Week 1 of Vacation at Home

Since Susan had her surgery scheduled for this past Wednesday, I decided to take a full 10 days off work, which sees me at home until after Thanksgiving. I knew the first few days would be me just hanging out caring for Susan, but I had hoped to get a few little projects finished up after that.

Luckily, Susan is up and running much sooner than anticipated. So much so, that I was off riding motorcycles this weekend, and decided to jump into a few projects early. In no particular order, here is a quick recap:

Beer brewing

I'm on my tenth Mr. Beer brew. I bottled an Irish Red and a Christmas Ale on Saturday. Sunday I brewed a new batch of Oatmeal Stout and a rip of a Anchorsteam. This is on top of the Coffee Stout I have in the bottle, and something I call a "Hoppy Magnum Alexander" which as the name suggest used some Magnum hops and Alexander Pale Extract. This led too...

Beer storage redo

I've been using an old coffee table and bookcase to attempt to organize all my bottled beer and brewing equipment. It wasn't working. So I put together three new bookcases together that will work magic for cleaning up the spare room, as witnessed below:

Kickstand and Number Plate for the Trials Bike

I used a bicycle kickstand as the basis for a new kickstand. It fits nicely under the skidplate using stock mounting holes, and is tucked up and under the swingarm. I also made a new fron number plate, since my old one no longer fit after using a different handlebar mount. I broke everything in with a 45-minute ride around a huge vacant bit of property near our house. Lots of bumps, jumps, puddles and mud.

Helmet Mods and Paint

I took an old open face helmet I had laying around and drilled some vent holes in it, lined with screen mesh, and added a bit of extra padding in key areas so it fits better. I couldn't let it remain boring white, so I decided to give it a quick paint job. I'm not quite done yet, but it is basically some simple red scallops running back and over the helmet, like a Rams football helmet. Here is me working on it:

Tune in next time for more exciting stay-at-home vacation news.

C'