Making some Apple Cider. 11.18.2020

 With some extra apples around, I decided to make some cider.  I love cider, and have plenty of apples this year, so why not make some?  However, I don't have a cider press.  

We had an old Jack Leland Juicer in the pantry so I tried that.  Instead of pressing the apples, the juicer uses teeth to shred them into pulp, and a filtered centrifuge to separate the bulk of the pulp from the juice, although there is still some pulp and some foam.

For the most part, I used bruised or imperfect apples.  I did not use any parts that had holes or rotting areas, just the good parts.

I used mixed varieties of apples.  It turns out that red skin apples make redder juice, because some of the pigment makes it into the juice.  That also adds some nice flavors, sort of floral or berry. 

Those small apples are Jonathans.  They give the cider a really nice flavor.  The largest are Beni Shogun Fuji.  They give a nice sweetness and more juice. 

I made a couple of large jars to keep in the fridge.  The foam has a delicious flavor, sort of like a sorbet.  The finer pulp settles to the bottom.  I could filter it out, but I think it's healthy to drink it.  After a couple of days in the fridge, the cold cider has a more mellow flavor, and is much more like what I grew up with when my parents took us to the orchard for fresh local cider.

Even though there is some cleanup, it's not too bad.  I have just been making a couple of jars at a time so I don't overdo it.  This is really delicious.

New Sewing Project. A Comfortable and Protective Gardening Cap. 11.18.202

 As someone with no natural scalp covering (hair) I have a couple of choices. Baseball caps don't help.  They have a button riveted in the top to hold together or hide the point where the 6 triangles of fabric come together.  Some how, I often hit my head on almost anything, and that rivet makes a divot in my scalp, which leaves a scab for a few weeks.  Another choice is to become a NY real estate billionaire and hire a hairdresser for $70,000 a year to pile up the side hair into something that looks like a tortured ferret on top of my head.  That's not my favorite option either.  So I decided to make a cap with a one-piece top, quilted for protection.

I had this old cap that I used to like, but it's falling apart and the top was never padded so not much protection.  I took it apart and ironed the pieces flat to make a pattern.  I used to joke that this was a Fidel Castro cap, but then I did a web search on "Fidel Castro cap" and it turns out that it really was  Fidel Castro cap.  I'm not crazy about that but I can use a fabric other than olive drab and that will fix that.

First, I ran the cap through the washer/dryer so I would have something clean to work with.  Then I labeled all of the seams for future reference.

Then I used a seam ripper to tear apart the old cap.  The bill is too solid to take apart but I can work with that as is.  Also, I took photos from every angle, to serve as a guide to assembling the new cap.

The bill is rather hard plastic.  A could make a new one using milk jug plastic, but I don't want to damage my sewing machine by sewing into something similar.  Plus I don't know what would happen to that if it goes through the dryer.  As an alternative, I could use several thicknesses of denim or canvas.  I opted for some heavy duty interfacing from the fabric store, which gives some stiffness but is still soft at the same time.  For the top part, I used rip-stop fabric for the top, flannel from old pajamas for the inside, and sandwiched some quilting cotton between the two.  I machine quilted that with about 1 1/2 inch squares.  I skipped the border around the sides.  

This is the result for the first prototype.  It's interesting that I can take something apart, use that as a pattern, and it comes out looking completely different.   It's a little crude, but it takes me a few efforts to make something decent, which is why this is just a prototype. 

This hat is actually fairly functional and more comfortable than the usual baseball cap.  However, I think I might take it apart and put in a flannel liner and flannel binding on the sides, which will make for even better comfort and better fit.  

I had a lot of problems with the stitches skipping, whole sections of skips.  The sewing machine manual says really helpful things (not really) like "wrong needle" or "wrong thread" or "not threaded correctly." I re-threaded the machine.  I tried a heavier needle, which maybe helped a little.  I tried the heaviest duty needle that I had.  Still some skips.  Then I changed to a walking foot, and surprise, no skipping,

Some of the Trees in Fall. 11.7.2020

This is the Dawn Redwood now.  The leaves take on a cinnamon color - not the brilliant red of some maples or yellow of ginkgos.  This tree grew a few feet this year.  It's about doubled in height and volume since I planted it 3 or 4 years ago..

The four chestnut trees.  They grew quickly, about 3 or 4 feet a year.  There should be a good chestnut crop in the next few years.  This year there were a couple of dozen.

A volunteer Japanese maple.  This was a volunteer that I dug up and replanted, twice.  It was worth it.  The fall colors are brilliant.

 

Finishing the Restoration of that Plant Stand. 11.7.2020

 I wanted to get it done so I could get the sunroom back.  Plus I didn't want too many unfinished projects around.

First, here is the completed plant stand.  The metal is painted "bronze" which is black with tiny metallic flecks that show in sunlight.  I did something different with the finials, described below.  The table top is now solid wood instead of that cheapo particle board.  It has a raised edge to reduce issues of spills, and a vinyl flooring surface to make it water impermeable.  The wooden edge is painted black with a surface coat of polyurethane for durability and cleanliness.  Up close, some wood grain shows through that paint, which is an effect that I like.

The finials came out interesting. This is what happens when you spray the with black spray paint and then spray with an incompatible brass look metallic spray paint.  I liked this cool looking textured and multicolored effect although I don't know what to call it.  The finials were a wood-look-something, maybe resin.  This is nicer.

The tabletop was exactly what I had in mind.  It's a little bigger because that's the size of the boards I used and I didn't feel like cutting one lengthwise.  I decided the added surface area would be a bonus.  It gives a little more room for starting garden plants this winter.

This is the underside of the table top, before I painted it all black.  The extra braces are glued and screwed to the main boards, which are also glued together.  I think this is a very strong result, probably stronger than a single wide board.  All of this is scraps from the shed.  I love taking something that was headed for the scrap heap and making something good from it.  Plus, I enjoy doing creative furniture refinishing.  I think the result here was much better than the original, will last longer, is more functional and is much more solid.    

What a mess!  And, I over-sprayed some areas of the porcelain tile flooring.  Fortunately, paint thinner and steel wool cleaned that up completely.

For comparison here is what I started with.  I almost can't believe I kept it :-)  By the way, I decided the drawers were not useful, and looked to junky.  So the replacement table top does not have drawers, just sort of an apron which adds strength and looks more complete.

Tiny Baby Garlic Plants From Bulbils. 10.31.2020

 This year I let a few of the Musik garlic plants develop "seed heads".  "Seed" is in quotes because it's not seeds, but tiny garlic bulbs (bulbils) that form at the top.  I planted those at the same time as the garlic plants, a few weeks ago.

Yesterday I saw the tiny plants emerging.  I didn't know if they would grow at all.  These were really tiny.  It will be interesting to see if they survive the winter.  The purpose is to grow a reserve of bulbs to plant next fall.  That way I am less dependent on preserving so many full size bulbs in the summer.  They generally take two or three years to reach full size.  

If they all grow, there should be 50 to 100 of them.  A cold winter is predicted.  I don't know what to expect as far as survival.  This is where I get to learn.

It's interesting that these are ahead of most of the full size garlic cloves that I planted.  Most of those are still under ground.