Homemade Apple Cider

I’m barbecuing the Thanksgiving turkey this year. Here it is, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and I am already prepping.

Today, I am making Apple Cider, which will be used for the brine for the bird…and a little left over for us to enjoy.

This recipe is pretty basic, which I like. It comes from the website, www.allrecipes.com. The ingredients are as follows:

10 apples - quartered with core and peel. (I’m going to cut my apples with an apple corer so I’ll get eight apple pieces per apple.

Place in large pot and cover with water, add about 2 inch coverage.

1 Tablespoon of ground cinnamon

1 Tablespoon of ground allspice.

Boil for one hour, simmer for 2 more hours. Strain out fruit. Probably best to strain twice.

Can be refrigerated and kept for one week.

Okay, here goes.

I’ve got 10 apples that I got from my friend, Mark. I don’t know what kind they are but they taste pretty good, pretty sweet.

They are all cut up and put in the pot along with all spices, sugar and water. I put in 1 gallon of water.

It’s just now starting to boil so we have about three hours to go.

We’re about 15 minutes into the boil and the room is starting to smell of apples. It adds a nice autumn ambiance with a hint of cimanon to the kitchen. (Yeah, I know I misspelled cinnamon.)

I just had a little taste and as expected, it’s pretty weak. It has a hint of apple in there but I’m tasting cinnamon more than anything.

We have made it through the hour long boil and it’s time to simmer down now. The flavor is building but it’s not there yet. I’ll be back in two hours.

The simmer is over and we have apple cider. I had to strain out all the apples and then I strained it again through a mesh bag I use for brewing beer.

I got just over half a gallon. I need three cups for the brine recipe so we don’t have much to drink beyond the recipe.

I guess I’m going to have to make some more.

20 Year Old Time Capsule

I was cleaning out one of my dresser drawers and I came across this old receipt from 2005.

I’m not sure what the total of this order would be today, but I know an Ultimate Cheeseburger is about eight bucks today.

I just thought this was an interesting little time capsule to get out there.

Dump Run

We spent Saturday and Sunday working the front yard. We had a lot of leaves fall this week after several days of rain. Susan raked and I used the blower.

We have a crap load of leaves to take to the dump. I estimate we harvested about 40 bushels yesterday and probably an equal amount on Saturday.

We ended up with a pretty good system to get the leaves into a pile, then into a bag and finally into the truck.

I bought a box of construction grade leaf bags. These are thicker than the standard garbage bag and therefore reusable. I think the last time I bought bags was about three years ago.

The bags get placed in a garbage can and fastened tight around the top. I used a snow shovel to load leaves and Susan used the claws.

Getting the bag out of the garbage can was difficult. We had to put the can on its side while both of us pulled a groin muscle to get the bag out. Then we put it the bag on a hand truck and wheeled it over to the truck. We had a couple of milk crates stacked by the tailgate, which allowed us to lift the bag on top of the milk crates, and then the rest of the way to the truck bed.

It worked great for us two old people who have trouble lifting that much weight.

2:04PM: We have just returned from the Waste to Energy Plant,  otherwise known as the Town Dump. When we pulled into the gate, we discovered a line all the way back to the entrance. This was going to take some time.

It ended up taking about 17 minutes to get to the scale and another ten before we started unloading. It probably took us ten minutes to dump about 15 bags of leaves.

I apologize for not getting the focus better. It’s hard with the iPad when you get up close.

The grand total was $23.24 for 580 pounds.The dump fee was $20.75 and then they added on $2.50 which was designated as a “Transaction Fee”. I’ll bet a tenth of that weight was water.

Wine Update

I'm clearly doing a horrible job of updating the progress of the wine.

We ran all the grapes skins through the fruit press last weekend and ended up just short of six gallons of must. It continued to ferment through the last week and it appears to be complete. There is no action going on in the vapor lock.

I will be checking it out, getting a gravity reading and we will probably rack the must (wine) to a clean fermenter. At that point, we need to figure out if we should add wood chips for aging and flavor.

More to come. 

Halloween 2025

We have survived another Halloween and we are again asking ourselves why we put ourselves through this. It’s a lot of work and money. 

While we put out some lights and a few decorations prior to the 31st, the bulk of our decorations go out on Halloween and get torn down once we run out of candy…or choose to shut down, whichever comes first.

Generally, we’re all pretty tired by 8:30 and ready to call it.

Between 3:30 and 8:30, we had an estimated 1,500 Trick or Treaters. My main complaint this year, as last, is that there are some really old people out for candy. If you facial hair, you are too old.

