A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

hobbies

Getting more in-depth with the homebrewing process

By the time this actually posts, I’ll hopefully have three — maybe four beers — bottled and maybe a couple tested.

I was stoked when I successfully brewed, bottled and tasted my first homebrew, titled “Pee Light.” It’s not something you’ll see on shelves anytime soon, but I’m pretty happy about seeing it through and working on the process.

The reviews from friends weren’t bad. I enjoyed it, too. So hopefully that’s a good sign.

The best part about this is knowing I made beer.

The first beer from the HooHaa Brewing Company! Pee Light.

I. Made. Beer.

Awesome.

Alas, the road is still long.

Since my initial Mr. Beer batch of the Pee Light, I have brewed and bottled the Irish Stout via Mr. Beer. Currently, I have an Irish Red in a one-gallon carboy, fermenting up and getting ready for bottling. By the time this publishes, I’ll have already bottled it and hopefully started at least two more beers.

Since I started, I’ve done quite a bit of reading on the brewing world. I’m learning more and more about homebrewing and I can’t wait to keep moving forward in this process.

While I still plan on using the Mr. Beer system, I’m also going to start working with grain brewing. To do that, I’ve stepped up to the one-gallon setup, which I got through Northern Brewer. There are good and bad points to this.

The good is that it’s a smaller batch. For me, that’s nice because I don’t drink a whole heap of beer. I like to savor and enjoy. A one-gallon batch hooks me up with about 8-10 bottles, all pending.

Another positive? If the beer stinks, I don’t have to figure a way to get rid of five gallons worth (if I had gone the full brew route).

There are some negatives, however.

For one, I like to make sure people get a chance to taste the brew. But 8-10 beers can go quickly. And if I truly enjoy it myself, well, it stinks if I only get one. So I’m coming up with a different way to do “tastings.” The other negative — if you brew a really good beer, you only have 8-10! That’s OK though, because you can always make more!

But one thing I’ve realized is how much I love this hobby.

Like I needed another hobby, right?

Geocaching, playing disc golf, playing softball, running two blogs and photography isn’t enough?

Apparently not.

The best part about brewing is outside of the brewing day, the hobby is more of a patience game. I have gotten into full brewing yet, so I’m sure once I do that it becomes more time-consuming. Still, there’s a lot of waiting.

Readying the first one-gallon batch — an Irish Red Ale.

Plus, in the end, what a great payoff?

Eventually, I’m sure I’ll want to step up to the five-gallon setup. For now, I love the idea of one gallon. I have a few beers I want to make and I have a one-gallon recipe book that has me stoked to try some interesting recipes (and, to be honest, probably wouldn’t be a beer I’d want to have two cases worth!)

I also decided I want to make some brewing goals. These have no timelines, but are things I’d like to do.

  • Brew both White House beers (I have the porter set to be made, will need to get the ale)
  • Brew a full blueberry beer
  • Create my own beer (using no kits, through research, trial and error etc.)
  • Enter a beer in a competition (I realize to do this, I’m going to need to dive in much deeper and see how to develop my own!)
  • Step up to five-gallon batches

I’m sure there will be more goals I’ll eventually add. For now, these are the major ones.

This process, thus far, has been fun and I’m learning more each batch. The Irish Red was fun because I had to do more in-depth things, such as steep grains and add the hops and such. Some of the other recipes I’ve seen are going to require me to do more, such as longer boils etc. And I like that as it gives me things to learn each time, thus making it so I can ease my way into the brewing world a little more each time.

The best part is how fun it is. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of beers I can brew and, one day, develop!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Cemeteries are places where people can unlock the past

Checking out cemeteries can make you want to tell the story of so many people lost long ago.

Did you know, back many years, that cemeteries were often places of celebration?

People would picnic in cemeteries, or there would be small gatherings and such.

Way back when, cemeteries weren’t just places to mourn. They were places to celebrate. And that makes sense, when you consider that one can celebrate the lives lived by so many.

Alas, over time it seems like that’s become a bad thing.

Cemeteries used to be a place where people gathered, or walked … now it’s almost looked down upon if you do so.

