The La Cloche trip is officially on hold again and I suspect the Adirondack trail is as well. This is basically the result of two recent developments. Firstly I have a new job starting in July so scheduling is all up in the air. Secondly I just blew 2.438 years of my disposable income on a new Mac book Pro. A third factor is that I’ve decided it’s really time to focus on getting ready to move to the farm so what time off I do take from work will be dedicated to farm prep work.
This year we want to get a shed or two built, work on clearing some brush, put in a mass of fruit and nut trees and get started on some fencing. In the fall I am hoping to go to the Earthwood Building School ( http://www.cordwoodmasonry.com/ ) and take the three day cordwood workshop. Given the location if I could get a few extra days off I might try to sneak in a trip to the High Peaks Region of Adirondack Park and do the MacIntyre Range ( adirondackjourney.com/MacIntyre_Range.htm ) since I’d be in the neighbourhood anyway.
I can't figure out why the cordwood thing won't make a link.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Cider Quest 2010: Progress Report 2
I’ve got five more ciders to add to the sampled list: Cracked Apple, Grower’s Peach, Magner’s, Peeler Premium Light, and Williams. Nine ciders in I’ve come to the conclusion that cider’s come in two basic forms - ones that try to be as beer-like as possible and ciders that try to be crisp. I prefer the crisp ones because from what I’ve seen the beer imitator’s would do better to just be beer.
My current rankings are:
1. Cracked Apple
2. Grower’s Peach
3. Peeler Premium Light
4. Wapoos
5. Williams
6. Bulmer’s
7. Blackthorn
8. Magner’s
Sadly, the Cracked Apple has been discontinued. Only seven bottles remain I the province. 3 in Bala, 3 in Petawawa and one in Portland. None of which I will be anywhere near anytime soon.
Happily, Grower’s has a variety of flavours of cider so I will have to see if the LCBO carries a variety pack. And I’ll want to check the other county cider brewing company offerings. And I’ve heard a rumour about some offering from La belle provence…
Some of you may have noticed the absence of that most ubiquitous of ciders, Stongbow, from my list. I drank Strongbow once a long time ago. I see no need to go back. Unless I’m really feeling depressed and it’s free.
9. Strongbow
My current rankings are:
1. Cracked Apple
2. Grower’s Peach
3. Peeler Premium Light
4. Wapoos
5. Williams
6. Bulmer’s
7. Blackthorn
8. Magner’s
Sadly, the Cracked Apple has been discontinued. Only seven bottles remain I the province. 3 in Bala, 3 in Petawawa and one in Portland. None of which I will be anywhere near anytime soon.
Happily, Grower’s has a variety of flavours of cider so I will have to see if the LCBO carries a variety pack. And I’ll want to check the other county cider brewing company offerings. And I’ve heard a rumour about some offering from La belle provence…
Some of you may have noticed the absence of that most ubiquitous of ciders, Stongbow, from my list. I drank Strongbow once a long time ago. I see no need to go back. Unless I’m really feeling depressed and it’s free.
9. Strongbow
Monday, June 21, 2010
The War in the Country
By Thomas F. Pawlick
If you are the kind of person who prefers to make informed decisions and presently do, or plan to do either of the following :
1. vote
2. eat
you need to read this book. For the rest of you I give you this:
The Rules of Bureaucracy
1. Preserve thyself.
2. It is easier to fix the blame than to fix the problem.
3. A penny saved is an oversight.
4. Information deteriorates upward.
5. The first 90% of the task takes 90% of the time; the last 10% takes the other 90%.
6. Experience is what you get just after you need it.
7. For any given large, complex, hard-to-understand, expensive problem, there exists at least one short, simple, easy, cheap wrong answer.
8. Anything that can be changed will be, until time runs out.
9. To err is human; to shrug is civil service.
10. There's never enough time to do it right, but there's always enough time to do it over.
If you are the kind of person who prefers to make informed decisions and presently do, or plan to do either of the following :
1. vote
2. eat
you need to read this book. For the rest of you I give you this:
The Rules of Bureaucracy
1. Preserve thyself.
2. It is easier to fix the blame than to fix the problem.
3. A penny saved is an oversight.
4. Information deteriorates upward.
5. The first 90% of the task takes 90% of the time; the last 10% takes the other 90%.
6. Experience is what you get just after you need it.
7. For any given large, complex, hard-to-understand, expensive problem, there exists at least one short, simple, easy, cheap wrong answer.
8. Anything that can be changed will be, until time runs out.
9. To err is human; to shrug is civil service.
10. There's never enough time to do it right, but there's always enough time to do it over.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Cider Quest 2010 progress report
I've tried a couple of more ciders recently. The Boss and I shared a 4 pack of Wapoos cider which is a local Ontario product made in the County of Prince Edward. I liked it when chilled but the Boss found it to be beery for her taste.
