Intinerary March-April 2010

[aggienaut]

   But it's time for me to announce my itinerary for the next few months. The following is organized by dates of transit from one location or another.


March 11th - whirled arrives at LAX from her own adventures (Australia > New Zealand > Hawaii), we'll roam around Orange County, other nearby points of interest in So Cal, San Francisco, and Las Vegas in the following week.

March 19th - whirled and I fly to New York. Get to hang out with skitty and zia_narratora and cacophonesque! Shenanigans ensue?

March 24th - Angela flies off to London to continue the adventures, I find my way to Newport, Oregon, probably via Portland, OR. Am still not sure how I'm going to manage this bit. Probably try for craigslist rideshares from PDX and if not it's gonna be another wild bus adventure.

March 27th - I will hopefully be in Newport by now, because I'm supposed to be aboard the sailing ship Hawaiian Chieftain by this date.. and getting paid! (for those who missed it, I have a six month contract as the Education Coordinator for the Hawaiian Chieftain). Hopefully it won't take me three days to get to Newport though. Also, you know what ELSE is in Newport? ROGUE BREWERY :D :D

March 31st - Sail up to Garibaldi, Oregon. I know nothing about this place except it's named after a fish.

April 4-9 - Sailing from Garibaldi to Westport, OR ...

April 9-11 - Westport, Or - Another town I've been to before. Here we will probably be joined by our sister cousin vessel Lady Washington, which of course is the boat I was on last December.

April 12-14 - Sail to Port Angeles, WA. Olympic Peninsula FTW! I've been to Port Angeles before but only briefly.

April 20 - Sail to Sequim, WA.

April 22 - Sail to Port Townsend, WA, a strangely triangular place.

[strange gap between April 26 - 30ths]

April 30 - Seattle!

May 2nd - Sail to Anacortes, WA. I had some tasty chili here once I believe? And a good local brewed stout too I think.

May 4th - Sail from Anacortes to Bellingham, WA, next to a bay which at least looks picturesque in google satellite view. Scheduled to be here through the 16th of May.

Beyond this the schedule isn't posted yet, but I'm on the boat until Sept 30th.

See also the official sailing schedule, which is where I got everything above pertaining to once I'm on the boat.


Unrelated Picture of the Day (it's been awhile since we had one of these hasn't it)

   It's not all researching earwigs and other obscure things at work, I also do stuff you'd expect a beekeeper to be doing! For example yesterday I ordered more honey jars, designed a new honey label for our company, and remelted the honey in a number of other honey jars because it was becoming partially crystallized (which doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the honey but some buyers get freaked out by things like that). Apparently our entire lot of clover honey has completely crystallized (the white opaque one here), which I think is actually pretty neat (they sell that shit for a premium some places as "spun honey".

Comments

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

OMG I love Rogue. Also the honey looks awesome.

gildedage who you may meet in NY went to school in Bellingham. I can tell her to hook you up with recs of things to do, if you like. I know there is one particularly hilarious thing.

I am excited!

[playmoby.livejournal.com]

Port Townsend is one of my favorite places on earth. I love it so much. make sure you visit Ft. Worden. It's an old military fort on the coast in Pt. Townsend... and also where they filmed An officer and A Gentleman.

And of course, I am in Seattle, so If you are so inclined, hit me up!

[cacophonesque.livejournal.com]

Shenanigans! I look forward to it!

Also, I love looking at honey. I love eating it as well, but it really is a beautiful thing to just look at for a while.

[rattsu.livejournal.com]

Clover honey is delicious, but my favourite from over here in sweden was always Heather honey. There was so much heather where I grew up, that the late summer honey was so very dark and spicy, and a lot softer than the early spring clover and dandelion honey.

Damn. Now I want honey.

Heather Honey

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Ooh I bet heather is good. I don't think we have heather around here but we have sage, which I'm going to wildly assume is similar? it seems similar in my head. And sage honey is delicious with a spicey edge to it as well.

I need to get my ass back to sverige one of these days.

Re: Heather Honey

[rattsu.livejournal.com]

Oh! One thing that I remember that I wanted to ask about american honey...

