Beep Beep Boop

I see that both WordPress and FourSquare both use silly text that sounds like R2D2 when you are waiting for content to load. I like it better than a progress bar or a spinner, but maybe only because it’s novel, but that’s wearing off as I see it more.

Meanwhile, brewing continues. Upgraded to 5 gallons, which has been interesting. I have started measuring original and final gravity, and my measurements relatively closely match expected outcomes.

One point of room for improvement and refinement: temperature. I still let the beer get too warm. That’s fine right now in the summertime, when I’m brewing saison style, but I need to better control the temperature.

The garden has been a disappointment. The vegetable garden became overgrown, and only the radishes produced food. We have a couple of tomato plants on the back porch that are starting to bear fruit, and we’ve harvested a few raspberries, but without petroleum-fueled food distribution, we certainly would starve. Then again, it’s not like I’ve spent that much time in the garden.

The rain garden is healthier than normal, perhaps because of a few sessions of aggressive weeding, so the neighborhood pollinators can thank me, even if we’ve precious little flowering plants of our own beyond wildflowers.

And then there are the hops: brutally attacked by squirrels, they are stunted. The Centennials are barely a foot tall, but the Willamettes have at least reached the top of the clothes line.

We’ll call this a “building year” for gardening, and invest in raised beds with chicken wire next year.