One of Anne's coworkers has an enormous apple tree growing in her back yard. By enormous, I mean it is HUGE, it's as tall as the three story house, it has three or four big trunks and it rains down a ton of apples on her yard every year. The apples themselves are small to medium in size and they have a decent flavor, and are moderately sweet.

After receiving three plastic grocery bags full of apples in three consecutive days, our arms and wrists were sore from all the chopping. We put the chopped apples in ziplock freezer bags and froze them, then last Thursday I took them out of the freezer and dumped them into my fermentation bucket to thaw, on Saturday I pressed the apples and got about 3 three gallons of apple juice out of them. I took measurements, the juice had around 5% sugar (~1.050 gravity). I pitched yeast and that cider is currently bubbling away merrily.
more photos

More is better?

Not content with a mere three gallons, I asked for more apples. Well last night I got my wish.

This is why they tell you, be careful what you wish for.

I took three baskets over and I cam back with three baskets, and three grocery bags, full to nearly overflowing with apples. HOLY CRAP!
First of all, there's no way we can process all of these apples the same way as the previous ones. There's simply not enough space in the freezer, also our arms would die before we'd be able to chop all of these buggers.

I recently read on the internets about a couple of different people making an apple chopper/crusher from a garbage disposal, I'd like to make one but garbage disposals aren't cheap and there currently aren't any used ones on craigslist. If anyone reading this has got one, please let me know!

The other alternative we've discussed is a divide and conquer strategy. Since we won't be freezing the apples to break apart the cell walls and release the juice, we need to do something that both chops the apples and releases the juice similar to the garbage disposal method. What we're thinking is to split the apples between us. Anne would man the juicer and the food processor to pulp (or juice) her apples. I would place my apples in a rubbermaid container and smash them with a hammer. In between this process we'd be loading the pulp into the press and squeezing the juice out. Anyone want to bring a food processor (or another press if you've got one!) over this weekend and help out? Cider will be a part of your future if you do!

It's a light replacement extravaganza, or quite possibly a bonanza. The fact is, we've had a bunch of these lights that we've been meaning to replace for a long time now, some close to a year. We'll we're finally getting around to it. Today we're featuring a brand new foyer light as well as a new dining room light. Next is the bathroom light which I hope won't utterly suck. These have actually been getting easier? maybe?

Starting with the foyer, it was a very difficult decision to replace this beautiful fixture that showed off the light bulb itself as the focal point of the fixture. It was especially nice with a twisty CFL in there. Anyway, as usual it was sporting the crazy cast iron box and extra misc wires as well as a wealth of vermiculite insulation to pour out on me. This fixture was installed on a rafter, which I actually prefer since I can just get a low profile box and screw it into the rafter. It's better and easier than those 'old work' blue plastic boxes with their little plastic flaps.

We got this light for a crazy awesome price from someone on craig's list, the only problem was the cord coming out of the light was cut really short. Fortunately there was a bunch of excess cord in the ceiling fan that I had cut out so I replaced the cords in this light with those, yay recycling! It looks awesome and provides light, what more can you ask for?

Additional foyer light photos

The new dining room light also came from someone on craig's list. The supports were originally metallic aluminum but Anne painted them bronze and then did some nice dry brushing over the top for an awesome antiqued look that matches with the rest of the house. She also added a little yellow glass paint to the back of the glass and added the prairie style lines that really add character to this fixture. The former light was a seriously ugly number from the 60s that we were glad to see go.

This box was also nailed to a rafter in addition to the iron rod that had to be hacksawed, luckily I only had to hacksaw one side of the box instead of both due to the rod not going all the way through. Long story short, the new light got installed, Yay!

Additional Dining room light photos

I'm starting to become a pro at replacing the lights in our house. I'm still not a fan of hack sawing; don't think I ever will be. I've described before the electrical 'box' that the existing lights use. This crazy cast iron thing that's embedded in the lath and plaster that I have to hack saw to remove.

I'm also a huge fan of the number of wires I have to deal with. A simple hot and neutral would be way too easy, instead lets have three neutrals all stuck together, one hot, and three others (one black two white) that are just together for the fun of it! It's like a little party inside the new box I installed!

