New Arrival....Rain Maxwell Bolduc Couzin

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures of our new baby, Rain Maxwell! He was born May 27th (three weeks after his "due date") and weighed in at 8 pounds 9 ounces. They measured 21.5 inches long, but a week and a half later at his first checkup he was 23.5 inches. Big kid! He has been eating well, and is up around 11 pounds already. He and mommy are doing great!

Special thanks to Jessica for her Birthing From Within class, and of course Amy and Juliet, and everyone else who helped us along the way....

-Nimbus


Here are a few pictures:

Hi everyone,

Movie Screening of "10 Questions for the Dalai Lama" and Monk speaking on Tibet

Hey all,

So on April 15th, prior to our screening of "10 Questions for the Dalai Lama" (highly recommended), we had a monk from the Drepung Gomang Institute speak about the current situation in Tibet. He spoke for about thirty minutes, and answered questions following the film, although afterwards he deferred to the Dalai Lama for the best answers.

The Dalai Lama does support the olympics, and doesn't want to deprive the people of China of having it in their country. Nor does he want the athletes to be punished. Nor does he call for a boycott of Chinese goods, because it would lead to suffering by the people of China. And of course he doesn't want violence. I personally find it interesting and sadly amusing to hear Chinese political leaders calling him a terrorist or similar. But we know how that word can be misused by leaders (such as Mr. Bush and his allies). I am encouraged by recent moves by China to meet with the Dalai Lama's envoys, and hope progress will be made, in no small part due to public pressure and grass roots protests, like the ones we had on Bardstown Road!

Cheers...and keep up the activism people..it really does work if you stay organized and "never give up!"

-Nimbus

Great American Meatout at Ray's Monkey House

Hey, free vegan food is hard to resist, so we had a great turnout for the annual Great American Meatout at Ray's Monkey House, sponsored by Earthsave. Between Nate handing out cupcakes (asking people "would you like a vegetarian cupcake?" he got a few funny looks, because people may think "as opposed to a meat-filled one?") and the college kids visiting from CUNY playing guitar for our open mic, it was a fun evening all around...

Here are some pix: (pretty sure the date was Mar 21st)

Thailand Trip ! Coffee, Thai wedding, elephants, bro, etc..

Jody and I made it to Thailand for a brief visit Feb 27-Mar 10th! We visited a bunch of coffee shops, one roaster, one coffee processing plant, visited my brother in Chiang Mai, had a traditional Thai wedding, went to an Elephant rescue sanctuary, and a bunch of other stuff....so we were busy, but it was great!

Here is a writeup of my "coffee stuff" plus a few pictures and a link to my other coffee pictures. More pix available upon request...

When I got off the plane in Bangkok I had only had Starbucks coffee for the past 24hours. From the Louisville airport kiosks (where their workers are no longer permitted to accept tips), to the three flights on United Airlines (which serves only Starbucks) I had few options. It was better than the airplane coffee of the old days, but it left me looking forward to exploring the coffees of Thailand, and Chiang Mai up north in particular. That was where I was headed.

Bangkok had plenty of coffee, mostly espresso or americanos for me. Soy milk was hard to come by, which didn’t bother me – I seldom drink anything but black coffee – but it did bother my wife, Jody, who as a vegan doesn’t drink cow milk. Our guest house had instant coffee in the room, and a coffeemaker with local (Chiang Mai) beans for breakfast and during the day. The owner explained that she no longer used Starbucks beans because they were too expensive. Our most pleasant coffee was probably an indie place on the river, where I had a double espresso. Price was just under $2 (55 baht).

