A week at Peggy’s Cabin is just what the doctor ordered. A week of horseback riding, kayaking, mountain biking and hiking … and a nice, tasty beer when we get back. Saturday, we packed the trailer with the gear: the kayak, hay for the horses, tack, some tools, and our baggage. The bikes got strapped to the rack in front of the truck and then we loaded the horses and drove into the Blue Ridge Mountains in Southern Virginia. The engine got a bit hot dragging all that stuff up the mountains. And for the last few miles on one-lane gravel roads up to the cabin I was really glad we had 4-wheel-drive.

The horses are staying inside their travel fence, munching on the nice, juicy mountain grass around Peggy’s Cabin.  The cabin is located at 2,500 feet (760 meters), about 200 feet (60 meters) above the New River in Grayson country, Virginia. Ironically, the “New” is considered the oldest river in North America. There are lots of logging roads and gravel roads to explore on horseback and on bikes, and the New River is great for kayaking or canoeing, especially right now when it is full after all the rain.

kayaking on the New River

Today, Jacob and I spent 3 1/2 hours on the river kayaking down from the Virginia/NC border to to the road right below the cabin. I then hiked up to the cabin and got the truck to haul the kayaks out. The river is still pretty shallow here – about 2 – 4 feet  (1/2 – 1 meter), so there is no motorized traffic on the river and there are occasional rapids that make kayaking pretty fun. It was really quiet and peaceful on the river and we had nice weather most of the time (we did get drenched in one shower).

While Jacob and I were kayaking, Laura and Julia took the horses on a long excursion all over the logging roads around the cabin and along the river. Wally and Cleo had eaten a lot the nice, juicy mountain grass ad they were feeling pretty good. They also waded into the river and into the pool below a waterfall. They, too, got rained on.

So, we’re looking forward to a few more fun-filled days here in the mountains. We hope it won’t rain too much. The temperatures are rally nice with highs in the low 80s (below 30*C).  (more photos below)

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Here is another fun Jazz tune to enjoy on this Friday (or whenever you like)

Dave Holland Quintet – Vicissitudes – recorded in 2007

In this year’s edition of the Doughman Quadrathlon race, team Overheight When Flashing finished in 5th place! So for the third time in a row, we finished in the top ten of the Doughman. As far as I know, only two other teams have accomplished this: team Dain’s Place (hell, they OWN the Doughman) and El Gigante. Now, the Bull City Track Club team clocked their second 1st place in a row, so we’ll see next year if they can keep this up.

Here is the menu for this year and who on our team took on which leg:

• Leg 1, Swim – Bill Copeland; Food from Rise: Pig in a blanket with Firsthand Foods sausage link, Freshpoint sweet potatoes, and cheddar cheese
• Leg 2, Bike – Craig Young; Food from NOSH: Pimiento mac-n-cheese “cupcake” including Freshpoint kale
• Leg 3, Long Run – Jason Figge; Food from Dos Perros: Freshpoint kale and mushroom tamales
• Leg 4, Short Run – Jurgen Henn; Food from Dain’s Place: “The Jurgen”– Firsthand Foods bratwurst with gorgonzola cheese, kraut and Freshpoint jalapeños on a locally baked hotdog roll from the bread shop

We all did really well with our individual legs, but on the desserts – that’s where we smoked ’em! We were the fastest team (1 Min 11 Sec.) on the dessert leg:

• The Parlour (Freshpoint purple sweet potato ice cream with honey marshmallow)
• LocoPops (vegan strawberry lemonade paleta)
• Daisy Cakes (vanilla bean cupcake filled with strawberry-rhubarb compote and topped with ginger buttercream with Freshpoint strawberries and honey)
• Monuts (strawberry shortcake donuts)

Each of us had to finish one of these delectable desserts and we then had sprint to the finish together as a team.

So much fun!

McCoy Tyner Trio with guests (Frisell, Bartz) – Stuttgart, Germany, 2009-07-24

Enjoy!

Last weekend, we moved the emus out to the horse pasture and one of the two started chasing the geese out of the pasture. Silly thing. Of course he did not stand a chance keeping them out – those geese ae much too stubborn. He has since given up trying to keep the geese out. Buy his attempts were funny to watch.

Letztes Wochenende haben wir die Emus auf die Pferdeweide umgesiedelt und einer der Emus begann sofort zu versuchen die Gänse aus der Weide zu vertreiben. Natürlich hatte der Emu keine Chance, denn diese wilden Kanada Gänse sind viel zu hartnäckig. Er hates auch inzwischen aufgegeben, aber seine Versuche sind ganz amüsant.

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Monday, Laura made this loaf of sourdough bread, which was tasty as it was pretty:

Montag hat Laura diesen leckeren Laib Weizensauerbrot gebacken.

Weiter unten ist noch ein Bild …

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Sadly, on April 17, our beloved little black poodle Meme passed away due to a terrible accident. We had inherited Meme in Oct. 2011 from Laura’s mom Dolores. Meme had been a faithful and cheerful companions to Dolores for several years, and so when Dolores passed away, Meme came with us to North Carolina. It was quite an adjustment for Meme, going from being a mostly-indoors, lap-sitting companion dog to a life as a “farm dog,” with horses, emus and an old, feisty cat or two to contend with. But over time she got in touch with her “inner dog” and started to enjoy rolling in horse poop, chasing the geese and the squirrels, and – her favorite – riding in the truck with her nose out the window and in the wind. She also learned  several tricks, like “roll over”,  “jump” and how to walk on her hind legs. We’ll miss that little dog and her silly tricks.

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Tonight, I pulled batch #100 from my biodiesel reactor and started washing the fresh fuel. Back in Aug. 2006 I brewed my first batch and I’ve been cooking fuel ever since. I collected almost 5,000 gallons (20.000 liters) of used fryer oil from local restaurants and processed it with 1,000 Gallons of Methanol and about 200 kilos of Potassium Hydroxide to make an estimated 4,600 Gallons of fuel for my cars and my truck. That’s almost 50,000 Kilos (or more than 100,000 pounds) of CO2 that was NOT added to the atmosphere.

Today, our family bid a very sad farewell to my sister’s husband of 18 years, Karsten Hupfer. He died completely surprisingly on March 23 at a hospital in Waiblingen, Germany. He leaves a huge void in his and our family, and in my sister’s life in particular.

Heute haben wir uns in tiefer Trauer von meinem Schwager Karsten Hupfer verabschiedet. 18 Jahre lang war er meiner Schwester ein loyaler Ehemann und ein Fels in der Brandung. Am 23. März starb er völlig überraschend im Krankenhaus in Waiblingen. Wir vermissen ihn alle sehr.

… is Durham, North Carolina, according to the magazine Southern Living:

Part of what makes Bull City compelling is the confluence of old and new: Its foodie future is gradually wiping out its tobacco past, yet remnants of the town’s first industry provide a backdrop for its current scene. Both the American Tobacco Historic District and Brightleaf Square, two mixed-use developments brimming with restaurants, bars, and live music venues, are housed in former tobacco warehouses that date back to the 1800s and 1900s. The town’s top tastemakers are also drawing national attention. Durham recently scored four James Beard Foundation Award semi-finalist nods, including one for Scott Howell at Nana’s for Best Chef Southeast.

Check out Durham’s Celebrated Cuisine List for some of the best food Durham has to offer.

Finally it looks like spring has conquered the remnants of Winter, here in North Carolina. The weekend was gorgeous: sunny, warm (70*F/22*C), and dry. We finished planting our garden and Laura and Julia took the horses out to Hill Forest Sunday morning.

I did some logging, got a bad case of poison ivy and I also started on my newest project: fungi. I got a big bottle of Mycogrow, as well as two bags of mushroom plugs from Fungi Perfecti. I mixed in 16 tablespoons of Mycorrhizal Fungi spores into the little garden plot I made (plus a yard of biodiesel-waste/manure compost). The rest of the Mycorrhizal Fungi spores goes into an experimental compost piles where I will try to compost vegetable oil waste and glycerol.  The mushroom plugs I plan to use to inoculate several hardwood logs in order to grow edible mushrooms – shitake and lion’s mane, to be specific. If all goes well, well have some tasty, homegrown mushrooms in a couple of months.

