Today's post is epic in length, so get comfy.
Last we left off in the life of Tony was a bit of a sad note (minus the 1 year anniversary) so this post promises to be much more chipper. Starting in August life for me got incredibly busy with work. A time known as harvest. This was a time of year that was proclaimed to be crazy and very busy. I think that was an understatement. Six day work weeks, with 10-14 hour days becoming the norm, it was draining both physically and mentally. I came home wanting nothing but rest. It was exhausting and very physical work. The best part about it though, I never once came home and said 'I hate this' or 'when will it end'. Yes it was busy and tiring but I got to meet lots of great people, really learn how wine is made, and best of all I got to be outside the whole time. Standing in the sun and cleaning something caked with grape skins and stems beats clicking a mouse and looking through a window at the same sun any day. I learned so much during the process, and now that it has slowed down I feel like I've learned even more. Which is great.
Just as I was about to fill in the world of happenings in my life since the end of August/September the batteries died in my keyboard and mouse all died at once. I've been hell bent on getting the best battery charger in the universe and so I finally had an excuse to set out to find it. I used to love and cherish my rechargeable batteries (circa 2001) but I had a terrible problem of forgetting them on the charger and they would ooze their insides all over and ruin the batteries. So I found one that shuts off after a completed charge and now I'm back in the bloggers seat. I'm excited about not blowing boatloads of cash on batteries anymore.
One very exciting thing in my life is a new laptop! Old Lil Mac the first gave up the ghost a year or so ago and with a new excuse to get one (work) I dove in. Isn't she pretty?
This picture represents a large percentage of my disposable income since 2004.
Next up: Pears!
Now that I'm making wine for a living I thought I should try my hand at fruit winemaking at home again, which until last night had been a complete failure. Laura's co-worker offered some pears from their tree and when asked how many we would like I said, "as many as you want to give us" which ended up being six 5 gallon buckets full, or this sculpture. It took Laura and I approximately 12 hours combined to peel and chop all of these little buggers. Two days after we finished the job I found a little gem in a book that read similar to this "it is unnecessary to skin pears for wine making" this caused me to weep only a little. So after we froze the pears, something one should do when making a fruit wine, I borrowed our little press from work and set about juicing them. Like so:
This is our whole batch of chopped, slightly (accidentally) frozen pears
Juice!
More juice!
Crap I added to the wine, excluding that garlic bulb back there.
A full bucket, quite tricky to bring from outside to in.
Check out my oxidized juice, this made me nervous for brown wine.
A miracle! The juice clears up during fermentation!
The 6 gallon batch is set to be a holiday spice blend, from top to bottom that is 1/3 vanilla bean purchased in Barcelona, whole cloves, a cinnamon stick, and a nutmeg...nut. Another full gallon will be plain 'ol pear wine, AKA the control group in the experiment. So this is my biggest batch of home made wine yet, pretty cool.
For our first (belated) anniversary Laura took me up to Michigan for a completely fantastic getaway. She found us a great B&B on the shore of Lake Michigan where we were able to walk the along the lake searching for beach glass and fly my big kite. They had hot tub which was a fantastic way to unwind at the end of the day.
Found boat.
There was a big storm the day before we arrived and we found this washed up on shore. As much as I hate aluminum canoes, they really can take a beating.
While we were there we explored a bunch of really cool and a couple not so cool wineries:
Favorite winery/brewery/distillery of the trip
Pinot Noir?
A still!!
Their harvest was just beginning, I was thankful that ours was pretty much wrapped up.
I loved our trip out there so much, I was able to relax for more than one day in a row and we came home feeling rejuvenated and excited about many more years of life together.
The next weekend Laura's parents came down for a fun visit to frollic in the fall weather. We took them to the great place called Allerton park which has tons of sculptures, a giant mansion and some great walking trails.
On another day we explored a crazy awesome corn maze over in Indiana.
I was picking hay out of my underwear for the rest of the day because of this shot. Remember kids, crack kills.
Its pretty rare to see so much corn growing in one spot so we got a picture of it all...
We Finished!
