Spring at Last

Mary and I trekked out to Hawksbill Cabin looking forward at last to a weekend where the temps are getting up to spring time altitude.  Since I was out last weekend, I'd had a glimpse of what to expect, even though the temperatures had gotten into the teens (!) last weekend.

I knew, for example, that our daffodils would likely be in bloom - except for the ones the deer dug up, that is - and of course, the forsythia was ready to bust out.  It certainly did not disappoint.

Along with a couple of spring errands, we were able to meet up with old friends at the vineyard, where we took a group walk out to Little Hawksbill Creek.  It was great to see everyone coming out of hibernation - there's a lot to look forward to in these parts this year.

We also decided to head over to the Mimslyn for their deluxe brunch on Easter Sunday.  It's almost exactly what you might expect for a small Virginia town: everyone coming out in their fine clothes, ladies with hats - and the feast was very good.  We enjoyed some lamb and roast beef (we skipped the ham, in honor of Kevin Bacon, lol).

Afterwards, back at Hawksbill Cabin, Mary made some calls to the New Jersey family while I came out to the brick terrace to write some blog posts.  I wanted something appropriate to the season for background music, and found just what I wanted deep in the CD box:  Copland's Appalachian Spring.  Then I set to post, with that composition and the peepers in the background.

Here and There Hops

David texted the other night with an update on progress at Hawksbill Hop Yards - most of the materials for the trellis has been ordered, and the field is now staked to mark out where the installation will happen.  We'll take a look at everything this weekend to check it out.

On that account, the poles have arrived at the co-op and they're being stored on the trailer, so all that has to be done is to go pick them up.  We're waiting for the other supplies to arrive to consolidated trips.

Also, with spring arriving, I am keeping an eye on the three "crowns" I have in my backyard in Alexandria - two Goldings and a Willamette.  The photo here is the Willamette - you can see a half dozen or more little red shoots coming up on this plant, which is now getting started on its third year.

Both of the Goldings plants also have shoots, but not nearly so many.  They are in a shadier spot in the backyard so they'll just run a little later.

One of the Goldings is also three years old, but was damaged during transplanting last year so it didn't do very well - hopefully it has recovered this year.  The other plant was in its first year last year, so this will be the year to see good bine growth and maybe some cones.

Everything needs fertilizer - the soil probably needs a pH treatment as well.  I'll get right on that.

Hawksbill Hop Yards - Location Hint

While we have been making solid progress on the hop  yards these last few months, we haven't exactly let on yet where it is located.  On Saturday afternoon I took a drive over to get a photo of the yards from a distance - to give a bit more of a locational perspective.

In the photo here, the yards is the cleared area in the middle ground.  That's Kennedy Peak on the Massanutten ridge in the background.  Of course, we are just north of Luray and probably about a mile from the Caverns.

That's about all we're prepared to reveal for now, but there will be more news soon enough.

On another note, David told me that our irrigation is in last week - we posted some photos of that as well.  Last weekend the temps dipped to 19 degrees - quite a surprise for March, by the way - so he turned the water on at a trickle overnight to protect the set-up.

The pretty little icy scene at right was the result, but everything was fine overnight.

I hope our friends at Wisteria fared as well in the frost - I'll get by to check in with them next weekend.

A Visit to Atlas Brew Works

After taking care of a little business at Hawksbill Hop Yards this weekend - more on that tomorrow - I came back to Alexandria early to join Mary at a birthday happy hour for our friend Kathy over at Atlas Brew Works, in SE DC.  This was to be my first visit at this brewery, web site here, and I was looking forward to it.    

Thanks to Siri's directions, we arrived with almost no hitches, although the convenient location of this brewery makes it easy enough to find.  They'd set up a little party area for us off to the side of the bar in the tasting area - some snacks, and quick and easy access to the taps.