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I finally did it. I bought my own MIG welder!

Last Friday, a fire at the Mexican restaurant ElRodeo damaged the Eastern side of Brightleaf South and forced the evacuation of the entire complex, including the offices where I work. I was actually at home because I had a cold. Several colleagues called me around 11:00 AM to let me know what was going on and to confirm that I was not in the building. I shut down all the equipment I could, and I verified via my security cameras that there was no serious problem on our end. No one was hurt in the fire.

A protein fire in  the kitchen vents spread into the top floor of the building and damaged the roof. The fire department quickly doused the fire with ample amounts of water, so the fire damage was contained. Considering that this building is over 100 years old and all the upstairs floors are made of huge wooden beams and the entire structure is held up by large wooden columns, a larger fire could have easily caused structural damage.

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Last night our 20-year-old Siamese cat died. We got her 19 years ago from the shelter, when she was just a young stray kitty. Over the years, Deha grew into a proud cat with a strong personality. When we brought Benson home, a 160-pound Great Dane, it only took her a couple of days to get that dog to accept that she was the boss. Deha followed Laura around when Laura was in labor with our daughter, as if she was trying to be supportive. Later, Deha convinced Julia to share her bottle with her. When we brought home Sodabe as a kitten from the shelter, she took care of him like a mother and taught him to hunt and climb trees. Over the years they both brought home countless mice, shrews and chipmunks – and even the occasional rabbit. Though Sodabe never seemed to acquire her taste for frogs. For many years, she went out every morning, mosied down to the pond and got herself a nice juicy frog. Then she brought it back to the house, found a nice sunny spot and sat down to eat it.

The last few years she spent more and more time snoozing in various sunny spots in the yard and on the deck. She had some health problems that were mostly kept in check with regular antibiotics. Just a few days ago she caught a mouse and ate it on the deck. But a couple of days ago she started to refuse her food and before we knew it she had lost a lot of weight. Saturday I saw her sleeping next to a log  ins a sunny spot next to the pond and she looked very old and tired. Later that day we took her inside and she could barely walk. She ate some but declined rapidly. We put her on a soft blanket and kept her company all evening. Saturday night around 11PM she died.

We buried her Sunday morning in a nice sunny spot in our yard. We’ll miss that silly little cat.

For the third time in a row and for the fourth time altogether, I have a team in the annual Doughman race here in Durham. Last weekend was the “guerrilla registration” where you could get a foot in the door of this popular race by guessing the restaurants that participate. The organizers posted clues on their Facebook page and once you figured it out, you went and took a picture of the restaurant’s signage.

•  This year’s restaurants are

– Nosh
– Dos Perros
– Rise
– Dain’s Place
desserts:
– The Parlour
– Monuts
– Daisy Cakes
– Locopops

Last weekend I spent some quality time under the truck, fixing some stuff that’s been bothering me for a while. I finally found the idle adjustment screw and turned up the engine idle speed a notch, so that the truck doesn’t just die on me all the time when the engine is cold.

I also installed the new fuel shutoff solenoid I bought a while ago from LarryB’s. The previous owner had a manual shutoff lever installed in the cab when the solenoid died. So to stop the engine you had to push in the lever. Now it works in a more civilized manner again – when you turn off the ignition the engine stops.

Finally, I also completed the installation of the truck’s fancy new headlamps. The old ones were faded and scratched, so I bought new headlamps and installed them early last year. The headlights have some LEDs, but I never bothered to connect them until now. It was worth it – the LEDs are really bright and look great.

I also made a list of stuff I need for the front end rebuild. I think I’ll tackle that soon …

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Last night, one of our three emus died. We called him “Brave Bob” because he was the tamest and the first to take food from my hand. He was also the tallest of our little flock and he was always hungry. He seemed really healthy the day before, and no, he was not the one that was attacked by the neighbor’s dog.

