Bottling wine

Newly bottled pear wine ready for corking

We made a batch of wine about 5 or 6 weeks ago and put the juice, yeast, etc into two 5 gallon carboys (big glass jugs). We put the carboys in the pantry to ferment and about 10 days ago went to Dayton to buy a wine corker because our friend Jules (who helped us process the pears in November) could not find hers for us to borrow. We found a wine corker at a beer/wine store in Belmont (an urban suburb of Dayton). We also found they had beer brewing supplies so Eugene bought several kinds of malts. We will be making beer in the next couple of days. We have not brewed beer since we moved here-it's been well over a year. Too long.

About a week ago we put the carboys on the kitchen table where they suddenly started bubbling again. You cannot bottle actively fermenting wine so we waited and waited for it to calm down. Daily we would discuss whether or not we could bottle the stuff and daily we decided it was too active.

Today, though, the wine seemed quiet enough to rack up. So after lunch we got 13 bottles cleaned up and corks sterilized and decanted one carboy into 13 bottles. We didn't have enough bottles to rack up the other carboy. we made a lot of wine!

Me tasting the new wine. It is a sweet wine with a good pear flavor.
As it ages it should get a lot drier.
Cheers!

The plan is to go to a Superbowl party tomorrow and hope the wine drinkers there kill enough bottles so we can finish this job on Monday.

A note on the Superbowl-I have no prediction on who will win. I would not pay attention to this commercial fest at all if there was not a social occasion to attend with lots of good food, drink and friends to nosh with

Weekend Events

The weekend is over and I am spent. Had a lot going on-a visit by my Father, my cousin Jack and my brother Scott and his girlfriend Speranza. They arrived Friday afternoon and left Sunday morning. The visit was nice. Jack stayed with us and everyone else stayed in a motel near Brookville, OH. Friday we all went out to eat in Eaton at Fiesta Charra. Saturday we went to market with Jack and Dad and Scott met us there minus Speranza who was "taking the day off". It was a good but windy market. We sold out of a lot of things. Dad and Scott left us at market to go see Joe Bien, a neighbor from our Springwood days (Springwood is a subdivision east of Oxford where my father built a house in 1957). Joe taught viola and music theory at Miami University and played in several orchestras. He was also my viola tutor/teacher when I was 15 or 16 years old.

We left market with Jack and said we would meet Dad and Scott back at the farm. The wind was getting heavier as we drove home. We got home and the Mort Miers for Congress sign, one of the political in our yard (but these are bigger than yard signs) was trying to break loose. Eugene went out to fix it but noticed that one of the hoophouses was also beginning to break loose so he left the political sign to its' own devices and ran up to try and get the plastic back in the ground. The political sign flew across the street never to be seen again.

Jack came out and went up to help Eugene get the hoophouse back down and than Scott and Dad showed up and Scott went out to the garden to help the boys. Dad told me the reason for Speranza's absence was because she and Scott had a fight that morning and wanted to be alone. The boys came back having been successful with the hoophouse but reporting the wind had blown all the row covers off. C'est la vie.

We were all sitting in the kitchen having a beer when Speranza called and soon after Scott left to go be with her. That left us with the problem of what to do about dinner which we postponed for naps around 3pm. When we all got up we again faced the problem of what to do about dinner and I got some ratatouille I made back when eggplant was plentiful out of the freezer and made some garlic biscuits with local organic lard and fresh garlic and we had pasta for dinner with beer because the red wine my father had bought for dinner was back in the motel room in Brookville, OH. Scott and Speranza came by to collect Dad at 8:30pm and Jack, Eugene and I watched some of the world series but went to bed at the beginning of the 8th inning missing the cardinals win the series. It was a bad game, lots of errors.

An odd addendum to the World Series it was played this year by the teams of the two most dangerous cities in the US and the most dangerous city won.

Sunday we got up to a time change and Eugene got domestic and made some tasty waffles. Dad, Scott and Speranza arrived to collect Jack and take him back to Detroit before the waffles were all done so they waited while we ate breakfast (they had eaten, ironically enough, at a waffle house). With breakfast done we said our long goodbyes and off the visitors went to the great state of Michigan.

Than we opened the store and waited for the Earlham student to show up for her tour and interview. Around 1:30pm I looked out the window and did not see the Earlham student but did see Chuck Herm's car turning into Kayler Rd. And than around and end up in our driveway. He came in and about 5 minutes after he arrived the Earlham student called to reschedule so suddenly we had a fairly free afternoon and Chuck to hang out with. And that is what we did along with selling things to the occasional customer that cam to the store.

Roethlisberger

A sports entry.

