I told my friends to whom I gave bottles of my second cider (apple wine) to wait until May to open it.  I just opened a bottle to see how it is progressing - mmmmm!  Even though it is 18% ABV, it has mellowed so that the alcohol doesn't stand out, and the apple flavor seems to have come forward.  It would be really good with chicken or turkey, ( Read more... )

The first two meads have turned out well: a medium show mead and Joe's Ancient Orange.  Ben really liked the one gallon of Joe's (which is Joe's recommended starting amount) so I'm making three gallons, to last a few months instead of a few weeks.

Cindy likes the medium mead, but prefers a dry mead.  When we were at Rabbit's Foot Meadery we got to ( Read more... )

I'm not sure how to link to my gallery, but if I link to one picture you should be able to see the gallery:


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We finished bottling (and sampling) my brews this evening. The first apple cider I started came out to be a really well balanced apple wine, already quite drinkable and interesting. 5 1.5 liter bottles and 20 0.75 liter bottles result ( Read more... )

This year I finally decided to go ahead and try brewing. I've been "a-gonna do it" for a lot of years now, but never started. I bought an extra 15 pounds of honey from my coworker's father (locally sourced food!) intending to make mead as my first foray.  Cindy said, "We just picked and pressed 23 gallons of apple cider, you should make hard cider ( Read more... )

Starting last Sunday, we have had the week of weather everyone (except
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The boys, Lars and Noah helped Lee and I clean our favorite glider last week (the 1-34). Then I took them for rides in the 2 place glider. This week Lee took his son in the 2 place glider, so I got to fly the 1-34. Clean gliders fly better! And quieter, which was unexpected ( Read more... )

It's weird.  I'm sitting on the couch with socks, jeans and a sweatshirt on.  The temperature inside and out is about 58, and some friends are talking about turning the heat on in their houses.  Oh, and it's overcast and windy ( Read more... )

I am ready for a single-payer system of health care. I disagree with having my health care paid by my employer, whose interests may (do!) differ significantly from mine. The market forces don't actually work at the individual level. There aren't sufficient incentives in the short term to influence individuals to change long term behaviors ( Read more... )

Our glider group, Wisconsin Soaring Society, has an active email discussion group. All week there have been discussions about how the weather during the week would be much better than the weekend weather. Today was beautiful for soaring!

I completed a major milestone at work Wednesday, on the critical path of our critical project.  Since I have 4.5 ( Read more... )