A Good Cuppa Joe

This morning I finished off the first batch of coffee I roasted over the weekend. It was Sumatra Gr.1 Mandheling from Sweet Maria's. I started with this coffee because it is supposed to have a full body. We have been drinking Starbucks French Roast for so long, I didn't want to jump too far off that trail with the first roast. Since I roasted the beans to "Full City" instead of French Roast, the flavor was not as dark as we were used to, but it was full-bodied and very good. So, the roaster is a hit so far.

Yesterday afternoon I roasted some Ethiopia Kembata Grade 4 Dry-Process beans. The roaster can handle 150 grams of coffee at a time -- enough for about two 32oz pots. I went for a Full City+ roast this time; just a little bit darker. Here is a picture of the beans:



I like the "garden grown" aspect of this coffee. I can just imagine the small plots that these beans must come from -- 20 trees here, 15 trees there, 150 trees over here. Sounds like a recipe for "character" to me. I hope it is good character. Tom at Sweet Maria's sure sounds like he knows a lot, and he gives the coffee high, though uneven marks. Tomorrow will tell the story I guess. I am looking forward to it.


One thing about roasting your own coffee: It's pretty smokey. Yesterday I set off the smoke detector on the other side of the house going for my darker roast. That was with the doors open. I think I will have start ducting the smoke outside with the optional hose attachment. That will probably cut down on the "Should I call the fire department yet?" comments I get from the coffee bean gallery too. (That Cookie doesn't mind telling you what is on her mind!)

It is cold and foggy here this evening. No OKFree training today. Instead, I ran a bit. The fog and cold kept it to a short 4.75 miles on the mountain. I also started late and didn't want to finish on a rough trail after dark even with my headlamp. The fog makes visibility too difficult even with my very bright Petzl headlamp.

Night night!

Ms. Pastry Chef

Today's picture is of yesterday's pastry chef. We rode to the top of Mt. Tamalpais today on our mountain bikes. Lori, in the spirit of competition, decided to push the pace. I think she might be an exercise bulimic (read yesterday's article link if that sounds weird to you). I guess that is someone that exercises until they puke. Of course, Lori usually only does that on half and full iron distance triathlons. I guess it is a mild case.



Anyway, the picture is with the G9 and a bit of flash to help out with the sun behind her head. It was another gorgeous day on the mountain for us.

Oh yeah, we went down to Stinson Beach for a walk on the beach with Cookie. It was super beautiful as the fading sunlight reflected off the wet beach. Too bad I left my camera in the car...

Then we had burgers at the Sand Dollar. It's always a roll of the dice when you go in there. We have had very excellent meals, and very, very bad meals. The last couple were so bad it took us six months to go back. We figured that the burgers were the lowest risk tonight. They were okay, but McDonald's can make edible burgers (most off the time), and McDonald's fries are better. Problem is, the Sand Dollar is way closer than McDonald's. Baby steps I guess, and maybe we will be able to eat there again every once in a while.

Hiking my Favorite Mountain Trail

On Thursday I didn't feel like running, so I decided to go for a hike with some cameras. The clouds and fog looked very dramatic from 101 as I drove home, so I thought there were some potentially nice photos to be taken if the clouds broke on the Mountain. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out quite as good as I would have liked, and the best photo opportunities were taken with the Hasselblad. That means I don't have anything to show from those pictures yet. However, I did take some pictures with my Canon.

Old Mine trail is one of my favorite trails. These pictures are from a part of the trail that I rarely slow down to enjoy when I am running, so it was nice to hike through here. Here is the trail:




Shortly after this shot, I saw movement on the trail in front of me. This little guy popped out of the next turn. He/she slowed down long enough for me to snap a couple of pictures:




Very cute. I told Cookie about the encounter and she wasn't surprised. Apparently she had an SMS from the little deer saying she had seen me. Kids these days are so well connected.

Finally, the whole point of hiking up Old Mine was to see if we could see the city. It turned out to be mostly just a dream...

Building Mountains

Today was a good day on The Mountain. I managed to do a short hike this morning for some film photography with the Hasselblad. I also captured this image (with the Canon G9) of the MMWD's work building the mountain to meet their vision on the Gravity trail:



This new drainage pipe will eliminate the big pool that used to form on the uphill side of the road when we got a lot of rain. I'm sure it is the right thing to do for the road, but the pool will be missed -- It's always been a sight to see the redwood trees springing out of the big pool.

The rest of my photos are on film. Mostly black and white, but one on Velvia ISO 50. The Velvia is 7 years expired. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. The B&W was TMAX 100, and it is on its way to Dwayne's as I type.

I also got a great 6+ miles running in this evening. 60 degrees and a foggy sunset. Couldn't be better.

On Monday my mountain trail takes me to Botswana. I'm torn. It's a trip of a lifetime --though for business. And, I have to leave my paradise here. More to come on this topic I'm sure...

As you know, tomorrow is Lori's birthday. Of course you knew that... It's a (or should be a) national holiday! It's all about her tomorrow!

Night night!

Spare the air today.

Today was a "spare the air" day in the Bay Area, so I decided to ride Eddy to work. He was good with that. You can see some of the temperature inversion-trapped smog in the photo of San Francisco. It was 72 degrees this morning when I left the house, and 79 degrees on the top of Mount Tam.

It was actually quite an eventful commute. It started with a bunch of turkeys jamming up the road. Can you believe the nerve of those guys (and gals)?

Then there was the spider web...

and a coyote...

and some deer -- here seen jumping into the Pacific ocean.

And finally, a quick shot of Alpine Lake.

As I rolled off the Mountain into Fairfax, a series of three cars rushed to turn left in front of me. The first two had enough time, the third one would have sent me to the hospital. He crossed the yellow line, braked, and then managed to get back on his side before I went by at about 20mph. He was almost as scared as I was -- but you had to be on my side of the action to know fear for your life. Ah well, all in a day's commute, eh?

Coyote Commute

Welcome to my latest blog. I have two other blogs, but they are very topic specific. One is about shaving, and mostly shaving brushes. The other is about woodworking.

This blog will be about the rest of life here on Mt. Tamalpais... and other places we pass through. Much of the content will probably by photos. Enjoy and comment if you wish.

On Tuesday I rode my bike to work via The Mountain, and I saw this local resident on Bolinas Ridge. I've seen him up here hunting mice before, and I ended up seeing him again on the way to work on Wednesday. I shot the picture with my G9, but one of these days I will have to try to catch him with a bigger camera. Still, pretty cool.