If you do anything in cemeteries now, it’s almost looked down upon. Walking through a cemetery gets you looks. People often place geocaches in or near older cemeteries. It almost feels odd, though it shouldn’t. It gives people the chance to visit these old places.

As some of you know, I’m a member of a site called Find A Grave. It’s a massive database of cemeteries, headstones and listings from around the world. Many people request photos of long-lost family members or others for research. When that happens, people can be notified and have the chance to fill some of these requests.

But the other thing about this site is it gets me out and searching around cemeteries. There is so much history in these places. However, how many people are remembered.

With faded headstones or damaged ones, sometimes you have no idea who is buried there.

One plot I found the other day had one headstone. Several other people were buried there, without stones.

So many years pass by and these people are just part of the landscape. It’s something to stop and look at these headstones and wonder about the people below them. Who were they? What did they do? What was life like for them?

And sometimes, it’s sad.

I saw the headstone of Alexander. The reason this tiny headstone caught my eye was because it had some sort of an animal carved on top. Alexander, you see, was just over a year old when he died more than 100 years ago.

I don’t know if this grave was designed like this or if this is a headstone that was broke and deteriorated over time.

He never even had the chance in this world.

What happened? Was he sick? An accident? The reality is, we likely will never know.

His plot overlooks a bustling road now. It’s on the edge of a hill, so it sits there watching over things.

It’s part of the mystery many cemeteries have. And if you can get away from vandalism (which I’ve never understood where the thrill is in tipping or breaking a headstone), cemeteries really hold many mysteries. From the people buried there to so much more. Headstones can be remarkable to look at. And, sometimes, headstones can be faded or cracked away so much that one may never know who is in that spot.

The mysteries are there to be uncovered. It’s one of the great things about sites like Find A Grave. It brings to life so many people who have been gone for so long.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

3,000 finds and counting — a look back at four years of fun

Darren signs a log at a very early cache outing.

In life, sometimes little things can make one smile.

Whether a moment, a person, a hobby — just about anything. And to get a smile, you can feel like life isn’t so bad.

In February of 2008, we were in the midst of a normal upstate New York winter. Some snow, cold and everything else. It was also but six months since my father had died, so I hadn’t really gotten out of a funk.

Then came geocaching.

A friend, Darren, told me about a game he had discovered. Geocaching, he said, was a game where people placed things out and about and you then used a GPS to find it.

Though I don’t fly out the door anymore for FTFs, it is nice on occasion to see a blank log book when you get there.

I believe my initial reaction was something along the lines of “Why would anyone want to do that?”

Soon after, plans were made to try the game out the following weekend as Darren had a couple of GPS units we could use. He told me about the website and to sign up and get a name and all. I did that and peeked around a bit, trying to figure out what this game was about.

It seemed simple enough.

People — known as geocachers — hid containers in the wild. It could be in the woods or in an urban setting and the size of the container could be anything from the size of a thimble to the size of a car or bigger. The hiders took coordinates and uploaded them to the website. Finders would get those coordinates and then go search for the geocache. Once found, you signed the log and, if you wanted, you traded for things people left in the container. The one rule there was to trade evenly or trade up. Then, when home, you logged the find online.

Me and my 1,000th find.

I figured I could handle this game.

Once I had an idea of what was going on, I was interested. I wasn’t sure if I would like it, but it was worth a day. Darren and I had talked about letterboxing — a non-GPS treasure hunt — before, so this seemed OK.

March 1, 2008 is when we set out. The first cache found was one just a few miles from me. It was at a covered bridge. As a covered bridge nut, I was into it.

But I felt odd. Here we are looking around on this bridge for something. After starting to understand what was going on, the cache was found. I did feel a little odd as a car or two passed us.

My first log:

Two of us ventured out today — my first day of geocaching! Found this one. GREAT spot. This was the first of, I think, five we hit. Really cool spot and wild how you set it up. And being I’m a fan of covered bridges, this was awesome for my first time. Well done! TNLNSL.

Imagine that. First log and I was using abbreviations.

The Wicklow Mountains in Ireland — I never would have seen this if not for geocaching.

