The 4th of July is coming up. A time for celebrating our nation's Independence Day, barbequing and spending time with family and friends. This past week has been busy at work.  A lot of time has been spent talking with my son trying to make arrangements for him to get down here to Virginia in July to help me get ready for my eventual move back to the Pacific Northwest sometime in August.  Finances have been a bit of a pain with work and finally getting the last bits of things with insurance covered and done from my layoff for foot surgery, and a bit of backpay that still needs to be processed as part of a correction from my transfer during the shutdown.  Unfortunately nothing was done in time for this paycheck that happens to be when rent is due, but I just need to work with what I have. 

I have applied for a lead position in Wenatchee, WA.  I was interviewed for the same position there over a year ago, and they chose someone else.  I am not sure what weighted their decision to chose that person over me, but had they chosen me odds are I would still be there and they would not be looking for someone else right now.  That area of Washington is known for its cheap land and beautiful scenery!  I had hoped to buy some land there and start my homestead then.  Who knows maybe there is a better reason for all the stress and running around of the past few years. I also applied for a position in Portland, OR doing what I do now.  I would probably get a place in Vancouver, WA and work in Portland, or I do know there are quite a few tiny house communities in that area of Oregon that would be perfect too!  This week I'll also apply for a regular officer position in Seattle, maybe go back to my old job at my old airport!  Because I took a demotion in pay band to the position I am in now that makes any and all other positions higher than mine so anything I go for is a promotion technically making transfers after only six months a possibility, kind nice.  I may be moving soon but my move toward self sufficiency has already begun.

My kombucha brew is starting off slow.  It has been a week already so the brew should be done.  I think the issue may have something to do with the tiny SCOBY I got in the starter kit and the small amount of starter liquid I got with it.  Maybe I should have started with a half gallon batch just to get the SCOBY enough time and space to get healthy and get going.  The brew tastes rather watered down and the SCOBY looks like it should at the four day point not the seven day point, but the smell is where it should be and everything looks okay.  Since it tastes watered down that means that the process of respiration probably just finished, and now it is entering the actual fermentation part of the brew where the bacteria go to work giving it that beautiful flavor! So I imagine it should be ready just in time for the 4th of July!  The Big Book of Kombucha has so many great recipes in it for things I can do with my old SCOBYs!  The book has recipes and I imagine directions for getting the yeast from a kombucha brew and using it to make breads for example!  I can take some yeast from my brew and use that to start a sourdough culture!  There are so many other things I can get from my kombucha besides just tea!  It si so amazing and a great first step into fermented foods and moving towards self reliance!

I look forward to posting more next week and letting people know how this new batch of kombucha came out! Have a happy 4th of July everyone!