Blondie and Her Blue Eggs

It's true, our new bird lays beautiful, blue eggs!

Pressing Time

Continuing the Pinot Noir story......

We start off with Alyce, my sister, who photo-documented and did some cheerleading during the pressing process.

501 pounds of must (grape juice and skins) and some hungry yeasties mingled in these plastic fermenters for almost a week. Every six hours, Ed went out to the shed to 'punch' down the cap of skins that were raised to the surface from the steady release of CO2 gas, a byproduct of the yeast's activity converting sugars to alcohol.

Once primary fermentation was complete (a week or so later) Ed, Ted, Ken and young Owen began the process of siphoning the new wine into glass carboys.

Looks like someone already started the tasting process.

Here's a close-up of the grape skin "cap" resting on top of the juice.
Of course, you can't properly do anything wine related without a glass of Grantham-Turner Pinot Noir in hand.

Once the juice had been siphoned, the skins went into the wine press to be squeezed totally dry.
Owen did the honorary cranking while the wine-makers carefully watched his every move.


Not a drop is wasted!

After pressing, a beautiful 'cake' of grape skins goes into the compost.

Now that their precious juice has been fully extracted, Ted and Ed tuck the carboys into bed for a long 6-month sleep.

Now we hope the juice does its thing and turns itself into a delicious bottle of vino.

Grape Harvesting

Even though wine-making is an unofficial Compound activity (it's mostly happening at a satellite location), I've decided to blog about Ted's new endeavor because it's really exciting!

Last week, we got the call from master-vintner, a.k.a Ray "Baba" Grantham, that the Pinot Noir grapes at the Land were ready to be picked. Ted and bro-in-law Ed took a day off work to drive up to southern Humboldt for the harvest.

Here is my man picking grapes at sunrise.

Look at these bursting Pinot grapes. Ray thinks this is his best crop in 30+ years! Of course, he says that just about every year:)
Here stand the three amigos with almost a thousand pounds of hand-picked picked grapes in the back of Ray's truck.
After picking the grapes, the guys drove up the road to Briceland Vineyards where a neighbor-friend owns a winery. Below, Ed is calculating something, not quite sure what.

Finally, all the grapes get dumped into the crusher-destemmer which does exactly what it says it does. Pure must (grape skins and juice) came out of a little tube, 501 pounds of which were transported home to Oakland in three food-grade plastic containers.
It was a long day, and the boys came home exhausted. I'll report on the remainder of the wine-making process (and it is a process) soon.

Update: Blondie's Entry at the Compound

Blondie is holding her own here at the Compound, but the other hens are not making it easy on her.

Frieda's claw lurches and aggressive pecks remind me of the behavior of certain tween girls in the locker room of a particular middle school circa 1992. Fortunately, Blondie acquired expert flying skills on the Arnold Ranch (her first home) so she can deftly escape when the other three encircle. Too bad I didn't have any superpowers at Pershing Middle School back in the day. Go Pandas!

Take-Home Chicken

Last night, we had dinner over at our friends Ellis and Ben's house and brought home the most unusual chicken.

Introducing Blondie, the Ameruacana! She is the most lovely creature with cute little ear puffs and a gorgeous set of feathers. Our friends were sad to see her go, but they have a flock of seven and the noise / feather production was irritating neighbors. We were happy to help them out!

Aroused from slumber, Frieda, Ruthie and Blanca were shocked and horrified to see the new addition to their flock. Chickens make the most appropriate sounds sometimes - "eerrrrak?!" As if to say, "WTF?"

Here is beautiful Blondita. For now, we're keeping her safe inside the coop, while the others graze in the yard. I have a feeling Frieda is going to let her know who's boss, just as soon as she can.

Did I mention Blondita lays the coveted greenish-blue egg? Welcome to the Compound, Blondita!