What R you doing today?

Going to see Boston and Joan Jett tonight.

Went to TopGolf last night. Good times. Will definitely do that again.

Got the Walla Walla Cab-Merlot into secondary (SG 0.996), stabilized/cleared the Cab Rose. Going fishing at the Isaak Walton League w/ the Cub Scouts this afternoon. 75 degrees with very low humidity and a steady breeze today. Just gorgeous. It's like late September.

Incredible weather for early August. Ten day forecast shows the highest temp at 81*F, unbelievable. My yard temps showing 65*F in the shade at 11:30 am (weatherunderground showing 70.6*F), dew point in the high 50's, nice dry breeze, get a chill in the shade. Fired up the smoker to cook my pastrami experiment, plan on unloading the garage and doing the yearly cleanup (wish I had a dumpster) while I wait for the yard to dry up so I can do the lawn. If I time it right I can do the London Broils on the left over charcoal (for my 11 soon to be 12 yr old Son's b-day dinner). For tomorrow my wife got some minor league baseball tickets through her work for a family day at the ball park on City Island (Harrisburg). Fully catered, just no alcohol. Guess I can live for a few hours without it in the name of family unity. Sometimes the weekend just works out in a good way!

Shhhhh........... It's our 30th in a few weeks. Mrs. IB loves shiny sparkly things. Happy Wife........

ibglowin said:

Shhhhh........... It's our 30th in a few weeks. Mrs. IB loves shiny sparkly things. Happy Wife........

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Shhhh, don't show my wife that one!

If I remember my "pretty" rocks from my earlier life, the center one is an opal, right? As I recall the ones with green/blue w/o red were pretty valuable, plus the background rock is rather translucent, usually they had a bit more opaque "white" to them. I used to buy them by the slab and cut with a rock saw (diamond bladed), then round with different grits on some specialized equipment. Takes a long time to make something that pretty. You must have been saving your allowance for all 30 years (and maybe even a few before you married her). She's one lucky lady!

Congratulations on your upcoming 30th anniversary. May you have 30+ more!

Yep, fire opal with diamonds around the outside. Our wedding rings also have them in them. Same store we bought those from. I had to laugh as I was trying hard to make this a surprise when we were in ABQ a few weeks ago while she was shopping and I was supposed to be in the Apple store. It felt very much like a scene out of one of our favorite movies........

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfNzZre-sIU[/ame]

ceeaton said:

As I recall the ones with green/blue w/o red were pretty valuable, plus the background rock is rather translucent, usually they had a bit more opaque "white" to them. I used to buy them by the slab and cut with a rock saw (diamond bladed), then round with different grits on some specialized equipment. Takes a long time to make something that pretty. You must have been saving your allowance for all 30 years (and maybe even a few before you married her). She's one lucky lady!

Congratulations on your upcoming 30th anniversary. May you have 30+ more!

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Successful afternoon!

Lawnmower - fixed. Weedwacker - fixed. Picnic dinner - started. Drinking my first Rhone - yes. And boy howdy, it's good. That Nocturnal kit is calling to me.

Crossed one off the bucket list today:

Started my first fruit wine yesterday. One gallon concentrate of Vintner's (something) makes 5 gallons. Added 3 lbs of over ripe peaches, 1.5 tsp of cinnamon 2 tsp of Ferm K 1/2 gallon of extra water and 4.5 lbs of sugar to get the SG to 1.090. Pitched the KV1116 around noon and when I went to stir it at 9:00 and was shocked it had alreday started bubbling.

My wife and I made a whole bunch of canned peach related stuff today. We picked peaches yesterday.
40 jars peach pepper jelly
6 jars peach salsa
6 jars peach jam
4 jars peach chutney

Still a few pounds of peaches left but they are all soft and fruit flies all over them. I'll get some more to make wine with soon.

Kitchen's a bit of a mess!

Forgot photos.

Racking a blueberry pomegranate adding k-meta to start aging.

Bill

Yesterday my wife and I participated in a Meritage blending competition at one of our local wineries. We were in the first group of the first day. When done there will be a total of 100 teams. The winning team gets their name on the back of the bottle and a case of wine. I don't expect to win because I couldn't seem to get a good end palate. What we submitted was 25% Cab Sauv, 25% Petit Verdot, 20% Merlot, 15% Cab Franc and 15% Malbec. Lots of fun and we each got a competition T shirt and a bottle of our blend.

Packing and loading to move my oldest to Ga Tech tomorrow. He will be 3.5 hours away at a very challenging university. I'm glad I have lots of wine stored.

On Thursday night, the boys all sat down to watch the pretty much meaningless Phila Eagles pre-season game. There was a bit of a breese, and Fox, which is our strongest station by far (have to unhook the signal amp and turn the antenna at least 30 deg to either side), was dropping out. Okay, the home made antenna on the roof is approaching 15 years old (A double Hoverman by design - https://www.google.com/search?q=dou...=cJ6YWYfXFszEmwHXmLS4Bw#imgrc=XENXYG9uM4hWxM: ). It has served its purpose, but needs a bit of TLC (wire back panel reflectors are falling off). So after his work my son got on the roof, I got on the ladder to loosen the two U-bolts. To my surprise, about 10 wasps flew out of the bottom of the aluminum support for the rotator (bottom of image). No biggie, I didn't get stung, but I'm allergic to bee stings (have two EPI pens in the closet). I've been "desensitized" as a kid, but don't really want to test it out (especially with a few wasps). I calmly moved down the ladder in a quick fashion, making sure I didn't place my had upon a wasp (which were mostly around my arm pits and head). Meanwhile my son, who was on the roof, slowly backed off, he didn't get stung either.

Wondered why they didn't make a nest in the porch vinyl as they usually do. Guess they found a better home. Tonight my son will take a can of spray up and apply it down through the pipe. Hopefully we can bring the antenna down tomorrow and make some repairs (have a smaller one waiting in the wings to put up in it's absence).

I think I need another beer!

GreenEnvy22 said:

My wife and I made a whole bunch of canned peach related stuff today. We picked peaches yesterday.
40 jars peach pepper jelly
6 jars peach salsa
6 jars peach jam
4 jars peach chutney

Still a few pounds of peaches left but they are all soft and fruit flies all over them. I'll get some more to make wine with soon.

Kitchen's a bit of a mess!

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Can I get your peach Chutney recipe?

I've been out of the wine loop this year due to health, but today I decided to get back to my life and get on with my passions. So today I racked, bottled and stored my Pinot., Cab.Sauv and a Shiraz. I also picked up some mangos and peaches to freeze for my peach/mango wine.
Guess I'm Back..lol

vernsgal said:

I've been out of the wine loop this year due to health, but today I decided to get back to my life and get on with my passions. So today I racked, bottled and stored my Pinot., Cab.Sauv and a Shiraz. I also picked up some mangos and peaches to freeze for my peach/mango wine.
Guess I'm Back..lol

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Welcome back!