When we get foreign honey in the stores here it is often liquid and runny, while all our swedish honey is solid. I was wondering if that might be what you mean with crystallized? That it is solid at room temperature?

Because then it's a bit funny, that's our standard, and the liquid ones are the exotic ones...

Re: Heather Honey

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

If you turn the bottle over does a big bubble very slowly move toward the other end? If so, this is what honey is supposed to look like.

The really runny honey is pasteurized, which is totally unnecessary since honey can't go bad. But they do it specifically because a lot of consumers (at least in places other than Sweden ;) ) expect their honey to look like that.

Crystalized honey will have the consistency of butter, be white / very pale yellow, and not flow at all. Honey that has not been pasteurized will naturally move towards this state over time.

[painindesire.livejournal.com]

oh, you. never can keep still for too long ;)

Re: Heather Honey

[rattsu.livejournal.com]

Then all the honey we have over here is crystallized!

I only ever remember the really fresh one from when my grandfather made it (he was a beekeeper). It was extremely delicious to just such it straight out of the wax, but for some reason all our honey here set into the crystallized state after having been poured into jars. Maybe it's dependent on the kind of flowers used, or the sugar content? I'm not sure. Our softest natural one I've seen is the heather honey I mentioned, which has the consistency of... well, peanut butter or something I suppose. It's really thick, but not actually hard like our summer honeys (which are indeed very pale).

Re: Heather Honey

[rattsu.livejournal.com]

Hah! Looked it up. The crystallized honey is apparently a Scandinavian specialty. They actually say that it is only heather honey here that doesn't do that, and it is dependent on the pollen. The fresh honey is stirred and seeded with a bit of old honey to get the crystallization started.

Mmm I want honey now.

Re: Heather Honey

[mummimamma.livejournal.com]

Norwegian honey is most often sold crystalised I find (also a lot of heather honey).

How do you uncrystalise (melt?) your honey by the way? Any tips?

New York City

[memeworrywort.livejournal.com]

Pfft. No mention of me. Don't forget about me!

Melting Honey

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

For honey that is still in five gallon buckets there are "heating jackets" that wrap around them and heat them up.

For honey that is already in jars, or if you have a cauldron big enough to fit your bucket, we recommend filling it with water and floating the jars in that. Don't fill the water higher than the lids or you might get water in the honey, which will obviously make it impure. Place it over heat but don't bring the water to a boil. I'm not sure exactly what temperature we've been doing this at but it's just barely too hot to comfortable have your fingers in.

Take the honey out every now and then and turn it about slowly, using the air bubble that should be within the jar to stir it.

Additionally even at this temperature I'm concerned about it overheating, so after awhile I'll take the honey out and let it cool for awhile. The middle usually takes awhile to become melted, and may still be chunky while the outter layers are getting concerningly hot. Keep in mind that while it's out cooling the temperature is transferring to the middle, so in effect you're still making progress on the middle.

(:

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Keeping still is for suckers! :D

[gildedage.livejournal.com]

Bellingham is one of the most beautiful places on earth! You will love it there. I always loved visting the Hawaiian and the Lady Washington when they were in town. I don't know how much free time you get, but the downtown is small but awesome and everywhere is accessible by bus.

[beki.livejournal.com]

It looks like you are going to be here on Friday. So, since I have to work, what plans do you have after I get off of work? Maybe I can get you fed or something :)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Ooh you're talking about the Friday we arrive in NY? the 19th?

[elvenforever.livejournal.com]

Excitement! You live the coolest life. :)

[beki.livejournal.com]

If I am reading right (which I am p robably not) April 30th Seattle? That's where I am ;)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thanks (:

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a fair bit in the future, you'll def have to remind me when that gets closer, it's always fun to know someone off the boat though. (: I can tell you my schedule for sure. I'll have work till around 6 and then when I'm off I'll be located on a boat here

[beki.livejournal.com]

Ok. I think it's a Friday, and I work fairly close to the waterfront. You get off later than I do, so we'll have to see when the time comes.

[memeworrywort.livejournal.com]

Typographical error here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/commissariat/4421016151/in/photostream/

Work is spelled wrok.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thanks (: