Winemaking extra notes.....

As a postscript to my last post, let me say I wanted to save winemaking for the summer. It seemed like a pretty rough bite out of my 100 dollars, but the fact that it takes so long for the payoff, (I have seen makers that age for 3 months) plus the fact that Im trying to get some practice in for other more involved versions of this process led me to try it now. In the summer I have a pear tree in the yard, plus the rail fence on the hill that borders my property is covered with wild grapes every year. I'd also have access to Mulberries, apples (I know of several trees who owners just let them rot on the ground), and anything else I could forage such as wild raspberries. My plan is also to plant sorghum in the spring , and use that to make cane syrup which I may be able to use as a sugar substitute, thus eliminating another expensive ingredient. Alot of the things I research for this blog are like that. Initially it almost feels like its cheaper to just go buy a bottle of wine.....Its obviously less work, but as my methods mature, and I learn the process that should change. Even the yeast can be farmed from nothing if you know how to do it. Remember that zombie apocalypse too. Maybe there wont always be a 7-11 to run out and grab a bottle of Wild Irish Rose from, just sayin. Even in my next project. Soapmaking I was shocked that one of the main ingredients, the fat (lard in this case) was so expensive. Its animal fat for crying out loud.....most people throw it away. Im already scheming though to make that cost a little better as there is a butcher shop one town over that processes whole animals on site, and while Im sure while they are not giving it away I bet as an unprocessed by the pound product I can get it alot cheaper. It will add a step or two to the soapmaking, but hey, thats the breaks. No one said this was easy...So from my 100 bucks what did I spend so far?  1.50x2 for the yeast, 2.00x2 for the airlocks, 1.00x2 for the water, and 2.00 for a bag of sugar.(yes, Im rounding up , and down) The fruit Im not factoring in to cost, as I didnt buy it for the experiment Im considering it a found item. So, 11.00.....yeah, thats alot for two gallons of whats sure to be craptastic wine. Give it a chance though this is going to get better.....

Let's make wine!!

Well were off, and running. Today I started on the first of my plain living experiments. Winemaking. Honestly I didnt really want to start with winemaking. There was another more famous liquor making related experiment that sounded like alot more fun. That however on doing some research is going to take alot more preparation, and studying. Winemaking will get my feet wet in that direction without the threat of blinding myself, or blowing up my house. Making homemade wine is pretty simple. Take fruit, water and yeast....combine, and wait.  Yes it really is that easy...Sort of.  This time of year complicates winemaking. fruit must be bought rather than grown, and its expensive. A 4 pound bag of apples costs almost as much as a bottle of cheap decent wine making it cost prohibitive. In this case I had apples, and pears already in the house. Which simulated the idea that maybe I would have grown them. So apple and pear wine is what were making. Using what you have to get what you want is the name of the game after all. We have a local homebrew store here in town so today I went for a visit. I told the woman in the store my plan, and at first she was pretty positive about it, but as we browsed shelves of equipment, and I kept trying to think of homemade versions of every piece of technology she showed me she got less so. She was very concerned about sanitizing things which is nice, but how many of these folks made wine in sanitary conditions?  Im sure they kept things as clean as possible, but theyre making this stuff in unsealed buckets in their yard. The laboratory conditions the shopkeeper was talking about really felt like it went it went against the spirit of the experiment, and it would have cost a fortune. in the end I purchased wine specific yeast. Olden timers wouldnt have had this, they would have experimented with growing a local yeast, or used store bought bread yeast. The wine yeast however from a cost standpoint was comparable to bread yeast, and it is more hardy surviving longer in an alcoholic environment, and producing stronger, and better wine. I used Lalvin K1-v1116. A yeast designed for fruit wines.......cost 1.50 an envelope. I bought 2.

The only other bit of modern tech I let her talk me into was a couple airlocks. At 2.00 each these were an affordable compromise. Cheating? Maybe a little, but I would like to be able to safely drink this stuff. I feel like Im meeting pretty well in the middle. Keeping the old timey spirit, at the same time insuring I won't need my stomach pumped when I drink it. The only other purchases I made was 2 bottles of Walmart spring water, and a 4 pound bag of sugar.

The recipe was something I cobbled together from a million different websites. Most home winemakers, even ones that make hillbilly junk wine are pretty anal retentive about process. Everyones recipe is different, complicated. For my purposes complicated does not work. I worked out that most folks will use 2 pounds of sugar per gallon give or take so I went with that. Fruit? just cored a shitload of it and dumped it in..... total guess.Went with about half the bottle full. I prepped the yeast according to the package 15 minutes in 2 ounces of warm water and dumped it in. punched the airlocks through the tops and sealed them with tape. The reaction was pretty immediate with the apple, and less violent with the pear, but it seems to be coming along. So now comes the waiting. When the bubbles in the airlock stop well be ready to strain this stuff out, bottle, and age it. Probably about a week or so. Stay tuned.......

While this stuff is brewing Im going to start soap making from scratch........So this weekend its time to make some lye!

My blog, and welcome to it!

Let me start this ride by saying Iam not a blogger. Iam not a writer. Hell, I'm not even that good with a computer, but when the idea for this blog came to me I felt I had to run with it. Recently I came across a series of books called "The Foxfire Books". These books are basically how to books from a time long past. Recorded in interviews from the people who lived it. An attempt to catch in writing, and pictures a way of life that was on the brink of vanishing forever. When people were self sufficient, tough, hardworking, and well...........Laid back, and happy. The books centered on the Appalachian region of the country, people that lived up in the mountains. They didnt have much money, or any money in some cases. They made themselves almost everything they used. That includes homes, clothes, tools, transportation, supplies.....Anything you can think of that you run to Walmart for these folks made from basically what they could scavenge, and what the land provided them. To a person like me these books read like a bible. Ive always been a do it yourselfer. I love being able to build and fix things. To cook homemade food, to be able to handle situations that most people would hire someone to handle. Its one of my very few endearing qualities as a person. So to discover this series of books was like an epiphany to me. To discover it just as the new year was rolling in......Well that was a sign. Instantly I wanted to try everything I read in them, and I made it my new years resolution to do just that. Then another idea hit me...Why not make a challenge of it? And why not document that challenge? Thus was planted the seed for these writings. To share with other people lessons from a time when looking at the complicated overly stimulated electronic mess of today's world wed probably be smart to go back to.....One of the most striking things about the foxfire books is when you read the countless interviews with the people who lived at the time is how many of them remark on how happy they were. They all say that....."we were so poor back then, but we were so happy!" You get the feeling while reading these book that there just has to be something to it. Some magical link between simplicity, and happiness. It seems so obvious when you read it on a page, but try practicing it in real modern life, and youll see how hard it is. You see just how busy, and complex our lives are just trying to survive. Toss technology in there on top, and you get a real mess. Every damn thing we own has to have a computer in it now. Everything has to connect to the Internet......I dont even want power locks in my car, why would I want one that connects to the damn Internet?..........Sorry went on a tangent there for sec....Im already sounding like a crusty old timer...Well hopefully you get the basic idea of my blog.  Now I want to outline the rules for the challenge Ill be writing about.

        The simple version is this: With 100 dollars startup cash I will attempt to partake in as many old timey activities as I can. When the cash runs out Ill look back, and see how far I was able to make it. My goal is a year. I will have to always have at least one active project running at any given time (though I hope to be able to juggle several at a time). If a project sees no advancement in a week due to lack of funds, supplies, time whatever that project is considered dead. If a project dies and there no others active then the challenge is failed. (Though I will probably continue anyways challenge failed, or not). The initial 100 bucks is startup money, and if Im able to make any money from projects (selling homemade soap for example) that money is added to my budget, and will be able to be used on future projects. I will accept no cash donations, but will accept donations of materials. (An old table to use as lumber for example.) Anything I can recycle, scrounge, or procure free is fair game, and wont count against the budget. In fact if people start to follow this blog I will add a list to bottom of each entry of things I could use if someone has them to give away. As far as materials go....well anything will go. The idea is to use the methods, and spirit of old. The materials themselves are inconsequential. If I can scrounge better materials than they had to use in those days so be it Ill use them. However I will be using them to build the same old time implements from the past. The fact of the matter is that some things available to the people of old simply wont be available to me. An extreme case would be logs to build a log cabin. I simply cant wander out into a woods, and start whacking down trees like back in the day. Hence the reason I wont be super picky about my materials what I can get is what Im going to use. Again the idea is to build it yourself.....What you build it out of isnt as important. Another concern is safety. Id rather not die doing this so where old time gear would be considered unsafe, modern equipment will be substituted. I will mark these instances in my writing as to have full disclosure about when I might be cheating a little.  Tools had me thinking some. Would I use power tools, or not? I ended up going with a compromise. People of old would have certainly used power tools if they had them. These folks were proud of their skills, but they weren't egotists, and they weren't dumb. If something made a job easier they would have used it. I decided that whatever power tools I have in my shop right now are fair game to use, however I am not allowed to purchase any other power tools for use in the challenge, nor am I allowed to replace a power tool that breaks. I can however repair that tool if possible and continue using it. I can also buy/barter/create any hand powered tool I need. Currently in my modest shop I have a band saw, a table saw, a drillpress, a scrollsaw, a lathe, and a welder. I also have an assortment of smaller tools (power drill, sawzall, grinder etc.....hey I told you I was a DIY guy).  I know it sounds like a pretty big advantage, and it is. I will try to use them sparingly.

     Hopefully people will join me on this quest, and maybe try some of this stuff on their own. It would be nice to keep passing this knowledge down. Who knows there might be a zombie apocalypse, or something. If that happens your gonna want to know how to sharpen an axe right? The next post will detail the first three projects Im going to start with. Soap making from scratch. Making a fretless hillbilly banjo, and winemaking. Ill start the timer sometime this weekend, and well be off, and running. So stay tuned, and see if I keep all my fingers the entire year. If you guys get lucky Ill melt all the skin off my hands dripping lye for soap. Doesnt that sound fun? So check back soon!  If you want to contact me I have setup email for this blog at plainlivingblog@yahoo. com . I also have a twitter feed @plainlivingblog, and a facebook (you guessed it plainlivingblog) I will post hard links to those accounts so you can get updates and live funny anecdotes about my misadventures at old time plain living. Hope to see y'all there!!