On to Chiang Mai, far in the north near Cambodia and Laos. My brother had just moved there (days earlier) from Beijing, and we were set to be married in a traditional Northern Thailand Buddhist wedding at the end of the week. The husband of our wedding coordinator, an expat from BC Canada who had lived in Chiang Mai for 20 years, knew quite a bit about the history of the local coffee industry. Here is some information that I extracted from him: (in no way fact-checked or verified, but Simon does almost qualify as a local now)

History of Coffee in Chiang Mai, according to Simon:
In the 80’s, an NGO, the German Thai Highland Projects brought coffee trees to the hills outside of Chiang Mai. Originally, they only had lowland Robusta. Quite a bit was planted, and before long there was coffee. But they quickly realized that there was no infrastructure to get the coffee out. Nobody was buying it. Then a dutch guy – Gerald – came in and started to roast and sell locally. He was married to a member of the Lahu hill tribe, and lived there as well. He got it going in a few restaurants, but the market was still very limited. But others noticed his coffee, and started copying. So before long several roasters sprang up.

Gerald died in the early to mid 90’s, with the Chiang Mai coffee industry still in its infancy. Gerald sold his business to JJ Coffee. There was also Duong Dee Hill Tribe coffee, which began selling packaged coffee at grocery stores. Before Duong Dee, local coffee had pretty much only been sold in restaurants. Bon Café started marketing heavily strictly to hotels.

Starbucks came to town in the mid to late 90’s, located at the Night Bazaar. They chose a spot that would give them heavy visibility to tourists. For them, it was largely a marketing location. From then on, trendy coffee spots began popping up, and gradually spread throughout the town.

Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai are now almost entirely Arabica beans, with Robusta being produced down south.

One funny story about Starbucks early days is that they introduced a “hill tribe blend” and on the packaging used the logo from Duong Dee Coffee. They eventually came up with their own local blend.

Well, that is the abbreviated history according to Simon.

I was personally surprised at the sheer number of slick trendy coffeeshops around town. One stretch of road had one every half block. They appeared to be fancy Starbucks clones, with very few distinguishing features. Their clientele was almost all locals. Also, around town, one could find coffee nearly every block in small stands. Many would have real single group espresso machines and proper commercial grinders. Some would have mediocre non-commercial machines, which of course produced inferior shots.

Many of the fancier shops had decent latte art, which impressed me. Their presentation was often quite nice. Some shops, and roadside stands even, would serve a cup of tea to cleanse your palate after the coffee. Very pleasant. The average store price for espresso was about 45 baht ($1.50) and a latte was 55 baht (just under $2.00). Coffee on the street ranged from 10 baht to 60 baht, usually 25-30 baht (just under $1.00). Nescafe instant coffee was widespread also.

Many stands also made what is called “Ancient Coffee” or “Bag Coffee.” This coffee is made by keeping a cloth sack (bag) in a medium size steel pitcher for a long period of time. More coffee and hot water were added periodically, but it seemed kind of like a very long-term French press, without the pressing. The resulting coffee ended up very black and almost smoky-like. Carnation “oil” (it had sort of an oily creamy consistency and appearance) is added first from a can or squeeze bottle. Then, Carnation condensed milk is added. Then it is filled with the black coffee and stirred. I actually liked the ancient coffee. My local stand in Chiang Mai sold me large cups (about 12+ oz) for 15 baht (fifty cents).

We managed to visit a local Roaster, and Coffeeshop … The roaster there, named Noi, gave me a tour of his roastery. He works on a small Probat, and L5, so it is basically identical to what we have at Rays, just smaller. He was very friendly, and I enjoyed his americanos. He had a special discounted price if you bought the banana pancakes with it. (highly recommended)

In general, I didn’t find the local espresso or americanos particularly good. I’m fairly spoiled by Ray’s Monkey House freshly roasted super high quality coffee. But it was extremely exciting to see a new and growing coffee industry taking root in Chiang Mai. I wish them the best of luck, and I’m sure they will get better and better. I took plenty of pictures, so here are a few!