But, we had a good night and we are glad it’s over and behind us. The rest of the Holiday season is going to be a breeze.

Cab Franc Day Four

The wine is churning away and we’re loosing some juice. The vessel we are using is a se7en gallon bucket. I wish it was eight gallons.

Above is a picture of the cap the must produces as the yeast is working. It pushes the grape skins up and they form a cap that I punch down several times a day.

Once I punch it down, it’s very foamy and the yeast continues its work. I’ll be back later to do it again.

Grapes and Pumkins

We have returned from our trip to Prosser, WA to get grapes and taste  some wine.

We got 100 pounds of Cabernet Franc grapes. It cost $115.00.

We crushed them yesterday and they are sitting in the Carriage House awaiting the pitching of the yeast. I’ll probably do that tomorrow.

It is also that spooky time of year as Halloween approaches. We have been decorating the house over the last couple of weeks and more stuff comes out every day.

The additional fun Halloween activity we have done is our annual entry into the Hub Tavern Pumpkin Coloring Contest.

Here are our entries. Susan’s is on the left and mine is on the right. We’re just sitting around now waiting for the awards.

ALCS Championship Final Game

The ALCS series went to seven games.  The Mariner’s won the first two games in Toronto. The Blue Jays won the next two games in Seattle. Last Friday night, the Mariner’s won Game 5 to send the series back to Toronto. The Blue Jays won Sunday night. Here it is Monday and the final game. The winner goes to the World Series.

I have been saying that I want to see the Mariner’s in the World Series before I die. Well, I get to live for another year.

The Mariner’s lost 4 to 3.

Fall Rain and Fall Classic

Up until yesterday, we’ve had a wonderful Fall. It’s really been more like Summer. But that has all come to an end and it’s been quite rainy the last couple of days.

And that has prompted me to Pyromancy. Is that a word? Doesn’t matter. Cuz I’ve lit a fire. And I did it in the fireplace, so it’s seems appropriate.

Now, I’ll just sit back and enjoy the afternoon until the Mariner’s play Tonto at five.

It seems so strange to be talking about the Mariner’s playing baseball in October. That hasn’t happened in many a year. Here’s to hoping for good ⚾️ juju in the coming days for Seattle.

Mariners in October?

We have just returned from the Hub Tavern where we watched a marathon baseball game between the Detroit Tigers and the Seattle Mariners. It was the deciding game five of the American League Division Series and it took 15 innings. That’s almost two baseball games.

In the end, the Mariners prevailed when Jorge Polonco fired a nice base hit into right field to drive home the winning run from third base. Final score, 3-2. 

The folks in the Hub went nuts. It was really fun and a very joyous occasion.

Now they move on to the American League Championship against the Toronto Blue Jays. I don’t know much about Toronto but they are favored in the seven game series.

I say, Go Mariners!!!

The Boiler Game 2025

For those of you playing the Boiler Game this year, I’m afraid I have some disappointing news. 

I don’t care.

I turned on the heat last Wednesday night as it felt like a chilly evening and my old bones don’t like to shiver.

Since that night, I haven’t had to heat things up but the switch to the boiler is in the “ON” position. It felt quite nice when I came downstairs this morning and felt the heat.

So, I guess if you picked October First, you win. However the prize money is not available because I want to buy an e-bike.

There are other things going on today. Mark is coming over shortly to help me put the air conditioners away. I also have purchased a door knob set for the hall closet (that used to be the back stairwell) that has been knobless since we moved in.

So, I’m going to get to work on getting the a.c. units out of the windows and ready for storage.

6:44PM: I managed to get the door knob onto the door. It’s not pretty. It’s still not quite right. But, the door now has a knob to open it and it closes and stays closed.

Spokane Interstate Fair 2025 Results

We have retrieved all our booty from the fair. We got our Third Place winning bottles of wine along with the First Place winning label that Ellen designed.

We also picked up Ellen’s wine, which got a Blue Ribbon and the label bottle that Susan designed that got Reserved Grand Champion.

This year, Susan designed Ellen’s label and Ellen designed our label. Susan believes that the label judge has something against Susan. She has never designed a label the judge liked, let alone be awarded Reserve Grand Champion.

I think her theory has proved correct. 

I can only hope the Judge doesn’t see this Blog, realize the deception we pulled off and recall our awards.

Trip to the Fair

One of the signs of Fall is a trip to the County Fair. We went on Friday because we had a couple of discount passes and then we went again today because it was Senior Day.