For myself, I had the Rowdy, described as a hop forward Rye at 6.2%.  Checking the ingredients - I see Bravo, Zythos, and Centennial hops...Bravo is a high alpha bittering hops and is probably the biggest contributor to the hoppiness of this beer, while Zythos and Centennial are more medium alpha varieties, complementing the Bravo for flavor and less bitterness.  Of course, the rye malt offsets some of the alpha strength of the combo.

I have to admit, now that the hop yards is in progress, I am paying more attention to the ingredients and brewing craft in these breweries.  In fact, I did a quick scan of the list of hops on the menu and didn't see any of Hawksbill Hop Yards varieties - and thought to myself that maybe from now on every brewery visit will become market research.  Such is life.



The brewery is housed in an old industrial building, where they have made good use of the loading dock and open warehouse space for the 40BBL brewery and supporting functions.  This was probably the 10th brewery I've visited since last May (the Northern California Beer Pilgrimage/Marathon, as Mary likes to call it) - so I'm getting to know my way around.  We had a great time checking things out.

And the beer was really good, so it will be one I keep an eye out for when we're out and about, especially since they've recently gotten distribution into Virginia.  It was a nice affair for Kathy's birthday - a great idea for a place to celebrate, and a great way to conclude the weekend.

Spring and Hops

Last weekend we made it back our to Hawksbill Cabin for the first time in a few weeks.  Along with errands, high on our list of things to do was a stop at the Hop Yards.

Our field has come a long way since we first began this project in January - Mary and David are in the cleared field in the first photo, but back in January, it was a lot different when Dan and David walked along the road in front of it (link here).









The other big development for the weekend was the arrival of irrigation to the field - David put in a few hours Saturday to connect it up.  Hops need water, and now we have the source and distribution.

I guess all we need now is a trellis.  And some hops.

Black Helicopters at SBUX

Yesterday morning as I was walking over to my neighborhood Starbucks in Bethesda, I heard the sound of approaching helicopters.  Because of our perch on the palisades over the Potomac, it's not unusual to have a executive sortie flyby, or even larger, squadron-sized groups pass overhead using the river as a navigation guide.

What struck me about these three are the large auxiliary fuel tanks they were carrying - obviously they were setting out on a long range voyage.

I decided to make the rest of the day tactical as a result.  I think I was a success.

First Spring Visit to Wisteria

The vines are gathering their strength for the year.  The
mountain behind is in Shenandoah National Park.

There was still a crisp edge to the spring mornings this weekend, but both days were sunny and pleasant.  On Sunday after a few errands we decided to make a stop by our neighbors Sue and Moussa at Wisteria Vineyards - we had a wine club selection to pick up, and we decided we might make a picnic lunch to enjoy there for a break.

We learned that a photographer had been around researching a shoot later that day, and Sue invited us back in the afternoon so that there would be a few people around in case he needed subjects in the photos.  So we took care of a few more errands and returned, just as the sunlight was turning golden, low in the sky.  I took advantage of it myself for the Instagram photos accompanying this post.

The sheep were a little perturbed by all the people in the pasture,
but they got over it once they made their way to the rations.

There was a good crowd of old friends and acquaintances when we arrived at around 5:30, and the photographer was out in the fields setting up his location.  Just then the sun hit a perfect angle, bathing the entire scene in a golden light, and ten or so of us headed out for the shoot.

Wisteria features a charming little road that runs through the vineyard to Little Hawksbill Creek.  It dips and rises over uneven ground and is marked off from the vines with a plank fence made from cedars that were cleared from the property.  This formed the setting for the photography.

After a few minutes of waiting, the sun was exactly right, and the photographer called us to walk down the road in pairs and threes.

We had a preview of some of the shots - there's no doubt he has a publishable one in the mix.  The results of his work are due to appear in Wine Speculator in June, and some of the other Valley venues will be there, too.  He said he'd likely take in DuCard over in Sperryville and the Copper Fox Distillery in order to complement the work he'd done at Wisteria.

