Work Day at the Pasture

Saturday was the second work day at the pasture.  It was a bit cool
when we started but ended up to be a beautiful day.

A big THANK YOU to everyone that helped.

HAPPY EASTER!

Happy Easter from Austin! It was a pretty uneventful day although our weather was absolutely beautiful. James and I stopped for kolaches on our way to church, enjoyed a church service full of beautiful music, and spent most of the afternoon doing laundry :-). I couldn't help but reminisce about our traditional Easter celebrations with Grandma and Grandpa. Wish we could have been there!

Last time we posted five close-up pictures of things in our new apartment. Now we have the answers!


Picture one was a lamp James' sister gave us for our wedding.

















Picture two was blinds. And since I just completed my family photo collage, I thought you might enjoy seeing it above the fire place in our living room.









Picture three was a pile of place mats that are no longer in the same place :-).

Picture four was one of James' wedding presents to me - a box made of mother of pearl, a fossilized shell, and other pretty glass. It is sitting on our bed with throw pillows behind it.









Picture five was a small portion of our shower curtain.

















May everyone have a blessed week full of reasons to laugh and smile. Thank you all for so many wonderful memories of Easters past.

Take Care.

Love, Hannah and James

Brewing Up a Storm

As Mary and I have covered at several points in our recent posts and conversations we have started a new hobby. We have been brewing beer, so for this post I have decided to walk you guys through the brewing process.

First like all good recipes we gather all of our ingredients and tools. The recipe today is a Black India Pale Ale or IPA. This is a darker, stronger and more bitter version of most IPAs. What makes it blacker is the use of chocolate malted grains as a substitute for caramel grains (the chocolate and caramel refer to the coloration the grains take on as they are roasted for preservation and flavoring.) The malt extract I will be using is a dark malt extract. (Think of Malt extract as a syrupy version of vegi-mite only edible). The hops are pelleted version of the hops flower which at one point in history was used to preserve beer for casking or bottling, this was before people what sanitation was and that germs not spirits caused outbreaks of disease. The yeast pictured on the left is a liquid ale yeast strain from Wyeast labs. The ingredients for this kit were purchased at a local brewing shop that we frequent called Bitter and Esters.

The equipment pictured is a brew kettle, wort chiller, stirring spoon, funnel w/ screen and plastic carboy. (Not Pictured: Thermometer and hydrometer)

After I have gathered everything together I pour two and a half gallons of water into the brew pot(a giant stock pot roughly 8 gallons). Then we bring the water up to 170 degrees and begin to steep the grains for twenty minutes. This pulls all of the sugars out of the grain and into the water. This is what gives beer both its color and some of its flavor.

Once I have steeped the grains, I turn up the heat and bring the water to a boil then I add the liquid malt extract and hops to the water. Once the these two ingredients are added the water is then called wort. It is now the primary base of beer. It has all the digestible sugars and flavorings it'll need to become beer but lacks alcohol. From here the process is basically a waiting game. The wort needs to boil for another sixty minutes. During this time more hops are added for flavoring, bittering and aroma. The timing and amount of hops added during the boil is dependent upon the type of beer being made. In the case of this Black IPA I am adding four ounces of hops during the boil(flavoring), one ounce of hops post boil(bitttering) and one more ounce (aroma) when I transfer the beer from the primary fermenter into a secondary(I'll explain in a minute).

After boil I need to bring the temperature of the wort down to a manageable level. From here on out I need to be careful with all equipment making sure that I sanitize everything in order to avoid contaminating the beer and causing it to have an off flavor (it would be real hard to ruin a batch of beer and make it undrinkable not impossible but real hard). Now in order to bring the temperature down we use a immersion wort chiller. This thing kind of looks like a still but instead of hot liquid coursing through it we will send cold water through the copper tubing to cool the wort down to 70 degrees. If the wort is over 70 degrees when you add the yeast you will kill the yeast before it has a chance to digest the sugars in the wort and convert them to alcohol. To low and the yeast strains will not activate properly causing fermentation to take to long.

The next step is to transfer the wort to a carboy, straining out the particles(Trub) before it goes in for fermentation. After that we top off the water content up to the five gallon mark. Next shake the mixture. This serves to both mix the wort and to aerate the mixture. The oxygen provided by the aeration is essential for the yeast to do its job.