They are charging ten bucks just for parking but today, we got a 50% discount. We found a spot in the handicap section and I took the walker with me because i wanted to have a ready seat whenever I wanted it. It was also very convenient to carry water, and other crap we picked up at the fair.

We ended up spending six hours there. We were joined by Mark and Jim and Jill Cathey.

I started with $52.00 and I think I've still got about 20. Susan and I both made a couple of poor food choices. I got the deep fried Mac n' Cheese balls (with bacon) and Susan got a Cheese Steak from the Longhorn. Mac n' Cheese Balls just weren't that good. The Cheese Steak was bad because they poured crappy melted cheese sauce over the cheese steak. Nothing sucks for than cheese from a ladel.

Susan entered one of her water colors in the fair and won a ribbon for "Best Depiction of Fair Theme". The fair theme is "Discover the Fun". Her painting was of her nephew Neil as a young kid playing in the rain.

Our wine didn't fare as well. We got a Third Place ribbon for the Wine but I think we did better with the Label. Maybe Reserve Grand Champion. We won't find out until next week when we pick everything up. 

Anyway, another fair is in the books and out of the way.

End of Summer

It is now official! Summer is over.

We attended the Spokane Symphony Free Labor Day Concert in Comstock Park. It was a really hot day and they were talking about moving the concert to 7:00 if it didn’t cool down enough.

Fortunately, nature cooperated and we enjoyed a great concert, as always.

As you can see, we had great seats. There was lots of food and drink and frivolity.

Susan and I were joined by Ron and Kelly and a new addition, Jim Cathey. His wife, Jill was playing in the band. She had a nice solo during a West Side Story montage.

Now we just have to stand by and wait for Autumn.

Pigout Report 2025

We have just returned from Riverfront Park in beautiful but very hot downtown Spokane. It's Labor Day weekend so that means Pigout in the Park is happening.

Pigout is a tradition that Susan and I have enjoyed for years. Unfortunately, it's becoming quite expensive. I spent $45.00 and Susan must have come close to that as well.

There was a day when their big selling point was "Nothing over $6.00". Now they have a happy hour where selected items at each both cost $6.00.

We started with a $7.00 Classic Lemonade which was refillable for $3.00. We went and listened to Victims of Love, an Eagles tribute band. They were pretty good. At three o'clock we went to the Schnitzel booth and had some schnitzel bites. $6.00. They were okay but I won't do that again. We then walked over to the Fried Cheese Curd booth and bought one of those. $6.00. A better value and really pretty damn good.

At that point, we were ready for our cheese steak. There has been a booth at Pigout for several years that makes the best cheese steak we've ever tasted.

This year, we split it. $17.00. I was complaining that it was smaller than last year and as I took my first bite, I just didn't care anymore. Damn, it was good.

We finished up with ice cream. We went to Mary Lou's and Susan had a cone with Cookies n'Cream. $6.00. I had the Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae. $10.00.

We are back home now, and I think we've got Pigout out of our system for another year. We saved out lemonade cups in case we go back tomorrow. But we need to refocus our energy. We have to get ready for the County Fair next week.

Hot Water Tank Install

For several years now, I have been concerned about our hot water tanks. You may recall that prior to our purchase of this home over 20 years ago, it was a group home. To accommodate the eight persons living here, they installed three hot water tanks. 

So, when we moved in, we had plenty of hot water. About ten years ago, one of them started leaking. I shut it down and pulled it out of the system. Now we were down to only two hot water tanks. Don’t feel bad for us. We still have plenty of hot water. In fact, I take rather long showers, and I have never run out of hot water.

So, that’s where we are today. Since these two existing tanks have been here well over 20 years, I have been expecting a failure. I have not spoken of it, knowing that to mention the situation would exacerbate the situation.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a small stream of water leading from the Hot Water Tank in the Laundry Room to the drain. That was the clue. This tank is on its way out.

Today, with the help of Handyman Shawn, we replaced it.

I was very concerned that this was going to be a tough install. Mostly because I thought it would be difficult to get the old one out. 

Several years ago, I thought it would be smart to drain the tank and try to remove some of the calcium that builds up inside them. I opened the valve and couldn’t get anything to come out. I tried fishing a wire hanger up through it and got nothing.

Today when I opened the valve, the thing easily drained all the way out. After that, it was quite easy to disconnect it from power and the water lines and haul it out of the basement and into the back of my truck.

The new one went in beautifully with just a couple of adjustments that Shawn made. I’m very glad he was here. I believe I could have installed it on my own, but it would have taken much longer and there would have been several trips to the General Store.