After that I needed a break from everyone and everything, as you can see we had been very busy with going places and doing things. So for the weekend of my birthday we went to a new place and did nothing! It was so great! We went to Sand Ridge State Park and did almost nothing. We attempted a hike but turns out this park was a giant sand dune 50 years ago and all of the trails are sand, it was like walking on a beach but without water anywhere close. We set out for a five mile loop and managed about a mile before we turned back. Quote of the day "Tony, I'm not having fun" "me neither" and we turned around without another word. After that we ate my unseasoned yet still delicious foil dinner and slept through a peaceful rain long into our slow starting morning. Would I go back, not without a horse to ride. So probably not.
This is what the trails were. Note the lack of any solid footing.
For some reason the State Park system in Illinois thought Prohibition was a good idea and doesn't permit alcohol in any of the parks. (I'm sure ethanol is excluded though) So we brought a disguise for our wine bottle.
We had an alternative motive for camping, which was to use our new screen tent. I've been in the market for a canopy tent of some sort since last winter for our BockFest shenanigans and Laura one day said, "why don't you just get a screen tent, that way we will use it more than once a year?" A good point taken. Turns out most screen tents are really shitty. What I wanted was something simple. A screen tent with a tall roof (obviously). It also needed walls to keep out the rain should it decide to do that while using said tent. After much research we ended up with this beauty:
It's HUGE! We joked about pitching our tent inside it, but since it had the picnic table in it already we decided to forgo that idea. This thing has enough space for a picnic table, a cooler or two, and easily four camp chairs with room to move. All of the walls are attached and roll up, or can be stretched out into an awning, or tied down to keep the wind and rain out. I'm excited to have this guy around for years and years.
The next weekend was Darktober Fest and Halloween! This year I went all out and made my own costume. For some reason I decided I wanted to be a scarecrow made entirely from burlap. Which is itchy business. I used
this site for the pants and they are so easy! I'm thinking about making a pair of PJ pants for myself now since they didn't take much time at at all!
Jinx helped me a bunch.
My final costume:
Laura won the creepy zombie award:
My parents won best couple costume:
They make a couple of a good dead skunks.
Whew. The busy lives of the Jacobson family kept going but this is the home stretch! A couple of weeks ago we headed down to Music City, thats Nashville to you laymen. My lovey sister and her husband ushered us around their stomping grounds for a great weekend filled with fun and surprise. First off were these really great (edible) sheep that welcomed us after a long 5+ hour drive.
The next day we headed up to the Yazoo brewery for a tour filled with
interesting info and generous pours of the good stuff. While on the tour
we ran into a group of Brits who were out celebrating a bachelor party
(in Nashville?). We ended up hanging out with them for quite awhile and
as it turns out I look like Ben Afleck. I disagree, but they were a fun
bunch. After that we headed downtown for an evening of food and on foot
exploration. We ran into our British friends again at Tootsies randomly for a brief
moment before one got kicked out for removing his shirt on stage with ladies present. We also enjoyed a pretty underwhelming experience at Coyote
Ugly, I've since decided is not a place worth going back to.
Especially if you have to pay a cover.
Matt Damon and our new foreign friend
A bachelor party check off, 20 empty glasses stacked in a tower.
Worlds most obnoxious pants
Me winning a chugging contest
Him not winning. Go team USA!
Amanda, Andy and I were excited about travelers not wanting glasses in their carry on. Laura is not.
Bee pollen shots. They tasted like hay smells.
Booze Booze Booze Booze, Hangover. Bee Pollen?
I assumed all of Nashville roads would be cobblestones, not so. Only this alley was.
Oops!
The next day brought us good fun at centennial park where they have a giant Greek Parthenon building that now stores art for people to look at. We didn't have a chance to look at that but we did walk around and take some pictures. We also hit up Third Man Records, which is very tiny, and picked up some new vinyl from a band called the Greenhornes, very good stuff.
For the finale of this longass post...The Festival of Trees Gala! For you out of towners the Festival of Trees is a giant fundraiser for the local Danville hospital foundation. This is the hospital you don't want to get stuck at on the wrong side of an emergency (says some funeral directors I have formerly been associated with). Anyway, all of these companies and individuals buy these fake christmas trees and decorate them to the nine. To kick off the whole deal they throw a gala, AKA a big event where old people dress in clothing not appropriate for their size and age, which is held in the local hockey arena. There is free wine and beer along with a martini bar hosted by a bar which is ironically is not in the county the hospital serves. Laura and I love the event because there is some phenomenal people watching and looking around at the decorated trees is nice too. We had a wonderful time and got some exciting martini glasses that light up different colors, but I didn't get a picture of those, so here is a picture of us instead:
