John's Journal

After I got inside the GH this is what I harvested. It will be served with stuffed eggplant from this summers garden.

While I was there I looked around to see how everything was doing. The peppers are doing fine but it will probably be time to plant them outside before I get any.

The tomatoes are doing great and there are two plants with many green toms.

I should have a steady supply. Sure beats store bought. John

Later that day, the National Weather Service was predicting a winter storm from Friday noon till Saturday noon with an culmination of 6”+. Later they changed it to 8”+ and later yet they changed it to 8”-12”. At that point I went to bed and this is what I woke up to.

Fortunately Number 3 son showed up to do some snow plowing. I panicked when I seen the GH roof the center looked like it caved in but it was fine and all the plants inside were as snug as a bug in a GH.

Well everything is cleared and we can get out easily but there is nowhere to go. Oh well I think I will wash wine bottles tomorrow. As usual all comments are welcome. John

1/29/2010 Finally getting around to making my wine. This is my cave in the basement where I do my Neanderthal think. I use two carboys one for primary fermentation and one for secondary fermentation. The blue band around the first carboy is a carboy heat tape and helps to maintain the wine at 75 deg f for ideal fermenting.

Mt first batch will be Black Raspberry Merlot and when it is bottled, I will be making Green Apple Riesling. I should end up with nearly 60 750 ml bottles of premium wine for app. $2 per bottle.

Each kit contains all the items to produce six gal of wine

01/30/2010 Here the primary fermentation is on the way and after the fermentation starts to slow I will bring the fluid level up to the bottom of the carboy neck. After five to seven days, I will rack the wine into the second carboy, leaving most of the sediment behind, to complete the fermentation.

This is an air lock that sits on top of the carboy. It lets the CO2 escape and blocks any air from getting inside the carboy. I will update this post after each step in the process including the bottling. As usual all comments are welcome. John

02/04/2010 The primary fermentation is complete and I have racked the wine into the second carboy. The second carboy has been placed back up on the bench with the air lock and heat tape installed. It will continue fermenting for another ten days before the stabilizing and fining. As usual all comments are welcome. John

Today I started making my seed starting/potting soil. I have several containers of various materials sitting around that I would like to get rid of. My first batch will be; 2 parts(plastic shoe box) composted horse bedding, 1 part(plastic shoe box) coco coir, 1 part(plastic shoe box) medium vermiculite. To this I will add ¼ cup Osmocote and 2 tbs Epson Salts. Just prior to making my soil blocks I will saturate the concoctions with Ferti-Lome 5-59-8. When I use up the coco coir and vermiculite, I will be using just composted horse bedding with the Osmocote, Epson salts and Ferti-Lome. John