Lueders Haus Blog

Made our way out to Yakima on Sunday morning for the Yakima Canyon Ride. They closed about 20 miles of SR 821 to cars and let a few hundreds bikers lose on it. It was a beautiful day for riding. Lots of sun, warm but not too hot. This is one of my favorite roads in all of Washington. Everything you could want for a river canyon road, great views and few homes. The ride was out and back, starting from the south end, with a slight decent on the way back. I got a nasty sun burn on my back (need actual bike jersey) that I’m just about over. Pictures up here.

Used the sunny afternoon to start a new brew. As tradition I picked up a new gadget at the homebrew shop: an immersion wort chiller (pictured next to my assistant Sherry. It is the copper coil). Sherry got a nice picture of me stirring the wort right before it boiled over the top of the kettle. There is a reason I do this outside these days. The chiller enabled me to do a larger boil (3.5 gallons instead of 1.5 or 2 gallons) but there is no way I can do a full five gallon boil with my old kettle. I guess I need to get a MegaPot.

Three weeks in and the new lawn is starting to look like more than a patch of mud. We have been lucky with the weather the last few weeks, which has been mostly rain. This picture was taken on a day of freakish sunshine.

Thomas Friedman is back from vacation. In his first column he takes on what he calls the “McCain-Clinton gas holiday”.

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: “Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.”

It is embarrassing that Clinton is digging this low to get votes.