In any event, another successful episode of Handyman Corner.

Brisket Sunday

It is just after 11:00AM and I have just place a brisket on the barbecue.  I am expecting this to take about seven hours, the first part, getting it up to 170 degrees should take up to five hours.

The one thing I missed in my preparation for this cook is I did not make sure my Bluetooth meat thermometer was charged. The brisket is on with another thermometer while I charge the MEATER. I really love using the MEATER because it gives me so much information.

It shows me my target temp, the actual temp of the meat and the ambient temperature of the barbecue. Once it has had some time to assess everything, it will even give me an estimated time to reach my target.

I’m going to give it another 20 minutes and then I’ll switch out thermometers.🌡️ 

It’s almost 3:30 and I have about 20 minutes to go on my brisket cook. Then I’m going to stick it in a cooler and let it cool to 160. 

At that point, I will cut it up and it will be ready to serve. We’re not serving it for dinner until tomorrow. We have invited our neighbors, Tammy and Lou over to thank them for looking after Delilah when we went to California.

4:05PM: Okay, the cook is done and the roast is in the cooler. I’ll be keeping an eye on it until it gets to 160. Let’s see how long it takes.

New Grass

My neighbor down the street is having some major landscaping work done on her yard. They’ve put in a new sprinkler system, leveled all of the yard, and today started laying sod.

I went down this afternoon and asked one of the guys if they had any scrap pieces they were throwing away. He pointed to a palette over on the curb and said,  “Have at it!”

I came back with the truck and loaded up a bunch of pieces. 

I’ve been wanting to do something with my little triangle corner of grass over on the corner of Waverly and Wall. I’ve tried several times to replant grass there but nothing has taken.

So, with the help of Cole Anderson from down the street, we (Cole) dug out the old crappy grass, leveled the ground and then we (us) laid the grass in.

It’s the best it has ever looked!

It makes the rest of my lawn look like crap!

  

Yard Sale Day

 As promised, it’s supposed to rain today. When we started setting up this morning, it started raining. Not too bad, but stuff was getting wet.

By the time we got the tents up, it had stopped raining and so far, the rain has stayed away.

We’ve had some pretty good crowds and we think we’ve made about 100 bucks so far.

The main thing is that we managed to unload this old Hammond Organ that we had in the Carriage House for the last 15 years. It doesn’t work but the guy who’s coming to get it knows about these organs and can probably fix it.

I also sold my old golf clubs that were my Grandfather’s. I got 15 bucks for the bag, a complete set of 50 year old clubs and about $20.00 worth of new golf balls. I’m happy!

Corbin Park Yard Sale 2025

This Saturday is the Annual Corbin Park Neighborhood Yard Sale. We don’t participate every year but this year we decided it was time to unload some of our crap…I mean, underutilized items.

So all this week we are prepping for the sale. The last two days, we’ve been tearing into “the Hole”. It’s an upstairs storage area where we stored lots of boxes when we moved in twenty years ago and then forgot about it.

We are pulling out a lot of crap…stuff we will never use. Interspersed, there are little gems that I forgot we had. Books, like my old Yearbooks, pictures, fun little niknaks, and some stuff we’re finding is kind of valuable. Cool!

The weather has been spectacular for a good month. It’s been hot but not too hot. The tradition of the neighborhood yard sale is that we always manage to pick the weekend in June when it rains.

I was looking at the forecast today and here’s what it shows.

Let the tradition continue.

FAN-TAS-TIC!

I would like to take a moment to comment on our kitchen fan. 

Our gas cooktop is located on the island and it required a downdraft fan. We were able to locate a nice GE brand fan for about 800 bucks.

Susan is making Split Pea Soup. She is currently boiling the hambone left over from Easter.

The pot is on the burner, simmering away, and I was noticing how the steam was gracefully being sucked into the fan.

The fan vents on the back of the house.

I went out on the front porch to enjoy a beer. While sitting on the porch…at the front of the house…I distinctly smelled ham.

That’s quite a powerful fan. I’m feeling better now about spending that 800.

Steinway Come Home

After five months and three days, our piano has returned.

It left us last November 25th, for sound board repair. It was now returned all shiny and new. Unfortunately, it is completely out of tune. I mean, it is not even close.

The Tuner will come on Friday and try to clean it up a bit and then will be back in another couple of weeks to finish the job.

The strings have to acclimate and stretch a little before they can be properly tuned.

Anyway,  she’s back.