Now I am not into pro football (American style) in any big way but I have been following the career of Ben Roethlisberger (aka Big Ben to all Miami University Football fans and Alumni) because the both of us went to the same college-Miami University (in Ohio dammit and about 100 years older than the U of Miami in Florida).

And now Ben, after an incredible college career and a great start to his pro career with the Steelers, has gone and half kilt himself by riding his motorcycle into a large car while wearing no helmet.

I guess ben was still under the impression that he was immortal. Something a lot of boys and young men seem to believe about themselves until they learn the hard way that they can indeed be broken or killed. I have a feeling if mr Roethlisberger ever rides a motorcycle again he will be wearing a helmet and a good set of leathers.

I hope he heals quickly and has not done anything to himself to wreak his football career.

Bye Bye Barbaro

I was so looking forward to watching The Preakness Stakes. Like many I was high on the horse named Barbaro. Instead of Barbaro winning the race and having a shot at becoming the first horse to win Thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown since Steve Cauthen rode Affirmed to the title in 1979 he broke his right hind ankle in the first furlong of the race.

While I was really high on this horse as the race drew closer I had an ugly inkling something bad was going to happen that would prevent this horse from winning the Preakness. And when he broke through the gate in a false start I thought this must be it and made a comment to my husband that the colt would likely be gate training all next week. Than he had a beautiful start and things looked good for the first few seconds of the race until the announcer said that Prado was pulling Barbaro up before the quarter pole. NBC went on to show the rest of the race which was surreal because the jockeys in the race had no idea what had just happened but the crowd did and was pretty quiet while race was run-not the expect behavior of tens of thousands of human beings.

Any kind of leg injury can be career ending for a racing or show animal but a broken ankle can also be life threatening because in order for the bones to heal the horse must stay off of the appendage but since horses cannot lie down for more than a couple of hours at a time without damaging most of their internal organs and horses need to stand on all 4 legs for balance this is a very tricky proposition. One solution is to put a horse into a sling that is put under the belly and attached to strong pulleys that are bolted into the rafter beams of the barn that will hold the horse up 24/7. And seeing as how Barbaro seemed to understand the trouble he was in, let his jockey pull him up (I have seen horses with such injuries refuse to stop racing and run full tilt on a broken leg and in one instance had no hoof by the time the rider was able to pull the horse up and had to be destroyed on the track) and was very calm right after the injury took place, allowing the handlers and vets to do what they had to do to stabilize him and get him to the hospital

Barbaro is a very valuable horse and the plan seems to be to save him for a breeding career. He has a lot of money backing him so everything that can be done to save his life will be done. Now it all depends on how well his surgery goes today, just how badly he injured his ankle and if everything works in the surgery how good a patient he will be over the next months and years.

I really feel for the Michael Matz Stable. Being so high on a horse, having what is considered the best 3 year old racing today and the very real prospect that this colt will win the Triple Crown only to have it cruelly wiped out in a split second. It's what they call racing luck. But life goes on Matz and his employees will have to go back to work because Barbaro is not the only horse in training in Mr. Matz's barn and the rest need feeding, stalls cleaned and work. And these chores will likely do a lot of good for the trainers, grooms, hot walkers, exercise riders, etc., who were all impacted by this event. Doing something useful is always good medicine when tragedy strikes.

I hope Barbaro comes through his surgery today with flying colors and goes on to be a good patient and recovers enough to have a long and successful career in the breeding shed but I have been around long enough to realize this is pretty unlikely and that the colt may not survive the weekend. All we can do is wait and see.

Kentucky Derby

Yesterday was Derby day. I rarely miss watching the Kentucky Derby. I used to work with trotters and pacers and have retrained several ex-race horses to be jumpers and dressage horses. So I was excited to see that Michael Matz had a horse in the race. For the non horsey, Mr. Matz was one of the US Equestrian Team's top jumper riders and trainers and a couple of years ago he made the switch to thoroughbred racing horses.

I have long wondered what would happen if a top show trainer started trainer top flight race horses. Show riders generally are also the trainers of the horses the ride so they develop a truly intimate relationship with their show animals. They get to know them very well and develop a deep trust with each other. This is a very different relationship that goes on with thoroughbred racehorse trainers who never ride their horses and therefore never develop the kind of trust a show rider will have and therefore looks at the training of a horse differently. It is a lot like the difference between how an organic farmer looks at the farm and an conventional grower looks at a farm. Both work but in very different ways. The organic grower and the show horse trainer tend to operate holistically and the others tend to operate linearly

Because the show people tend to take this more holistic outlook in how they do things I have long assumed that if one of these guys were given a stable of top flight horses they would quickly climb into the top ranks because they would add things to the training regimes that trainers who do not ride would not know about. I do not know if Michael Matz takes his horses and trots them up and down hills at his farm but it would not surprise me at all and this sort of work would give a race horse a nice edge in that they would improve their balance and endurance and this is work most jumper, 3-day event and dressage trainers would do with their horse to get them fit and keep them happy.

