outdoor fun
I bottled and tried my first homemade wine this weekend. Not so good. It was suppose to be an apple wine, made from fruit juice concentrates. It came out closer to an apple brandy with a slight sulfur undertone. I used a sulfur solution to sterilize the equipment, as my reference book recommended. Unfortunately, when I was reading it I thought “oh no, this concentration is way too low to kill off outside yeast contamination” and upped it just a little. Most of the wine is going to get pitched, if I can find a bottle that is not so sulfery, I think I’ll make a soup out of it. I think I’m going to try to make mead (honey wine) next, as all the good fruits are out of season. The onion wine recipe is looking tempting, but unless I get the equipment to make only a half gallon, I don’t think it’s worth it.
I’ve spent some time with probably too late preparations for a garden in the spring. There’s a raised bed in the back, about as long as the house, and two large planters. I’ve already pulled out all the dead plants, and I’m halfway through cutting down the rotting grapes from around the porch and mixing them in the soil. After that I’d like to cover the whole area with plastic, to get it all to compost. That’s going to be the tough part, as the bricks I had planned to use are more buggy than I thought. I know if I just gave up now the dirt would be just fine in 5 months, but I want to do something garndeny now.
David has finally gone to a doctor about his persistent headaches. They think it’s migraines, he thinks they’re wrong. Having a diagnosis of any kind would make me worry less. Except of course if it’s cancer, but he really doesn’t have any in his family.
I’ve spent some time with probably too late preparations for a garden in the spring. There’s a raised bed in the back, about as long as the house, and two large planters. I’ve already pulled out all the dead plants, and I’m halfway through cutting down the rotting grapes from around the porch and mixing them in the soil. After that I’d like to cover the whole area with plastic, to get it all to compost. That’s going to be the tough part, as the bricks I had planned to use are more buggy than I thought. I know if I just gave up now the dirt would be just fine in 5 months, but I want to do something garndeny now.
David has finally gone to a doctor about his persistent headaches. They think it’s migraines, he thinks they’re wrong. Having a diagnosis of any kind would make me worry less. Except of course if it’s cancer, but he really doesn’t have any in his family.