1,000+ miles

by my calculations i broke the 1,000 mark today for miles commuted by bike this year. getting very close to my goal of averaging 3 days out of the week, just hope i can keep it up through the rest of year.

hops - week 18

the experiment continues:

Cascade - planted in outdoor container 12 April 2009 -> 15'+
notes: 1st Harvest was done right after taking these pictures. Above is the south facing side of the bine, below is north facing.

I decided to harvest only the hops that showed a little brown. Still have about this many left on the bine. They definitely had that papery feel. Also there was a fair amount of lupulin (yellow grains) on the inside base of the leaves, which gives it that hoppy smell. These are aparently indicators that they were ready to be picked. Stuck these in the food dehydrator at 100F.

Nugget - planted in indoor container 13 April 2009 -> 30'+
notes: Produced tons of large hops (1.25" long, 1" diameter).

hops - week 15

the experiment continues:
Mt. Hood (left) - planted in ground May 2008 -> ~14'
Cascade (right) - planted in outdoor container 12 April 2009 -> 15'+
notes: The Mt. Hood plant is dying off - no hops expected from the this one. The Cascade plant appears to have more or less stopped growing and is now just producing hops. Lots and lots of glorious hops. See pics below.

dying Mt. Hood plant

newer cascade hops

cascade hop closeup

Nugget - planted in indoor container 13 April 2009 -> 30'+

notes: Growth is maybe starting to slow.
Tons of hop burrs have shown up on newest laterals.

nugget hop laterals and burrs

i have hops

the cascade hops are coming in strong.

backyard barley - starting to dry out

Thought i'd post some pictures from my little backyard barley experiment. This first two pics were taken July 1st. At that point lots of the seed heads had developed, and just as many were chopped off thanks to the local wildlife. While we were gone on vacation, a rabbit (i'm guessing) appeared to decide this was a good place to hide out. A big section right in the middle was matted down, so I put up the fence. Since then some more seed heads have shown up and have started to dry out (bottom picture).

Week 8

Week 8

Week 10

hops - week 14

the experiment continues:

Mt. Hood (left) - planted in ground May 2008 -> ~14'
Cascade (right) - planted in outdoor container 12 April 2009 -> 15'+
notes: The Mt. Hood plant is still developing sideshoots, but overall growth is still very slow and no hop burrs have shown up yet.
The Cascade plant is still growing laterals.
Tons of hop burrs (spikey balls) have shown up all over the plant. About a dozen of these have started to turn into the hop cones. See pics below.

cascade - hop burrs

cascade - hop cones

Nugget - planted in indoor container 13 April 2009 -> 25'+
notes: Still growing strong - focused on laterals.

Some hop burrs have shown up, but are not doing much yet.

beers of the east coast

On my recent vacation to the DC area I tried as many different east coast beers as I could find. I generally went for pale-ales -> some were hoppy (smuttynose), some weren't (fire rock), all were good. My favorite was probably the Starr Hill Amber Ale, which was quite refreshing on a hot day at Monticello.

Amber Ale - Starr Hill , Charlottesville VA

Rugged Trail Ale - Troegs, Harrisburg PA

Black&Tan - Yuengling, Pottsville PA

Shoals Pale Ale - Smuttynose, Portsmouth NH

Chesapeake Pale Ale - Alewerks, Williamsburg VA

Fire Rock Pale Ale - Kona, Hawaii by way of Portsmouth NH

Pale Ale - Chownings Tavern, Willamsburg VA

Pale Ale - O'Connells Pub, Alexandria VA

Other beer tried but not pictured

Dominion Pale Ale - Old Dominion, Ashburn VA

Raison D'Etre - Dogfish Head, Milton DE
Lucky Kat - Magic Hat, Burlington VT
Pale Ale - American Cafe, Alexandria VA

a test

I think my metal is being tested..... Biking week in review:

Monday - Broke a spoke on my commuter bike. I initially thought I had a flat, as I was just riding along down the trail, heard a pop and then my bike would go no further as the rim was against the break pad.

Tuesday - Flat tire on my cruiser bike. Rode to work - no problem. Mid-day looked at my bike and there was no air in the rear tire. Fortunatly we have a bike shop within 1 mile of my office so I fixed it and rode home. The punture was on the inside (rim side) of the tube - no idea how it happened.

Wednesday - Rain. Heard the rumbling, knew it was comming -> went anyways. A third into my trek is started sprinking, thought, I can handle this. Half way is started coming down. Final 1/4 was a downpour. Fortunatley I was prepared. Had my important stuff in the otter box and a towel / change of clothes at the office.

Thursday / Friday - Who knows...... Da Da Duhhhhhhhhhhh.

hops - week 11

after a 3 week hiatus caused by a busy work schedule, a vacation and a little bit of laziness - the experiment continues:


Mt. Hood - planted in ground May 2008
3 main bines / 13' in length
notes: growth has started to pick up again
laterals have filled in areas where the virus thinned out leaves
no cones spotted as of yet

Cascade - planted in outdoor container 12 April 2009

3+ bines / 13'+ in length

notes: vigorous growth

numerous laterals in lower half 3'-5' in length

small spikey balls appearing on laterals -I assume these are the hop cones

Nugget - planted in indoor container 13 April 2009

1 bine / 20'+ in length

notes: vigorous growth

numerous laterals on the first and third quarter of the bine

some spikey balls (hop cones?) are starting to appear on the upper laterals

hops - week 8

the experiment continues:
Mt. Hood - planted in ground May 2008
3 bines / 8.5' in length
notes: growth is really slow now

Cascade - planted in outdoor container 12 April 2009
3+ bines / 6' in length
notes: still growing well.
side shoots are getting to be 0.5'+ long

Nugget - planted in indoor container 13 April 2009
1 bine / 10' in length
notes: growing like crazy - estimated 3.5' in one week
about to touch the ceiling - need to figure out where to go from there

Commuter Report Card

In an effort to hold myself accountable in 2009, I decided to post my "commuter report card" for days biked to work. Basically this report showed the days I commuted by bike (blue), non-commutable days such as weekends, holidays and out-of-town days (gray) and slacker days (white). Although I'm sure I have plenty of excuses to account for the "slacker days" (weather, errands, needed car for work...) - I will make none here, although december sucked for many reasons.

I updated it as I went and this is the final tally.

Monthly Stats
Jan- 6 days, 68 miles, avg. 1.5 days / week or 30% of the time
Feb- 10 days, 114 miles, avg. 2.5 days / week or 50% of the time
Mar- 6 days, 68 miles, avg. 1.4 days / week or 27% of the time
Apr- 11 days, 125 miles, avg. 2.5 days / week or 50% of the time
May- 11 days, 125 miles, avg. 3.4 days / week or 69% of the time
Jun- 12 days, 137 miles, avg. 3.5 days / week or 71% of the time

Jul- 20 days, 217 miles, avg. 4.5 days / week or 91% of the time

Aug- 18 days, 205 miles, avg. 4.5 days / week or 90% of the time

Sep- 11 days, 125 miles, avg. 3.1 days / week or 61% of the time

Oct- 16 days, 182 miles, avg. 4.2 days / week or 84% of the time

Nov- 12 days, 137 miles, avg. 3.2 days / week or 63% of the time

Dec- 1 day, 11 miles, avg. 0.3 days / week or 7% of the time

Weekly Stats
Mon- 52%
Tues- 60%
Wed- 56%
Thur- 53%
Fri- 69%

Total- 134 days, 1528 miles, avg. 2.9 days / week or 58% of the time

UPDATED: 31 December

hops - week 7 continued....

Some additional notes and pictures from week 7:

The Mt.Hood hops have started to worry me. Given its strong start I had high hopes for this plant, but a ??virus?? has really started to slow it down. Basically a ~sixth of the leaves developed this patterned brown coloration, then started curling down and dying off. The virus seems to have slowed of late, with no new dead leaves. New growth continues at a slow rate, and no significant side branching has occured.

The Cascade hops started the slowest, but have really started taking off. While this one is getting some decent length, it's the amount of side growth that is really impressive (which is where I think the cones grow). This picture doesn't capture it well, but each of the 3 main bines have multiple shoots coming out the sides with almost fully developed leaves.

The Nugget hops have been kicking ass lately with noticible growth over the course of a day. The middle leaves are 4" to 6" across and we've started an office pool for the date when the plant will reach the ceiling. Several side shoots have shown up and just started developing leaves. It seemed odd that only 1 bine ever took off, but my guess is that early on it wasn't getting enough sunlight.

A cautionary picture from the nugget hops. The miracle grow potting soil I bought came complete with little flys. They generally stay close to the soil, but have replicated in the hundreds. The fly traps seem to be doing a good job, but there are still some buzzing around.

hops - week 7

the experiment continues:
Mt. Hood - planted in ground May 2008
3 bines / 6'-8' in length
notes: slowed down but still growing strong.

Cascade - planted in outdoor container 12 April 2009
3+ bines / 3' - 4' in length
notes: growing like crazy.
had to add second rope to trelis
all 3 plants just started getting buds for side shoots, however the cascade is already getting bushy

Nugget - planted in indoor container 13 April 2009

1 bine / 6.5' in length
notes: growing like crazy now that it gets more direct sunlight.

the average new leaf size has at least doubled.