Hawksbill Jim

Inside of Murphys Grand Irish pub in Old Town Alexandria.

We voted and Virginia friends you need to get your ass on down there and vote too. (Reward was a cold pint afterwards)

Nobody’s talking about those goddam Epstein files now, are they?

I don’t know what everybody else is doing with their Soros checks, but my wife is taking me to brunch in Old Town Alexandria! #nokings

I’m sorry but one side is voting for a gun, not the woman.

Judge Says DOJ May Be Vindictively Punishing Abrego Garcia for Challenging Removal to El Salvador Read more here.

🚨BREAKING: A federal judge in Nashville ruled that the Department of Justice’s criminal case against Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia may be a form of punishment against him for legally challenging his abrupt removal to an El Salvador megaprison earlier this year.

At last, a crack in the stone wall.

YouTube video by BlondieVEVO Blondie - Rapture (Official Music Video)

Never thought there would be a time this song might be relevant.

1995 Alaska Boeing E-3 Sentry accident - Wikipedia

Here’s to the memory of Yukla 27. 9/22/1995 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Al...

A shelf on the book return trolley. The titles of the five books are Every Breath You Take, Every Move You Make, The Bonds That Break, Every Step You Take and I Am Watching You.

It's seven years today since we posted on Twitter that Sting had been in to return his books.

Im going to try it

They’re saying he beat the wrap

*I don’t endorse this behavior

Mekons: Tiny Desk Concert The world is doomed, but at least we've got the Mekons. The British punk band rumbles through its down-but-not-defeated songs with rowdy defiance.

I ❤️ Mekons

www.npr.org/2025/08/12/g...

Someone forgot to take down this webpage:

www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/v...

Remember: The recipe for economic growth isn’t tax cuts for the rich. It’s investment in our people — in health care, infrastructure and education — to build a strong middle class. 

You don't grow the economy through trickle-down nonsense.

A look down one of the Cascade rows in our first hops growing year, 2015.

Close-up of Cascade hops from our second year of growing them at Hawksbill Hopyards.

Here’s a look at our healthy Cascade bines just before our second harvest.

🧵17/x By late July the hops were in their final stages of growth and we started preparing for the harvest. The Cascades performed best and the photos feature them, one from our first year and two from the second. We still had a few tasks to take care of before we could pick them, that’s next.

Pen Druid fermentation opened in Sperryville in 2015.

The first tap list at Pen Druid’s grand opening.

Pen Druid’s terroir based approach would use barrels from local vineyards in their fermentation program.

Me and the Carney bros at Pen Druid, along with early investor Jonathan.

🧵16/x Pen Druid’s Sperryville grand opening was a week after their hopyard visit, so I went over to check it out. Their traditional terroir driven approach to fermentation was inspired by European travels. 10 years later their brewery is still one of the coolest in Virginia.

Open house at Hawksbill Hopyards with Tin Cannon brewery and Pen Druid brewery.

Cascades coming to full development.

🧵15/X our hops farm was attracting interest from Virginia brewers, so we decided to do an open house event. The Carney brothers at Pen Druid came over from Sperryville along with Tin Cannon from Gainesville. We hosted them one Saturday morning, showing of our cascades!

A cascade hop plant beginning to flower.

A chinook hop plant beginning to flower.

Another of our cascade plants as it began to flower.

🧵14/x Hops branch sideways after Solstice and not long afterwards, burrs appear that will flesh out into the cones/flowers we’ll use in beer. Our best growers were Cascade and Chinook, shown here. Our Goldings never took off and the others would need a year or two before producing.

🧵13/x Hops have an amazing growth cycle.Until the solstice, they’re focused on vertical growth, racing to the top of the trellis. The next day is shorter by 3 minutes and the plants start pushing out side branches where the cones will eventually grow. Here are some views just after the solstice.

Hegseth stole their property without permission to use in an official government video promoting war. That’s not how Metallica wants their music used, as DOD would have known if they asked instead of breaking the law.

Did they license the Metallica?

Alan Turing, died 1954

Born on this day:

British mathematician and code breaker Alan Turing

World War 3 kinda sucks, but you know, it was either this or pronouns

You can do it

One of our high achiever hop bines reaching the top of the trellis. Likely of the Cascade variety.

A couple of our fast-growing hop bines reaching the top of the trellis, and looking to keep on climbing.

🧵12/X Our hops were racing up the trellis, paced by the Cascade and Chinook bines, which had been specially developed for the North American terroir. These plants are programmed to grow vertically until the summer solstice. Ours reached the 14-foot top line of the trellis in early June.

Our buckwheat cover crop, planted for the pollinators that shared the farm with Hawksbill Hopyards.

🧵11/x The farm where we had the hops also had 11 bee hives for the produce area. We planted two rows of buckwheat to get them through the spring and also as a cover crop to protect from weeds in those sections, mostly the chinook bines.

Here’s a row of hops strung with coir rope to support their growth - this is a row of Chinook hops.

Here’s a wider view of the hopyard after we completed stringing it.

🧵10/X with the hopyard strung, we watched these amazing plants begin to climb the terrace. Mature plants can grow 8-10inches per day and our newbies were no slackers. As they climbed they wrapped themselves around the coir ropes for support.

Me up on the platform we used for stringing our hop bines. Hops grow vertically 14-20 feet during their season, and the strings provide support for their growth.

David getting the stringing platform ready for one of our rows of hops.

🧵9/X with the little hop plants getting started, we needed to string them, using specially-coir twine that would support their vertical growth. We bootstrapped an approach for this after watching some YouTubes.