel unnerving past about 62. Thankfully there wasn't a huge lot of people trying to go faster than 50 or 55 either on the 89 or the 24. Rarely was the speed limit higher than 55.
The views were awesome. Something about cruising the less travelled with nothing around me but the wind. Feels quite liberating. Very much enjoyed the trip.

Not often enough

It has been a while since I posted to my blog. It's also been a while since I got out of Utah. I have got to say I don't do either often enough. I should be writing 2-3 posts a day to my new netbook-focused website, building up a small library of reviews and news while arranging and fine tuning the wireframe which will make it all easy to click through and find what you want.
Chappy on the other hand has left the country again. Probably asleep in japan right at the moment, he will be departing Tokyo in another day or so and joining J in Kobe. Should be good times, wish I could be there. Then agin, I don't know Japanese, and I can't afford to take 3 people overseas right now. I don't really want to travel without my baby girl or her mom anyways. She's great to have on long trips. Lots of laughs and a positive attitude. Here she is pictured in Lithia park in Ashland OR. That was good times.

Funny, even at home I'm online mobile as much as not. My employer doesn't want to supply open wifi in the breakroom (though there is a closed signal I can't have) so I am tethered to my phone in here during lunch.

The Little Gourmet

I wanted to post about this a while back and didn't finish writing it at the time. I had the greatest meal of my vacation in a kid's restaurant. I just have to post about this because it was such a great surprise! We stopped into downtown Napa to find somewhere to eat before continuing on to Tahoe. I asked my GPS to find an indian restaurant for me and it led me to a vacated space so we just started walking. We passed a few budget sit-downs that just didn't appeal, and then we came across a couple different white table cloth places, zagat rated "excellent" and all that but here I am with a 13 month old who is thrilled to be out of the car and mad at me that I'm not letting her run around barefoot and free. So then I saw a sign. The Little Gourmet - follow the path around to the right and across the footbridge. Thank you. A place I can take my energetic little girl and not feel like I should apologize to the other guests. So we found our way around the back and across the footbridge and into this nice little restaurant with menu items like "Monkey Burger," "Snakes and Worms," and "Wagon Wheels Alfredo." Too bad she's too young for their menu, doesn't have the teeth and chewing habits yet. I expected to get okay food but feel good cause I didn't have to shush my baby or insist she stay seated the whole time. But it wasn't just okay food. I ordered one of the evening's specials, a salmon and shrimp pasta with a spicy cream sauce, she ordered the portabello mushroom pasta, a caesar salad, and we got a dish of fruit for the baby. The water came in the goblet style water glasses you'd expect at the white table cloth place, they had a respectable selection of wines, and the baby's water came in a sturdy plastic cup with lid and bendy straw (the reusable tough kind you take home and use again). The salad was whole leaf romaine, very classy presentation and the dressing was exceptional (and he uses buttermilk, no raw egg yolk, so no worries sharing with the little ones) and I started thinking wow, this is more what I'd expect at that zagat rated place. Baby doesn't eat lettuce much yet but I shared some of the baguette and sweet cream butter, butter in a dish not foil wrapped, again more what I'd expect on a white table cloth. Baby's fruit came early with the salad (they know how kids are) so she was happy eating grapes, strawberries, and some banana, all fresh. She was doing well with her cup, she wouldn't let me hold it for her and we applauded the way she was drinking so well from the straw, but she dropped it once, mom got it, and she dropped it again. I picked it up and hid it between my lap and the table and offered her some banana or grape to distract her. A bit later we were enjoying our pasta and I was thinking wow this is good and the atmosphere is nice and I got tired of having the cup on my lap and set it up on the table and maybe a minute after that phoenix saw it and just shrieked. It took me a second to connect the pieces and then I got her the cup and I just started laughing because she was so thrilled to find the cup that I hid. I started explaining it to Brookestar and then Phoenix started laughing too, which made me laugh more, and Brookestar was laughing too and we were really quite loud and that's when I realized it. I have never been anywhere else where I could have food this good, I really was impressed, and have this much fun with my baby and not feel like I was disturbing the other guests.
It felt so good to laugh and laugh with my baby and you can do that in a Chuck E Cheese too but the food... I sacrificed nothing in quality and that sacrifice was something I had just gotten used to. Anyone with small kids knows that catch 22 situation. Either you go to a place with cheap greasy food or you sit down somewhere nice and try to keep your kid quiet when she's bursting with joy and curiosity and wiggles and/or you apologize to the people next to you that she's so loud when they're trying to have a nice quiet dinner. I had become so accustomed to the sacrifice I walked in thinking I'd disappoint my taste buds for the sake of an enjoyable meal with an energetic baby. Instead I sacrificed nothing. I had a great meal and a great time. We all did. For overall experience it was quite possibly the best meal I've ever had. No offense to Charlie Trotter or any other, but I can't imagine bringing my baby with me there and I WANT her with me. She's delightful and has NO volume control. I can't imagine the looks I would get from other customers and I don't want to disturb their meal anyway. If I try to make my baby sit still and be quiet she'll struggle and if I persist long enough she'll cry. They're children! It's not in their nature to sit still and be quiet! Nature has given them this incredible drive to explore and learn and exercise and develop and it just doesn't fit into sit down and be quiet.
I've probably said the same thing a few times and been a bit redundant, but what it boils down to is I was impressed, all the way, with the whole experience. I'm glad I got lost where I did. I'll definitely look for them next time I'm in town.