Almost A Wrap

 Okay! We are going to attempt (again) to finish getting all the tiles up on the kitchen ceiling. After that there is some caulking that needs to done but that shouldn’t take long.

The wall has been patched and painted. 

We only have three tiles to go. It’s 2:43PM.

2:53 PM: There’s one tile up. It’s a really tight work space. 

3:05 PM: There’s the second tile in place. We’re down to the last one. The final corner piece has to be cut on two sides, so it’s a little trickier than the others. We starting with a cardboard template.

3:39 PM: VICTORY! That last tile took some ciphering. The corner is totally not square.  Here’s a picture of the last placement.

But, the tile portion is done.

Me happy! Susan says it’s not done.

Five Tiles To Go

 We are working on the last five tiles for the ceiling. We really want together this finished. It’s been going on since January.

This is how the last unfinished space looks. It is 12 noon right now. Let’s see how long this takes.

It turns out it won’t take so long. But we’re not finished.

I’m on my way to Sherwin-Williams to get a quart of the wall paint that has hardened up on us. So that took us 20 minutes to get to this stopping point.

1:10PM: I’m back from the paint store and I was able to get a quart of the paint we need. Susan has filled in the gap on the wall above the cabinets and now we need to wait for it to dry. 

So, unless we finish this tonight, I think we’re done for the day.

I’m going out to do my first mow.

So Close

We completed another row of ceiling tiles today. Just one row left. That last row will probably take longer because every tile will need to trimmed and some of the spots are going to be difficult to access. The oven cabinet and the one above the fridge are 36” deep which makes it hard to get the tile measurements and work in the tight space.

I still have a little prep work to do too. This final row is where the soffit was for the old kitchen cabinets. There are some uneven areas on the ceiling where the soffit connected to the ceiling. I pulled out a putty knife and started scraping. It’s making a horrible mess of drywall chunks and dust. I tried holding a dust pan to catch the debris but it’s still pretty messy.

This and That

We have both been pretty productive over the last couple of days.

Yesterday I did a little yard work. I cleaned up the leaves in the front gutter, I emptied the pond in the east back yard of all the water and leaves, and I emptied some unwanted paper stencils from the top floor of the Carriage House. 

Back when we painted windows, we would make stencils if there was a logo or lettering we had to do. I always saved them and that actually paid off a couple of times. 

But we are now done painting windows for the holidays so it’s time to get rid of these stencils.

I backed my truck into the alley, positioning the bed under the alley door, and tossed all the stencils down into my truck bed. I have some other crap I’m taking to the dump so that trip will be in a couple of days.

I took my scissors to the chive shrubbery and cut it way back. I want to see how quickly this thing will recover

I also got a shot of my Sterling hops. I have documented it here before but it’s really amazing to watch how fast these things grow.

I will bet that little sprout will be up to the decking on the back porch by May First.

Susan got out her mud bucket and did some spackling along the side wall of the kitchen where the ceiling meets the wall. We had substantial gaps that would still be exposed once we tiled the area. So, just to make sure, she filled in this gaps. She will do a little touch up painting tomorrow and then we will be ready to finish the last two rows.

Let the productivity continue!

Closing In On the End

We got up another row of tile on the ceiling. And this row is momentous because it was the last row we had to contend with obstacles. We had to deal with two lights and I’m happy to say that everything went quite swimmingly.

We only have two rows to go but I think we have a little work to do where the south wall meets the ceiling.  There are some sizable cracks that the tile is not going to be able to hide.

We’ll get up one more row and then try to figure out what our next move is. The crack shown in the picture above is probably the biggest problem we have to deal with.

Difficulties with the Difficult Part

We managed to finish the other two panels where lights are but we ran into a little problem with the western most island light.

The box in the ceiling that we hang the light from is not in terribly square. That means that one of the screws that the light attaches to is a little higher than the other. When we tried to reattach he light, that one screw was barely showing through the face plate of the light.

So, after a brief diversion to the Hub, we had to run over to the General Store and get an inch and a half 8/32 screw. That set me back 25 cents.

In the end, it all worked out. That first light is the one I’m talking about.

We still have to finish the rest of the row to the west. That’s only 3 and a half panels. 

Then, only four rows to go. We’re getting close.

The Difficult Part of the Ceiling

We got started on the difficult part of the ceiling today. We didn’t get a whole row up. We had a late start because Susan wanted to complete some caulking.

While she was doing that, I removed the middle light above the island in anticipation of placing our first light hole cut tile there. The light came down easily, as I expected it would and I did not electrocute myself as everyone is expecting I will.

