For years, we've liked quality coffee. We'd been ordering fresh-roasted whole bean coffee from Intelligentsia, located in Chicago. We'd have our coffee within a few days of it being roasted, as opposed to mass produced commercial coffee, which may have been roasted months and months ago. Then, earlier this year we decided to try home-roasting, so we bought a HotTop roasting machine. Since then, we've roasted approximately 75 batches of coffee, 250 grams each; so, over 37 pounds of coffee. Buying green and roasting yourself is a lot cheaper than buying pre-roasted, so discounting the cost of the roaster itself, we've saved quite a bit of money. And the roasting process is enjoyable, plus it gives you a lot of control over how your coffee comes out. Even tiny changes in roast length, temp, and so forth, have a dramatic effect on the outcome.

We've had the chance to try numerous origins, processing styles, and so forth. We've really had a chance to taste pretty much everything coffee has to offer. Last weekend, we were talking with a local friend, who was raised in Puerto Rico, and he told us of a family member who owns a small coffee plantation there. He's aging, and hasn't actually tended the plantation actively in a while, but we still may be able to get some green coffee from there and try roasting it. It'd be very cool to have that direct connection to the coffee. Without active tending of the crop it may not be very good, but it'd still be worth it to try it and see.

The previously mentioned Chicken Raising Cabal©™ is going forward nicely. The group has decided to structure it as an informal co-op. 30 shares were created, and each family can purchase as many as they like. We bought in for 4 shares, and if needed, we'll buy more just to see the project go forward. We need to use the land of Wabash Mountain Farm as we're not allowed, and don't have the room, to raise chickens at our house, so we kind of feel we should put more into the project financially, since we don't have as much to offer physically and knowledge-wise. Most of the other families have at least raised laying chickens before.

Lizz got her second tattoo last night, and it went very well. Except for a few spots, she said it was much less painful than her first. It's a beautiful design, and as expected Grant did a perfect job. :) We have pics of the process up on Facebook, if you have either of us friended. I'll be getting my second one fairly soon; I'm working out the design as I can.

As a parting topic, I wanted to mention how odd and interesting it is how people meet. We've met a few people lately, that we could have met via probably 3 or 4 or more different "paths." It's almost like we were "destined" to meet, and this has been a pattern for a lot of my life. Back in California, in my odd circle of friends, there were sometimes 5 or more paths we could have met via, so there was really no way we could've not met somehow. And here it is happening again, later in life. Almost like a tribal recognition. Very strange, but very cool. I wonder if it's like that for other groups of people; I suspect it is. :)