We had printed a few caches out (no paperless when we first started!) and hoped these would be winter friendly ones. There was snow out, you see, and we didn’t know what it would be like to find these suckers in the snow.

We ended up tromping through snow for a few of them. One cache, we even asked some people who worked at one place about it. They said they knew about it, but weren’t sure where it was. We ended up finding it, thankfully.

In total, five caches were found that day.

Five days later, we went again. Six more caches were found. There were several different sizes, too, including a nano cache for the first time. One was a pretty long hike in the snow, too, which was somewhat miserable. But in the end, not too bad.

After all, this was exciting.

People were hiding things all over the place. It could be in my backyard, basically, and I never knew about it. This was cool.

I didn’t have my own GPS, so I was kind of stuck. Darren let me borrow one of his for a couple of weeks and I ventured out to find some others.

Geocaching friends at GeoWoodstock IX.

I soon purchased my own GPS — a Garmin 60CSx. I really debated which GPS to buy. The 60CSx, which was about $300 and seemed to be perfect for geocaching, or the Garmin eTrex, which was about $125. In the end, I decided to go with the big one in hopes that it would be perfect.

It was and I still use that GPS unit to this day.

I remember the feeling I had when I first found caches. It was invigorating. To think that I was doing something that not many people did as well. How cool was that?

Many firsts followed.

My first cache out of state. My first event. My first Earthcache.

As time went on, I discovered more and more things about geocaching and I loved it. There weren’t many negatives. Every experience was different and very cool.

Darren and I hit up an event a few months after starting out. As we pulled into the parking lot, we saw two people get out of a truck and head in. We stared and our thoughts were “What are we doing here?”

In the end, it was fun.

The first caching event I hosted.

Since then I’ve been to dozens of events and have hosted many others.

As I look back on the four-plus years I’ve played this game, most of the thoughts are positive. I’ve met many wonderful people — some of which are good friends to this day. I never would have met them if not for this game.

Heck, when I went to Ireland in 2010, I had the chance to cache with several people there, but two specifically who took me on an amazing day of caches throughout the countryside. Talk about fun! This game has taken me all over the place. According to my GSAK stats, my cache-to-cache mileage is 41,916 miles. That’s as the bird flies, too. And doesn’t include ones I traveled to and didn’t find. Or miles I traveled to get to a spot or to meet somebody.

I bet it’s easily in the 50,000-75,000 mile range traveled.

All for a box in the woods or something small in an urban setting.

It’s a game that forces you to get outside. Whether it be a long and challenging hike or a quick urban grab, you’re outside and moving somewhat. The long hikes are great and some of the views and spots I’ve been brought to are simply amazing.

The geocaching community, as a whole, is pretty solid, too.

When I first started, I was looking for basic info about everything caching — placing caches specifically. I went to the Geocaching.com forums and soon, a volunteer on the site, offered to send me a few things. I’ll never forget that and have tried to give things to newer cachers as well when I have the chance.

A geocache in the woods.

I also always try and stay positive. That’s not to say that I sometimes won’t let something get to me. But, for the most part, I stay positive. With cachers, with hides, with logging and with anything else. There’s a lot of negativity and uppity attitudes in this game and I try and stray away. It’s easier that way. Avoiding it is hard sometimes, but I tend to try and ignore it now and move along.

The only thing that stinks is after four-plus years and 3,000-plus finds, sometimes that original feeling isn’t there.

I remember starting and finding the geocache. It was such a thrill. I’d dig through it and see what’s there. Now, the thrill isn’t the same. Seeing so many different hides, sometimes you just walk up on them. But, sometimes you can have that feeling when somebody designs or places a really wild cache. Something you haven’t seen before or that often.

But it’s still fun.

I have no idea how long it will take me to get to 4,000 finds. I don’t really care, either, as I’m to the point now where I just like to go out and find some geocaches. Let the numbers count. I’ll pay attention as I’m a stat junkie, but the time frame of it is of no worry.

People hide. I find. I hide. People find.

It’s an ever revolving cycle in this game. And it’s really cool.

Found it!