Just another Valley weekend though, when you get down to it - there's always a pleasant adventure out there if you keep your eyes open for it!

Hawksbill Hop Yards - Progress Report

There is a lot going on at the hop yards these days - David sent along a report on Thursday evening showing the clear ground.  That's just about the end of our current stage of activities, just a couple of steps to go - rolling a disc through the soil to break it up, and then soil amendments.

To get that part right, we'll be looking at pH, which should be between 6.0 and 6.5 - and if needed we'll boost with lime.  For potassium and phosphorous, he plans to spread chicken litter.  Of course, N is important as well, especially for hops, and that is the final one of the "big three" we'll be getting a look at.

To be sure we get it right, there have been a few conversations with the extension agent.  There's good interest from the state in this crop and we know they will be there to support.

In the first photo above, the view is looking at the yards from the northwest - in the background, you can see the Blue Ridge in Shenandoah National Park.  The second peak from the right is Hawksbill Mountain, the highest point in the park, and the namesake of the hop yards - also the namesake of a bunch of other stuff in Page County and Luray!

The second photo was taken a few days ago, just after the clocks were adjusted forward.  With the extra daylight, David took a photo in the fields at dusk.  In addition to the hop yards, this new ground is going to be planted with more of those wonderful Public House Produce vegetables - and that's something we can all look forward to!

Summer's not far away at all, people!

The NC-VA Regional Hops Conference

Photo of the sold-out crowd on Saturday, yours truly visible in
the light blue shirt to the far right.

This weekend I was at the first ever hops growers' conference, put on by NC State University down in Winston-Salem.  The conference was the finale of a four year hops research and extension project - much of the knowledge gained is on the web at this link.

There was a Friday session for beginning growers - that one certainly attracted my attention; and a Saturday session that went into more detail.  I ended up attending both sessions, which provided an opportunity to meet with a couple of the folks from the Old Dominion Hops Co-operative, but also Facebook friend Marty, who was stationed in Berlin when I was there and went on to complete a very successful USAF career before settling into the Piedmont area of NC, convenient to the location of the conference.

Among the topics covered were:

• Organic Hops Case Study by Rita and John of Blue Ridge Hops
• Trellis Building Case Study by David Goode of Piedmont Hops
• Welcome Presentation by Jeanine Davis at NCSU and Stan Driver, who founded the Co-op and has Hoot'n Holler Hops
• Brewing Science presentations from VT and NCSU
• The Economics of Hops by Devon Kistler at Huguenot Hops
• What Brewers Want by Fullsteam Brewery and Lost Rhino Brewing

Sponsorships rounded out the experience, with several of the sponsors providing displays including the one above, of an in-line trellis system.  These folks included Fertrell, The Lupulin Exchange, Sierra Nevada, Cumberland Sales Company, Haas, NCSU, Blue Mountain Brewery, Fullsteam Brewery, Hoot'n Holler Hops, and the Old Dominion Hops Co-op.

There was plenty to learn and I'll probably be spending the next two weeks trying to assimilate it all.  Meanwhile, next weekend will be my first trip back to Hawksbill Hop Yards since the log chopping visit of a few weeks back.  I'll check in with David to see how the clearing is going - and to plan for a few of our spring milestones, including planting!

"Relax, and Have a Home Brew" - Advice for Beginner Brewers

Three or four times now I've been asked by friends and acquaintances for advice about how to get started home brewing.  Now, I've only been doing this myself for four years, so I'm still very much a newbie - but I'm humbled by the requests, and glad to offer my insights to help get other enthusiasts started.  So today's post is a snippet of the advice I typically give on the topic.

My journey started with sitting sidesaddle with a couple of more experienced brewers - namely neighbor Dan and my friends Brendan and Stan.  After watching them, and helping them, with a batch each, I moved on to doing a series of one-gallon small batches, with the goal of progressing through all the steps on my own so I would know if I liked it well enough to progress to larger batches.

