12/22/2011
A cold glass of Kombucha in the morning is refreshing way to fill up on vitamins, minerals, enzymes and health-giving organic acids. It's about a 2 week process from brewing the tea to drinking the Kombucha. Each batch requires an active culture called a scoby, which is looks like a rubbery pancake. The scoby digests the sugar in the tea and produces vitamins, minerals, enaymes and acids. After two test runs, Kevin and I just divded our scoby and doubled how many batches we're making. You can see Kevin dividing the scoby and getting ready to return it to the new jars of tea. Now we'll have enough Kombucha for us and for sharing!
For more information on brewing Kombucha visit Seeds of Health
| Food & Cooking |
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Comments [0]
11/28/2011
I can't wait to try this recipe on the boat! Add some ice, a slice of lime and a bourbon float; it's even great on a rainy day in the Northwest. It's going to be amazing while reclining in the hammock on the bow. My creative husband has been fermenting ginger ale and kombucha in our kitchen. His kombucha will be ready soon!
Ingredients for homemade ginger ale:
Sugar
Freshly grated ginger root (2 Tbs) only fresh ginger root
Juice of one lemon
Fresh granular baker's yeast (1/4 tsp)
Cold fresh pure water
You can find complete step by step directions with pictures at Wikihow
| Food & Cooking |
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09/10/2011, San Juan Islands
Click here to view our honeymoon photo book larger
| Cruising |
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08/26/2011, San Juan Islands, Washington
"This is the best honeymoon we could possibly have", Kevin said every day. We worked as a team, choosing and planning where to go and how to get there. Together, we spent our days listening to the forecast, reading the tide and current charts, comparing harbors and bays, making meals, catching our food, exploring on water and land, pleasure reading, fishing, and napping. We balanced our time on and off the boat. We learned together and did things for the first time together. We only had to check the time to know when to take advantage of currents and tides. The sunset told us when to go to bed. Our bodies told us when to wake up. We had to turn on our phones to remember what day of the week it was. We listened to each other with clarity and without distraction. The two weeks flew.
As our honeymoon was coming to an end and we were making our way back to Seattle, I thought about how I didn't want to stop having the connection and the feeling of being on our honeymoon. I want to create that honeymoon feeling in our life no matter when it is or where we are. I want to bring teamwork, playfulness, spontaneity, calmness, adventure and physical touch into our structured, busy, city lives. I want to be on our honeymoon forever.
| Thoughts & Philosophies |
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So...since our last post, life has been happening all around us. The major thing coming up for us is our wedding and honeymoon! In two weeks we'll be Mr. and Mrs.! Our wedding is going to be on the MV Skansonia, an old referbished ferryboat on Seattle's Lake Union. The day after the wedding we'll be taking off from Shillshole to cruise the San Juan Islands for 2 weeks. This will be, for both of us, our longest cruise. We are so excited to be on a relaxed cruising schedule and have a good chunk of time to just go where the wind and current take us. This weekend we are going to sit down, look at the current and tide tables and map out a rough idea of what islands we want to make sure get to. Then, we'll keep in mind that everything is flexible and we can stay longer or leave early, skip places and add places. The count down is on...we're San Juan's bound in 15 days!
| Trip Planning |
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Fair winds. Dave S/V Chrysalis II
05/19/2010
Our boat won't sail itself to a distant destination. Kevin and I will have to take shifts to get there. During 'Round Whidbey, WINSA's annual race around Whidbey Island, a 30 hour race, Kevin and I were on the same shift. Sailing during the day was peaceful and playful. We sang, ate good food, played word games, talked about the race and gave each other back rubs. The wind was steady, the sun was shining and currents complimented our course.
We started shifts with the crew of 6 after dinner. Kevin and I were the first to rest. After our 2 hour break, which ended up being about 40 minutes of actual sleep, my eyes were tired and I wanted more sleep. Taking over for the opposite shift, I was frustrated with the subtle breeze and conflicting currents that seem to be a tradition of the island's south tip during this race each year. Once night fell, the wind dropped and the cold set in, our time sailing together on the same shift wasn't as romantic and carefree anymore. It was cold and frustrating. When we're blue water sailing, it will be colder. When we're blue water sailing, we will be ships passing in the night, keeping opposite shifts to sail the boat.
Colder; I can handle with better gear. Frustrating; that will change when the focus isn't on racing and trying to beat other boats. The part I'm apprehensive about is the ships passing in the night part. I want to go on this blue water trip to be with Kevin, not pass buy him between shifts.
I want to sail together and be together. I want it to be romantic and carefree as much and as often as possible. Anyone have ideas on how to stay connected when cruising?
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| Thoughts & Philosophies |
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You need not worry I am sure you'll realise a cruise is not a race, and you can adjust the few watches you need to keep to maximise time together.
Sue and I spent a year in 20076 cruising Turkey to Caribbean and despite some long legs, the reality was the longest period which did require watches was the Atlantic (16 days). We took a good pal with us to give an extra set of hands without adding lots to the crsuising inventory - and it was a great trip.
Most times the max we'd sail non stop was maybe 3 days - and even then we'd sail together daylight hours. Sue tended to cook up an evening meal which we'd share beofre 9 pm, then I'd hit the sack until 1 am. Sue would wake me with chocolate and a cuddle for her, and strong black coffee for me, and I'd see the night through until daybreak. A early morning snooze usually saw me join Sue for midmorning - and we'd share the days together. It works fine as a regime for maintaining our romance and fact are if Sue was not enjoying ti