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be doing more about my four-plus years and 3,000 finds. The posts will be periodic, but I’ll be going through some of my favorite finds/hides, cheating in the game (seriously!), and some other things I’m working on. This game has been very good to me and I have some fond memories I want to share.

In the end, though, I’m still mesmerized by 3,000 finds. Somebody asked me if I ever thought I’d get to this point when I first started. Heck, I remember how stoked I was when I found No. 100, let alone 3,000.

In that time, I’ve seen waterfalls and bridges. Forests and roads. Back roads I didn’t know existed and rest areas along major highways. I’ve seen some of the most beautiful countryside ever and abandoned buildings. I’ve been questioned by cops and gotten looks from people passing by wondering what the hell I was doing. The experiences are many and most are ones I’m fond of.

This game, no doubt, has been very good to me. And for that, I’ll be forever thankful.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Collecting baseball cards isn’t just for kids anymore

Baseball cards have come a long way since I was a kid… such as this John Kruk card which features his autograph on a piece of a bat as well as a piece of a jersey.

Note: This is the first in a short series of stories I’ll be doing about collecting baseball/sports cards. The rest of the series will run in the near future.

Baseball has always been a passion of mine.

Though I’ve always been a Phillies fan, I’ve had bouts of “fandom” with some other teams, usually based on their hats. These were all as a kid though. Some of those teams include the Angels, Expos, White Sox and Reds.

I know, at one point, I even had a Mets hat, but I know for a fact I never cheered for them. (Though, to be fair, I was a HoJo fan and Dave Magadan has always been one of my favorites).

Anyway, the love affair with baseball goes back to when I was a kid. I had a hand-me-down Larry Bowa jersey at one point. I never got to go to a live game in Philly as a kid, but I do remember going and watching the Oneonta Yankees at least once a summer.

It’s quite a full circle knowing I got to cover the Oneonta Tigers, the team that replaced the O-Yanks, during my professional life.

It’s crazy to know guys you are covering at a low-level of the minor leagues have cards already — especially autographs and the such.

As a kid, I spent much of my summers with a ball, glove and bat. We had pick-up games and just threw the ball. If necessary, I could play ball by myself, whether it was hitting a ball in an open field, throwing pop-ups to myself or using a tennis ball and throwing it at a wall or set of steps.

There was something else that was part of my childhood — baseball cards.

Oh how I loved baseball cards. Despite the fact that they were cards from the 80s — when many thought cards would pay for their college, but the explosion of so many cards eventually made prices drops extremely fast.

Nonetheless, I never thought about that.

Heck, many of the cards I had ended up strewn about or stuffed in boxes. I never cared for them. I could have had a Ricky Henderson rookie. Or Don Mattingly. Or that Mark McGwire Team USA card. Who knows? Maybe there was a Cal Ripken Jr. rookie or something.

But I never worried about that.

See, we knew every year when the new Topps cards were coming out. The one local gas station got boxes in each year and we’d be all ready for it.

Oh the excitement of opening those old wax packs! The cards were awesome! And without the Internet, we never knew what the design was going to be until we opened the packs. And then there was the gum — oh that hard, pink gum placed in packs. It was awful, but we chewed it nonetheless. At that time, packs were something like 25 cents each.

We’d sift through those cards for days and weeks. Until we got enough money to buy more packs and then we’d run out and see who we could get. It was always a score if you got someone from your favorite team. And if someone else got one? Well, you could trade!

And how many of you remember flipping? I would do it sometimes, but boy I hated it. People cheated at times with it and if you didn’t catch on, you could lose your cards in a hurry.

Then I grew up.

Probably my best pull.

Baseball cards, of course, were for kids. Who had time for those things? There was high school. And college. And buying cars. And hanging out with friends. When age 21 came, there was beer and bars.

Baseball cards? Never again. Sure, I’d buy a pack or two here and there, just for the hell of it. But I wasn’t a collector. I just thought it was fun to crack a pack here and there. I had to see what the new cards looked like. It’s not like I was ever going to start collecting again.

Right.

