CabSav

What a season of brewing this has been. I now have 4 gallons of white grapes, 5 gallons of apple cider and now 6.5 gallons of deep red cabernet savignon going. It's so addictive, the process. It's like magic to have the fruit purify itself and change into wine then vinegar. Dang, I'm hooked.

Apple Cider Vinegar

I tried my hand at apple vinegar but there wasn't enough juice in the apples to even begin. I hustled onto the internet and found some recipes calling for lots of sugar water which really added to both sugar and liquid contents. I let it sit in 3 big buckets for a few days then pressed it off into a single bucket, 6 gallons. You can see the results so now it's bubbling. I'm going to follow the same pattern as I have for grapes so we'll see what comes out. I pressed out all the juice I could then strained it all back through a strainer into a 6 gallon bucket. Then I siphoned off enough to fill a 5 gallon carboy and 4 1-quart bottles. It began bubbling almost immediately. I placed it outside on the table under the grape arbor, as you can see.

Vino Non-Fino

Perhaps 3 pictures are worth 3000 words. This year's batch is white again, from my own grapes. I did a little experimenting but you can see that it was very active. Gianni said that it tasted good...I'll take his word. This should make a nice batch of vinegars and cooking wine. I bought a press (as you can see) and a crusher which made things a lot easier and efficient.

Where'd Summer Go?

Lots of things have happened in the past four months: we're back down to two goats; we have a new daughter inlaw; I've finished a season with the Forest Service; we've bottled the red wine and I've started a new batch of white; daughter received a mission call to Italy; I harvested 300+ lbs of honey and now have 6 hives; and on and on.

I'm going to try to market the honey this year and see if I can't get back some of my $$$ back.

Anyway, just and update.

Spring Break...over

What a busy break it was: a new bee colony, triplets, the vineyard arbor, manure spread, orchard sprayed and preparations for a wedding, with the breakfast being in our yard...maybe. I know that the baby goats came last week so I'd have an entire week to dedicate to them, in fact, they are all alive and very healthy. A month ago we had two goats and now we have six...goats, not rabbits. We'd have had seven if the other had survived.

The grape arbor looks pretty simple, it is, but it was a whole lot of work for just one person. Hefting the horse corral up onto the arches was a task. I believe it's sixteen feet long by four feet wide and heavy. I hoisted six of them that day...poor me-strong me :) All the fence is up and I'll be tying up the vines this week. There are 29 vines: 7 Carbernet Savignons, 3 Savignon Blancs, 2 White Canadice, 3 Catabwas, 6 Stuebens, and 8 Cynthainas. Those are only the grapes in the new area. There are 8 vines around the gazebo and pathway, 6 mature white vines that came with the house, 2 new starts from those vines and 1 white Canadice that I randomly planted until I can find a permanent place. My gosh, is that 46 vines? The others consist of Thompson, Concord, Swenson, Mak(something or other) and one Red Canadice.

I also checked into what I'll be doing this season with the Forest Service and it sounds like a I'll be back outside on my feet. I can't wait. I love driving around and seeing a lot of country, but my heart is on the trails, building and repairing. I'll be working with young people, YCC, which should be good. I enjoy young people, geeze, I'm a teacher. They always have fresh perspectives. Amidst thier "sophistication" there's an innocence, almost a vulnerability that allows them to be impressed, even taken by nature, which is what I am: taken by nature.

Soap

This is my fourth batch of soap. It has goat milk, honey, coconut oil, cocoa butter, glycerine, olive oil, oatmeal and some clove oil. The last batch was pretty powerful stuff, perhaps too powerful. I misread the proportions and added too much lye. This batch will be a good one.

The goats are all alive and well. I made a larger hole in the feeder nipple and they downed it in minutes. I reckon we're in the goat business.

I bought 18 more 20' lengths of rebar today. That makes 33 so far. I don't foresee many more being needed. It will be pretty nice when the vines bet large and fruitful.

Triplets: New Life on a Cloudy Day

I went to SLC yesterday and got a new colony of bees. On my way home my cell phone rang and my daughter informed me that Pinky, our other goat, had triplets. I was grateful that my daughter was able to witness the birth of at least one of the kids. My own children have not been into my little natural-sustainable fettishes. Anyway, it is a cold weekend and I'm going to do everything I can to keep these kids alive.

I learned a new way of installing bees yesterday. I started doing it without dressing up but got stung a couple of times. I should have let them, the bees, sit in the hive for a while before opening them instead of hurrying to get done after the jarring ride in the field.

Bees, Vines, Goats and Soaps

Amazingly busy time of the year. I'm down to a single hive which is doing very well...knock on wood. I've ordered four new colonies and I'm going to have to pay closer attention. It makes me wonder how people do it with hundreds of hives. I guess they have extra queens and colonies all ready to slip into service if something goes wrong. I took the hives apart yesterday and cleaned them out. I got lots of honey and comb and tried melting down some wax. I wasn't very successful.

We have a new baby goat and should have at least two more within a week. We had twins a couple of weeks ago but one of them died, in spite of our best efforts. They were born while the weather was still pretty nippy and I think it was mostly exposure. As was the case last year with the other set of twins, she died in my arms. I hate that feeling of holding something as its life slips out of it.

I've gotten a bunch of new grapevines in during the past couple of weeks. I've shortened the goat pen and am making a regular little vineyard, much more organized than my usual style. I'm using rebar arches for support but the cover or roof will be flat. I've pruned everything down to about 3 buds for the roots to grow strong and will be a fairly diligent pruner that way for the next couple of years. So no great amount of fruit for awhile.

I'm also trying my hand at soap, so to speak. I'm experimenting with various oils and such but my primary ingredients are honey and goats milk. I've made three batches, each different than the others, and am learning, hopefully, from my mistakes.

Finally, I'm getting to be a little more active. Today I went on a 20 mile bike ride with my son and then on a 4+ mile hike with my pooches. My foot still aches from the December surgery but I'm hoping it's getting better. The puppies have grown. The one we kept is almost as large as her mother.

Every Seven Months, or so.

A few things of note have happened. I've lost a total of four hives. One top-bar hive swarmed, the other seems to have not made it through the winter. I mentioned the regular hive that seemed to have had some disease. There were a lot of drone cells so it was a matter of a missing queen. I went out and checked the remaining hives on a warm day in December and found that another had died. So this year I will buy some more colonies...at least two.