The Autumn Leaves

There was a ton to do today and very high on the list was to get the leaves in the front yard raked up. But there was also the installation of a new cover lift for the hot tub, getting more Halloween decor into position and doing something with our Cabernet wine. The must has been sitting in pulp for nearly two weeks now and it's time to get the rest of the juice out of the pulp.

But first, let's stop and take note of the birthday of my sister, Sherry. She would have been 51 today. Oh well, I guess forever 50 is better...except for the part where you are dead!

The first job we tackled was the wine. Yes, that is the way our priorities go.

I took the wine that was sitting in a se7en gallon bucket and poured it into a clean ice chest. As I poured it, Susan held a large mesh bag and collected the pulp. There was still a lot of juice in that pulp and we aim to get it.

Then we let the juice in the ice chest drain into a six gallon carboy. It looks like we got about three gallons. 

Next I tied the mesh bag to my camera tripod to allow the juice to run out.

I squeezed the bag throughout the day but this is a very inefficient way of getting that juice. We really need a fruit press.

We next had to do some maneuvering of furniture and carpets in the Dining and Living spaces. We still have the piano up on casters so we can move it around as we need to when we get back in there to really finish the project.

With that accomplished, I moved to the backyard and the hot tub.

There is an earlier post that shows the old lift and how it has pulled its screws right out of the side of the tub.

We purchased a side mounted lift, which is what we really should have had from the start.

It was clearly made in China because the directions were really bad. I had to figure most of it out myself. The directions provided lots of useful information but it left out giant parts, like how to install the hydraulic struts onto the brace arm.

In the end, I won.

My next task was to get the Flying Ghost display set up. I had pounded the post keepers into the ground earlier in the week so all I had to do was drop the post into the sleeves and tighten them up.

At that point, I could no longer ignore the leaves. I got out my Power Vac and my Leaf Blower and went to work. 

I'll have to pick them up tomorrow. Today I was only able to get them in piles.

Susan had to work the Hockey game so I had the evening to myself.

I had gone over to Jim's Home Brew to price a fruit press. They had one there in stock but it was much larger than I would ever need and it cost $700. I came to find out that even a smaller one was going to run about $300. That's too much for something I would use once, maybe twice a year.

I decided later in the evening to cover that mesh bag containing the pulp. I untied it from the tripod and was going to move it to a different bucket and pour off the juice we had when it slipped from my hand and plopped down hard in the bucket of juice.

A giant funnel of juice was unleashed upwards. My face and body took the brunt of the impact and then the remaining juice distributed unevenly all about the adjacent area. I'm certain I'll be cleaning up sticky dried juice for weeks to come.

Another typical Saturday on Corbin Park!