Julia discovered him when she went to feed them in the morning. Laura called me and we went back home. The other two emus  seemed pretty distressed and were pacing around and poking him with their beaks. We removed him from the enclosure and I buried him in the woods.

A couple of weeks ago, I helped our new neighbor move a chicken coop on his property. He attached pneumatic caster wheels under the frame of this ancient, roughly 4000-pound structure. We then jacked it up with car jacks, knocked out the foundation, dropped it on the wheels and I towed it with my truck about 150 feet (50 Meters) to the new location. He made this epic video of this pretty epic project:

The Great Beer Quest of 2013 was a complete success, despite the freezing temperatures in Winston Salem last night. A bunch of Footheads camped out in 20-degree (-7 Celcius) temperatures for a chance to acquire four bottles of foothills brewery’s finest beer – the Sexual Chocolate Stout. This year was my 3rd beer quest, and I was 3rd in line this time!

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Crazy weekend … Friday we had a snow/ice/freezing rain mess, so Laura and I had to leave work early to pick up the kids from school. Saturday morning – I was just on my first cup of coffee – Laura noticed a large Rottweiler chasing the emus in the back yard. I put on some clothes ( it was in the low 20s – well below freezing) and ran out. I knew the dog – it belongs to a neighbor down the road and has been on our property before. I was trying to get between the dog and the emus, but it was difficult. The kids of the owner tried to help, but they  ended up leaving a gate open and one of the emus got out. Somehow the emu got in the horse pasture, running away from the dog. All that got the horses all riled up and they started cantering up the hill and got the dog even more excited. After a few Minutes, the dog caught the emu and grabbed it by the lower neck and brought it down. The kid and I were right on top of the dog and got him to release the bird, who ran away.

Now the kid was lying on top of the dog and could barely keep him down that way. I grabbed a length of rope and started choking the dog, so he would stop struggling. After a while the dog got tired and Laura brought us a rope. I tied the rope securely around the neck and chest of the dog and the kid started to try to drag the dog back home. He could not even get the dog to walk. The dog would just lay down and refuse to walk. He wanted to back to play with the big chicken.

I left the two to their own device and went to check on the bird. He was pretty freaked out, and we decided to just leave him alone to give him some time to calm down. Interestingly, he made no attempt to get out of the pasture. Seeing that the kid was not really able to get the dog home in any reasonable way, we decided that Laura would stay and keep an eye on the bird, while I would help the kid get the dog home. I just dragged the dog by the rope across the icy road for a bit. Then I ordered him to get up and walk, and eventually he did.

We locked the dog up in the back yard and I had a little talk with the owner. I told them that the next time I see the dog on my property, I will call animal control and they will take the dog away. I also suggested they hire a dog trainer who can help them get control of the dog, because the dog is not basically a bad dog, he just needs to learn to listen and respect his owner. I gave them the phone number of a friend who is a dog trainer and I told them that I want them to contact her right away and set up an appointment. They agreed and Monday morning my friend emailed me and confirmed that they made an appointment. So that’s really good.

Back at the farm, the emu had calmed down, but Laura and I saw that he was bleeding from the chest a bit.  In the icy pasture, Laura and I managed to corner the bird and catch him. I carried him back into the back yard, where we took a closer look at the wound. It was just a puncture wound but it was still bleeding quite a bit. I had to let him go, because he has gotten quite heavy – probably around 40 pounds. As long as I hold him, he goes limp and plays dead. But as soon as his feet touch the ground it’s all over and there is no holding him. We caught him again later and put some antibiotic ointment on his wound and I made that mistake and did not let go right away … he shredded my jeans with his feet (did not hurt me, though).

So now I guess I have to figure out how to teach my emus some self defense technique. I mean, I good kick on the nose of the dog from one of their legs would definitely make an impression. The gate to the back yard is now barricaded, so I doubt that a dog could get in (unless he can jump the fence). But later this year the emus will go out on the pasture, and there they might encounter dogs or coyotes. They definitely need to learn some karate kicks …