Hows my little busy beaver?

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:

Hows my little reader in 2011?

2011 has been off to a slow start for reading because of two things, less time spent reading, and the first book I read.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Fantastic book. I've had different people from all sorts of different parts of my life telling me to read this book since the springtime and I'm so glad they did. The hunger games is an exciting story about a girl attempting to survive a battle to the death with many other contestants. It is a page burner no doubt. There were no boring parts and the author's vast imagination was running wild with excitement and creativity. If you like exciting fiction and a fast read, I recommend getting started on this trilogy. I can hardly wait to dive into the second part.

From Vines to Wines by Jeff Cox
From Vines to wines was an extremely informative book on starting your own vineyard to making wine from scratch. The author threw in a little humor to keep things light and also made everything very understandable. On the other hand its also a how to book with some very long boring parts. Hence my very large gap between book updates. He also makes some very bold statements on winemaking techniques which, like everything else in the world should be taken with a grain of salt. Different strokes for different folks as they say. I would only recommend this book to someone who is either looking into planting some grape vines as it is quite descriptive on how to approach that, or someone who has a little bit of winemaking experience as many of the things mentioned seem to rely on a bit of prior knowledge. This book should not be used as someone's only reference guide but paired with several more sources of information.

The Passage by Michael Cronin
I really enjoyed this book. Even though its the first I've completed this year it might already be the favorite of 2011. Its a hard one to describe but I'll try, It is a story of adventure. It begins with several unrelated stories that eventually converge and then all abruptly end. Which was unexpected. The middle of the book pretty much starts a brand new story 90ish years into the future. The world has changed drastically and the population of the USA is severely depleted, the survivors live under lights which keep the infected away. Until one day someone (from the first half) makes their way into the colony and everything changes and a new adventure begins. I'm purposefully being vague, the book is fantastic, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a good adventure novel. Don't let the size scare you (800+ pages), Cronin manages to keep the story moving rapidly along through each page. Oh yeah, if it weren't for the last 10 or so pages this would have still been a great book but he threw in a gigantic cliffhanger at the very end. I can't wait to read more of the series as it comes out.

Hows my little "bare" foot?

Today I went for one of my most enjoyable runs of my life.

Its not to common for me to use enjoy and run in the same conversation or even sentence, but its true! Today I tackled my first trail run at Kickapoo State Park (a few minutes from the house). There were hills, trees, beautiful changing leaves, and gorgeous views of the river here and there. The temperature was perfect and the sun was shining through the leaves. How could anyone not enjoy that.


But there's more...

My good pal Jon recently found me some Vibram Five Finger (Trek Sport) Shoes for a measly $25 at REI and generously picked me up a pair. For those who don't know, those are the shoes with toes. My first impression of these new kicks is nothing less than thunderous praise. They are ridiculously lightweight, and feel like a thin protective extension of my foot, sort of like a nice fitting sock but with toes and a hard bottom. Its been raining like crazy lately and the trails were wet in some places and there was no issues with grip on wet uneven areas and even when I moved through a wet area they seemed to dry just as fast as skin would in a similar situation. I'll test the water more in the future though.

So by now you might be thinking, toe shoes Tony? Really?!
Well yes, but there is some history behind this that I've been meaning to share with my faithful readers for ages and today's run sparked it all.

So here it goes:


In the spring of 2010 Laura's brother Scott sent me an Email containing three links with not much preface other than interesting reading. Ever since reading the articles I've not shopped for footwear the same since then. The articles went out of their way to claim moving around barefoot was a more natural, healthier, and better way for any person to walk/run/jog.


So this is my soapbox, I'm going to give you the rundown of it all using some great articles that have inspired or informed me into this way of movement.


This article is a great one and is mostly responsible for convincing me that barefoot is the way to go. To sum it up people have been walking against evolution ever since the modern shoe became an important accessory to our daily lives. It goes on to give evidence showing barefooted people and athletes alike can reduce injuries and relieve some chronic pains by simply taking off their shoes. My favorite example of how shoes work against feet is when you look at an empty shoe on a table, you will notice the toe area curls up. You will also notice your toes don't naturally look like that when standing barefoot. Shoes are designed this way to help you rock forward. It later goes into more detail about how your sensitive feet are desensitized when wearing shoes and a person's body naturally tries to correct these feelings and generally gives a person more opportunity for injury. The article goes deeper into the subject too, and if you've made it that far I'm sure you'll be interested enough to reach the end.

This video is related to this article, its pretty painful to watch but you can get a good idea of how a person's running gait changes with the removal of their shoes.


This article does a fantastic job at showing you how shoes, particularly heeled shoes ruin a person's posture and feet. It also shows how walking or running around barefoot can change it almost immediately. The second half is a somewhat dated but still relevant review of Vibram's Five Finger (VFF) shoes. He makes a good case for flat footed people to make the switch towards the bottom.

On a side note, although, its not my story to tell, I know a person who just by wearing her VFFs for a period of time she went from needing to wear shoes with orthotics all the time to being comfortable while walking around barefoot. Which as I understand it was an uncomfortable task beforehand. Another person I know has actually been able to wiggle his pinky toe that used to be permanently curled into the next toe, just by running in his VFFs for a several months.

The writer of this blog entry is a giant minimalist advocate and believes strongly in ground feel, what your feet can actually feel when walking around barefoot. Its a really great piece and not terribly long, it brings up a lot of good points about how we pretty much blind ourselves to the ground below us. I think its a very good article explaining why one should want minimalist footwear.

So what does this all mean?
Going barefoot is a really great idea everyone should consider. In honesty its not realistic, people work, they walk on streets with gravel and broken glass, they use public gas station rest rooms, barefoot living is a scary proposition, barefoot home living is not.

So the next step is shoes, mankind has been making shoes since they have been tanning leather, hence the moccasin, more or less a bag tied around one's ankle. No one wants to be cut or wounded on the bottom of their foot so you're going to want a some protection. Nowadays there is an expanding number to choose from, but by no means a vast sea of choices but they are out there. Some shoes are accidentally minimalist, for example; ladies who have been rocking flats for ages, you're a step ahead. Try and find some that don't look like the heel is raised any higher than the toe, very little if any arch support, and obviously a very very thin sole.

To make shopping easy for you try these brands/shoes:
Sanuk
Toms
Merrel
Vibram Five Finger
Soft Star
Innov8
New Balance Minimus
VivoBarefoot
Saucony Hattori
Feeling Cheap? Buy some ugly water shoes for $2. Same idea.

So how has my tansition been? Slow, as it should be. I've switched entirely to running in the Merrel Trail Glove and its amazing how challenging its been on my calf muscles. For me since I've had knee surgery (and issues with it since then) I'm particularly interested in the prospect of reduced knee stress/injury prevention. Laura has actually had a quicker transition period to minimalist shoes thanks to her extensive foam flip flop wearing (or so I think). Since I really dislike the chunk of fabric between my big toe I only enjoy slide style sandals, unfortunately no such minimalist version exists...yet. So I've still got fat sole sandals. I recently bought new work shoes only to bummed out that a few months later Merrel released a waterproof minimalist shoe. Hopefully they will still be around in a few years when these current fatties finally wear out.

I hoped I've piqued some interest in the subject because I've found it fascinating. If you're wondering what finally inspired this epic post, I would tell you it was the smile that spread across my face running through the woods on a gorgeous autumn afternoon.
If you do choose to dive further into the wonderful world of "bare" feet. Merrel has a great resource for beginners right here (I like the NY Times article).