We made wine (on a dime)

Yup! We went there! We made homemade wine, and we did it using upcycled equipment! Why you ask? Well because we had no clue if we were going to be able to make a decent product and we are frugal people. It would make me physically ill to drop $250usd on a venture that I have no clue whether or not we would excel at. No... better to try my hand first then, if it goes well, slowly upgrade the equipment. 
So how did I do it? Easy peasy! We started with a 5 gallon plastic bucket-a meticulously clean one that has only ever been used for food (pickles in our case) or nothing at all. I.e. Don't use the bucket that your joint compound came in, of the paint from your barn! Next we took the lid from said bucket and made sure the seal was water-tight. Easy again just toss a gallon of water into it press the lid on and see if it leaks when tipped on its side or flipped upside down. No leaks? Great! Move on to the next step! Leaky? Find a 5 gallon bucket lid gasket (or if you want run a bead of silicon caulk where the rim of the bucket seats into the lid and let it dry completely before testing the seal again. Be careful to use a very thin bead or your lid won't fit back on your bucket!!!
Ok so now your bucket is air-tight, now it's time to drill a hole in the lid! Yup all that and your going to put a hole in it anyway. You'll need to put a half inch hole in the lid to attach a half inch long nipple or hex coupler through the lid in order to attach your airlock either type of pipe will be screwed into the lid and held firmly in place with a corresponding nut Inside and out when using the nipple to ensure a solid seal.
Now comes the tricky part-the airlock. There are 2 ways to do this the way we used was a balloon over the end of the nipple and that works alright and it's cheap. The other way would be to use a length of half inch tubing (new only for this part guys) attached to the connector on the lid of your fermentation bucket the other end is held in a jar of water. Everything used here has to be squeaky clean because the water has the potential to be sucked back into the bucket as the wine breathes. We will be trying this method with our blackberry wine that we just started we'll let you know how it goes.
There you go! You have a simple and cheap fermentation bucket to give wine making a go. Now the only real equipment you need is a stockpot to boil water, a tube to rack your wine with, and some wine bottles with corks (read this woman used mason jar and lids).

Easy isn't it? Did you try out this project? Let me know! What kind of wine are you making?

From the sunset homesteaders to you, God bless y'all!

 

We're Writing A Cookbook!!!

I've been thinking about writing a book for a very long while now. We're talking years... ok over a decade here and closer to two. I've started many works of science fiction and someday maybe I'll get there, but lately I've thought about writing down some of my favorite recipes and getting them published. Now with the help of the Mountain Man and some of my family I may just get started on actually doing just that!!!
I will start very soon compiling recipes (about 50 in all is my goal) and historical information on some of the ingredients used to make them! I'm very excited to start this project and I can't wait to share all I've learned! I'm not sure how to fund this project since publishing any book is not free so our next issue to attack will be how to get the capital required to get there. We may look into fund raising websites or crowd funding but rest assured I've already got a growing list of recipes in mind to share with y'all.

With the greatest excitement from the sunset homestead to you, God bless!

Quilting by hand: a dying art

 One of the many side gigs I do for occasional cash is hand quilting and quilt repair. I have found that finding a hand quilting peer is rare. Something that would have been a common skill just a century ago is now almost extinct. Hand quilting is time consuming and tedious. Not a skill fit for the fast paced world of today. A skill that not many would see merit in attaining. I however enjoy the task and I feel it a precious skill to have. Should the grid go down for a long time I don't have to stop  my
Projects and they may become more valuable in that situation (not that I wish for the grid to go down, I rather like my internet and electric lights that extend my working hours by as many as I wish).
I find it fascinating that I can take a few scraps of random fabric and create with them a work of art then using simple needle and thread taking that simple artwork and transformating it into something more deeply artistic and masterful. Hand quilting requires a steady hand and a heap of patience but the end result is worth every moment of work and waiting and every pinprick. What is your favorite archaic pastime?

From the sunset homesteaders to you, God bless!