Lately I’ve been doing my homework as I prepare to get into home wine making. I’ve been reading books, blogs, and forums, listening to podcasts, and talking about it a lot with anyone that will listen. Some time ago Jess’s dad mentioned that his dad had a wine press and it might still be around somewhere. I was hoping to get my hands on it, but had a feeling I might not be able to. So I was planning to build one this weekend, similar to this one. That is until Jess’s family showed up on Thursday night to give us an early anniversary present:

Here is a video of a very similar press being used.

Yay! Thanks, guys! I might even try to make some wine that you like as a token of gratitude. Or you could just learn to like dry wine.

Since I won’t be making a wine press, maybe I can make a crusher/destemmer…

Filed under:
News, Pictures by Jack

About a month ago a couple of friends came over and helped me remove the hedges along the border of our front yard. I never liked these hedges. They were overgrown boxwood full of vines and mulberry trees. They looked like crap when I let them grow wild, they looked like crap when they were well-pruned. And because they were situated in a north-south row while the wind typically blows from the west, they collected garbage – lots of garbage. Well, now they’re gone. See?

Removing the hedges was kind of fun. We used tow straps looped around the tow hooks on the front of our jeep to yank them out. Once we had them all out, my friends took off and I got to do the sucky part alone – raking all the loose soil back into the holes once occupied by roots and planting grass seed.

This last picture was taken today. As you can see, the grass hasn’t grown in too well, likely due to it being the hottest time of the year. I’m just going to leave it like this for now, then I’ll re-seed in early September. Next year it should be well-blended-in.

Filed under:
Home Improvement, Pictures by Jack