Freedom Day Vacation 2009

B* and I have been on the road a long time to get where we are, and we're considering making a permanent shift in this direction. It's funny because Ashland, Oregon was planned as a stop on the way to our vacation destination, and for what it's worth it was reasonably unplanned. We didn't know where we'd sleep once we got here, we didn't know how long we'd be here or what we'd do except I was determined to take a walk around Lithia Park (where these pictures and many others were taken) and we weren't planning on staying in a hotel at all while we were here. It's a little touristy like Park City, but just doesn't feel quite as capitalist. We actually have some friends out here that we met in Alaska. Sarah who worked with B* and David who I worked with in the kitchen at Glacier Bay moved back out here afterwards. I guess they'd lived here before we met them in Alaska, and we went out and saw their place today, and the view is gorgeous! I've really enjoyed the first few days of our trip. I'm excited for the next couple days. We may spend a little more time around here, see the Dagoba chocolate factory and sample their wares, but then it's on down to the redwood forests in northern california.

Making money in Fable: Has nobody else seen this?

I am reluctant to believe that I'm the first person to find this. It was way too obvious once I saw it.

For those of you who don't know, Fable is a very re-playable game which came out on XBox and later on PC with the 'lost chapters' edition. I'm sure you've noticed that for every video game out there you can find a complete written walkthrough of how to achieve all the various goals in the game. There are instructions for how to make money in the game of Fable, most of them involving the buying and selling of a house. This is fine, but takes much more time than the method I found. Again, I can't understand why this method isn't the most recommended. It certainly takes less startup capital than buying and selling a house.

The method is simple. When you meet traders, buy out all they have of at least one item, afterwards, sell it all back to them. Do this in single transactions, no use selling it back in stacks of ten, and do it a few times, buying anything you can buy his entire stock of.

Obviously this doesn't work with weapons, armor, anything you can have only one of. It's best to do this with produce, gifts, and potions. It may help to sell him all you have of that item first, but if you don't it shouldn't matter. Once you've cleaned him out of at least one item, sell it back to him. Now you're probably thinking you should've seen this before. They tell you all the time in the game you can make money buying and selling between the shops, but you don't have to go to a different shop. The traders and shop keepers sell things for a lower price when they have a lot, and buy them for a higher price when they don't have any. There may be a lower limit threshold in the math where buying, say, 20 cider crates and selling them back won't be profitable, but the game tells you how much you're making on the sell-back.

If the transaction doesn't show a profit, there's two possible reasons. First reason: if you bought them all at regular price earlier and now you want to sell, you may not have any profit margin at all. If you sell them to the trader and buy them all back at his "I have so many of these" price, the game will show you a better profit when you go to sell them again.

In all cases, wether you've made money on that transaction or not, buy the entire stock of whichever items you're trading, and buy as much as you can while still being able to meet your needs. The reason is you want to bulk up your inventory so you can profit more each time. The concept should now be simple, but I'll sketch it out in loose terms. You meet a trader and he has 50 cider crates, you buy all of them for 20g each. You then sell him 50 cider crates at 30g each. When he has none they're worth 30, when he has 50 they're worth 20. So you do this until you get bored, but at the end you walk out with 100g extra, plus the 50 cider crates. Later you meet another trader, he has 30 cider crates. you sell him your 50 for 25g each. Then you buy all of them for 15g each, then you sell them backto him for 30g each. Not only do you profit more because you're making Xg on each item, you make more near-exponentially because the traders buying price when he has none in stock stays the same, while his selling price is relative to the number that he has in stock. None of this is relative to the number you are buying or selling, it's all relative to how many he has in stock.

So, buy all of at least one item, sell it back, repeat if it shows a profit, if not don't worry, just get more inventory to work with and try again. Once it's profitable, it snowballs each time you get more inventory, making the money-making more profitable and efficient each time. Simple enough? Why haven't I seen this posted anywhere else?

so so funny

This is a conversation that my friend matt had with a nicholas, apparently from nashville, who thought he was a different matt

Matt:
I don't know you
Why do you keep sending me emails?

