Local Brew revisited.

 

 

 First I malted the millet with a series of soaking and drying.

 Then we pounded the millet and corn in a genuine african pounder.

 Boiled and sparged with the addition of a good bit of local made honey.

Fermented in a local cooking oil container that I fashioned into a fermenter.

 End product is a relatively palatable beer concidering I really have no clue what I am doing. Crisp lightly malty flavor with a little hoppy bitterness from the leftover yeast I used (the ONLY imported product) as I am still working out how to do natural yeast culturing. Only about 2% alcohol which is typical of this type of beer and brewing technique.

Status Quo

Just to update some curiosities. The chickens are doing great. All three are laying eggs almost daily and they have established a working pecking order (literal use of the term) that has been interesting to watch evolve. Most days they come calling for breakfast around 7am and I find them in the grass waiting somewhat patiently. Yesterday they were making quite the ruckus, it looked like they had been saving up poop for a week and let it all loose in the laundry room. I found them perched up on the railing of the Gazeebo and sitting in the lounge chair obviously put off by something. I turned around to see this monster next to the back door, no idea where it came from or how it got in the compound but moose was very curious and I was perplexed as we are nearly a mile from the beach.

Life Lesson

When a mechanic says he can fix anything on your car but the only tools you ever see are a hammer and a giant metal stake. Turn around and don't look back. My initial high esteem of dirt lot African mechanics may have been ill placed. The truck is now at a real Land Rover repair shop having the engine rebuilt for the THIRD time in as many months. I had to finish the air conditioning install myself and fork out more money to fix broken pipes and wiring the last guy did that could have easily burned the truck to the ground. Expensive lesson learned; do it the right way, not the cheap way, because in the end the former turns out to be the latter.

Post Concert Debacle

The concert finished a little before 1am and we headed for the truck. Before we even got to the car I had a feeling something was wrong as my driver side door was ajar. A couple days earlier someone got into the truck and stole a cheap little pair of binoculars and tried to get away with our crappy cassette player but was either spotted or gave up. The Stereo was attached and hanging out of the dash like an eyeball dangling from its socket. I expected them to have finished the job this time making off with the stereo and our hand-me-down collection of beat up 80s rock band tapes. Everything seemed in order till the key went in the ignition, nothing happened...I was beyond irrate, I was seething as I immediately knew some jackass had stolen my brand new battery. If the so-called guard had walked up at that moment there would have been an international incident, because I would have knocked both of his teeth out. We caught a ride home with a friend and I sat on the couch fuming with a glass of scotch watching the end of the Ice Age cartoon. Finally at about 2:30am I couldnt take it anymore as visions of getting to the truck in the morning and finding it gutted and stripped to the frame danced in my head. I told Nikki I was going to bring her home one way or another, tonight. I went out back and found an old battery still connected to what was left of our antique generator, disconnected it and started walking the mile or so back the truck. About half way there I was able to flag down a cab making sure he had jumper cables. Battery in, started right up and brought her home.

Local Music

 

Last week we attended a local music concert. It was a percussive experience to remember. It started with 20 people in a semi-circle from 3 different tribes. The announcer said we could easily tell them apart by their drums (not so much, they were all identical to me). They used plain old tree twigs about 18 inches long and their hands to beat the drums hanging at their sides. The drum leader completely shredded 4 drum twigs in the course of the concert. The impressive part was the absolute and complete synchronicity of the playing, it was not a random or ill prepared performance by novice beaters. 20 people beating as if they were 1, perfect..They had an impressive amplifier system hooked up so your guts vibrated, and I couldnt help get goosebumps the first few minutes despite the fact it was still almost 90 degrees at 10pm. They also did alternating sets with many of the local and traditional instruments such as the Kora which is a really tall string instrument carved from a gourd and sports 21 strings. During these instrumental sets they had some female singers, one of which had a voice that could have been used to torture information out of Bin Laden. There was some VERY energetic dancing that if I had attempted it I would have broken both my legs. One of the dancers was a wirey old dude that immediately made me think of Yoda. There were some oddities that took place; its customary to go up on stage and tip the performers (while they are performing) so throughout the concert people are going and handing the performers money. Some lingered there dancing with backs to the audience, others stayed up to chat as they continued performing. The experince was well worth it and we finally got to hear local music.