Cheers,

Nimbus

More coffee-related pictures from my trip can be found at http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h309/nimbusbeer/Thailand%2008%20coffee/

February Ice storm, and new vent stacks for the roaster

Well, anyone living in Louisville remembers the freaky weather from this winter. Tornadoes (twice) and ice storms (feels like a couple decent ones). Anyway, the first ice storm knocked down a big chunk of the old old tree in our backyard. Fortunately it landed between the house, shed, and parked vehicles (pickup truck and cruiser) and missed everything - even our compost bin...

The second ice storm resulted in a 7 am phone call from Jacob telling me the awning had collapsed. I hiked over from my house (two blocks) and sure enough the whole thing was on the ground blocking the front entrance. He had cleared a path on the side porch for people to get in. After a little warming and melting, and with a hand from someone next door at cumberland brews, we slid the 25 foot awning to the left of our shop where our other neighbor doesn't use their storefront and voila, a front door again.

It took the awning company a couple days to pick it up for repairs, and over two months to finish getting it back up there (and about 50 phone calls and ....you don't want to know). Contractors. Grumble. But it is finally up and finished (finished April 25th!).

Benjamin took some pictures of the awining in front, so I'll post them here soon...

---

Inside the shop, I was working on upgrading our roaster vent to increase airflow. I had it at the correct diameter according to the Probat spec manual, but acting on advice from the roaster over at Ritual Coffee in San Francisco, I went ahead and put in 8 inch pipe. Here are the pictures (I know, not too exciting for non-coffee geeks):

-Peace

Nimbus

Finally a new post from me !!

Hi everyone!

I'm way way behind on posting here, so let me try to play catchup, starting from way way back in February. So much has happened - and fortunately I was taking pictures. I've just been too darn busy to put them onto photobucket and then drag them over here...anyway, excuses excuses so let me get rolling in chronological order: I'll split it up into multiple posts, that way I can make slow progress at least (after 1 am right now, so I don't expect to get done tonight...).

The good news is that Ray's is rolling right along, everyone is well, big exciting things are happening left and right, AND our baby is due any day now....

Cheers!

-Nimbus

Whoops...forgot to post pix of the new sign

Hi Everyone!!

A few pictures for ya...nothing too new and exciting to report. We're changing our movie nights from Sun to Monday night (730). "The Corporation" is playing this week, a great documentary examing the power of Corporations in modern society. Story times continue to be Tues at 6, and Sat at 4pm. Open mics on Thurs (6pm) for adults and Fri (6pm) for kids.

I just completed upgrading our roaster vent pipes from six inch to eight inch, would may not have been necessary, but there is a chance that it'll give us even better control of our airflow through the roaster. Not essential, but we're very focused on quality so we're always on the lookout for ways to get even better. Also, I finally got the software working for a neat new temperature probe to get bean temperature accurately. It monitors the bean temp just inside the sightglass, and sends it wirelessly to my laptop computer, giving me a nice precise graph with data points every second. We had been taking data every 30 seconds by eye, so this will help us a lot. Yay. Again, just another piece in the puzzle...

Another bit of excitement is that our webpage is nearing completion, thanks to the hard work of Jacob. We'll let you know when it's up and running.




Typing away during Storytime at Rays....

Hmmmm...well, you can't see the detail from these photos...I'll find a better version from a photo we took on the ground.


Jacob, working on another coffee drink...

And April behind the bar while Adam makes up his mind...

Last, but not least, some yummy Ethiopian Sidamo is being brewed for the next few days. Get it while you can. We'll have a few bags for sale too.

Cheers

Sumatra Blue Batak

Hi all...

Just wanted to let you all know that we have some Sumatra Blue Batak available by the cup and even a little for sale by the bag. Limited time only for this somewhat rare coffee. It is very tasty and the best adjectives to describe it might be rustic, and brown sugar. I'm not sure what rustic means, but it is the word I thought of while cupping it, and then I found another reviewer using the same word, so it must mean something. Also hints of molasses. Enjoy while it lasts...should make it through the weekend and into Monday....