A funny thing happened on the way to the card shop…

I can’t put my finger on where I got the bug again. It was in the early 200os though. If I had to bet, it was probably when I started covering professional baseball. It was short-season Single-A, so basically the bottom level of baseball (not including the Florida instructional leagues). Some of those players were card collectors.

Heck, some of those guys had cards.

Say what?

I remember, again as a kid, that some minor league teams had team card sets made up. But it’s not like they were anything major. I mean, heck, those cards weren’t Topps or any company people took seriously.

Were they?

So back to these players. Some of the top picks had cards out there. Not only did they have cards, they had authentic autograph cards and there were also cards with pieces of a jersey or bat or something else in them.

Wait a second — what ever happened to wax packs, bad bubble gum and regular cards? This was getting serious, it seemed.

Seriously, I got this Schmidt card (15/15) for like $15 on eBay. Nuts!

Soon after, I picked up a copy of Beckett Baseball. I had read this magazine back in the day, but I wanted to get a grasp of things. And it opened my eyes to the hobby and how it has grown. I started to research more and more as I was intrigued.

From there, I found eBay was a haven for cards. That helped me become addicted. Though, to be fair, I was pretty good about it. I capped myself on prices of cards, kept a watch on what people charged for shipping and stayed within the budget. I got caught up in a couple of card battles on eBay, losing most, thankfully. I’ve never really gone too high with card prices. The highest I’ve paid for one card was about 50 bucks, a Peyton Manning autograph card.

One of my prize pieces of my collection — a Robin Roberts autograph card.

I soon realized this wasn’t just a kid thing anymore. Adults do it. Maybe a little too much in that prices are through the roof. Buying high-end packs can become really costly.

I became a collector again and I haven’t regretted it. I still buy packs sometimes, but I am more into collecting certain players. I collect most Phillies. I try and grab cards of players I covered in Oneonta and players who visited. I also have several people I collect in hopes of getting all their cards — Larry Christenson (my childhood favorite pitcher); Tom Brookens, Bill Monbouquette, Jon Matlack, Andy Barkett and Luis Quinones.  All but Christenson have connections to the O-Tigers from the time I was there.

I’ll have more on that in a future edition of this series.

It’s been fun though. It’s a cool hobby and I’ve had a great time trying to find cards. I’ve hit up a couple of card shows and have a good time there. I always find something cool at a good price and I truly enjoy sifting through cards or just checking out displays. One day, I’ll find a way to head to the National Sports Collectors Convention. This year it’s in Baltimore, which would have been nice, but it’s out of the price range this year!

The hobby has come a long way since the days of me buying wax packs, flipping cards, putting them in bike spokes and trading Dave Winfield cards to get another Pete Rose card. The cards are way more intense, with some high-price items in sets.

I love collecting certain players — such as my favorite Phillies pitcher as a kid, Larry Christenson.

There’s still room for kids, though. The basic packs can still be found in stores at a decent price, sometimes just 99 cents per pack. But there’s that bridge now — cross it and it’s a point of no return.

At least it seems that way to me!

I’ve yet to buy a high-end box. I’ve dabbled with some $8-$10 packs, but that’s about it. And I haven’t done it in a long time, for obvious reasons. For the most part, though, I stick with cheaper blaster boxes a couple of hobby packs here and there.

I can dream of that big hit, though.

There’s a feature that’s in the monthly Beckett magazine — a place where people can show off their pulls. Some of these pulls are simply incredible. Cards worth hundreds of dollars or more.

I hope one day I’ll have a pull good enough to send in to the magazine.

Until then, I’ll be happy with the small things and seeking out cards I need to fill something. One thing is for sure, it still gives the feel of a kid whenever you find a card you need or just ripping over a pack. I hope that feeling never goes away when it comes to collecting cards.

Notes: If you look at the top of the page, you’ll see a “Cards” link. I am trying to organize my collection and have a place where I can scan the cards and have a place for them. This will be the place. Over the next few months, I’ll be working on that page and the sub pages. Feel free to check it out. If you’re somewhat of a collector, I’ll have a page setup for cards I’m willing to part with as well as a “wanted” list. If I have something you want, feel free to give a shout and maybe we can work out a trade of sorts. I’m also going to eventually package up many of my “commons” or non-signed/game-used cards, package them as teams and likely give them away or trade for other items. Check back at some point to see what I have with those!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook! 