Here's a page with one gallon kits, as an example:

One Gallon Beer Kits

I ended up doing five one gallon batches (mostly from Brooklyn Brew Shop, which is represented on the page above along with others), so I really began to understand the process.  It underscored the importance of cleaning an sanitation, which should be drilled into everyone's head as often as possible when starting out.  Also, in reality, one gallon ends up taking the same amount of time as five gallons due to the accessory chores, which is another reason it's good to start small.

From there, I moved up to a five gallon set up.  I bought mine at a local home brew shop in Falls Church, Virginia, but there are tons of other resources for this, including two vendors I often use for ingredients:

http://www.northernbrewer.com (I tend to go to this one first)
http://www.midwestsupplies.com

Both of these have starter sets of all the equipment you need for a 5 gallon brew.

As a home brewer builds experience, there are two additional things he or she can look into: joining a local home brew club, and investing in some recipe books.  On the local home brew club, I'm a member of Blue Ridge Brewers Association, which meets in Luray (there's a link to the blog in my blog list on the right).  We meet three or four times a year to exchange information of interest to the brewers, to share recipes, and to do tastings of whatever new batches that our brewers bring along.

For recipe books, there are several I can recommend - with Amazon links below:

• Anything by Charlie Papazian is a good read.  I quoted him in the title of this post - "Relax, and have a home brew." You can find older editions with plenty of references to the 1970's, which are a hoot, but here's a more recent one: 

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Fourth Edition: Fully Revised and Updated

• Also, there are tons of good recipe books, such as "Designing Great Beers" by Ray Daniels, or Dave Miller's "Homebrewing Guide."

Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles

Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide: Everything You Need to Know to Make Great-Tasting Beer

• Finally, if the hobby leads you to totally geek out, as it has for me, now that I am starting Hawksbill Hop Yards, you can dig into specific ingredients by checking out books like "For the Love of Hops" by Stan Hieronymus.  Obviously this is the direction I'm headed now...

For The Love of Hops: The Practical Guide to Aroma, Bitterness and the Culture of Hops (Brewing Elements)

I hope this info is useful to those getting started.  I'm happy to answer any additional questions via the comments to this post.  Happy Home Brewing!

Meanwhile the Snow

While the weather has things in a waiting stage, I've kept working on "back office" stuff for the new Hawksbill Hop Yards venture.  David told me that most of the brush had been cleared before the snow fell, but that he still needed to run the tractor over the ground to till and level.  Still, it looks good under that layer of snow!

I sent out an announcement of the hop yards to about 100 Virginia and Mid-Atlantic brewers - there's been a satisfying and rewarding response.  We have a couple of prospects for both wet and dried hops, and I'll be working on follow-ups with them.

Meanwhile, I had some business cards made, and I am planning to attend the regional hops conference in Winston-Salem next week as a "New Hops Farmer."  That should be a good time, I know there is a lot to learn.

We've worked on the social media accounts recently to get them up to speed.  In addition to the Facebook page for Hawksbill Hop Yards, we have a Google+ account (hawksbillhops@gmail.com) and a Twitter feed (@hawksbillhops).  

But there's a never ending list of to do items.  I couldn't do it without some excellent business partners.  I'm just happy to be here.

On Frozen C&O Canal

My commute these days, and for the past couple of years, actually, takes me over Chain Bridge to Bethesda.  Generally there are two or three stops due to traffic lights while I am on the bridge, so I often have a moment to look out the window and enjoy the view of the scenic Potomac gorge just below Little Falls, or as I did last week, the historic C&O Canal (this link takes you to a Wikipedia article; the link to the National Park Service C&O article is very worthwhile and here).    

Since I was at the light, I reached for the phone to take a quick snap.  The canal has been frozen over for most of February in this area, and there are places where the snow has been scraped clear.  My guess is somebody ice skates on it down there, although I have never seen anyone actually doing it - and it may be illegal.

The scene is very different from last summer, when I had the opportunity to walk down there and have a close look at the construction of the canal and the impacts from all the development along it since it was built (see this post).  In any case the canal is a milestone on my commute - at this point I'm less than 10 minutes away from work, and I'm starting to think about what's ahead for the work day...generally good stuff, reliably rewarding.

Later this month I have some meetings in Frederick, MD.  If I'm able, I may take a few extra minutes while I am there to stop and take a few photos of the canal in that area.  The scenery is less bucolic there - but you can really get a sense of the economic and industrial impacts that the designers envisioned as you pass by it.  The story of how the technology of railroads eclipsed the technology of canals is also a very interesting part of the C&O history - even when I'm down there checking out stormwater issues, I can't help but stop and think about it.

Revisiting the Bridge at Hoover Dam

Reviewing past posts, there are quite a few about construction and building topics.  I suppose that’s appropriate – these days I make my living as a construction executive after all, and I’ve done good time at a couple of major architecture and construction firms over the years.  Those facts put the little encounter I had yesterday at the office into perspective.

In 2013, Mary and I combined a work trip to Las Vegas with a drive up to the Grand Canyon.  On the way, we made a point of stopping at the Hoover Dam for the tour (see this post), and for a walk across the new bridge.  It turns out that one of my work colleagues (an engineer who works as a construction project manager) had some aerial photos that had been taken during the construction of the bridge, and he shared them, so I thought I’d make them the topic of today’s blog post.

If you’re familiar with the construction of many highway bridges in the west, they are often concrete arches, as is this one.  What I didn’t realize until now is that the concrete is cast in situ – forms are constructed and the concrete is poured into them at the job site in the position that it is to be used.  That makes for some fascinating process photos, as shown in the accompanying images…I’ll let them speak for themselves.

Hop Yards in Snow

Snow was barreling in from the west on Monday night, and there were forecast of up to eight inches from the Valley right on to the coast in Northern Virginia.  As we battened down the hatches in Alexandria, I checked in on Facebook to see how everyone was settling in - it seemed that it was a storm that we would be able to take in stride.

We did get the snow, and it was inconvenient, but no more than is typical.  Plus, the forecast overestimated the totals, and things were already getting back to normal by late morning.

I sent David a little note in the morning asking if he wouldn't mind to take a couple of photos with the snow on the ground in the hop yards - that was on the hunch that he might head over there at sometime during the day.  There is rolling ground in this patch of land, good for sledding, so I just figured it might not be too inconvenient to get some snapshots.

The snow has a way of leveling things out so that you can see the lay of the land.  These two photos show pretty much the extent of where our trellising is going to run.  So much of the land is cleared and it is looking good.

I'm much obliged for the photos and the opportunity to check in.  I hope that there was sledding in the mix for the days activities and that these photos easily fit into the plan!

Beaver Pond Check-in

Last Saturday, after everything was said and done, Chris and I took a walk down to the road and then out into the lots across the way to check out the beaver pond.  The surface was frozen, and the areas where the water spills through the dam were full of icicles - it was quite a pretty scene.

I'm pretty sure there's a full acre of surface area now.  It's the largest I've seen it since we started coming here in 2007; this is the third time they've had a dam in this spot.

We were able to get very close while staying dry.  The dam is probably 7 to 8 feet tall in the area where it bridges the main stream - so there's a lot of water back in there - and it's deep!

As I'm writing this, Sunday afternoon, we've had some warm temps and the ice has thawed off of half the surface.  One of the beavers is out swimming around, I can just see the wake reflected in the golden light of the late afternoon.

You may just be able to make out the lodge, which is actually quite large, over to the left between the white "no hunting" sign and the tree that is just on the bank.  It's about four feet tall, and covered with brightly colored branches that have had all the bark stripped off.

Quite the view.  I'm getting my money's worth with that one.

