Flamie House - Texas Flora Edition : Part 1

This story begins last year (not a long story, don't worry).  To brighten up our apartment, we picked up some tiny succulents and a baby cactus.  A few we kept inside and they did pretty well.  Some of these broke off as they grew and were replanted, otherwise just took over their space and filled it all up.  When we moved to the new house, we took along the one planter and one pot we had.  Everything survived the move and this past weekend we decided to brighten up our front porch with over-the-rail planters filled with old and new succulents.  At the same time we finally got ourselves a composter.  We can't wait to see how it all grows, but for now, we'll share the photos of our old and new plants with you all.

Introducing the Flamie House

Welcome family and friends to the our new house!  Continuing with the naming convention for everything we own, this will of course be the Flamie House.  Over the coming weeks and months there will undoubtedly be more photos, posts, and updates concerning the house, but for now I've included a some shots of the outside and a couple key rooms from the inside.  I don't think Rowan and I could have found a more perfect house for us.  It has a wonderful yard with so much greenery, a big kitchen, rooms for entertaining, chatting, and relaxing, and enough bedrooms for years to come.  Hopefully, we'll get a chance to have everyone out at some point or another, but in the mean time, keep your eye on the blog and we'll try to update it frequently with news.

The panorama doesn't give a good feeling for the size of the backyard, but instead gives a better overview of what you see when sitting out back.

First time we've owned a driveway to park the car in.  Silly, but exciting!

Rowan kicks-ass at mowing the lawn.  We got a sweet battery powered mower, with plenty of juice to deal with the entire lawn.

Did I mention the wrap-around porch on the front of the house?

Our tiny apartment garden mostly survived the move.

Inaugural bbq and beer in the backyard!

The "entertainment" room.  It's not this empty anymore, but still has a ways to come.

Mmm, kitchen... this definitely was a selling point of the house for us.  A big kitchen with lots of space to work in.

Neither of our cats have seen stairs in their life before...

Scimi has discovered that the counter in the main bathroom is her new favourite spot to relax and sleep.

Beer Brewing

This past Christmas I received a mini, 1 gallon beer brewing kit from Serena Martindale (Rowan's mom).  Though for full disclosure, we've done most of the brewing and drinking together.  With incredibly easy steps and fast turnaround, we almost immediately fell in love and brewing is almost a weekly occurrence now.  In fact, I just added it up and combining everything since starting and including beer in progress, we've brewed 32 gallons of beer!  Before anyone does too much math on how much beer we drink though, keep in mind that each 1 gallon batch produces between 9 and 10 bottles of beer (a loss of 1 or 2 bottles off the ideal).

A wonderful part of brewing is the aroma produced during the boil.  Hearty grains, thick malts, and floral hops all combine and impart a lingering headiness that lasts for hours.

After 1 or 2 weeks in the fermentor(s), the beer is bottled and a small bit is sampled.  At this point, it's already usually delicious. While it is also warm and flat, if the beer already tastes good, then you know it's going to be amazing.  Perhaps surprisingly, we've never had a bad/off/skunked batch yet.

One of the great side-effects of brewing, is that most kits include some grains that are steeped while the water is being bought to a boil.  Using these grains we have made some of the best bread we've had the delight to eat.  Also thanks to another gift from Serena, a bread machine.  Each loaf is unique in texture, flavour, and colour.

Borrowing some equipment from Mark and Maria, we were able to brew up a 5 gallon batch of Hefeweizen.  This was awesome because it gave use a default option to enjoy when we low on other beer.  You tend to go through a batch of 9-10 bottles before you know it, but when you have a stash of something else, it really helps prolong the enjoyment.

Brewing has also given us an excellent reason to use a handmade, leather bound note book that we picked up in Italy.  Taking notes to track progress, learn from mistakes, and experiment is part of the brewing fun.

The brewing habit picked up quickly again after we moved to Austin, TX.  Though cooling down the wort (post-boil liquid that will ferment and become beer) is much more difficult when then tap water is tepid instead of cold.

With approval from our cats, we recently expanded our brewing capacity from 3 x 1 gallon batches to 6 x 1 gallon batches.  One day, we might expand to 5 gallon batches, but the 1 gallon size is so easy that we haven't had the desire to yet.