Foto Friday: Geocaching

When out geocaching, stop and look around. There are some great photo opportunities!

Geocaching is a wonderful activity for many reasons.

For starters, it gets you outside, active and breathing some (hopefully) fresh air.

On another front, it opens your senses. It makes you think about your surroundings, what people might be doing and what you are looking for. A geocache can be anything from a small size to a very large size.

But geocaching can work for something else, too — photography.

There once was a time that I, like many geocachers, went out seeking one thing — what was hidden. I’d find the container, sign the log and be off to find the next one. But as I became more and more experienced in the game and continually pushed forward, I found that way of doing things could become old and boring.

Getting away from that kind of caching has allowed me to notice several things:

  • How negative many geocachers seem to be anymore (logs, coordinates etc.; I’ve previously covered this)
  • With the advancement in the game, how hard it is to find “old-school caches”
  • And, how much I miss because it’s “get cache, run, find next one”

The last one is the worst part. Before I get to that, I need to point a few things out.

Trash or flood debris? We weren't sure. But because we were looking around, this shot opened up to me during the day's caching activities.

I don’t usually go rushing out after first to finds anymore because of a couple things — it’s too competitive in our area now and most things are published when it’s dark out.

The answers to those things?

I’m competitive in other aspects of my life, so having it when geocaching is something I now avoid. And the dark part — unless it’s an obvious “park-and-grab,” such as in a parking lot or something (or a cache that is a true night cache, with the flashlight, fire tacks etc.), I don’t like to find caches at night anymore because one could be missing something that the person wanted you to see. OR, you could be missing some great photo opportunities that you wouldn’t have known were there if you went in the middle of the night.

It’s just not worth zipping out, driving all over and doing this.  The reality is that many people might not use the attributes when publishing the cache on geocaching.com, but in the end, going at night could really do damage to the game as a whole if people go when they shouldn’t (say, into parks, cemeteries etc.) in hours when it shouldn’t be done. Should that be up to the cache owner? Sure. But the cacher should always be aware of these things.

But this post isn’t about what is right and wrong with the game. With some things I’ve seen recently, I’ll tackle that at another date.

For now, this is about photography.

Geocaching is a wonderful activity that might take you to places you’ve never been. But if you are into photography — even with a point-and-shoot or cell phone — there are opportunities right in front of you to make some awesome and cool images.

The first thing I would suggest is to keep your eyes open. Look for things that just stick out and make a cool shot. Maybe something to do with the cache or something near it. Such as this shot:

A shot as simple as the log bood, some nature and part of the container can make for an interesting image.

It’s things like this that make me stop and smell the roses, per say, a bit.

A long walk is a wonderful thing when caching. When we went this weekend, the final set was a 2.25-mile walk along an old rail. The trail is paved and perfect for a stroll, especially with like 10 caches on it. Though all the caches are basically micros, we were out on a gorgeous day, taking a walk, chatting and caching.

And we walked the length of it, and back. So there’s the exercise factor.

Throughout the day, there were cool opportunities, too.

My biggest advice for photos when geocaching is simple — slow down and open your eyes. It’s amazing what’s out there.

Below are a few of my favorites from the day. You can see the entire set here.

This area wasn't a place I'd want to be at night -- but I want to come back during the day to do more photos!

Even an old lamp-post cache gave me good photo chances -- as I looked around and spotted this.

Looking back from a cache spot -- shadows, sky, water, bridges... what a setup for a photo!

Finally, never forget the people. Especially if they don't know you are snapping away at the time!

In the end, remember these things when caching — it’s not a game that you have to rush through. Even if you are into numbers, you can still get them AND get good photos.

Just look around.

Keep the eyes open.

Watch fellow cachers.

And keep on snapping away!

Fundraiser: I am, again, trying to raise money for the Relay For Life. If you donate to me — even a small amount — you will be entered to win a super-sweet quilted scarf. Click here for all the information!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!