What R you doing today?

[Ohio Bob]

There’s a 6th “S”... Stop!

I hear you. I racked my blackberry and my Chilean Merlot and had to stop. I’ll do the rest tomorrow. Or whenever.

 

[ChuckD]

I following the "Five S system" of wine tasting prior to bottling; See, Swirl, Sniff, Sip, Savor. I may need, however, to reduce my volume in the "savor" step.

That’s why I would never make a good wine judge. A small sip won’t do and I am morally opposed to spitting out perfectly good wine… that and my horribly unsophisticated palate.

Racking and bottling days are always fun!

 

[winemaker81]

That’s why I would never make a good wine judge. A small sip won’t do and I am morally opposed to spitting out perfectly good wine… that and my horribly unsophisticated palate.

Judge an amateur competition. There will be some you'll be happy to spit out!

 

[Raptor99]

I planted three bare root apple trees today: Winesap, Enterprise, and Whitney Crab. Along with our Fuji, we should have an interesting variety of apples in a few years.

 

[David Violante]

Moved 10 gallons of a cab/Zin mix into a bourbon barrel today. First experience with vino in a barrel. So far everything went well, except I thought it was 11.6 gallons and I was going to have to add to it. Nope. I had enough for some left in the carboy and also on the floor. At least I’ll have some similar topping wine.

 

[Rocky]

This evening, my Bride and I watched "The Boys in the Boat," a very inspiration film about the USA rowing team in the 1936 Olympics. During the film, there was a scene where the coach was giving the team a pep talk, and it brought to mind what I consider the best pep talk in the history of sports. I refer to that of Coach Herb Brooks to the 1980 USA Olympic Hockey team during the second intermission of their final game against Finland. The USA had beaten the USSR in an earlier round but trailed Finland 2-1 at that point. The team waited patiently for Brooks to come in and the time passed. Finally, Brooks comes into the locker room and says, "If you lose this game, you'll take it to your f-----g graves." He turned and walked toward the locker room door, paused and looked over his shoulder and said, "Your f-----g graves." The team went out and scored 3 goals in the 3rd period and won the game 4-2 and the Gold Medal.

 

[winemaker81]

Yesterday I helped my FIL replace his 13 yo laptop. His old unit is actually in good physical condition, but it's so old that it runs at 1/100 speed. I helped him pick out a much better laptop, then set it up for him and my MIL. They are very happy.

 

[winemaker81]

As has been noted, I'm an IT guy. The "kid" who was the Best Buy salesman when we purchased my FIL's new laptop was mid-20's.

I'm 60 and my FIL is 80, neither a spring chicken. My FIL describes himself as a "computer illiterate" yet learned what he needed to do with computers in his job, prior to retirement. [My FIL is a great guy!]

I spoke geek talk with the sales guy for a minute or two, and I suspect he was happy he didn't need to explain stuff to anyone. He realized quickly that I've been building PCs longer than he's been alive. I didn't talk down to him; I treated him as an equal.

Anyone who has not read Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" needs to read the book.

We had a very successful laptop purchase.

 

[Hazelemere]

Here’s what I’ve been doing lately. Making a table and chairs for my cabin. YouTube even taught me how to do uphostlery.
All the wood is from logs on my property.View attachment 111279

you are obviously a wood artist

 

[winemaker81]

This morning I helped my son bottle a ginger beer that has been setting in carboy for 6 weeks. We planned to let it bulk age 2 weeks, then something came up, then we were both traveling, then he passed a kidney stone ... but we finally did it. Flat-n-warm it tastes good.



The Kirkland beer case if from a sampler I purchased probably 15 years ago. He needed bottles for this batch and I have some I wanted to get rid of, so it worked out.

 

[Hazelemere]

I'm going to spray grape vine buds with Trounce (organic insecticide) to stop leaf hoppers from chewing up the soft buds just before they burst and ahead of any rain. I just finished respraying with Trounce. The buds look fine and should all burst this week. They are starting to burst now.

Then I'll try to scrounge 25 bottles to clean with bleach and strip of labels so I can bottle up 55 bottles of 2 reds tomorrow afternoon with my son in law, a Marechal Foch blend and a blackberry wild cherry elderberry blend. He has 82 apple wines to bottle. We'll use an Enolmatic bottling machine. After that we'll be done handling our last 4 wines together, Chardonnay-Muscat, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot and a 3 year old high alcohol Petite Sirah until the end of August.

 

[Jovimaple]

Bottled a batch of key lime skeeter pee and also racked a batch of 3 berry dragonblood as well as a raspberry iced tea wine cooler kit.

 

[ChuckD]

Yesterday I plastered the bedroom ceiling and today I did two walls and finished the walk-in closet. My plaster game is definitely improving.
It looks a little blotchy because it’s still drying.

 

[Kraffty]

Well all 18 zinfandel vines made it through the winter and look really good so far. Ran a second wire for the shoots coming out and cleaned up the trunks yesterday.

 

[Hazelemere]

Well all 18 zinfandel vines made it through the winter and look really good so far. Ran a second wire for the shoots coming out and cleaned up the trunks yesterday.
View attachment 112020

good luck. You obviously love your vines and it shows.

 

[Rocky]

Well all 18 zinfandel vines made it through the winter and look really good so far. Ran a second wire for the shoots coming out and cleaned up the trunks yesterday.
View attachment 112020

Looking strong, Krafty. Can you tell us what the orientation of the rows is, e.g. east-west, north south, etc.

 

[Obbnw]

Spent half the day doing minor pruning. Cleaning out dead wood and trimming back some of the branches I had left long. I am the slowest pruner ever.

Still lack confidence, but felt like my understanding of what was going on has improved.

My growing goal this year is to better tame the chaos.

Planted potatoes in the afternoon. Everything in my yard is doing great this year, unfortunately that includes the weeds.

 

[winemaker81]

Spent half the day doing minor pruning. Cleaning out dead wood and trimming back some of the branches I had left long. I am the slowest pruner ever.

You're looking at this backwards -- by going slowly where you lack experience, you're doing it right, and gaining experience. This is a wiser course of action than just plowing ahead and potentially damaging this year's harvest.

 

[Hazelemere]

sprayed my two sweet cherry trees with bacillus thuringiensis to kill white maggots that can ruin the fruit. Their eggs are laid in the cherry blossoms by moths and can be killed when they hatch.

 

[Kraffty]

Hi Rocky.

Looking strong, Krafty. Can you tell us what the orientation of the rows is, e.g. east-west, north south, etc.

west to east, they get full sun all day during the summer.