Next I take a reading with a hydrometer, this measures the specific gravity of a liquid and tells you how dense the liquid is compared to water. Since alcohol is laced with sugars and therefore denser than water it causes the the hydrometer float and give you a reading of the gravity of the of the liquid as well as a percent alcohol measurement. In the Case of the Black IPA the specific gravity reading was 1.080 or roughly 9.8% alcohol. As the sugars are eaten the gravity decreases as does the percent alcohol. Once I have taken a gravity reading we then add the yeast, cap the carboy with a specialized airlock filled with sanitizer solution. This allows the beer to breath out gases caused by the yeast digestion without letting harmful bacteria into the beer and making it run a foul.

After this we do what Kurtis does best...wait. In 7-10 days time. I will transfer the beer(it has all the ingredients and is beginning to form alcohol so it is now called beer) to a secondary fermentor straining out more particulates left by the yeast At this time I will add another ounce of hops (aroma) to the mix. Then I will seal it with another airlock and wait another two weeks. After that I'll once again strain the beer before I bottle the beer adding a bit of sugar into the mix to help form carbonation. Then its back into a box where the beer waits for another three weeks.

And this my friends is how I brew beer. Now I sit back and enjoy a home brew while I patiently wait for the Black IPA to be ready for my belly.

Life with the Givans from A to Z

Hello family:
Hopefully, we can bring you up to date and share a few pictures.  It is in a different format than usual, but oh so me!  Enjoy.

A= Armadillo 

Yes, this is an armadillo skeleton that I found at the pasture, much to my delight.  Best find ever.

B=Books and Bookcases

  We are receiving some books and bookcases from a good friend.  It amounts to about 47 boxes of books but we are sharing with Pa and anyone else who might be interested in history.  Sorry, we are not sharing the bookcases.

C=Chris' Birthday

  We met Chris in Kansas City to celebrate his 21st birthday.  It was unusual.  We opened presents and ate cheesecake in a food court at the mall.

D=Days are longer. 

  I love the longer days. Although, now there is no excuse not to walk for exercise.

E=Eating Disorder Awareness Week

 Wearing purple and writing operation beautiful notes took up this week in February.

F=Fencing

  We are in the process of having a new back and side fence installed.  Hopefully, this will keep the canines in.

G=Great News.

  Our fund raisers in January and February were successful and we raised all the money for the service dog.  The dog will arrive in July 27 ad we should receive pictures soon. It is kind of like waiting on a baby to arrive.

H=Hot.

  I will admit we have gotten hot enough to turn on the air conditioner.  I know-what wimps!

I=I have become very busy at work with camp drawing near.

J=Jeni

  Jeni, my best friend for almost 40 years, came for an unexpected visit this last week.

K=Kindle Fire

  Tim joined the world of the electronic reader and loves it.  He did admit the other day that he is as hooked on new electronic gadgets as the younger generation.

L=Lovely

  I had a lovely birthday celebration.  Even received some toys.

M=Mandalay

  What is a Givan post without the pets?

N=Noel   Noel has decided that the dogs are here to stay and she might as well endure.

O=One year anniversary of Kate being home.

Kate and I celebrated by buying the second season of Glee, having a decorated cupcake and eating McDonald's.  Tim was in Colorado so missed the moment but did send flowers.

P=Packer

  This is Jeni's dog who travels with her.  He is about the size that Kate's service dog will be.  Extra Large!

Q=Quiet

  When Kate is in Wichita and Chris at school, it is too quiet at our house.

R=Read

  One of my few hobbies-I still love to read.  (to myself and any little great nieces that might be around)

S=Shona  She has no idea what is in store for her when the big brother or sister arrive in July.

T=Thomas    My poor boy has some issues.  His tummy is bare.  The consensus is that he doesn't fit through the hole in the fence and leaves a little bit of fur behind each time he goes through it.

U=U  We always love to hear what U are doing so don't forget to post when it is your turn.

V=Vacation  Once in a while we go on vacation.  To Colorado and to 

W=Washington D. C.    We had a mini vacation here when we picked up Kate in January.

X=Xtra Special People  

  You are all extra special.

Y=Yardwork

  Yardwork season is here.  We are trying to just do what we can actually maintain.  Sometimes we have a follow through problem with plants and stuff when it gets hot.

Z=ZZZZZZZZZZZ

Good night and good bye till next time.

Love Auntie and Uncle Tim