Hows my little Construtor?

The day is finally here. THE DAY IS FINALLY HERE!!!
The pergola project is Done. Actually done.
We started way back in early September and have been diligently working evenings, weekends, days off, days on, and other times in between laziness, and business. We have always talked about building one on our back patio because the space just needed something to it, it was just a little bla back there. Also I've been on an endless quest to fence off my neighbors without actually building a fence. But also the grapes I had planted a year prior (2011) were certifiably out of control and shit needed to get taken care of.

First order of Wood!

Grapes gone wild!

Before this picture the grapes didn't look quite so pathetic. Due to a storm one of my metal steaks holding my crappy trellis up bent over and sent the grapes sprawling all over our patio.

Staining is Fun! With a capital 'F'.

Post anchors. Drilling through concrete is loud and hard.

One of the last known umbrella uses.

Bracing for the top. Keeping posts level is harder than it seems.

Our champion cane on the left started the year only about 1 foot long.

Streched the cane up, over, and out.

We made it about this far before winter found its way to us. Which was fine, we were ready for a break from staining and construction. Plus I needed another order of wood which meant more measuring, math, and crossed fingers.

This picture shows my biggest mistake from the whole project. All of those angles were cut the wrong direction. For some reason I just trusted I was right because I measured a billion times yet was still wrong. As good fortune would have my friend Ryan recently bought a planer and for a six pack of hopslam we fixed my issue. I also learned buying a one inch board is possible, but fantastically expensive, hence planer.

No action shots of the planer in use but here is the result. These were 2x6's.

Fixing my mistake! Two one inch boards glued to one four inch brace equals one "six" inch brace! Hole filled, problem solved. When the braces were mounted this way I think they looked better anyhow.

My grandpa gave me his old table saw a couple of years previous and this was the first time I got brave enough to turn it on use it. I learned when you cut wood the long way its called ripping. I learned to rip 2x4's with Laura's Dad.

Men at work.

We have to stain all of those?

Laura loves staining.

Trellis time! The marquette vines are woven through the trellis, the Noiret vines haven't been woven yet.

Vertical posts added. Since the vines had hardend off for winter we wove them through without the vertical posts  to help avoid breaking them. Installing the verticals wasn't nearly as hard as you might think.

I bought some work lights at the beginning of this project thinking I would use them all the time. I didn't.

Stained knee braces.

Knee braces going up

Danger. Do NOT stand or sit above this point.

Laura and I had a last minute design change due to a warped board. We decided to orient the roof boards perpendicular to the back of the house rather than parallel with it. After watching the grapes grow over them this way I've realized that this was a much better idea.

I just want to show someone esle how big this drill bit really is. Yes I can handle it on my own, but my arm gets awfully tired.

The final touch, some lights around the roof for nighttime ambiance.

These are bright enough to read a book under. I think I'll get a dimmer.

And Finally:

Before!

After!

It's pretty exciting to be finally done with this project. The back patio is now a cozy and comfy place to hang out. The space is nice and private while being open and a lovely shade of green. You architects and building professionals don't have to worry about me taking your job anytime soon though, the measuring, math, and cutting was all too stressful for me to do regularly. I was pretty pleased that I never had to go back to the store to buy any replacement pieces of wood that I messed up. Now all I need is a pergola party to christen it into the world.

Hows my little Northerner?

Last week Laura and I took some needed time off from regular life and went on vacation. Boy was it great! Here I am back at home not feeling rested nor recharged but feeling excellent because I got to catch up with great friends, a loving family, saw some old things I missed, and new things I love.

We kicked it off in the Twin Cities. Our day was full of fun things beverage related. Mom took us to a couple of wineries nearby, St. Croix Vineyards and Northern Vineyards. We thought St Croix was making some pretty solid wines and had a great atmosphere (although AC would have been nice) to boot. Northern Vineyards didn't impress us much.

Next up was the pedal pub! Only a handfull of the crew had done it before and it was unanimously found a good time, albiet surprisingly hard work. We stopped at 612Brew and tasted some beers and Hit Stanleys for 7 minutes on the way back. I brewed a pretty decent Mosaic Pale Ale.

Afterwards we lounged at Dangerous Man Brewing where I got a stellar hemp Top Hat that Laura is appalled with. It was did make for some fun photos and dancing with strangers later in the night though. After Dangerous Man we caught up with the always lovely Anne at Solera and chatted a bit, danced a bit and drank a bit more. Anne if you're reading this you are the best mixer ever. I miss her, and I miss Minneapolis.