I do know from working on both harness tracks and show barns that the race trainers do not know about a lot of techniques that show trainers use. For example, the idea of teaching a horse how to extend and collect their gait is foreign to most racing people but I have noticed the great race horses know how to do this naturally. This leads me to believe any horse taught collection and extension would be an improved racehorse. And there are many other training techniques that the show people use that would improve any racing performance.

Yesterday it was proven to me with Barbaro's impressive win going away from the pack in a virtual hand ride that Mr. Matz is likely including a lot of ideas from what he learned in his decades of working with show jumpers in the training of his race horses and it is working. I believe we are seeing the beginning of a stellar race training career. And we just might see a triple crown winner this year as well

NBC Olympic Coverage-WTF?

Every two years they hold some sort of Olympic even. This year it is the Winter games in Torino, Italy.

I have been watching this on NBC and so far I have not been impressed. The opening ceremonies started with non olympic competition of some sort. I really don't know what it was because I was watching the last night (probably ever) of Arrested Development. 2 full hours of all new shows and a wrap up essentially of the series. It was well worth the time to view. I guess I will have to get a hold of a DVD compatible TV, a DVD player and discs of all 3 seasons of Arrested Development if I ever want to see it again

But I digress, back to the opening ceremonies rant.

So at 8pm I tune into NBC and see things that are not a grand pageant but people doing snow sports. So I go to FOX and watch AD. At commercials I go back to NBC. Still no pageantry. Finally at 9pm they start the opening ceremonies. Why did they wait so long. To make sure I would be asleep with an hour to go? I mean the ceremonies ended at 9pm GMT (4pm EST) which means NBC could have aired it anytime after that. And they did not have to include the hour long quasi Olympic sports hour.

On the first full day of competition things did not get started on non cable NBC until 3pm. Why so late in the day. Are the really badly drawn and animated cartoons and vapid Teen reality shows that important? I guess they do sell a lot of sugar frosted crap and video games and that means big $$$$ to the network/GE and its' shareholders.

And when things did get started all we saw were qualifying events. Why? if there were medal events (even ones the Americans do not have a chance in) than show those and don't waste our time with qualifying.

And now because they made figure skating squeaky clean as far as judging is concerned and we don't seem to have a psycho trailer bitch like Tanya Harding whacking other competitors lurking around the rink we have to hear about Michelle Kwan quitting. Look she shouldn't have gotten a spot on on the team to begin with. She is past her prime and not world class material any longer. but she was given a spot anyway it seems for old times sake. To give her a final chance at a gold medal. So now she has become the soap opera of the games thus far.

I give her high marks for seeing the folly in the selection committee and stepping aside so her team will be able to to do as well as possible. She has a lot of class.

And today it sounds like a few hours of the Olympics will be preempted by the NASCAR Nextel Cup Budwieser Shootout that was rained out yesterday. I have no problem with NASCAR Nextel Cup racing. I am a fan, not a major fan, but I follow the sport and have favorite drivers. I have yet to go to a race much less travel around the USA in a huge RV/Bus going to all the races and spending 4 days a week getting drunk and BBQing hunks of meat in the infield of a superspeedway. Nor do I collect Jeff Gordon or other official NASCAR paraphanailia like my friend Rosie (and so many other fans of the sport)

Look NBC if you are going to do this Olympic thing you need to commit to it and go full out. So far you have not done this and I fear tomorrow there will Soaps and no sports in the afternoon.

Boulder Belt's Super Bowl Pick

We are not football fans here at the farm but this has been a special season and has gotten out attention. First of all the Bengal's had a winning season for the first time since 1982. being from SW Ohio/Cincinnati area I have a soft spot in my heart for the Bengal's. But they did not make it past their first playoff game. leaving the Steelers to cheer on.

I became a Steelers kinda fan last year when Ben Roethlisberger, Miami football phenom became the Steelers’ football phenom. The man is great at what he does and this is only his second season in the NFL, he will only get better.

So because we both went to the same university I have become a fan.

And this is good because I have a Superbowl party coming up on sunday where I will actually be into the game because I actually watched most of the post season games.

Most years I watch about 5 hours of NFL action (including the Superbowl) total.

So the Boulder Belt prediction is Pittsburgh by 14 points.