Work is a drag

I have to go in on my day off
Enough Said

Steve

The day after a good bye dinner...

So a good buddy of mine just left for a deployment today and he will be sorely missed by both me and my children.  Mr. Dan has been hanging out at my house for about 9 months and he has been a real good friend.  he even tolerates the children well.  On with the story.  Mr. Dan came over for Christmas Eve and I was going to take him to the airport Christmas morning so that he could go to Connecticut and see his family but about midnight Christmas Eve he got a call and had to divert his tickets to San Antonio because of a sick family member.  No biggie I was glad to take him where ever he needed.  So then he finds out his deployment date and his sister and brother in law fly out to visit him the weekend prior to his deployment.  I told Mr. Dan that we would have them over for a dinner and then started the planing. It was not a big get together but we did have a lb turkey.  Yes lbs of turkey for 7 people.   I started the turkey on the smoker about AM and let it smoke until 530 pm when i took it off to rest.  Then we started  the rest of the food. we made a standard Thanksgiving dinner and fixings. yummy and then we broke into the honey wheat that I brewed  a couple of weeks ago.  Again yummy.  We talked about Mr Dan and his family and had a good time.  Cayla my wife called Mr. Dan out about his love life in front of his sister and then we all had a good laugh.  We found out a lot about Mr Dan and what makes him tick.  It was a very revealing evening. 
Good Luck and God Speed Mr. Dan be safe and keep your head down and your bomb suit on.  Remember if you hear DUCK don't look up it is not a bird...

You will be missed

So I have started to blog again but for who knows for how long.   Tonight I have had a few drinks to include my Honey Wheat that I started on the 26th of December.  I will gladly drink it over and over again.   it is kinda bubbly right now but in the next few weeks it should mellow out and be very drinkable. The honey wheat is an extract that was ordered from (Homebrewers.com) it came with everything i needed to include fresh honey from Flagstaff AZ.  I will brew this one again and soon it will be a great summer drink.
Cayla wants me to try a hard cider here soon so I have been trying to locate a good hard cider ingredients kit so if you know of one please let me know...

On a different note I have been prescribed a CPAP and I will be getting it in a few weeks. I am told that I will be put up for a Medical Board in a couple of months and it really does make me nervous. What am I going to do. I cant brew beer and support my family no matter how much I would like to be able to do just that..  We have no idea where we will end up if I am boarded but the thought is Arizona, Oregon, or Washington. 
I plan on brewing a Smoked Porter on my next weekend off and I will post up on how the whole process goes. 


Cheers
Steve

Worked on the Jeep and got the Front Long Arms in.

So today I went to Tooele at about 8:am and knocked on Scott's door and we got to work. We put the kids in the play room and then started unbolting the current suspension system and installing the new one. It was a lot of work and thank god Scott was there to do the welding and tell me what to do. the kids had a great time playing and then decided that at about 3:00 pm they wanted to play outside so we hooked them with shoes and let them go hog wild. Unfortunately the went a little to hog wild and got into the hose and tried to wash the dogs. From what i was told it was a real mess.
We got a lot of work done today and we have the rear to start in the morning. We will be replacing the rear axel, replacing all of the bushing in the short arm that I have in the jeep now and re gearing the front axle. . I will be also picking up a set of extended break lines in the next few days so. Scott also says I may need a set of limiting straps at some point also.

Went to Cabelas and REI

So I went to Cabelas and REI today it was a good day. Took the kids to see the fish and other cool stuff in the store. We had lunch and looked at the fish and then did some shopping. David got a stuffed fish and ZZ got a stuffed Turtle. I also purchased a jacket and some fuge for Cayla. She told me she did not want anything but you should always get something from Cabelas.
Then I went to REI to look for a backpack and found one. it was half off so i figured i would get it. so i am all just about set for the camping trip coming up in a week and a half.
I am heading to Scott's early in the morning about 7:30 to 8:00 am to start working on my jeep. the plan is to have my Jeep torn down and re built no later than Tuesday night so i can put it through it's paces to make sure it will be good for our camping trip. I will upload a bunch of photos and videos of the work starting Monday night and follow up Tuesday night. What fun this will be.
Steve