Earthquake!

There was a very short earthquake last night. I heard a tree fall down not long afterwards. We haven't found where it was yet. Possibly not even on our land as at night it is very quiet and you hear things far away.

Mirabelles and cows

Just an excuse for a cute picture really.
There is a Mirabelle plum tree in the middle of the field that Bear and Venus are in at the moment. They are just ripening and I made some nice jam. We have another tree that has more yellow fruit than this one.

Curtains for the bedroom

We finally got round to making the curtains, motivated by a very hot spell and needing to keep the sun out of the bedroom during the day to keep it slightly cooler.

They are lined, it was hard to find a clean bit of floor big enough to lay the bits out on as most of the house is still a building/storage site

We struggled to work out how we were going to manage to fit them in to the dormer window as there is not much space above the window and the window can open right up as well us just at the top.
We ended up making a U shape attached to the ceiling so the curtain can move out of the way of the window when required and hang to the side of the window when the curtain is open.

What delightful matching between the curtains and the bedside units

Brie/Coulommiers update

The second attempt at a soft mould cheese worked out well!

Looks and tastes good

'Half Our Lives' present

We have been saving up to buy one of these for many years.

We were kind of waiting until the house was done, but as this year is our 10th wedding anniversary AND this year we have been together half our lives. As it is clearly some years until the house will be finished we decided to get it now.
It makes making beer from scratch (with barley and whatnot rather than kits or malt extract) much more easier as the whole process happens in this one container (up to the point you start fermenting).
We haven't made a huge number of all grain brews as it is a big faff over a gas burner and having to strain the super hot liquid in to different containers etc.
Now we hope to do LOADS. We are a bit stressed as the recent couple of beers we made (both on the same day) went bad during fermenting. Possibly because the yeast was old..We shall see if it is an ongoing problem.

The first brew we made is a light pale ale with corn and rice
https://beercalc.org/?t=177368

The second is a porter.
https://beercalc.org/?t=177362

Some lovely dark crystal malt

Braumiester in action

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

250	g plain flour
60	g Demerara sugar
100	g chocolate chips
½	level tbsp baking powder

125	g softened butter
60	g caster sugar
2	eggs
1 ½	tsp of salt

Optionally add 40g of malted barley or chopped nuts for a nice crunchy effect

Makes about 25 cookies

Heat oven to 220°C

Thoroughly mix together salt, butter, sugars and eggs

Add the flour, baking powder and chocolate chips (and malt or chopped nuts if using)

Put on to a baking tray on some baking paper

Cook for 8-10 minutes

You can cook hotter for a chrispier finish and for less long for a softer center.

One Giant Baby Rabbit

Blondie and Frostie were mated on the same day and both gave birth a week ago. Blondie just had one GIANT baby, Frostie had seven. I decided to get Blondie to adopt 3 of Frosties so they could all get more milk. 

A week later GIANT baby is still much bigger than his (or her I suppose but he seems like a boy to me...) adoptive siblings.