Wine... Wine.... We Got Wine!!

The day has come... my 1st attempt of bottling a 5 gallon batch of wine!  My buddy Kat is on vacation this week and called around 5 to see what I was up to - I'm like want to help bottle wine?  She was up for it and we had a blast...  she said to call her up for the next batch since she enjoyed doing it.  This batch is the Raspberry White Zinfandel (wine kit).  Its a sweet lower alcohol (approx 8%) wine - a great summer wine to have chilled while sitting out on the patio.  Kat and I tested it out after we were done - we put what was left into 2 wine glasses and put in freezer to chill while we finished up.  Afterwards hung out discussing life over a nice glass of wine.  Life is good..... Here are some photos....

Cleaning time... used bottle brush with soap & water...  rinsed well...
let dry then washed out again with no-rinse sanitizer solution.

Kat filled all the bottles for me!

Yay my 1st corked bottle!

Cork it Yehl.... Cork it!

so proud!

I talked Kat into corking a bottle - she was proud too!

All the bottled wine...  had to do some screw top as
I didn't have enough cork-able bottles.

The bottles after shrink wrapping them... 
6 screw tops I didn't bother to shrink wrap as
I doubt they will last long around here! 

Want to give a shout out to my friends (my wino friends know who they are!) and dad who have been saving their empty wine bottles for me to reuse!  You will be paid back with filled ones!!

Only thing left to do is label them - I ordered the labels and they should be here tomorrow... I think I have enough to print 400 labels...  so that means I need to make a lot more wine!!!!   =)

Happy 4th of July!!

Special thanks to all the men and women past & present who have made & kept this country free! And to the founding fathers who wanted EVERYONE to be able to have Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

I had a very productive weekend.  We really didn't  do any kind of holiday gathering, just stayed around home working on projects here & there.  We did get a few nice Jeep rides in tho - I've had no top on the Jeep for over a week - its been awesome!  As long as I don't have to travel on rainy days and it stays nice and hot - the top will stay OFF!  

One of the things I'm excited for on this July 4th is that I will be getting to eat this tonight!

And since it is 4th of July, we should stick with the Red, White & Blue theme.....  so I guess for dessert I should eat some fresh blueberries!  (with a glass of milk for the white..lol)

One of my projects this weekend was to clean up the blueberry patch...  hard to see but there are 2 small new bushes we planted in the spring.  I put down super thick layers of newspaper and the rest of the bedding from the goat stall...  hopefully this keeps the weeds down and gives the plants some nutrients.

 My major project I wanted to complete this weekend was a drip irrigation system for the garden.  Watering should be done early morning, but my garden takes over an hour to water deeply.  I normally don't have that time during the week since I start work at 6:30am.  I have programmed my system so it waters for 45 mins (might need to tweak) every 2 days.  The timer has a rain delay button so it will skip the next scheduled watering.  I had to make 2 trips to Menards this weekend to finish it up - but I'm happy with it!  Next spring I'm gonna remove the soaker hoses in the landscaping and replace with the same products.  

Every mound has it own dripper, no leaves getting wet = less mildew type diseases spreading.

Every main row has a 1/2" line with built in drip emitters.

 General overview of garden on July 4th:

Like I said we love daisies....  we even have them in the garden!  :)

Who's That Behind Those Foster Grants?

The chickens are officially 13 weeks old now...  in about a month they will start on "Big Girl" food...lol  Right now they are still eating Starter/Grower.  They are really starting to like being out of their coop during the day when we are outside.  The barn cats don't seem to bother them - in fact our one barn cat goes into the coop and lays down in their nest boxes... we have accidentally locked her in there with the chickens more than once... but we notice when she stands up in the box... she is almost like the protector of the chickens, she hangs out with them all the time! 

Daisy Mai

Lucy Lu peckin at the bugs in the wood pile

I asked them if I could get another picture of them together...
and this is what they did.... HOW RUDE!  =)

 Well if I show the chickens I can't leave out the goats.  A BIG SHOUT OUT to my neighbors Beth & Joe Brooks with the help of another neighbor boy Daniel Mutzberger.  While Mo & I were at Menard's today - we came home to a pile of old logs IN the pasture... we thought they were just gonna drop them off in front of the gate.  Joe thought they were too heavy and somehow they got them in there without the pesky goats getting out.  Can't wait to talk to Beth to see if they had any complications...  Anyhow they piled up the logs so the goats have something to play and climb on.  THANK YOU AGAIN BETH!!!    

Goats were actually doing their 'job' and eating some grass!!

Our happy little guys...

I was gonna post about buying new bird feeders to have on sheperd hooks near the patio...  was gonna take an overall photo of it when a hummingbird came up to the new feeder! 

Apples are starting to get some size to them now...  still looks like some issues with them even with spraying...  but its an OLD tree that is hollowed out... not even sure how its able to produce.  Sure the tree is filled with bugs on the inside.  Just have to hold out and wait a few years till the ones we just planted this year can start to produce.  

 I have to admit I'm very happy with myself this weekend and all the tasks I was able to complete... still a few on my list - but I think I deserve a little break.... so its time for me to finally crack open a beer and take it easy.  I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend as much as I did!