Dream Home
Many people like to think about their dream home, and, I admit it, I too sometimes think about such things.
Typically I get the impression "dream homes" consist of palatial mansions with "dream cars" in front. Inside there is likely a trophy wife with large fake "trophies" of her own (or a trophy man-floozy for the women's dreams). If you are superhappytime someone else's trophy wife may be found in your dream home.
I found myself thinking about my dream home frequently on my recent road trip up the West Coast to Seattle and back. Typically these thoughts would hit me as we drove through some beautiful idyllic little valley. I'd look around and say to my compatriots
"I could set up 100 beehives just right there, and a little cottage, and I'd be set!!"
I don't know how many times I said this to my roadtrip-mates, but it was a lot. (=
And the cottage has to have a thatched roof. I've always loved thatched roofs.
Thatched roofs, it turns out are competitive with modern insulations in terms of insulation ability, and do not catch fire any more frequently than shingles.
The major drawback to thatched roofs, however, is that they are more labour intensive to install. Once installed they don't need major maintainance for 15 years (60 apparently if you use seagrass), but putting a thatched roof up, well then you need a whole pile of thatchers.
And then of course, if this were my dream house, I would need ample room for my brewing hobby. Probably an additional outbuilding (also stone with thatched roof) with small industrial brewkettles big enough to make 53 gallon batches -- the size of the standard oak barrel. And then of course there'd need to be a cellar for said barrels. And of course a nice copper still.
As for location, I'm not sure exactly. I definitely need to do more exploring before I land that dream publishing deal and become filthy rich ;D But definitely somewhere lush and green. I.e. not here. Oregon, Washington, and Northern California are nice, but so are a lot of other places. Clearly I need to hunt down the ideal location for my dream house.
As to the dream car to accompany this dream house? ::shrug:: one that works?
With the copious amounts of free time I'd no doubt have in this dream scenario, I'd probably take up additional crafty hobbies in addition to brewing and distilling. Maybe work on the garden (I presently have no gardening experience). And, of course, I'd still be blogging. (=