The next day was a little slower paced. We headed over to Canterbury Park for some horse racing with my mom. I love the occasional day at the tracks because for not very much money you can hang out with people you like, watch some horses run around, lose some money, and if you're lucky, win some. Laura had some beginners Luck and won big with a $9 profit! Mom was the biggest loser going big at the end and lost about $24. Had I not won big ($10!) on the second to last race I would have been with her but made only lost $17.

The next day we headed up to Duluth to catch up with our Friends Aaron, Arianna, & Bale Austin. We got a nice walk in at park point on a beautiful afternoon/evening.
I even achieved an impressive feat, skipping a rock over the breakwater. There were witnesses who will attest to this great once in a lifetime challenge.

Bayle Hunting for tadpoles and lending a poor scale reference to the size of my breakwater feat.

Our next day in Duluth was rainy and pretty crummy so we decided to be tourists and walked around downtown and canal park to visit our old haunts and see some new places. The highlight of that was the Minnesota Wine Exchange and This Meat store that was surprisingly awesome. It was full of fish and cured meats, our first taste of it at home was remarkable, will be stopping there again in the future for sure. After drinking a fair amount of kayak Kolsh in college we decided to drop in on Lake Superior Brewing Company and got a tasting and tour of their small brewery. It was pretty cool to be able to relate with another person, in a different but similar industry with different challenges.

Required Bridge Pic from Duluth

After dinner with our old friends Kate and Alex we headed over to Washburn to visit Laura's Family.

One of my favorite things about visiting Laura's family is the variety of fun outdoor things to do in and around her hometown. Laura grew up basically in water and our time with there seemed to reflect those days. We went canoeing in a little inland lake, ate a cool german themed resort, spent a great day on Lake Superior swimming and water skiing, ate some good homemade whitefish, and spend an afternoon at Crystal Lake people watching, swimming, strolling, skimboard failing, and sand castle constructing.

While Laura and I were playing in the sand constructing our castle and dragon a little boy came over and asked if he could "help". I said sure and told him to start on the moat, instead he started to use his imagination and played inside the castel, which was ok I guess. When he asked me what Laura was building I told him it was a turret. He promptly said, where is the turd...wait, whats a turdet? Laura started laughing immediately and I couldn't answer that straight so I finished the dragon, told him to have fun and to try not to destroy it. We walked away laughing and thought it was interesting that his parents were ok with their boy playing with two strange adults and no other kids.

Wienermobile sighting in Madison!

After we parted ways with the Davis family we zipped into Madison for a relaxing evening and morning followed by some winery and brewery hopping. We stopped at a brewpub called the Grumpy Troll, a winery called Fisher King Winery, and another winery that was an all around poor experience. Which sucked, I can generally find something to like about a winery and we didn't find anything worth noting, including service, wine, and atmosphere.

To finish the Vacation we stopped by the newly renovated New Glarus Brewery. It was amazing! Laura and I stopped there back in July of '08 when they were just about to start (or finish?) a new brewery building. They had a nice, small, setup before and now it's like they created a german themed Beerland for Adults. They went all out creating a great experience for people who like beer. A self guided tour throughout the brewery, a real beer garden, cheap tasting, and a place to buy all the beer of theirs that you could want. We were so excited and impressed just because we had seen their relatively modest beginnings five years previous.

Altogether we had a great time up north, it was nice to get away for a week and see our friends and family.

Hows my little Fermenter?

I get pretty excited about fermenting things. Really excited actually. Laura and I are headed up north next week for some great times with friends and family and I realized I should probably get my fermentations worked out before then. It all happened to work out at once so I made Sunday a "fermentation" day.

In all honesty it didn't work out to be a day full of all this stuff...but it's good to have goals right?

We got the blueberries into the hopped blueberry mead. Good thing it tasted good when we racked it, those blueberries from the farmers market get pricey quick!

We also got our first cabbage from the farmers market this weekend! So I got our first round of kraut going. When we get back from vacation I'm going to take a stab at kimchi with another head of cabbage. After that maybe a seasoned kraut for some variety, that should get us through the winter...maybe? This kraut is being made using only the natural bacteria already present on the cabbage, no whey starter, because whey cultures are good at eating dairy, eating veggies doesn't make much sense to me or them probably.

I made my Yogurt today and got pretty excited that it turned out quite tasty, maybe I should have been using Chobani all along. When we get back I'm going to buy an heirloom yogurt culture to really get things exciting.

That little jar on the right (in the top photo) is kombucha, it's kind of been an ignored child lately but hopefully before we go I'll have a sunny day that I can make an Oolong sun tea to transfer my mother into, and then bottle what I have into one bottle.

Now that summer is here I'm excited fermentation season has begun!