Month: September 2018

New does, from left to right: Chocolate, Daisy, Guru (wether, not new), Phee Phee and Little Girl.

Below, left to right: Boy Story, Girl Story and Toy Story

Below:  Goatie and little Boy Goatie

From the half-ton of grapes picked a week ago, we pressed the new wine, put 60 gallons into the oak barrel, 26 gallons into carboys and lost 4 gallons when the handle broke on one of our buckets.  We did that in three hours after work.  So far, it tastes great and the color is exceptional.  It has to just sit for a while now, and then we’ll need to decant the clear liquid away from the sediment.  You can see sediment in this jug has already settled out overnight.

Happy Autumnal Equinox!  Time to get that corn in!  This is popcorn.

Also added a couple more goat kid videos here: Kids are doing well

Yeast, hydrated yeast, and vat ready for yeast …

This is a package of dry yeast.

 

This is yeast hydrating — mixed with water and some juice from the crushed grapes.

 

This is one of six containers with approximately 25 gallons of crushed grapes picked Sunday — ready for yeast to be added.  Potassium Metabisulfite added 24 hours previously to sterilize all wild yeast.

 

Our friend just south of Sacramento invited us to pick and crush his grapes this year!

They were beautiful — Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Sangiovese, Merlot, Barbera — and SWEET.  Some of them hit 28 brix!  We picked over 1200 lbs and have a 60-gallon oak barrel standing by.   

So, yeah, we had the Tacoma a little weighted down, but those are five, 30-gallon containers of crushed, de-stemmed grapes and the white barrels.

The day was a beautiful, cool, autumn-like day, the grapes were amazing, and the harvest went well.  We are very excited to try our hands as artisan vintners!

Little BG is growing like a weed, and the triplets are doing really well, too.  We are now bottle-feeding them 3x a day.

Here are a few videos of them at four weeks.

(Below) the little herd — BG well-protected!

(Above) The three Storys.  Toy Story and Boy Story are on the spool.  Little Girl Story is checking it out.

Goatie teaches little BG to head-butt (video)

Kids Leaping (video)

Kids Leaping II (video)

BG Leaping (video)

The 3 Storys hanging out with dad and extended fam (video/no sound)

• Toy Story (TS–also known as Cynthia because of birth order and her ability to vocalize)
• Boy Story (BS)
• Girl Story (GS)

These three lost their mom 36 hours after birth — mother’s name was Story.

 

 

 

A mix of hard work and fun with friends!

Harvesting ground-fall apples and pears for cider pressing.

 

Splitting mountains of firewood for winter.  When it comes to wood-splitting, we always appreciate the 25 men who live in a gallon of gasoline!!  (approx. labor equivalent).

 

Playing on the South Yuba River.

 

Finishing a day with jalapeno poppers and pomegranate margaritas.

#grateful