Thankful

It’s Thanksgiving morning and I have been up since 4 AM, what I am I thankful for…… COFFEE. We have hit a rough patch with the girls sleep schedules recently. A Bird isn’t sleeping well, she keeps waking up with bad dreams and won’t go back to bed unless L Bird takes her. I tried last night at midnight to tuck her back in and she cried hysterically until L Bird got up and came in to tuck her in. She stayed in bed for about another 45 minutes before she was up again because the wind was blowing so hard it was rattling her screen in her window and scaring her. So because she won’t sleep in her room she crams in between L Bird and I and settles in to snore and keep both of us awake. Then Nat who had been sleeping through the night is now waking up twice a night and because A Bird’s bedroom is right across the hall we can’t let Nat cry a little to see if she will put herself back to sleep because that wakes A Bird up then everyone is awake in the middle of the night. This has been going on for a few months now and its wearing everybody thin, L Bird is exhausted because she does the bulk of it because A Bird won’t let me do it and everybody knows if Momma ain’t happy nobodys’ happy.

So this morning I laid awake in bed hoping L Bird and Nat would get a good sleep and that A Bird would stop snoring and remove her elbow from my neck but well that just didn’t pan out so I ended getting up at 6. I let the dog out, brought in firewood, got a fire going in the woodstove gave Nat a little bottle to see if she would sleep a little longer and then sat down to type this.

While going through these mundane everyday chores I thought about Thanksgiving and what it is to be thankful and I realized that I am very very blessed. I am thankful that I found L Bird and she is my wife. I looked long and hard trying to find my perfect match and thought I would never find her until I saw L Bird at Wegmans with baked beans on her shirt, then I knew I found her. I am thankful that she loves me through all my faults. I am thankful for my two girls, we tried so hard to have them and went through 11 rounds of fertility treatments to get them here, yes they are definitely trying at times but I am so thankful that they are in my life. I am thankful for my family, my Mom, my Dad, my step-parents and all of my brothers and  my sister, they made me who I am today. I am thankful for the small group of close friends I have, I know I could call on them and they would come running to help and I hope they know the same is true of me if they were to ever call. I am thankful that I have a roof over my head when so many in this world don’t, I am thankful to be working and have a job where I can be creative and productive. I am thankful for so many more things that they are too much to list here but right now at this very moment I am very thankful for this…

Starting to bubble …

This has been one of the most stressful couple of weeks I have had at work in the last 11 years I have been there. It just seems like nothing is going my way, I can’t really go into it because of proprietary issues but I can say that I am struggling with some slow fermenters so its slowing supply on my end. I have been trying everything and nothing has worked until this morning, FINALLY things are starting to turn around.

The three things above are fermentation tubes, NOT bongs or water pipes or whatever the hell else you want to call them. You fill them with a fermenting wine, so the tube is filled with wine. As the wine ferments it produces CO2 which is captured in tube forcing the wine down into the bulb. Then you can measure the amount of CO2 produced to see the rate of fermentation and do a rough calculation on when the wine will be dry. All three of these wines have been sluggish but finally one of them started to ferment. The tube all the way on the right fermented to completion as you can see that the tube is empty of wine and full of CO2.

Anyway, enough of the science, things are starting to break and move forward. I am still stressed because things aren’t rolling yet but some of the pressure is moving off. I hate not being able to figure out why these problems happen. I go through and check everything I can possibly check and it all checks out but I am still not getting the results that I want. I know that it isn’t my fault, but because I am the winemaker it is ultimately my responsibility and hence my fault. I always worry that people will look at that and realize that maybe I’m not as smart as they think I am. I worry that people will see me as a fraud that has just fooled them for the last 11 years. I know that this is an irrational fear, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting just the same. I am so stressed that I can’t even keep my thoughts straight so I know that this is a boring post and that I am rambling but what the hell, right?

So, I hope the fermentation tubes above are a sign of things starting to turn around, but until then I am going to sit by the wood stove and enjoy a warm fire and a cold beer and try to forget about work for awhile.

Wish me luck!

A Nice Surprise

I hate surprises, I really do. I have a very analytical mind and I am a planner. I always like to know what is going on so I can gameplan for the worst, I know I’m weird, right? So for a week L Bird was pestering me with “I am taking you somewhere on Saturday and I’m not telling you where.” which put me in the greatest of moods. Then Saturday morning comes and everyone is up early, we have a house showing mid morning, L Bird has to go to work, and I AM NOT a morning person. So things were a little rough because I was CRANKY, so cranky that L Bird cancelled the whole day. However, as the day progressed I slowly pulled myself back to an even keel, it helped that when L Bird got home from work, Nat was napping and A Bird was playing in her room and I got to lounge on the couch and catch the last 45 minutes of The Four Sons of Katie Elder with John Wayne, I mean c’mon who doesn’t love The Duke.

My Mom came down and watched the girls, and we headed out. After about 15 minutes of driving we pulled into our destination, Climbing Bines Craft Ale Company. This was my surprise, glorious, cold refreshing craft beer tastings. L Bird definitely knows what gets me. So we go in and the place is crowded with people, L Bird and I make our way to the bar where I ran into a friend from school I hadn’t seen in years, Maryanne. We chatted for a few minutes and it was nice to catch up before she had to take off. Now L Bird and I get our spot at the bar and I did a full flight, and L Bird only did their House Line flight.

The tastings were great, they have nice sized tasting glasses that you get to keep after your tasting is finished, the beers were very good which I was pleasantly surprised at and the guys behind the bar were an awesome group of guys to talk with.

A few highlights were they had two hefeweizens and they had a couple of one offs that were wet hopped which were very good. I ended up buying a 32 oz Grenade of the Hoppy Apple Pie Ale. This beer was one of my favorites, and I bought it because it was so different and was a one off, so once the barrels were gone they were gone and they weren’t sure if they would make it again. It was a light ale but it tasted of apple cider, cinnamon, nutmeg and beer mixed perfectly. Definitely an interesting drink, I don’t think I could drink a lot of it but it was very good.

After about an hour or so of drinking and talking we packed it in and stopped for a picture by the sign, then we were off to an early dinner with friends then home. It was a great night and a great surprise, thank you L Bird.

 

 

If you get the chance definitely make the time to stop here and drink some great beer. Enjoy!