wacky1980

not related to making booze, but very much related to drinking it- i'm heading up to toppling goliath this weekend for a beer release event and possibly some vip stuff, depending on what the brewery rep has set us up with. i'm sure being from where you are, that you've heard of TG and probably even had some of their beers. this is one of my top 3 wishlisted brewery visits (treehouse and dogfish also in there). the beer being released is called double barrel assassin and it sounds fucking wild. anyways, this seems like it could be a good day/weekend trip, and one i'll be making repeatedly if all goes well. i will report back with an update on whether it's worth the trip (for me it's like 6 hours but for you it's probably closer to 3). just fyi, in case you ever do things like this.

coyotes are pretty much scavengers, so they're not dumb enough to take on a hooman. i've seen them pack up and take down calves, but they usually know their limits and avoid anything beyond that. unless they're sick, then all bets are off.

tfw you realize your accountant retired so you're gonna have to teach yourself how to put together a corporate tax return in the most fucked up tax year in history, with no formal accounting education and no accountant friends. i guess i could always just find a new accountant, but i've already handled the books and payroll for all of 2020, so learning how to do the tax side of it just seems like the natural next step. i'm not thrilled about learning all the depreciation bullshit though. ugh.

only if you offer a freeeeeeeeeeeee riiiiiiieeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide

we'll find out. i've had stalled batches before where we re-pitched and things fired back off. but this isn't in my basement anymore, and i have no control or monitoring capability when i'm not physically there. if it's not done properly, opening the fermenter to re-pitch on a still bucket of wort is risky. at this point, i'm willing to sacrifice the entire batch rather than fight it for 3 gallons of what will surely miss the quality mark anyways.

mine did not enter the mr bubble phase as intended. really, the whole brew session was a shitshow. someone just needs to recognize that i'm in fucking charge of the show, and we can avoid problems in the future. 1) i said don't use a mesh bag in the mash, but conceded when faced with fervent opposition. the mesh bag collapsed into the kettle, causing a mess that could have been easily avoided, and losing 20% of the batch to waste. 2) i said we need to get a water quality test done because something is fucking with our mash efficiency. i was told it's not necessary. our efficiency should have been around 80%. it was only 55%. 3) i said we needed to vent our brewing area better since we're still using propane (for now), but conceded because "it would get too cold in the basement." so instead, the CO detectors went off all night throughout the house. 4) i said we shouldn't use the old yeast because it was expired, and i brought three new packs along to use instead. well, the old pack got pitched anyways and it was dead. hopefully a new pack being pitched on top corrects that before it gets infected. ugh. life would be so much easier if people would just recognize my superior knowledge and skill.

so i got my debit card the other day to access my unemployment benefits. and then i got a notice yesterday that my benefits would be reduced in order to catch up on my child support...which is paid in full, automatically, twice each month, and has been for the last 12 years. i called the unemployment office on monday to report the fraud, but they only allow you to give your number so they can call you back. it's friday now, still no call back. so i called again this morning, but they won't let me place another callback request because my first one is still pending. ugh. also added fraud alerts on my credit report, just for good measure. they've been frozen since the first id theft attempt back in 2017, so no worries there. then i checked them for any new inquiries, none so far. been thinking a lot about ghosting myself from the internet lately. fuck all of this headache.

that's a big mead. nice work. we're brewing my black ipa, v2.0 tonight. yay! i tweaked the recipe after the first attempt, so maybe now it will line up a little better with the intended style. also, i just found out our brewing space will eventually be relocated from the basement into a new outbuilding with a commercial kitchen. might happen as early as this summer/fall, which is right about the same time i expect we'll have our new electric brewery tweaked up and running at full cap. i love it when a plan comes together. with a little bit of luck, we'll be turning out consistent barrels of good beer by the end of the year, and maybe even working on our commercial brewing space if the right property opens up.

got this cute little feller on monday. now i just have to find someone selling the rounds to put thru it.

they'll train you on-the-job for those things. there's also probably a riflery class at one of your local colleges. you can take the course and fire whatever they have in their arsenal, without dropping the coin on a weapon.

I could tell ghostrek was googling the guns from your op so maybe I dropped a biden gaffe on him for kicks?

Daddy Warbucks earns too much to qualify.

neither does google ... oh wait

ok

as soon as we get a nice day, wife and i will be taking some target practice along with her brother out on one of his farms. he's got a new ar-14 that looks like it should be fun to shoot.

everyone's checking their account balances for that fat stimulus check / trying to find a store to spend it in. we all bottleneckin' tf out of the internet.

i don't even have the shotgun anymore. left it at my parents' because that was the only place i ever picked up tags for hunting. it's too expensive to hunt down in this area without landowner access, because outfitters have excessively commercialized it. everyone wants a trophy for their wall. i just want a freezer full of venison. i keep a small rifle and (starting today) 2 pistols in the house for defense. thinking about a stubby shotgun for those tight spaces lol.

Hunting limit. My ithaca deerslayer could hold 5 or 6 and I only ever used it for deer and turkey hunting. The state limit for hunting back then was 3 slugs, so we had to plug it to limit capacity.

sounds like fun. only 12 gauges i've fired are standard shotguns. plus, gotta keep them plugged to a max of 3 rounds. legal is lame. i just bought a new walther pps for concealed carry. get to pick it up tomorrow. can't wait to break her in.

i'm gonna be really good at dealing with id theft by the time i'm dead. thanks, experian. this time it came in the form of an unemployment claim filed in my name against my employer. apparently i got laid off back in june. fuck.

how the blade of ochi lines up with the wreckage from only one place on the shoreline at one point in time. nevermind the 100' waves constantly busting up and shifting around the wreckage over the previous 30 years. or the fact that a relic hunter (ochi) would go to all the trouble to make a map to the wayfinder, but not actually take it for himself. i'm not about to dive all the way into the expanded universe to understand the details, and they shouldn't expect as much from the audience. just make it plausible on its face and move on.

the fucking wayfinder.

Look at you! Out there living the dream. Apparently you're not without internet either. Lucky dog.

Slapped together those temp probes this afternoon. I couldn't find my solder gun so I had to borrow one from a friend, and it was a blunt stick of hot shit. I almost melted the first connector trying to get the solder to take. Anyways, they're done now. Also got started on the heating elements, but I forgot to bring home some wire terminals so I can't finish those right now. They're much more impressive-looking than some simple temp probes. Maybe tomorrow I'll get those done and can post a pic then. The project is underway...