-Nimbus

Storytime at Ray's Monkey House

Hey...we had a good turnout for Storytime last Saturday, and Nicole from the C-J took some photos that went onto the online version of the Courier Journal, as well as onto Kentuckianamoms.com website.

Here's a link to the photos http://www.kentuckianamoms.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=B2&Dato=20080107&Kategori=MOMS&Lopenr=801070810&Ref=PH

Thanks John for more great storytelling.

I've got some more photos coming soon of my own, so keep a lookout...

Hey...haha...some of you lucky people got to hear me read a few stories tonight (Tuesday). John was sick, and I figured the show had to go on. Went ok, other than my little critter Leone running around like a wild one. Tough to read stories and discipline a five year old, so he got to have a little extra craziness. I'll try to leave it to the pros, but we will try our best to have stories at all the scheduled times.

What else is new and exciting? Some more Ethiopian Harrar, from a different lot than the last bag we had. Nice and fruity, with some blueberry flavor.

New coffee labels were done, but then Jacob's computer decided to eat his final version just before he emailed it to me. File was corrupted. So hours of work lost, but the next final version will be even better. We're using the center panel of Noah's store sign - slightly modified - and it should look really cool...

This Sunday, for movie night, we'll be showing "Earthlings," which deals with humans and animals and the relationships between the species. Viewer discretion advised. Here's a link to the film site: http://www.isawearthlings.com/ and a summary from them:

EARTHLINGS is a feature length documentary about humanity's absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research) but also illustrates our complete disrespect for these so-called "non-human providers." The film is narrated by Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix (GLADIATOR) and features music by the critically acclaimed platinum artist Moby.

Oh....word of warning, our decaf espresso grinder is broken (faulty switch). Should be running by tomorrow if all goes well (parts coming in overnight, and I'm having fun learning more about the inside of a Mazzer Super Jolly espresso grinder)....so watch out you decaf mocha drinkers - you know who you are!

Peace

-Nimbus

Open mic nights at Rays...and coffee of course

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to announce two new open mic nights (one for kids!) starting in a week...also, we're currently serving some nice Sidamo dry processed coffee that is very tasty. Fruity berry flavor along with chocolate. I have one brewing right now, and another - from a different lot - that we'll fire up when this one runs out. Also, a Sumatra Lintong Triple Pick batch that is ready to roll... For dark roasts, we have a Malawi Mapanga curently.

Here's the scoop on open mic:

BOTH OPEN MIC nights start at 6 pm...and run til' we're done!

"Conscious Creation from Chaos! The Carnival is a continual birth of images, sounds, things to egg on the ear drum, tickle the tastebud, fascinate the feelers and perplex the peepers. Most of all, it is the uttering of understandings." "

The Carnival is currently celebrating:in Louisville, Kentucky.Ray's Monkey House (Coffee Shop) 1578 Bardstown Road

Thursdays: Adults Open Heart Purgery: (starting January 3, 2008)
Every Thursday: an accoustic open stage for adults to share their talent and open heart with us, whether with music, storytelling, jokes, poetry, or just unloading some thoughts, take the spotlight and open your heart to us. Make it fun!

Fridays: The Kiddie Carnival: (starting December 28)
Every Friday: A chance for kids to shine like they're born to do. This accoustic open stage for kids gives kids a chance to get up and express themselves (music, jokes, stories,show, share their week, and tell of a favorite item, what can you offer as a gift to us?), experience an open jam atmosphere, get to know others, and be commended and praised for being themselves. There's also performances by special guests for the kids.

More on the Conscious Carnival:
"Marvel at the Mystery of You! Behold the Beauty of BE-ing! DEFY your Fears and Revel in the Free Gift of Life! As we all walk our journeys, we are experiencing and learning about ourselves. We create to share what we have learned. We are processing what we experience so that we may try to gain understanding. What better way to process than to come together and share our understandings with each other? We might be surprised that we are not alone, and that there are others willing to accept and support us. "