Snowshoeing March 2010! I love my backyard!

The trailhead to Bear Lake.

Jane Pfeiffenberger. While her husband is out of town I have a partner in crime to explore the wilderness!

I just love this tree trunk. If it could speak I would love to listen to the stories it could tell.

Yep! That's me!

All done. Nope, didn't follow a trail. Can't really say that part was intentional; the fun we had absolutely was intentional!

It's amazing the brilliant ideas that arise on a Friday night at the Rio. Who would have thought we'd be snowshoeing Sunday morning?! Oh, and that little bit of Colorado factor helps as well.

Hey Lisa, what did you do this week?...I'm so glad you asked.

Hey Lisa. What did you do this week? Well, lets see...Thursday night we bottled our first batch of beer.

Brian worked on the physics of siphoning. The goal was to drain the carboy without disrupting the sediment in the bottom.... we were successful...pretty much.

After filling the bottles we then crimped the caps on.

Isn't that just a lovely sight? We had two boxes full. Now, the hard part...waiting for 4 weeks while the rest of the fermentation/carbonation process occurs.

The previous pictures were Carolyn's. She was able to catch much better action shots. Me, I like my 50mm lens which is not all that conducive for human photos in a small space. I also enjoy macro shots. Casey B., please correct and educate me on my terminology. Can't wait for "Casey Photography School" when you come home for the summer.

I didn't capture all of the sanitization process... Carolyn and Brian were awesome enough to start that process before I came home from work. *Yawn* boring.

The left over sediment. Bleh.

So there is our first attempt. Now mind you, this beer is very flat. The last step (not captured on the camera) was to add the sugar to finish feeding the yeast, which will create the carbonation.

Tasting....wait for it. Wait for it.

Ah...yes! Success! It has a sweet nutty, caramel flavor. It was rather heavy. So either it will be a sipping beer or the carbonation will lighten it up.

Oh yeah. Two happy girls. Gotta say, pretty darn proud of ourselves!

Brian. Did I mention he's a crazy man? Well, just look at the picture, I really didn't need to say anything.

And then Saturday rolled around the corner. I have been MIA from the gym/running for about 6 months now due to a shoulder injury. That's a whole other long story for another time. Bottom line: It's the weekend before St. Pattys Day and a town 5K run was in order. So seeing as how I own an excessive amount of green (thanks to the running Diva's), it's always put to good use on this holiday. I scrounged up some pretty outrageous green eye shadow as well (thank you Janie). Carolyn and I did well. 28 min. Not bad for not regularly running. But I have to say the bug for running bit again. I think though this time, I don't feel the need to prove to myself I can run another marathon (3 seems to be enough), but the approach will be to take on running for a lifetime. So If the morning is feeling like a 5 mi run, well then cross training or a fast walk up-hill will be just fine.

The next two pictures...well this is called envy. I can't wait to get settled in my house and save an awesome Weim. I am hoping this will be me next year.

So, not having attended CSU, I'll just let you know this is the mascot. The ram. Yes, he does have a name. No, I don't know it. But I am sure someone will be sharing it with me....Cam? maybe?

And then there was Satuday night. My first exposure to MMA fighting. No, no pictures of the fights, just the girls. Monica and Laura.

Irma, and me.

...there's that Laura again. It was way less intense than I had expected. It was amateur. There were two pro fights. One girl fight. Wow. Not that I am interested in fighting, but possible Jiu Jitsu. Of course if it comes to fruition, you will be informed with photos and all.

Brewing Beer-

So after it's been a few weeks since the last post. Carolyn, Brian and I finally had a weekend to get together and start our next "arts and craft" project.

Brewing beer Mmmmm.....

So 10:30a Saturday morning we met at Hops and Berries to pick out our ingredients. Brian was great; he spent time in his Beer Bible to pick out recipes he thought all three of us would enjoy. To our/his dismay not all of the ingredients were available. So we reverted to the brewing recipes at Hops and Berries. We found a brown ale recipe with caramel, nutty flavors.

Hops (the green leaf) wheat (grain), and the yeast(tube).

The grain go into the bag.

We start with boiling water (almost) to 160 degrees. Carolyn is monitoring the temp.

The grains are dipped in the water, similar to a tea bag method.

Calculating our total investment. Initial batch of beer will cost us about $5.00 per bottle. Following batches are projected to be around a $1.00 per bottle.

*if you drink beer with pop-off (not screw-off) save the for us.*

Our next step is to stir in the malt. It looked yummy enough to try. Our instincts were right. It taste like molasses...and is sticky just like molasses

Hops are added at intervals. The first batch into the tea bag and steep for 40 min. This is for flavor.

The second batch for 20min. This batch adds to the complexity of the boquet.

Keeping track of the temperature.

Pull the hops, and cool as quickly as possible from boiling to 80 degrees. This is the concentrate. We will add it to cold water and then add the yeast.

Ah! The yeast. Final step.

Now we (we, as in Brian) have to agitate the beer.

It starts fermenting in the bottle for 10-14 days.

Then we bottle....and wait 4 weeks for consumption.