Wisconsin doesn’t win many firsts, but we were apparently the first
state in the nation in rainfall over the last two weeks with all of the
usual consequences that go along with that. An elderly man in the
Madison area was swept away by flood waters from his car into a culvert
and drowned. Milwaukee released 296 million gallons of raw sewage into
local rivers and Lake Michigan so that the effluent didn’t back up into
people’s basements. We have had plenty of heat to go along with the
rain which has meant high humidity and a healthy crop of mosquitoes.
Closer to home, I moved Justin back into the dorms for the fall
semester on Thursday. He was ready to go back to leading life without
parents nagging him, and we were ready to stop nagging him. Classes
start next week. I talked to him last night on the phone, and it
sounded like he was making new friends and settling into dorm life.
Allie is still in Greece, vacationing with her Turkish boyfriend. It
sounds like they are having a great time, living on a meager budget but
enjoying the street food and beaches. My last “to do” task will be
picking her up at the Chicago airport late Tuesday night and driving to
her Milwaukee apartment where she will start the fall semester one day
late on Wednesday. I will try to get some sleep on Wednesday before
taking off west in the Brew Hut.
Most of my preparation work for the trip west is done. I’ve been
picking up little odds and ends at the last-minute. The square plate at
the bottom of the Brew Hut’s trailer tongue’s jack has seemed a little
shaky to me, so Amazon shipped me an 8 dollar Camco cone stand which is
supposed to be more stable and multi-functional. We’ll see. The plate
can be re-installed if the plastic thing doesn’t work out. If it works, I
can eliminate the cinder block that I’ve been carrying around as a jack
stand.
I also restocked green (raw) coffee beans for the trip. Friday
afternoon was spent roasting so that Julia can have fresh coffee while
I’m gone. Most people don’t know that you can freeze (colder the
better) freshly roasted coffee in small one pound freezer bags, and then
use one bag at a time (defrosted and staying at room temperature), and
the quality is excellent. Blind taste tests don’t lie. What you don’t
want to do is take frozen coffee back and forth out of the freezer
allowing it to partially defrost or be exposed to humidity. It should go
without saying that the coffee has to be fresh-roasted. Putting stale
coffee into the freezer doesn’t preserve anything. For myself, I plan
on roasting coffee in the Brew Hut while traveling. Still working out
those details.
Other than that, I’ve been stocking the kitchen with canned goods
(black beans, coconut cream) and spices so that I can make my staple
curries and dirty beans with rice.
Recent reports from the Badlands are that it may be muddy with
reduced access to the location that I hoped to camp, but weather
changes. We’ll see how it goes. There will be a back-up plan.
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