Never ending Winters…
At this point I think it’s pretty clear we’re witnessing Ragnarok.
Dave’s True Story
I’m just discovering “Dave’s True Story”
Great album. Sounds amazing on my audio setup.
Bear Peak / Green Mnt
Hiking Green Mountain starting from South Mesa Trailhead is not really a thing (for good reasons) but I thought I’d give it a try.
It took 9 hours eleven minutes to complete for a total of 18.39 miles / 4621ft elevation gain. I’ve managed to burn 3,727 calories in the process.
I’m still trying to get back in hiking shape / lose weight. I’ll post about this in a month. It’s going well for now.
Great views from Bear Peak as usual
Looking down at Boulder – Colorado University:
Summit of Green Mountain. That plate gives the direction of all the peaks in the distance.
That moment you look back at Bear Peak from the summit of Green Mountain and you realize you’re parked behind these, way down below.
Anna Ternheim – Winter Tapes
Been listening to a lot of music from Sweden lately.
Anyway, even though I left the social media sites behind (best decision ever) I couldn’t help but notice that the hashtag #saccageparis is trending. The photos & videos of rats running around and the widespread destruction of the French Capital is rather disheartening.
Mt Falcon
I need to be reachable these days so I’m sticking to the front range. This time I went back to Mt Falcon. Only a stone throw away from last Saturday. Hiked all over Mt Falcon Park for a total of 9.19 miles.
Apparently a guy wanted to build a Summer house on top of those hills for the Presidents of the United States. That project died quickly but the piece of marble is still there.
The place is a bit crowded as expected. I’m glad I started at sunrise.
Staunton Park – Elk Falls
Garmin Fenix 6 just told me I didn’t get enough sleep and I should postpone my next workout. Yeah, that’s gonna happen. I don’t need this kind of negativity in my life.
Anyway, I hiked in Staunton Park yesterday for the first time. Went to Elk Falls. 13 miles round trip. Easy well packed snow for the most part except the last mile towards the fall which had about 14 inch of soft snow along the trail. Good workout.
City Park
Love, Loyalty, Learning. Still not sure if they’re complementary or just three sides of the same coin (shut up). Working on it.
Mount Morrison
Hiked Mount Morrison on Saturday…after my one hour work out with my new indoor bike. Weight loss is going well thanks for asking 🙂
Mud, ice, and snow along the way but manageable even with a pair of Altra Running Lone Peak 3.0
Gym time
Since I have no desire to go to the gym these days I thought I’d buy an exercise bike. I should have done that last year really but better late than never I guess…
My “usual” gym routine when I train for something is to workout seven days a week for about 90 minutes (60′ cardio / 30′ weight) every day. Usually at 4:30am because the gym is less crowded except for the “regulars”.
I don’t have any goal but I’m sure I’ll come up with something later in the year…
Some more Snow pics
Photos from the last snow storm. Most of it is gone but we’re expecting some more later today…
More bread
I was right! I just had to reduce the water a little 🙂
Process below. I’m terrible at taking notes for baking but I think it’s accurate enough.
Delicious.
Poolish (24h in advance)
140g water
122g bread flour
1g of yeast
Actual bread recipe
250g warm water 90 degrees (F)
5g yeast
6g diastatic malt powder
400g all purpose
12g salt
(and all the poolish of course)
7:50am – mixing all ingredients (with minimum mixing)
9:10am – Folding #1
10:30am – Folding #2 and shaping
11:00am dumping in the hot dutch oven, scoring, covered => oven at 500F
11:15am reducing the oven to 430F
finishing baking
Snow storm still going…
Thought I’d go to the park for a little stroll 🙂
Not too crowded today. A few firefighters. A Young mother pulling a sledge (the two year old didn’t seem really happy honestly). A few skiers. That’s about it really.
Lustitia has seen better days. That much we can agree on.
More snow…Maybe.
Every now and then the weather forecasters predict the snow storm of the decade. They’re usually wrong. Regardless, Denver (and the surrounding suburbs and cities) are bracing themselves.
It seems Monday will be a great day for grocery shopping. The reason being that grocery stores have been emptied by a terrified mob on Friday evening…
As for the snow…well, it just started lightly. Boulder, Colorado is expecting thirty inch (76cm). Denver? Up to twenty four inch (60cm).
Estes Park could see more than two meters of snow over the weekend. Good luck every one.
Sunday, 8am update – So far so good. Only a “reasonable” amount of snow…
Saturday bread
Thought I’d jump on that trend of baking bread in a Dutch oven. It was either that or the “Small waist, pretty face, big bank” challenge. I think I chose wisely. You’re welcome.
Anyway, I used a 24h Poolish starter. Did ten good minute of hand mixing, then one hour rest, some folding / stretching, two hour rest, more folding and…not much resting* before dumping the dough in the hot Dutch oven.
*That’s why it’s rather dense. It taste / smell fantastic though. And that cracking sound out of the oven…so awesome.
I think I used these measurements below. Hand mixing only. Fairly high water ratio. I might tune that down a little next time…
Friday morning: Poolish starter
132g water
112g bread flour
1g of yeast
Saturday morning:
280g warm water 90 degrees (F)
5g yeast
400g bread flour
12g salt
+ Poolish starter
No Curfew
“No Curfew / Open Colorado”
Curfew was never that bad in Denver and / or Colorado but the 11pm forced close down of bars & restaurants (versus 2am usually) is getting old. At least we never had a 6pm curfew…like, you know, “some countries” 🙂
I actually didn’t know we still had a 11pm curfew in place. That’s how much I go out these days.
I talked to the group who put up that flag; that’s how I know.
Update: City Park got even more crowded for my second bike ride of the day. Two-step dancing happy people who put that flag up are still there, enjoying a cold one at the lake, under a warm 20 degree Celsius and a nice blue sky while Parisian cops are removing people from the river side because…Covid-19.
More croissants…
Much better than last time although the dough was too soft for the butter. I’ll reduce the water to 190g next time.
375g all purpose flour
8g instant yeast
8g salt
50g sugar
210g water
1 egg
210g butter
Sara Gazarek
“Live at the Jazz Bakery” from Sara Gazarek has been on my short list for a long time.
This performance of “And So It Goes,,,” is absolutely amazing. I challenge you not to fall in love…
Amplifier Update
Finally received the case & wiring for the amplifier. Assembly went well considering the parts came from three different countries (The Nederland, Denmark & China)
I forgot the jumper to switch it from 220v to 110v at first but luckily that didn’t break anything. I wrapped two sets of wires with electrical tape and copper tape. I’ll do the same for the rest of the wiring this weekend. I was too eager to listen to it. And yes, it sounds fantastic.
Anything from Adieu tristesse · Zazie, Emilie-Claire Barlow, Sara Gazarek, Bobo Stenson Trio and Caro Emerald sounds amazing. I’ll post more of that later…
Snow
Morning workout, yesterday, shoveling all that snow…
12v trigger
My amplifier case & wire are still stuck in Memphis, TN at the FedEx hub 🙁
Anyway, I’ve noticed that the power amplifier itself doesn’t include a 12v trigger so I decided to make one.
I bought that relay but it comes with no documentation.
Apparently when I power 9v on the DC+ and DC- there’s a tiny red LED that lights up. Then if I short the IN with the DC+ another tiny green light turns on and I hear the relay.
The ohmmeter does show a change on the other side of the board so that must be how you set it up 🙂
We did not cover that in pastry school so what do I know.