Luckily the placement of the box in the ceiling was right next to a rafter so I could attach the new box to that, when you're putting in a fan it's important to make sure the box is well secured and that the weight and motion of the fan isn't going to cause it to tear out of the ceiling at a later date. To ensure this I installed the first plate of the fan to the box, it has a hook on it to hang the fan motor on while you're wiring it up. I filled a backpack with 40 pounds of weights and hung that from the hook for about 30 minutes to make sure it was secure. It didn't budge, much to my pleasure. Sorry, I forgot to take a photo of that.

In the end, of course, all the hassle is worth it. The new light looks and works great. More photos

You know how much I love replacing light fixtures in my house. Actually, I don't mind replacing light fixtures. I dislike replacing electrical boxes. Though it's not so much replacing as it is adding, since I'm not sure the pre-existing cast iron thing can really be considered a box...

The former light fixture

Wiring protruding from the previous 'box'

This time didn't seem quite as bad, perhaps because I knew what I was in for. A constant shower of vermiculite insulation as I saw through the piece of steel that's holding this thing in place. Further chiseling and sawing to get the new box to fit in the hole. Miscellaneous wires in the box that simply connect together for reasons unknown. Two neutral wires and one hot. etc. etc.

In the end it was worth it though. We got the new fixture up and it looks amazing. We still want to buy a couple more lights for it but already really transforms the space.

The new lighting

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This is what I'm currently calling the small gallon batches of wine I make from grocery store bought frozen juice concentrates. I ferment them in plastic gallon milk jugs and that just feels rather ghetto to me. Also (so far) the wine comes out tasting like Boone's which really just adds to the ghetto feel. Maybe I should add brandy so they can be fortified wines?

I racked my ghetto apple-raspberry wine yesterday. It was pretty clear and tasted pretty good. It's probably ready for bottling but I'm going to wait a bit yet. and see if any more yeast/sediment drops out of it. Since it's a white (in appearance) wine I want to be sure it's totally cleared before bottling.

Currently it is sitting in two 1.5 litre wine bottles with ferm locks and one partially full 1 litre bottle with a ferm lock. The stuff that's been in the bottles tastes better to me than the stuff in the partially full bottle. I'm wondering if this is due to the amount of air/oxygen exposure the wine is getting since the bottle is not topped up? It's not that the litre bottle stuff tastes bad, it's just not quite as good. So my quandry is, should I blend all of this wine back together before bottling in order to have a larger quantity of ghetto wine or should I dump (or just separately bottle) the not as good stuff?
As I'm writing this I think the answer is obvious. Mixing them all, and potentially lowering the quality of the whole batch for the sake of what's going to be one bottle (if I'm lucky) of wine is not worth it. I'll keep them separate and maybe add some fruit juice to the not as good stuff in order to top up a 750 ml bottle of it.

I loosely follow this recipe to make this ghetto wine. It's pretty easy to do, the wine tastes good (though not complex by any stretch), and it's done/drinkable relatively quickly.

In other wine news, the extremely sour cherry wine that I stuck in the fridge about a month ago is losing some of it's sourness so either it's just mellowing with age? (in a month, unlikely) or some of the tartaric acid has been precipitating out of the wine in this cold environment. I still don't think this wine is very good tasting, but perhaps with some sweetening prior to bottling could have a good effect.

Anyone got a better name than ghetto wine for this stuff?

for growing!

Even though we're in Wisconsin doesn't mean we can't grow good wine grapes. There are quite a number of hybrid grapes that are very cold hardy and also produce a good wine. In addition to cold hardiness, many of these hybrids are resistant to various diseases that plague traditional Eurpoean vinifera vines.

The University of Minnesota has developed a few hybrids that I'm currently investigating, particularly Marquette grapes. They're very cold hardy (down to -35°F) and also very disease resistant. They create a good red wine that some have compared to shiraz, and others merlot, thought Pinot Noir is Marquette's grandfather. The acidity is a bit high but that can be corrected for in the winery either through blending, cold stabilization, or other methods. It also yields a fairly high sugar content, around 25 brix.

Another grape I'm investigating is the Sabrevois. This variety was bred by Elmer Swenson in Northern Wisconsin (he also did a lot of work along with the University of Minnesota). Sabrevois is also hardy down to -35°F very disease resistant and makes a complex red wine. Similar to Marquette it gives slightly high acids and its recommended to combine with a grape with higher sugars (Marquette perhaps?). It is also recommended to to a semi-carbonic maceration to ferment these grapes or at least pressing early to avoid an off flavor that often results from a full maceration.