The Axmen of Hawksbill Hop Yards

With absolutely no tongue in cheek, David invited me out to help for a little while with clearing the hop yards.  Recognizing that the source of any value I am creating in society these days consists of being sure that there is no circular reference down there in Excel spreadsheet cell d43, or in pressing send on one of 30-odd emails a day, I was a little worried about this.

I let David know that I had never really used a maul or chainsaw before, and that the last time I had seriously used an ax (I do have one, by the way, out in the shed) was when I was certifying on woodsman skills for my tenderfoot rank in scouts.  Then I asked him if he would have ibuprofen handy in my preferred brand, Midol - he assured he would take care of that.

We agreed we'd work on this part of the project for a couple of hours, and I think we busted out about half of the trees he'd set aside to save for firewood (at least the ones that he had not already taken care of by the time we got there).  While I did pick up the maul eventually and learned how to use it, I decided the best value for my effort would be moving the logs he had chainsawed down to size over to the chopping area, and then picking up the firewood and putting it in the wagon, seen above with about a cord or so loaded up.

Chris also got in the act, so with all three of us contributing to the work (I'm not shy about this, David did the most and Chris did a heck of a lot more of it than I did) - we managed to get photos of everybody swinging an ax or maul.  Readers are invited to offer comments on the various techniques on display in the photos below:

Yes, part of the comparison is the respective piles of lumber around these workers as well.  In case that is not clear in the photos, it's four for me, about a dozen for Chris, and 90% of a cord for David.

Clearing the Hop Yard

David sent me a note last week letting me know that a full acre of the planned two acre hop yard had been cleared - he invited me out to help with cleaning up all the firewood-worthy felled trees, and promised not to make fun of me because I didn't know how to use an ax, maul, or chainsaw.  So I decided to join him on Saturday morning, and I talked my friend Chris into joining me.

The weather promised to be good enough for the weekend to start burning all the cleared brush as well.  It turned out that we arrived at the farm just in time to see him light the burn pile, with all the attendant drama, as shown in the first photo today.

We are starting the Hop Yards up in phases - this year we'll put in most of one acre's worth, and we'll phase in the second acre next year.  If all goes well and there's demand, we may even grow beyond that, either on David's farm or somewhere else...thus the name Hawksbill Hop Yards...it would be very cool if Page County ended up being the largest producer in the state, which really wouldn't take a whole lot of acreage.

I have enough photos and videos for a couple of posts, so I'll be publishing those during the rest of the week.

Here's a couple of short videos of some of the activities taking place during the day.








I'll leave the idea of expansion further into Page County for my dreams.  In the meantime, while I took one of my numerous breaks from whatever I was doing out there, I took a stroll around to check out the cleared land.  Here are photos from the northeast and northwest...the is the Blue Ridge in the background.  As a friend said, "Those hops are going to have a great view."

Accounting for the Barn Kittens

It's been a couple of years now - maybe even three - since we discovered two litters of four kittens wandering around the property at Hawksbill Cabin.  Eventually, we figured out who the mothers were, and once the kittens were old enough, we got help from Cats' Cradle to catch them and get them all fixed.

We also went to work trying to get as many adopted out as we could.  Inevitably two of them succumbed to the life of being a stray, but now all of the kittens have been adopted out except for one - we call him Little Guy, and he's shown in the photo attached.

We get other strays from time to time, most famously Buster Barncat, whom we adopted, but this guy has been the steady one around here.  He's domesticated enough to hang around the place in the little shelters Mary has set up.

I would like to see him rescued too, like the others, but I know that he'd be a little work.  He does come running up to us now whenever we're around, so I think he'd make a good pet.

Drop a line via the comments if you're interested in him and we'll see if we can work something out.

Twitter Fun with Boulevard Brewery

I've written recently about Hawksbill Hop Yards in Luray - the land I've rented to start growing hops on.  By March or so, we will build out the trellising needed to support 600 hills of hops - which will produce about 600 pounds of dried hops when the bines are mature in three years.

