My favorite. I belive this is an '03 550 GTO
Friday, August 20, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Laguna Seca Event
I will post some more Photos as time allows but this is one of my favorites.Uncle Paul in his element.
Had a fantastic time and I want MORE!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Meanwhile back at the Labratory
After 7 days we moved the Plum Wine from the primary fermentor to the secondary/Carboy.This is called 'Racking the wine.' Already the fermentation has slowed but I have a very busy week including a track day with Capt Beachit of http://www.hookedondriving.com/ and the California debut of the Ferrari Italia at Laguna Seca tomorrow so I won't have much spare time during the week. Leaving the wine to long in the primary can result in off flavors and bitterness in the finished wine.
The close up foto is of the cap with clear signs of fermentation bubbles. The top foto is of the racked wine in a carboy all ready for secondary fermentation which should last about one month. At this point the wine has a pleasant flavor with hints of the citrus trees that are the plum tree's neighbors.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Ok, here's what we have.Our good friends down the road gave us about 100 lbs. of organic plums.
As we didn't want any to go to waste we commenced to converting the plums into products with a shelf life longer than 5 minutes.
Mari canned various recipes including a wonderful jam and my part was to proceed with a fancy Japanese Plum Wine recipe that I have wanted to try.
The picture depicts the 'cap' of the 'must' , mostly an unchopped fruit and skin layer that floats on the top of the liquid.
This batch seems to be very happy, just fermenting along like a percolator on low. We will have the bulk of the fermentation done within 7-10 days and then I will transfer into a 'carboy' for further fermentation/aging.
I don't think that most folks have any idea how easy it is to produce finished products that rival anything available at your local market. The quality of the jams and preserves that we can/put by each year is far superior to anything you can buy at the store and allot of it ,except for the elbow grease, is FREE.
I really enjoy the ritual of canning food, gardening, wine making etc.
It is just like reloading your own shells, you know exactly where it all came from and how it got into your hot little hand.
I will post up some more pics as this batch progresses.
Monday, August 9, 2010
School Yard Games
One of the first lessons I remember my Dad teaching me was that when you don't succeed at a task or chore the LAST thing you do is blame some one else.
Come now Mr President you knew the state of things when you ran for office........Be a man Barry (remember that name, the one you used for 9/10th's of your life?).
I read nonstop and Tam seems to always have the correct sight picture.
http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-have-you-done-for-me-lately.html
Anther lesson Dad taught me is that when a grown man changes his name there can't be a good reason, all the justifications are meant to hide something.
No
Come now Mr President you knew the state of things when you ran for office........Be a man Barry (remember that name, the one you used for 9/10th's of your life?).
I read nonstop and Tam seems to always have the correct sight picture.
http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-have-you-done-for-me-lately.html
Anther lesson Dad taught me is that when a grown man changes his name there can't be a good reason, all the justifications are meant to hide something.
No
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Drive the Car !
I will make this short.
Please people when you are in your car be aware of what can happen in just an instant.
No more putting on makeup ,reading the newspaper, texting , working on your laptop etc while driving.
This Tuesday we had the misfortune to attend a funeral for the son of a dear friend, a 27 year old scholar, 3 masters degrees, on his way to a doctorate, probably genius level intellect with a servant in the passenger seat who could have driven , decided to take his laptop and place it in his lap while driving. Although the airbags deployed , the laptop cut him in half.
This event has crushed the spirit of a very close family.
Drive the car mate.
Nothing else is more important.
Pullover to do what you must but please,
DRIVE THE DAMN CAR!
No
Please people when you are in your car be aware of what can happen in just an instant.
No more putting on makeup ,reading the newspaper, texting , working on your laptop etc while driving.
This Tuesday we had the misfortune to attend a funeral for the son of a dear friend, a 27 year old scholar, 3 masters degrees, on his way to a doctorate, probably genius level intellect with a servant in the passenger seat who could have driven , decided to take his laptop and place it in his lap while driving. Although the airbags deployed , the laptop cut him in half.
This event has crushed the spirit of a very close family.
Drive the car mate.
Nothing else is more important.
Pullover to do what you must but please,
DRIVE THE DAMN CAR!
No
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Wild Horses
Somehow in all this , Sundays can be perfect.