Those two I have done the most investigation of, they're appealing to me because of their extreme cold hardiness, strong resistance to disease and the good wine they produce. Some other varieties I'm interested in but haven't investigated as much are: Marechal Foch, Noiret™, St. Croix, and Cabernet Severny. Cabernet Severny is an interesting one to me since it's not a hybrid with american grapes but was actually developed for growing in Russia. It's been hybred with a hardy Mongolian grape vine as well as some french varieties and of course Severny. Not sure how that all works out as there's not a lot of information about it online; not even sure if I'll be able to find anyone selling it.

In addition to the wine I also tiled the kitchen this weekend. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, though it did take nearly all weekend to complete. Also, Anne painted the trim in our bedroom white (formerly pink) it's like a whole new room!

Things left to do to the kitchen:

• tile edges of the tiled area (after painting)
• grout tile
• paint walls
• paint trim
• install new light fixture
• add second light switch
• kick board with vent
• connect water to fridge for ice maker

Soon.

The week before last Anne's coworker, Chad, gave her a huge bag of cherries from the tree in his backyard. We figured we had two options, either make about 5000 cherry scones or mash it up and try to make wine out of them. Last weekend we mashed up the cherries and deposited them into a makeshift fermentation vessel. Initially the cherry juice by itself was about 5% sugar so I added some extra. Then I dumped in some yeast and stuck a fermentation lock on the top.

Initial measurements (7/26/08):

• Must: 2 litres
• Brix: 23.5
• % Sugar: 12.0

Upon checking it this morning it looks like the primary fermentation has completed. I now need to improvise some way of pressing the wine to separate it from the cherry fruit, seeds, and skins. Cheese cloth will probably work...

Now that it seems I'm doing this in earnest, I need a name of my winery, got any suggestions?

Update: On saturday, Anne and I pressed the wine through a colander lined with cheese cloth. It was a rather messy business and I have to thank Anne for doing most of the really dirty work. We poured the pressed wine into a new container and stuck a ferm lock on top though it's pretty much done fermenting based on the measurements I took:

Press measurements (8/02/08):

• Wine: 1+ litres
• Brix: 1.0
• % Sugar: 0.0

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of Anne and I getting our house. Since then we've been very very busy and we're nowhere close to done. But all in all it's been a good experience and I'm happy with our choice.

Here's the current to-do list:

• put up cement board and tile kitchen backsplash
• replace kitchen light fixture
• finish installing foot board on kitchen cabinets
• replace switches and add light switch in kitchen
• get or make LED under-cabinet lighting
• paint kitchen
• paint woodwork in our bedroom
• replace light in entryway
• install ceiling fan in living room (pray there is electrical in the ceiling cap)
• get or build new vanity for bathroom
• install new sink in bathroom
• install new in-wall faucet in bathroom
• replace light fixture in bathroom
• finish making light fixture for dining room and install it
• paint back and bedroom hallways
• replace lights in back and bedroom hallways

Whew! That's a lot of crap! Though that should pretty much take care of the first floor renovations and we can take a nap afterwards and start saving up lots and lots for creating the second floor space.

This weekend we finally finished the patio. I am glad to have that done and I don't ever want to make another patio myself again. However, considering the money we saved doing this ourselves, I may have to...

We went from this...

...to this.

Once we got the foundation in it wasn't so bad...

...and went rather quickly.

And, we're done!

The fireplace.

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Last weekend I picked up a used wine making kit from an ad on craigslist. I've been interested in home brewing for some time, last Christmas I got a book on making wine as a gift and a few weeks ago we went to a part at a friends and he served up his home brewed beer that was quite tasty. So being utterly provoked and having let the opportunity of a used wine kit slip through my fingers a few months ago (these are fairly rare on craigslist), I jumped on this one and brought it home. I also stopped at The Purple Foot home brewing supply store and got some additional supplies and ingredients.

The Purple Foot, however, does not sell wine grapes, and, in fact, wine grapes aren't especially easy to come by in Milwaukee, who knew? There is a winery in Pewaukee, but their website doesn't mention anything about their vineyards, so I have a feeling they buy their grapes from elsewhere. Similarly, Cedar Creek Winery in Cedarburg also do not grow their own grapes (as far as I know). They are partnered with Wollersheim Winery in Prairie du Sac, who do have a vineyard but even so they also buy grapes for some of their wines. In addition to their scarcity, or more likely because of it, wine grapes aren't cheap either. What's a home winemaker to do?

Well, if you're crazy, and I am, you could try growing your own. It just so happens that there is a grape vine growing in my back yard. I didn't plant it, I have no idea what kind of grapes it will produce, nor do I know if they will any good for making wine. If you think this seems like a stupid thing to rely on to make wine from, you'd be right.

Luckily for idiots like me you don't even need grapes to make wine anymore. And I don't mean that in the 'you can make wine from strawberries' sense of the word (even though you can). What I'm talking about is wine grape concentrates. Some crazy genius figured a way to remove most of the sugar and the water from wine grape juice. Then he packaged it up and shipped it all over the place to be sold to dorks like me. All I have to do is reconstitute the concentrate with water, add sugar to my desired level of sweetness and away I go. From two 46oz cans of concentrate you can make yourself 5 gallons of wine. Additionally, you don't have to go through the effort (and cost) of getting a crusher/de-stemmer for your grapes and pressing your must (if you're making red).

So I got a couple of cans of Zinfandel. It seems wrong to even write something like that, but that's what I did.

Now, because I'm a freak, or because I'm scared to attempt this with pretty much no experience and I don't want to run the risk of making garbage wine. Instead of diving in and putting all this stuff together right away, I have delayed the making of my Zinfandel for the moment. I am sort of following these instructions and making a small batch of wine in a repurposed milk jug out of raspberry-apple juice concentrate, some water, and a bunch of sugar. I figure if I can create something semi-decent out of this, then I will start my Zinfandel.

This is all stupid, of course, what will I do if my milk jug wine turns out crappy? Give up? No, I'll go ahead anyway, but maybe I'll have learned something? hopefully? please?

Anyway, hoping that I will be able to make decent table wines, I have created a section on the site called Home Brew, where I'll be posting my recipes and notes as I move forward with this hobby. Maybe we can all learn something, hopefully it won't simply be that I suck at making wine.

Last weekend Anne and broke ground on our patio. As you may remember we got a bunch of pavers from my parents when they replaced their front walk. So we figured out how large of a patio we could make with them and determined where we wanted it and what we wanted to do. And finally we started digging.

The beginnings of our mud hole.

We're going with a basic rectangular shaped patio because we don't want to be cutting any of the paver bricks. It's just easier that way. We are adding a little bump out on one corner for the cast iron fireplace that you can see in the left of the above photo.

We made some pretty good progress until the torrential downpour ended our work. This past weekend we finished digging and I removed a couple of old concrete post anchors from the old section of our fence.

Sledge hammering is fun! Hack sawing is not.

This past weekend we began re-filling our hole with crushed limestone, which i don't have any photos of yet. At $2.50/bag it seems cheap until you realize how many bags of the crap you're actually going to need, yikes!

Our foreman keeps us on task throughout the process.

Just an update: I got our faucet and drain hooked up about a week ago. Also over Memorial Day weekend Anne's parents came to visit and my father in law helped me install the microwave over the stove as well as put up the crown molding on top of the cabinets.

Microwave and Faucet

Here's what's left for the kitchen at this point:

• Replace hinges on the island flip out bar
• Install finished kick board below cabinets
• Get water service to fridge for ice maker and water thinger
• Connect dishwasher air-gap
• Tile the wall behind the counters, (we have found the tile we want)
• Paint the walls and trim
• Replace kitchen light switches and add switch on the other side of the room
• Find and install new lighting fixture

And here is a refresher of what we've already done:

• Peel/scrape up old vinyl tile
• Have floor refinished
• Get new appliances (Range, Fridge, Microwave (thank you craig's list))
• Install 220V outlet for electric range
• Remove gas line for former range
• Install Dishwasher
• Remove old cabinets, counters, and sink
• Install new cabinets
• Have new counters and sink installed
• Install new sink faucet and drain
• Install new microwave (plus outlet for it)
• Install crown molding on top of cabinets

Let me know if I forgot anything