2009 - A Year in Review

Rather than send a letter with our Christmas cards, we thought we'd give a blog version of our Year in Review. The year started off in grand fashion with a snow the likes of which Eastern NC rarely sees. If I recall correctly, we got about 6"....a good time was had by all.



2009 was also a bad year to be a poisonous snake in Moan Woods. Of the 3 copperheads I saw this year, two didn't make it.


That's a 3 footer...'bout as big as they come.

2009 has been deemed "the year of the cherry tomato" in our house. We were very excited to put in our first garden at the new house. Jason worked very hard to cut out the grass and install the fence. We brought in 3 truckloads of topsoil. However, our biggest downfall was not knowing how fruitful (pun intended) cherry tomato plants were. Lesson learned. We ended up pulling the plants up in mid August because I didn't have time to deal with them anymore and our windowsills were overflowing!


Our flower and vegetable gardens provided ample opportunities for Jason to flex his photography skills and we ended up with some very nice pictures of plants, plant pests, and biological control agents.

2009 saw the addition of a few new hobbies for us. Mostly hobbies based around fermentation and the like. We made a number of cheeses this year including cheddar, mozzarella, cottage cheese, ricotta, parmesan, and gouda. The photo below is our chipotle cheddar. It was awesome!


We also stepped up our bread-making this year. I have maintained a sourdough starter nearly the entire year and it has been fruitful. We've had sourdough round loaves, pizza crusts, english muffins, and even pancakes. We've also made 10+ miscellaneous loaves from the book 100 Great Breads. My first successful sourdough can be seen below.


Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, 2009 can best be described as a year of mediocrity for Team Moan - Carolinas. You may recall this year's epic finish to the New River Canoe Race in West Jefferson, NC. No canoe-shaped plaque for us this year. Also, my Belgian Blonde Ale received a bronze award in the first round of the 2009 National Homebrew Competition. We may be moving on up, however, as I was part (half) of the championship team in this year's Frustrana Cup. The competition consisted of a beach badminton tourney and the wind and competition were tough.

At this rate, 2010 better look out!