Our first tile placement for this row was between the lights. It has worked out quite well that there is a full tile in between each of the lights. Having a tile edge to measure from makes everything easier.

We used a cardboard template to locate the hole and make sure we liked the placement before we cut an actual tile.

It all went just as planned. The most difficult part of the whole operation was holding the light up while I reconnected the wires. That wore me out!

I expect we will finish the whole row tomorrow. The first two tiles we will lay will have the light hole cut outs. After that, it’s smooth tiling.

The only other concern is that we have enough tiles to finish the job. My math says we do. However, I can feel the hot rancid disapproving breath of Mrs. Bridge breathing down on me.

Mrs. Bridge was my fifth grade math teacher. Fifth grade was the year we learned fractions. I was lost. Didn’t have a clue. It seems so funny now because I turn fractions around in my head with no effort at all.

Half Way Finished

Today, we put up the remaining ceiling tiles on the north end of the kitchen.

My concern was covering the hole patch I did the other day. It wasn’t quite as secure as I had hoped it would be. It had a little more movement to it than I would have liked.

But, it served its purpose.

We only needed four tiles to finish the row. They all went pretty smoothly. Even over the patch. We had to add some extra glue in that area and it ended up working well.

We got down to this final piece in the corner. It was tricky because we had to make two cuts. It ended up fitting nicely and we are quite happy with the results.

Now we move on to the difficult part. The area with all the lights.

Caulking and Patching

We had to take a break from ceiling tiling today to get a little caught up on a couple of aspects of the project. 

Susan wanted to caulk all the seams from the tiles we put up this past week and I had to patch a hole in order to finish the remaining tiles on the last row at the north wall.

My plan didn’t work out exactly as I had planned it but I was able to make the patch and I think it will work.

I’ll know if it worked for sure when we place a tile there and you can’t tell there was a patch there.

And so, we wait.  

A Little More Ceiling Tile

We made a little more progress today and our fix on the corner tile worked beautifully.

The only way anyone will ever know is by reading this post. So stop right now.

More Ceiling Tile

We got up another row of ceiling tile today. Actually, we got up a row and a half. We are now over half way finished.

The one problem we had was with the tile that goes into this corner.

We ended up cutting a little too much and there was a pretty noticeable gap against the shaded side of the wall.

Susan came up with a brilliant plan to save the tile. She glued the strip we removed back into place. We hope we can recut it and use the tile rather than waste it.

You can see the cut line in the picture above but I think we are going to be able to use it. It seems as though the glued joint is strong and once we add a coat of paint, I’m betting it will be nearly invisible.

According to my ciphering, we only have one extra tile. So screw ups are not going to be tolerated.

By the way, having only one extra tile may not be correct. Because we are cutting such a small sliver off that final row shown above, I’m hoping we can use the rest of the tile sheet when we finish on the other side of the kitchen.

After finishing up this final section against the north wall, we will be moving to the most difficult part of the installation because of all the light fixtures we have to work around.

Stay tuned.

Yak Red - Day 2

 It has been two days since we started the Yak Red Blend. That’s what I’m calling it.

The yeast took off almost immediately. The vapor lock I have on the Must Bucket started bubbling within an hour of pitching the yeast.

Here is what it’s doing right now.

When I’m sitting alone in the kitchen, the bubbling is quite pronounced. It makes me think there is something wrong with my stomach.

2025 Red Blend

One of the gifts Susan gave me during my Birthday Week was a wine kit.

We didn’t make it down to Prosser this past year to get any grapes so this kit will end up being our entry into the Wine Competition at the fair this Fall.

The kit purports to be grapes from the Yakima Valley. It’s called a Red Blend. Not much more detail than that.

We started the kit today. Making wine from a kit is just about as simple as you could make it. This one comes with a variety of chemicals, grape juice concentrate and wine yeast.

After cleaning and sterilizing my fermenter vessel and all the assorted tools, we completed the Day One tasks. That involved mixing up some Bentonite with 12 cups of warm water, which works as a clarifying agent, adding the grape juice, topping off with water and pitching the yeast. That’s it!

The Original Gravity was 1.082 which gives this wine the potential to be 12% ABV.

We tasted the must and it tastes like good ol’ Welch's Grape Juice.

It’s just sitting there now, waiting for the yeast to activate. We will pretty much leave it alone over the next two weeks, at which point we’ll take another gravity reading to see if it’s ready for the next step, which will be racking to a clean fermenter and more clarifying.

In any event, we are back in the wine game!