my unfinished projects
Well, it seems to work for Ingrid, so I’m going to take some pictures of my recent projects, post them here, and hope that I can get to them soon.
Here is my latest gadget. This is no ordinary record player, this is the Ion. It’s connected to my computer via a USB cable and is made specifically for backing up those old analog albums to digital files. It’s a beautiful mixture of old and new technology. I can’t wait to start converting those old tracks. But the work is time consuming. Lining up the needle, capturing the audio at just the right second, and all of the digital clean-up to remove the major scratches and pops takes a serious amount of time. Right now we just have a few albums to transfer. Suzy has a collection of Beatles albums at her parents house that I can’t wait to give a spin.
And recently for my birthday, I also received a turkey fryer kit! Before you get too excited, I’m not going to be using this to fry up any animal flesh. Suzy and I are basically vegetarians now anyway. Instead, I’ll be using this to brew up some delicious batches of beer. It’s the perfect setup, with a big aluminum brew-pot, propane stove, and long thermometer. Pat also hooked me up with some copper tubing, which he had pre-fashioned into a spiral. I’ll use this to make a wort chiller, to do a rapid cold-break.
This is all in preparation for brewing my first Organic Beer. We recently visited an Organic Brew Shop in Santa Cruz. I’m excited to get started on the brewing process for this one, but I’ve been putting it off until I got the propane burner and pot setup. Organic beer may be taking the whole organic thing a bit too far, but hey, it’s beer. Do you think it will taste any better, or worse or the same? Time will tell.
Not only did I want to wait for the burner setup, but also the completed Wort Chiller. While I had the copper tubing, I still needed hose to connect to a water source, to supply the cold water for the cold-break process. Suzy and I recently went to the hardware store and I picked up a nice thin marine hose that hooks up nicely to spigots outside our house. Here’s a picture of the cleaning process to remove the thin layer of laminate from the copper, boiling in a solution of water and vinegar. Also a nice test of the burner.
And also on the docket is a full remodel of our guest room. The previous owners must have taken it upon themselves to install some seriously bad crown molding, which is basically mounted flat on the wall. I just want to look at them and say, really?! And the baseboards themselves look like molding that would normally be used for a door. The ceiling is still a pinkish purple, the blinds are purple, the carpet is dingy, stained and old and the ceiling fan is electrically dubious. All this must go. So I will be taking it upon myself to go to town on this room and turn it into something that we don’t have to be ashamed of anymore. I’m not sure how long this project is going to take me, but it will probably some time before we get it going. Here are some before shots…
And here is a closer shot of the horrid crown… and pink ceiling…
Well, I could go on for days about all the unfinished projects around here, but I need to get myself up off the couch. Until next time…
March 22nd, 2009 at 10:49 am
You’re making beer…may the Lord bless you and your beer. Ahmen.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:27 am
The transferring music seems like a lot of work…and time. I have a few songs that I really like on cassette tapes. It took seconds to log onto Amazon and download those songs… so easy, and not so expensive. But, I guess I don’t have the satisfaction of doing it all myself.
March 24th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
I love audio editing! It’s so tedious and satisfying! And magical.
I heard that the people who handle our organic goods have a longer life expectancy than people who work on farms with chemicals. And many people handling chemicals on farms are not properly educated on the risks or even given proper safety equipment. So I guess that would be my main motivation for going with organic foods. Even beer. The downside is that the stuff always costs more! I’m not sure if Mike has done an organic batch yet. We left the brewing stuff behind, so we might need to make beer in the bathtub!
March 31st, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Yes, it worked for me to show pictures of things unfinished, but you might have noticed that I did not take any pictures of an ENTIRE ROOM. That’s a serious bunch of work man. I don’t mind that crown molding so much, but the ceiling fan is pretty bad. A good light fixture ought to make that room look nice.
March 31st, 2009 at 6:26 pm
If you just could have seeeeen that terrible crown molding you would have agreed. And I’m in total agreement with the ceiling fan – it was very outdated and was potentially a fire hazard. I’ve since replaced it and will try to post some pictures soon.