Nicholas:
stop playing, i'm coming to town friday

Matt:
lol
you've gotta be kidding me
what's your phone number?

Nicholas:
relax, i'll call you when i'm out of class

Matt:
lol
yeah you do that

Nicholas:
i don't know why you are laughing
where are we picking up our tuxes?

Matt:
You are either joking or you have some sort of mental handicap
I don't know any other way to explain this to you...

Nicholas:
that's not funny

Matt:
who do you think I am?

Nicholas:
matt

Matt:
and where do I live

Nicholas:
i'm in your wedding this weekend

Matt:
where

Nicholas:
what's wrong with you?

Matt:
where
where do I live

Nicholas:
i don't htink its funny
hold on

Matt:
Ok you are f*ing with me lol
Nobody is this stupid

Nicholas:
you never curse
why are you cursing

Matt:
lol
this is fun man
but...
at some point we'll have to end this game

Nicholas:
matt be sure to invite that slut catherine to the wedding
i need my knob polished

Matt:
oh ok I'll do that
I'll inivite little joey from around the way too
you remember little joey, that crazy little bastard
always swingin at the fences

Nicholas:
stop messing with me
where are we picking up our tuxes

Matt:
At Ed's Tux
I've got a deal worked out due to my mob connections

Nicholas:
whatever

Matt:
I've decided to call the wedding off

Nicholas:
why

Matt:
well your moms a nice lady and all but its just not working out

Nicholas:
my mom's dead, you know that

Matt:
well that's why its not working out

Nicholas:
no funny
not

Matt:
what's your phone number we'll talk about it on the phone
I've lost it ;)

Nicholas:
i'll call you after i get out of class

Matt:
lol
so you know this isn't the right matt right?
that's the only thing I can assume, not that this isn't fun

Nicholas:
what?

Matt:
that isn't funny
lol

Nicholas:
what do you mean?

Matt:
I know there is only one matt in the world
so I must be using a fake name
trying to steal his thunder

Nicholas:
yeah, you're getting married this weekend

Matt:
lol
where am I getting married
in what state?

Nicholas:
tn of course

Matt:
tennessee?

Nicholas:
yes
of course

Matt:
yeah of course
well that explains a lot

Nicholas:
what does that mean?

Matt:
Hell maybe you should ask me after class

Nicholas:
alright, no problem
what's your problem lately

Matt:
I hate freedom

Nicholas:
that's why your getting married?

Matt:
yes
but we're thinking of throwing you in the mix, how does that sound?

Nicholas:
does sarah know?

Matt:
it was her idea

Nicholas:
cause she's hot i'd love to tag it
what about bringing catherine into the picture

Matt:
sure
we'll all go pick up our tuxs maybe go to a kkk rally and drive around memphis in our pickup trucks for a while
then we'll go have sex with my wife and your sister
hell my sister too why not

Nicholas:
it's in nashville
but yeah sounds good to me

Matt:
oh right nashville

Nicholas:
maybe we could have a thing with the cake. just like i dive into it and catherine sarah and you follow me

Matt:
and your sister

Nicholas:
you dumbass i don't have a sister

Matt:
and we'll dig up your dead mom too

Nicholas:
also not funny
f* you for saying that

Matt:
I guess we can't be friends any more Nicholas

that's when he went offline lol

Incredible day

Oh, and there's more, much more.

JellyFish!

I took another kayaking trip into Secret Bay here in Glacier Bay National Park. One of the most surprising thing was seeing these jellyfish in the water as I left the bay. There's a channel that connects Secret Bay to the surrounding waters outside the islands, but it's only filled in at high tide. As the tide was flowing out from Secret Bay, as we headed back to the open waters, these jellyfish were riding the outgoing tide just as we were, though slightly slower. I also saw porpoises, sea lions, and a bear. I got better video than pictures of those, so I'm going to see if I can post them on YouTube.

Kayaking

I was kayaking out towards Secret Bay, and there's this small inlet that fills in at high tide. We let the rising tide carry us in through this beautiful inlet for a good mile or more. We didn't make it all the way to Secret Bay, but we saw some great scenery. I hope I remember bug spray next time. It was cool to see how much the tide would fill things in in the short time we were there. On the way out we saw a cruise ship passing us. Cool eh? I bet I ended up in more than a couple vacation photos, considering the beauty of the surrounding scenery.

