Cleaning up!

Hello Blogiverse! I'm yet again trying to clean up my act and start posting my meaningful or interesting experiences.

Coming up in the next few months well have some gardening, some bee keeping, and a whole bunch of automotive work on the truck. All are things interesting enough to document for posterity (at least in my mind).

To the left is some freshly cut cold process soap.

It is dyed with green tea and scented with peppermint and jojoba oil. This is my new wintertime hobby and home made gift. People seem to appreciate and enjoy things that are made instead of bought. The basic recipe is:

• 2oz jojoba oil added at trace
• 2oz Peppermint Oil (double refined) added at trace
• 21oz olive oil
• 16oz coconut oil
• 8oz shea butter
• 38oz palm oil
• 12oz lye
• 32oz water <--- boiled and died greeen with old green tea leaves

The wonder website HERE (millersoap.com) outlines in great detail the steps and common problems one might encounter making their own cold process soap. It smells great, lathers great, costs a fraction of retail and is quite fantastic stuff. Did I mention how fun it is to play kitchen chemist?

Hello Friends!
Say hello to truck!
After an endless search, over several months, I finally found a pickup truck I actually wanted to buy. In the next few weeks I'll be replacing all the broken bits and pieces, and hopefully she'll keep running till next year when I'll probably rebuild the engine. Keep tuned ;D

We're home!

Oh, we've made it!
We left for the airport at 9am Capetown time Friday morning, and have just arrived home at 10pm capetown time saturday. That's a long long time. We're showing, unpacking, and decompressing.
More once the travel crack wears off!

Post place holder

This is going to be a post about Gran Turismo, Capetown Aquarium, and Lions Head peak

Posting Place holder

This will be a post about Stellenbosch, Franshoek, L'Orimarins, and Lavender Garden

Table Mountain

We spent our weekend outside in the sun and outdoors. In order to beat the sun and heat, an early wake up needed to happen Saturday morning. The trail head to hike table mountain, which is one of the many tall flat peaks the surrounds Capetown, is just behind Rob and Amy's flat. We hit the trail around 8am and were able to experience beautiful vistas and have a nice sweat, before heading to the Biscuit mill for breakfast.

The biscuit mill is a combination between a farmers market and a brunch. The mill is a large semi covered market filled with vendors selling beer, cider, and food for most of the day during the weekend. I enjoyed some local beer, an ostrich burger, and many samples of things like cheese, biltong (dried meat), and honey name just a few. After a few hours of hiking, nothing satisfies quite as much as a hearty snack.

We have penguins!

Well, its become Wednesday in a hurry. We head home in just a few days, already. I have a lot of catching up to do on this blogus.

PENGUINS!
We spent a day in Fishhoek to see the sights. We stopped into Pisces Divers where Christie took her Nitrox certification, and obviously we visited the penguins.
We had barbequed fish lunch (he cooked it right in front of us) with prawns and squid at a little cafe on the water, and we strolled around a few small touristy towns. This killed most of the day, and we went out to a small local pizza place for dinner (colcachio). At this point I discovered a play station2 in the basement, Gran Turismo 4 ensued!