Meet Baby Sarah!

I'm happy to announce that our 3rd niece has made her entrance into the world!

Sarah Katherine Webb was born yesterday, August 2 and weighed 7lbs, 2 oz and is 20 inches long. This is my middle sister's (Katherine) 3rd baby.

She is so sweet from all the pictures I've seen! It's killing us both to not be there. :( But, we will be flying back early September and will get to spend a weekend with them then - I can't wait!

Thank you God for the blessing of sweet little Sarah!

Poll

Please vote in the poll listed at the top - and please vote only once.

I'm trying to get a feel for whether or not I should continue to update our blog. I don't mind doing it and I've enjoyed having a place to post our pictures and experiences, but I want to make sure that people are still interested in checking the blog. Thanks!

Mr. Beer Brewer

Michael used his birthday gift cards to finally buy the stuff to brew his own beer at home. He's wanted to do this for some time now, so now he is officially a home brewer!

Our friends Josh & Julie came over yesterday. Josh brews his own beer too, so he was able to help Michael through the first batch. This first batch was a "nut brown ale" and should be ready to drink in about a month.

Here is the process:

Steeping the bag of grain

Michael & Josh - watching the boiling pot

Me and Julie - supervisors on duty :)

Pouring in the barley malt extract

Adding the hopps (looked and smelled like rabbit food)

Activating the yeast

Pouring the wart (unfermented beer mixture) into the 5 gallon fermenter

Measuring the alcohol level - this beer should be around 5.25%.

Carrying the fermenter down to our cool basement for the next couple of weeks

And here is a short video that shows the fermentation in process. Basically the yeast is doing its thing and it causes the mixture to release gas. So, the little contraption on the top allows the gas to escape without anything coming back in.