-J

glacier

One of the perks of working for Glacier Bay Lodge is that we get to enjoy the boat rides for free. I took a morning from one of my days off to ride up the bay and get a look at the glaciers up there. It's really something to see. Huge. I just kept thinking "break, break, break" but only small pieces broke off. When I say small, we're really talking small like the size of a house, but I was hoping for massive calving here, and I didn't see that really, just 'small' pieces plunging into the ocean. I'm glad picasa's photo posting is working today, yesterday it was broken.

-J

Another Sunset

Just thought
I'd put another up. I've been working a lot of ten hour shifts lately, cooking for the employees instead of customers. I like it because I get to make my own menu, and I'm even in charge of a dishwasher, but sometimes I'd just rather have a job that I don't have to think about when I'm off. If I were working in the lodge kitchen I'd still be on the clock right now, but when I finished I wouldn't have to go home and contemplate what I've got to do tomorrow or what I'm going to feed the crew next week or what I could've done better, because it wouldn't be my choices, my recipes, or my kitchen. I'd just finish and think to myself "good enough" and get on about the rest of my life up here, like walking down forested paths and enjoying beautiful sunsets, or bringing some of the better pictures back to you and sharing my thoughts about them. I'd like to note that all the pictures I've put up so far have required less than 5 miles of walking, and probably less than 3. I have some pictures of the glaciers I should put up, but we'll get to that. I hope everything is going well back home. I plan on going kayaking on tuesday, and maybe again on wednesday. Next week I might go kayak-camping overnight as well. I can get dropped off out in the back-country by the tour boat and picked up the next day, so it'd be pretty exciting, but I want to get used to moving a kayak around first.

-J

can you say "temperate rainforest"?

Heidi, an already good friend of mine out here, took this picture while we were hiking out to the river, not far from where I'm staying. I had to get a picture of this because not only does it show the moss that grows so much on the trees out here, but it looks like a moss covered man. I'm getting some overtime out here, and having a great time. I have to get someone a camping stove, so I'll have to stop there.

-J

Great view, very cool friends

In the foreground is Gil, he's my roommate and a very cool guy. In the background is Katie, another of the employees out here. Katie has a way of looking at people she's just met like she already knows them and has for a long time. One of the support people sent out from the corporate office said during a training session that she'd never seen a team of seasonal employees like us. None of us have been here any longer than a couple of weeks, most of us for only a few days, and we already treat eachother like old friends and family. For the most part you'd only see someone eating alone or hiking alone if they wanted to be alone.
The beach in this pic is just a short walk from the cabins where we sleep. You can get an excellent view from the lodge and sunset lasts for hours up here, it starts around 9 or so and lasts until nearly midnight. I'm really happy being here. I hope everyone back home is well.

A new sunset, at 9:30 pm.

I wanted to share this with you, my first impression of Alaska. I was coming in at about 9:30 at night, and we were literally flying off into the sunset. I only got this shot after we were turning and getting ready to land. The sunset was the slowest I've seen, but I'll probably see slower. I wonder how long it takes for that to get old, because watching the sunset is great and it often seems like it's just not long enough, but up here, it could be going overboard. Dusk lasted until almost midnight. I was laughing from the moment we started to descend until well after I got off the plane. It's beautiful here. I wish I had been taking pictures as I got off the plane, but like I said, I was laughing. I'm too poor for a hotel room, so I'm hanging out in the airport, but I think it should still be a pretty good summer. Actually I lost my debit card and my cell phone in Seattle, but on the upside I did get to see my little girl while I was there. As we said goodbye she gave me a really long hug. It crossed my mind that it would be a moment to cry. Perhaps I should say heart instead of mind, I mean I felt it, but at the same time I just felt so happy to have that time with her, even if I knew it would be the last time I'd see her before September. I hope to find time to post pictures frequently during my stay here. I hope all of you are well.

-J

Results

I just got my grades back for this past semester. I got 4 A's and a B+. That means I graduate from culinary school with a 3.65 GPA. I'm pretty happy about that, and so is buddha.

The view up here - sunset.

I don't know if I've mentioned why I like living up here against the hillside. There's definitely a down-side to being up here. It's a long drive to the freeway, and to school, and to anywhere I'd work. I can't just stroll down to a grocery store in any decent amount of time. I have to take the car to get groceries unless I have a lot of time for the walk. Too steep for the bike to be practical, even though I'm in decent shape. There are plenty of reasons why being up here is hard, but being up here is really good. The rent's cheaper than elsewhere in town because it's out of the way, and this is the view I get at sundown. It was hard to get a good picture, I don't think the sky was really that bright, but I couldn't get a shot that truly approximated the right light level. Still, it's a really pretty sunset and I like being able to see all the way across the valley, and even see the lake out there. It's miles away, but I can see it all from up here. I love it.

-CJB