Early Sunday Mari and I headed off in The Silver Truck to check our Blackberry,Elderberry and Huckleberry crop. (whispered aside), 'Have I told you how much I love my truck?'
We don't have anything to pick yet except the Elderberries and they were slim pickins'.
The interesting discovery was as we got close to the old mill site Mari yells "Horses!".
Now, when I am at the wheel and Mari yells any animals name my only alternative is to slam on the brakes.
"What do we have here?"
Someone has released into the forest two nice mares,one Cinnamon and one a kind of Appy/Paint blend. Now these horses appear healthy if not a little fat, neither is wearing shoes nor have they been groomed in a long time. They wouldn't let us very close but after we parked the truck guess who appeared out of the tree line and followed us down the trail!
In our county, rural property has held its value fairly well over the last 24 months. However, lots of folks got sucked into the "Lets take our equity out and buy a new boat/cabin/rv/any piece of crap I cannot afford" syndrome. I'm not talking about new home owners in our area I'm talking about 3rd and 4th generation ranch owners who got sucked into the scheme and are now loosing the house and ranch.
I imagine this is what happened to our two nice mares. They will be ok for awhile but winter will not be kind here in the Sierra Nevada .We will keep the location secret but not many people go where we were and I didn't see another soul in 35 miles of 4 wheeling. Keeping horses is expensive and both Mari and I have been down this road before so now we have another dilemma to solve.
On our way back to the house we did a little more exploring linking our normal route with a route that comes out on a paved road. We found a great skinny dipping hole filled with 3 to 4 inch native brown trout. Just a perfect place to cool off from berry picking, and where there is little fish there must be big fish..........
We ended the day with dinner at our friend's Reyna and Kevin's ranch. They have a nice place about two thousand feet lower than us. BBQ chicken, couple of salads and a nice bottle of Barefoot Merlot. I will never understand how a winery can produce and distribute a decent wine for under $8 a bottle. Kevin then sent us home with more vegetables and plums than we can eat in a month.
I guess I will break out the dehydrator early. Maybe find all the stuff to make some plum wine.
Another great day!
No
Early Sunday Mari and I headed off in The Silver Truck to check our Blackberry,Elderberry and Huckleberry crop. (whispered aside), 'Have I told you how much I love my truck?'
We don't have anything to pick yet except the Elderberries and they were slim pickins'.
The interesting discovery was as we got close to the old mill site Mari yells "Horses!".
Now, when I am at the wheel and Mari yells any animals name my only alternative is to slam on the brakes.
"What do we have here?"
Someone has released into the forest two nice mares,one Cinnamon and one a kind of Appy/Paint blend. Now these horses appear healthy if not a little fat, neither is wearing shoes nor have they been groomed in a long time. They wouldn't let us very close but after we parked the truck guess who appeared out of the tree line and followed us down the trail!
In our county, rural property has held its value fairly well over the last 24 months. However, lots of folks got sucked into the "Lets take our equity out and buy a new boat/cabin/rv/any piece of crap I cannot afford" syndrome. I'm not talking about new home owners in our area I'm talking about 3rd and 4th generation ranch owners who got sucked into the scheme and are now loosing the house and ranch.
I imagine this is what happened to our two nice mares. They will be ok for awhile but winter will not be kind here in the Sierra Nevada .We will keep the location secret but not many people go where we were and I didn't see another soul in 35 miles of 4 wheeling. Keeping horses is expensive and both Mari and I have been down this road before so now we have another dilemma to solve.
On our way back to the house we did a little more exploring linking our normal route with a route that comes out on a paved road. We found a great skinny dipping hole filled with 3 to 4 inch native brown trout. Just a perfect place to cool off from berry picking, and where there is little fish there must be big fish..........
We ended the day with dinner at our friend's Reyna and Kevin's ranch. They have a nice place about two thousand feet lower than us. BBQ chicken, couple of salads and a nice bottle of Barefoot Merlot. I will never understand how a winery can produce and distribute a decent wine for under $8 a bottle. Kevin then sent us home with more vegetables and plums than we can eat in a month.
I guess I will break out the dehydrator early. Maybe find all the stuff to make some plum wine.
Another great day!
No
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