On the weekend we went to a local Pub to scope t out as a potential place to catch a World Cup game or six, Cuchulain's by name. I tried the Blackthorn cider they had on draft but I was glad it was the Boss who had ordered the pint. I didn't care for it at all. Too sharp with no reward. But the real find was that not only do I have a Mary Brown's franchise 400 yards down the road but if I go in the other direction for $2 extra I can get savoury dressing and gravy on my fries! Now if they would just put some Black Horse on tap I could break out my Doyle jersey and get fugly. Just kidding. I don't have any Doyle house clothes anymore.
Given the delicious combination of Fuller's, perogies and NFL at the Franklin Pourhouse I'm going to have to check out the Cock and Pheasant to see what surprises they might have in store for me. It's kind of shocking anyway that I have a British style pub a three minute walk from the house that I've not shown my patronage but to be honest the place scares me a bit because the parking lot is regularly full of empty beer bottles. Which I presume are dropped by the patrons getting primed on the drive over to the pub. But then I didn't think Cider Quest 2010 would be all sunshine and roses.
Results so far :
1. Wapoos
2. Bulmer's
3. Blackthorn (draft)
On the weekend we went to a local Pub to scope t out as a potential place to catch a World Cup game or six, Cuchulain's by name. I tried the Blackthorn cider they had on draft but I was glad it was the Boss who had ordered the pint. I didn't care for it at all. Too sharp with no reward. But the real find was that not only do I have a Mary Brown's franchise 400 yards down the road but if I go in the other direction for $2 extra I can get savoury dressing and gravy on my fries! Now if they would just put some Black Horse on tap I could break out my Doyle jersey and get fugly. Just kidding. I don't have any Doyle house clothes anymore.
Given the delicious combination of Fuller's, perogies and NFL at the Franklin Pourhouse I'm going to have to check out the Cock and Pheasant to see what surprises they might have in store for me. It's kind of shocking anyway that I have a British style pub a three minute walk from the house that I've not shown my patronage but to be honest the place scares me a bit because the parking lot is regularly full of empty beer bottles. Which I presume are dropped by the patrons getting primed on the drive over to the pub. But then I didn't think Cider Quest 2010 would be all sunshine and roses.
Results so far :
1. Wapoos
2. Bulmer's
3. Blackthorn (draft)
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Feeble attempts to not waste my entire life
The silver lining to my hellishly long commute is that I am reading a lot of books on he bus.Some are better than others but there have been a few I would recommend. Meeting the Invisible Man, The Art of Racing in the Rain and Long Way Gone. None of them are heavy reading but for me at least all were thought provoking. Long Way Gone in particular I would recommend to to the socially or politically minded, Meeting the Invisible Man to adventure travellers and The Art of Racing in the Rain to dog owners.
I'm currently reading the Friends of Killarney Park trail guide to the La Cloche Silhouette Trail. It's also easy reading and has helped me decide that if I go it will be later in the summer. I had been thinking about early July but there arose a conflict with a potential Dave Brubeck concert at the Ottawa Jazz fest. Reading in the trail guide that bugs remain a problem until mid July I've decided that if I go on the hike at all I'll go late July or August. Travelling in the high heat opens up the possibility of trying to ultralight the trail - do the whole thing fast and light in trail runners and sleeping under my rain poncho which also seems suited to hiking solo. This is also the busiest time of year on the trail and according to the guide it can be difficult to book sites so even if I solo the trail it sounds like I would have lots of company.
Although it looks like if I want to get the time off work I'll have to quit my job. But that also applies to trying to get time off to do some preliminary work on the farmland.And of course the whole lifestyle question of work to live or live to work? Right now I am living to work. But then there are bills to pay. I'm going to have to sleep on it one more time.
I'm currently reading the Friends of Killarney Park trail guide to the La Cloche Silhouette Trail. It's also easy reading and has helped me decide that if I go it will be later in the summer. I had been thinking about early July but there arose a conflict with a potential Dave Brubeck concert at the Ottawa Jazz fest. Reading in the trail guide that bugs remain a problem until mid July I've decided that if I go on the hike at all I'll go late July or August. Travelling in the high heat opens up the possibility of trying to ultralight the trail - do the whole thing fast and light in trail runners and sleeping under my rain poncho which also seems suited to hiking solo. This is also the busiest time of year on the trail and according to the guide it can be difficult to book sites so even if I solo the trail it sounds like I would have lots of company.
Although it looks like if I want to get the time off work I'll have to quit my job. But that also applies to trying to get time off to do some preliminary work on the farmland.And of course the whole lifestyle question of work to live or live to work? Right now I am living to work. But then there are bills to pay. I'm going to have to sleep on it one more time.
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