Winterizing the house (I've been putting this off for, oh, 10 months now... 110 years of "settling" has made this a pretty overwhelming task)
I spent way too long trying to seal up our three external doors, but they are finally draft free. Of course, you have to body slam them to get 'em closed now...

Feeling bad about not finishing the shed that is half built
Actually, Chris offered to come over and help with the shed, so I dropped my weatherstripping for a few hours to add the roof. It is almost ready to become the motorcycle garage!

Experimenting with roasting my own coffee (I'll let you know how it goes)
Trinity picked up some green beans, or raw coffee beans, for me while she was running some errands Saturday. I roasted them up on the stove top Saturday night and had a FRESH cup, or I should say pot, of coffee Sunday morning! It was quite good, and even more fun. Though, there was a lot of smoke...

Why would I do this you might be asking. Well, first of all, just because this is the kind of thing I like to do. Come on, you know that one already! Second, green coffee is half the cost, and can store well for much longer than roasted coffee without getting stale. (I know some of my readers do not believe in coffee going stale. Give my Dad a pouch of ground black powder and he'll brew it up whether it smells like coffee or, well, just a pouch of ground black powder!) So, I can save a lot of money because of the lower price, plus the option to buy in bulk.

Now, when I have a cup of coffee I can say that I did everything but grow the bean itself! Believe me, I have researched whether I could do that too, but this is one thing that is impossible in Missouri. And then there's that other part about shipping it across the globe too. If I am going to drink coffee, it is going to have to travel far, so this is another global cost that buying in larger quantities would allow me to "spend less" on.

While reading about roasting your own coffee, I saw somewhere that until around the 1920s if you had coffee in the US you most likely roasted it yourself. It was not widely available in roasted form until then. As I was roasting it Saturday I was wondering how many pounds of coffee have been roasted before in this old house? And how long has it been since the last time? If you'd like to try roasting your own coffee, it is easier than it seems, and a lot of fun - let me know and I'll give you a lesson!

Oh yeah, here's some before and after pics: