Wind and Rain

Some of the other things that I have been up to is nurturing the green hippy in me. To be fair, I suppose that I am helping to nurture the green hippy in Bill since it was his idea and his house. The picture below shows the rain catchment system that I put in. The winery is too far out of town to be connecting to the city water and sewer so they have a cistern. This means they pay to have all of their water trucked in and costs some serious cash. Way more than the measly 20 dollar payments jasmine and I made in california.

So here is how this works. The most polluted water that comes off of your roof is in the first few gallons. Once the first shot of water has washed off all of the sand, bacteria, and organic matter the water is reasonably clean. The gutters for the entire house are designed to funnel all of the roof water to the down spout shown in the picture. From there the water drops through a 1/8 in. screen and then through a mosquito screen. After that it drops into the first of the two large 4 in. horizontal pipes which has a float valve in it (plastic balls that are buoyant and are pushed to the top of the pipe where the seat into a fitting and seal the flow of water off). Next the second diverter fills up and then the rest of the water overflows into the tank. There is a small hole in the bottom of the horizontal tubes to allow the water to drain over time. But fear not, nothing is left to waste. The water that drains from the diverters as well as any overflow from the cistern is channeled into the creek and koi pond setting that is in the back yard. That is what the plastic tubing and 3" piping that can be seen in the bottom of the picture is for. Once I got done plumbing up the rain collector assembly the wind picked up and I turned around to notice this...

The windmill was installed this past summer and was whipping around. It produced about 10 kW that day which is respectable but not enough to run the house, winery, and sweets. Pretty cool stuff huh? Bill and Dorothy are getting the home and business pretty dialed in. Regrettably the wind mill does not receive enough wind to make a large difference in their power bill but they sure are doing a great job of leading by example. Maybe this summer they will go solar?

Now even when it is windy or rainy we have a good reason to be happy around here. Isn't that a great thing.

Blueberries Anyone, How about some wine

So what have I been up to while jasmine is off being spoiled by her grandparents and vacationing in south america...working?! The other day I made 200 gallons of wine. It feels great to batch up a ton of wine and then walk away, eat dinner, and go to bed knowing that all of those yeasties are still working. To me it feels like having a million employees, its great. Maybe elves would be a better description because I do not have to pay them; in fact they make money for me.

So here is one of the wines that I made, blueberry. These happen to be blueberries from canada and we processed about 600 lbs which made 100 gals. of wine. This picture shows half of them in buckets being thawed, sugared and scalded.

Here is the motley crew that Bill employs to make his wine. Can you believe they let us around this stuff and without beard hair nets? It is a rough gig for sure. So the process is, after thawing and scalding, we move the berries into a crusher that is hand cranked. That is what rich is operating. Once they are crushed we scoop them out of the barrel and place them into the press which is what is in front of me.

The press is pretty cool. It is a bladder press which means that once you have it loaded with crushed berries you simple hook a garden hose up to the bottom and turn on the water. The water fills the bladder, which is the black you can see in the following pictures, and squeezes the berries against the walls forcing all of the juice out.


Here is me hard at work. As you can tell I think that I have a really tough job. It is a rough deal getting up at the crack of noon and getting my game face on to say, ok...lets taste some wine and then make some wine and then taste that wine too.

Yesterday we visited the Florida Oceanographic Society. They have cownose rays in a touch tank, a trail walk through the mangroves, and a large pond with 60 fish species. My grandma arrange through a friend to get a behind the scenes tour. We learned a lot from our tour guide about the local marine happenings. He also told us he plans to increase the fish population in the pond from 100 to 1000 by June. I will be sure to check that out next time I am in town. Here is a picture of my grandma next to one of the quarantine tanks in the back and below is a pic of the fish in that tank.

The condo community my grandparents are in is awesome! Everyone I have met has incredible life stories and continuing adventures, they are very social, fun, nice folks to be around.
After our visit to the Oceanographic Marylyn, another neighbor, invited me to join her for a kayak. It was great fun to paddle a boat for bit. Along the way I watched big fish chasing little fish, always a thrill to see.




Using the fancy features on the new camera for the first time I got this underwater close up of a cow-nose ray. Kinda cute wouldn't you say.













My grandparents live on Hutchingston Island which is one of the barrier islands. Their condo is right on the inland waterway. Every evening around 5pm the neighborhood heron comes in front of their porch for cocktail hour. His name is Hank and he does not get any cocktails. Instead he gets fish fillets caught by Bob from the adjoining condo. It is a lovely way to wrap up the day, sipping wine (or scotch) watching the sunset, and Hank. After the sun has set Hank squaks goodbye and heads to his roost until the next evening.


I get on the plane late this evening to Santiago. I will be on the boat headed even further south on the 16th if all goes smoothly. They have had a few technical troubles this field season that have put them a little off schedule. So keep your fingers crossed for smooth sailing and ocean sampling.

I have been hanging out with my grandparents in Florida before heading to South America. There is no shortage of things to do here, 4.5 days has gone by quickly. The trip started off a little hectic, United informed me my flight had been canceled and they were unable to get me to my destination in a timely manner. A few frantic phone calls, stressed internet searching, and technical failures later got me a flight on American 30 minutes before it departed.
My grandparents met me in Orlando and we headed to Disney downtown for lunch. We enjoyed a wild meal at the rainforest cafe. This time the trumpeting, moving elephants didn't surprise me. During our lunch there were three thunderstorms, wouldn't be a visit to Florida without a thunderstorm.
Wandering through the disney shops I was impressed by the variety of disney items you could purchase. My favorite shop was the toy store where you could assemble your own lightsaber!That evening we went to a Cirque du Soleil show, La Nouba. Here my grandparents are standing in front of the Cirque building, all circus themed.
 

It was incredible! Totally different than the show we saw in Vegas but equally as awesome. It was circus themed and very entertaining.

Florida

I have been hanging out with my grandparents in Florida before heading to South America. There is no shortage of things to do here, 4.5 days has gone by quickly. The trip started off a little hectic, United informed me my flight had been canceled and they were unable to get me to my destination in a timely manner. A few frantic phone calls, stressed internet searching, and technical failures later got me a flight on American 30 minutes before it departed.
My grandparents met me in Orlando and we headed to Disney downtown for lunch. We enjoyed a wild meal at the rainforest cafe. This time the trumpeting, moving elephants didn't surprise me. During our lunch there were three thunderstorms, wouldn't be a visit to Florida without a thunderstorm.
Wandering through the disney shops I was impressed by the variety of disney items you could purchase. My favorite shop was the toy store where you could assemble your own lightsaber!
That evening we went to a Cirque du Soleil show, La Nouba. It was incredible! Totally different than the show we saw in Vegas but equally as awesome. It was circus themed and very entertaining.
My grandparents live on Hutchingston Island which is one of the barrier islands. Their condo is right on the inland waterway. Every evening around 5pm the neighborhood heron comes in front of their porch for cocktail hour. His name is Hank and he does not get any cocktails, but fish fillets caught by Bob from the adjoing condo. It is a lovely way to wrap up the day, sipping wine (or scotch) watching the sunset and Hank.
Yesterday we visited the Florida Oceanographic Society. They have cownose rays in a touch tank, a trail walk through the mangroves, and a large pond with 60 fish species. My grandma arrange through a friend to get a behine the scenes tour. We learned a lot from our tour guide about the local marine happenings. He also told us he plans to increase the fish population in the pond from 100 to 1000 by June. I will be sure to check that out next time I am in town.
The condo community my grandparents are in is awesome! Everyone I have met has incredible life stories and continuing adventures, they are very social, fun, nice folks to be around.
After our visit to the Oceanographic Marylyn, another neighbor, invited me to join her for a kayak. It was great fun to paddle a boat for bit. Along the way I watched big fish chasing little fish, always a thrill to see.
Tomorrow I fly to Chile and in two days I will be on a boat. So I have been making sure to enjoy the new scenery and mobility while I am able.