April + May

Now that the temperatures are finally getting nicer and warmer around here, we are managing to spend some time in the backyard and appreciate all the work we put into it over the last 5 years.

time to do some more trimming on the grapes and roses

our herb gardens are starting to take over

I think we have about a million roses at this stages

bottling beer

kegging and making beer

March

So time to update this blog again and see what happened in the last 60 days...

Hog Island, at Oxford Market, in Nappa

having some oysters for my birthday at my favorite oyster place, hog island

making delicious wagyu beef style corned beef for St. Patties, one of my all-time favorite foods.

discovering spring in black butte, while camping for a couple of nights

while also enjoying some of these nice sunsets at black butte

Januar 2018

So apparently I'm neglecting filling this blog with stuff again...

Using Instagram, just makes it to easy to share pictures and I still haven't figured out how to automatically sync my camera with my phone.

So I keep taking pictures and never upload them.

So New Years Resolutions:

• post at least one article a month on this blog or at least a picture
• finish up all my pending projects at home
• do not shop for 1 month on amazon (nearly managed to do this in amazon...)
• learn welding. No real success at this point
• improve my airbrushing skills, once it's warm enough
• learn to be more patient
• practice airbrushing and air sanding a bit more to improve look of projects

Oh yeah and finally, being a good dad. After all we are expecting a little one rather soon.

So January Picture:

Rediscovered the Joy of making Manhattans

During the Christmas break Robin and I went to a couple of different happy hours, one just happen to be at Ella's in Sacramento. Now this place is rather pricey most of the time, but they are known for great cocktails and amazing happy hour deals. Like steak tartar (one of my all time favorites) for 5$ a portion, etc.

Also on their Menu, they had Manhattans for 10$ a drink instead of the usual 20$ during happy hour. Needless to say I hadn't had a Manhattan since ~2005 or so, so after Robin nudged me I caved in and ordered one.

2 Manhattans later, I went on a mission trying to recreate it.

Best Recipe, we come up yet:

• 3 ounces of Manhattan, preferable Buffalo Trace, but 4 Roses also works
• 1 ounce of Sweet Vermouth
• 10 drops, aromatic bitters
• 1 marchino cherry

Directions:

1. chill martin glas with Ice cubes and water, set aside
2. put ice in shaker or secondary glas
3. add bourbon
4. add vermouth
5. add bitters
6. stirr 20 times
7. discard ice from martini glas
8. add cherry to glas
9. drain drink into glas, without ice
10. enjoy

Beryessa Gap, Winery

After attending the woodland wine festival for the last 2 years and really enjoying the wines from Berryessa Gap Vineyards. We finally managed to visit this tiny place, which has an amazing history and seems to be a corner stone for the local wine production in the area. Since they apparently provide 90% of the grafted stocks required to grow the grapes after the devastating wildfires in 2015.

Due to our favorite little restaurant in winters being closed yet again, for random none disclosed reasons, we ended up trying a new place. Which is wonderful for cocktails and apetizers, but sadly the main dishes are kinda lacking and could use some improvements. It's called the preserve and rather quaint.

playing with my new toy

so after a couple of years not doing much with photography and never taking my stuff with me, due to it being a bit heavy and bulky.
So I decided to get a new camera and slowly learning how to use the little range finder. Which needless to say, is rather different than a SLR camera.

On the bright side, the chips advanced so much that I nearly have no post processing anymore (once I could get it to focus sharp)

Needless to say, I bought nearly all accessories for it, which I could find, due to it missing standard things like a strap or a decent shutter release...

Summer is comming

During all the rain over the last couple of weeks, we are now finally receiving some sun and heat recently. Which basically means that our garden is in full bloom and we might actually being able to harvest grapes and plums for the first time, since planting them.

plums, waiting to be transformed into plum cakes

cabernet sauvignon grapes, waiting to be transformed into wine

April, 2017

So I managed to get my self a new camera lens

Rosie got a new ball 

after breaking the old sprinkler system, basil got a new controller and is going to rerun the drip lines again...

and we got pretty roses in our backyard currently