A coworker and I toured Boulevard Brewery in Kansas City last December (post here), and they are active on Twitter - we actually arranged our tour through that app while we were flying in from DC.  A tweet last night about their Smokestack Series caught my eye...I responded, and we had a good dialog, which follows.

“@Boulevard_Beer: Our brewers will use just shy of 750lbs of hops as they brew 600 bbls of The Calling..." Math: that's 1.2 pounds per bbl!
— Jim Turner (@cabin_jim) February 4, 2015

“@Boulevard_Beer: re: hops - my Hawksbill Hop Yards farm in Luray will only produce 600 pounds a year - enough for one of your batches!"
— Jim Turner (@cabin_jim) February 4, 2015

“@Boulevard_Beer Correct...doesn't account for dry hopping which is around 1,300 pounds for that volume.” PS I <3 your beers.
— Jim Turner (@cabin_jim) February 4, 2015

Berlin Wall - "Time Lapse"

Sunday I was briefly surfing the internet when I came across a photo in one of the Berlin groups I follow on Facebook.  I've reprinted it above, along with a shot I had taken earlier - the location is an observation platform that was built in the Neukolln District of Berlin.

At first glance, I thought someone had taken an old photo of mine and made it into a black and white shot.  However, the person who posted this one (they did not know who the photographer was) mentioned the date as 1986. My photo was taken in 1984 during my "Bowie Quest" outing - I've posted on the events of that day a few times, including here and here, or you can click the label below for more info on the quest.

It is fascinating to compare the two photos and consider the changes that had taken place, visible on the East Berlin side, over those two years.  First, there is the guard tower that had been constructed, then the tank traps and barricades had been removed, and finally, the old advertisement on the side of the nearest building was painted over.  Even so, it looks like most of the graffiti was left unchanged!

I never made it back to that section of the Wall during my time remaining in Berlin - I left in April 1986 - so I didn't get to check out the changes personally.  However, this internet thing is catching on - who knows when something from your past is going to show up and enlighten you.

Sunday Dog Walk

Lately on Sunday mornings Tessie and I have taken to walking the length of the Hawksbill Greenway in Luray.  Back in 2011 we took this walk a lot, but lately we had tapered down and were only walking half of it. The walk is about 3.5 miles - hopefully we'll keep this up.

There is plenty to see along the Greenway, and even though it is winter and all the leaves are down, it's pretty scenic.  I took this first snap from along the bend at the south end of the walk - you can just see the old grain mill and old co-op building there.

(About the old co-op building...the co-op moved out to the 211 bypass a few years ago, leaving this one behind.  It's housed a few businesses since then, including most recently a pop-up craft market showing off local wares.)

After our walk, Tessie and I took a short drive around town.  The sun was starting to come out, so it highlighted a barn I'd never noticed before, even though I've probably driven by it 100 times.
The angle I photographed happened to include Kennedy Peak, part of Massanutten Mountain, in the background.  This peak is around 3,000 feet high, making it something of a high point on Massanutten, although you can't miss its distinctive shape.

It's pretty interesting to notice the wide range of weather conditions you can have in the winter.  It was overcast and practically snow flurries during the walk, and then the sun came out and warmed everything up.

That was a good day for Tessie and me.

Hawksbill Hop Yards - Varieties

An element of the business plan for Hawksbill Hop Yards includes selecting the varieties of hops we'll plant.  The deadline for ordering rhizomes via the hops co-op is February 1, so I have been working on making some selections for planning purposes.

Some of the useful information I have received from the co-op includes the suggestion that Cascade and Chinook are varieties that have done well, and a quick check of the varieties grown by the other members seems to confirm this.  I also ran some analysis based on the book Designing Great Beers, by Ray Daniels (Amazon link at the end of the post) to see what varieties were used in a few of my favorite beer types.

Daniel's method was to analyze recipes from many popular beers to determine the hop varieties used in them.  He then counted up the incidence of each to make totals.  The table below summarizes his analysis - my thought would be to build on the co-op recommendation with a couple of additional varieties chosen from those most frequently appearing in the popular recipes.

The choice of Cascade was confirmed; in fact, it occurred in the recipes most frequently and it was the most popular variety in IPA, American Pale, California Common, and American Brown.  Goldings was second place for frequency, and it was the most popular variety in English Pale Ale, ESB, British Porter, and American Porter.  So I am planning to plant these two varieties to start with.

Chinook, the other variety recommended by the co-op, is one of the top five most popular in the recipes, which I will take as a confirmation of its marketability.  It is my third variety.

Finally, while Cascade and Goldings fall in the lower end of the alpha "spectrum" - alpha acids being a major component of hops flavor, and Chinook falls in approximately the middle, it seems that I need to select a high alpha variety to cover all the basis.  Dan told me that he had good success with his first year Columbus, and checking the co-op page, I see a couple of growers planting Columbus.  Thus, even though Columbus isn't acknowledged in Daniels book, I am going to add it to my plan for the hop yard, with a fallback to Zeus, which is similar and often substituted.

Now to get to work on placing my order - hopefully all of these varieties are available in the quantities I need.  We'll order at the end of next week, and then plant in the late March - early April timeframe.


Here's the link to the book I mentioned above:

Watch This Space

This big Cat will be used to clear the land.

Well, I guess it is time to come clean on one of the reasons I'm cutting back on posting this year.  For the last couple of years, as I became increasingly interested in brewing and then growing hops, I started to put together a plan to grow them commercially - on a small farm, in a way that is trendily known as "hobby farming."

The plan really became to come together last October, during the trip I took out to go to the Shenandoah Valley Produce Auction, and then up to the meeting of the Old Dominion Hops Co-op up in Purcellville - the post about it is here.

I'm excited about the new logo!

Clearing the land - maybe an understatement!

There are simply a lot of ducks to get in a row just yet, so I don't have a lot of details to post.  However, at the beginning of the year, I made some arrangements to get this project started on two rented acres near Luray.  The farm (actually a farm within a farm) is going to be called Hawksbill Hop Yards, and work on clearing the acreage is just getting underway.


I'll use this blog to  post periodic updates, along with a Facebook page (here), and eventually a business web site.  I'm really looking forward to it, and hope that my readers will get a chance some day to come out for a visit.

There's still a lot to do though - so I'll keep this first post short!

Our Icy Beaver Pond

Last weekend we arrived Friday night after dark.  It had been a week of temperatures below freezing, so when I got up on Saturday morning to take Tessie out, I was greeted by a view of the beaver pond over in the hollow - frozen solid.  I snapped a nice Instagram photo here later in the day.

I had a good chat with Brian (of Breakfast at Epiphany's fame - check the blog list to the right!) about the frozen pond.  He asked if we skated on it, but since I grew up in Florida, that was never a skill I picked up.  Mary may know how, but she's never let on, so the answer was no.

I have no doubt it would be safe on many mornings, but by the end of the weekend, the temps were holding in the 40's and the ice was starting to melt.  There were clear patches near the dam, and especially further back where the streams come into the pond.

I took a second photo on Monday afternoon.  The grass in the fens along the front of the dam is doing well with the little sunshine it is getting, and the lodge is barely visible as a bright spot right at left center of this photo - there are some rather large branches piled on it.

This is my first post of the year - that is the longest I've gone without a post since I started the blog in 2007.  I picked up a lot of extracurricular activities this winter; they will give me plenty to write about, but I won't be able to post as often.  I'll set a goal of trying to be sure and make 100 posts during 2015 - I love the writing discipline and exercise of this blog, and I hope my readers will stay with me.

Happy 2015!