Posts Tagged ‘homemade wine’

One Year a Homeowner

Posted: July 2, 2023 in Living and Life, Reflections
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Me on the day I bought my home. That was an exciting day.

Hard to believe it’s been a year since I moved into my condo. A year and a few weeks of being a homeowner, on top of that. But still, it’s incredible to think about.

And living in a home I own has been great. I live in a great neighborhood with nice walking trails and a gas station/mini-mart nearby. It’s a short drive from work, as well as anywhere else I want to go. It’s way more affordable than staying in my old apartment complex (or any of the places I looked at) would have been. I have my own dishwasher and laundry machines. And I can make modifications and renovations to my home as I please, provided I have the funding for it.

That being said, owning a home isn’t all butterflies and rainbows. It comes with responsibilities. I had to replace my toilet about a week into staying here, and I’ve probably spent a thousand dollars on my shared garage’s issues already (my neighbor and I are both hoping we won’t have to spend anymore on it in the near future). And then there was the time the disposal went out during Passover, making the sink and dishwasher unusable. And those are only some of the problems I’ve had to deal with.

Like I said, not all butterflies and rainbows. And I haven’t even gotten into how hot the upstairs can get when the heater’s on. Makes you want to open the window in winter!

My writing space. It’s gotten even creepier since this was taken.

Still, despite all that, I still love this place. I love putting up all my eclectic artwork and showing off all the weird stuff I’ve collected and put up in this place. I love going under the stairs to get my wine making supplies (hopefully I can make some dandelion wine soon). I’ve even gotten some new pieces of furniture, like a credenza and a wine cabinet, and they’re nice additions to the place. And I love thinking of all the things I’m going to do to this place over the coming years as I continue living here and saving money.

And I know how damn lucky I am. As I’ve said in previous posts, there are a lot of people in my age group who can’t afford even a starter home or a condo like mine because the market right now is not designed for them. Too many older folks downsizing, property prices rising, never enough starter homes or affordable apartments, laws and ordinances that make building bigger homes more profitable than building starter homes, corporations buying up new properties so they can sell them back at exorbitant prices.

I could go on. But to sum it up, for a lot of people my age, the former American Dream of owning a home is currently out of reach, and may be forever. Now, their American Dream is just to survive with what money you have and maybe find something that fulfills you in your spare time.

Yikes, this got dark in a way I didn’t expect. Let’s fix that.

My first Halloween here. I went as big as possible for it. I plan to go bigger this coming fall.

Anyway, I’m so glad I have my condo, and I hope that I get to spend many happy years here writing stories, building equity and growing as a person. And I can only hope more people in my generation get the chance to experience this. Provided they have the money to cover a mortgage and everything else, of course.

Oh, one last thing: my condo’s nickname is “the Haunted Condo!” A friend came over and called it that, and now it’s kind of stuck. Sadly, the only thing haunting this place is me, but someday that’ll change. After all, this is me we’re talking about. Who knows what might happen during some of my planned renovations?

Well, until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night and pleasant nightmares.

Trying My First Homemade Wine

Posted: January 10, 2023 in Living and Life
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Remember a few months ago when I talked about how I was making wine at home and how it was a process very much like writing? Well if you don’t, here’s the link to that post.

So, as a quick refresher, I’ve been making my own homemade wine. My first batch, started in 2021, was a plum wine, and the second batch, is a pumpkin wine. Yes, you can make wine from pumpkin. You can make wine from a whole lot of things you wouldn’t expect, including flowers like dandelions and roses, or honey, or even broccoli! Not that anyone would want to drink broccoli wine, but you get the idea.

Anyway, each batch takes at least a year to be ready, most of that is aging in the bottle. That’s why the plum wine was only opened for the first time yesterday, even though I started it in 2021.The pumpkin wine will be ready in October, by the way. It took less time than the plum wine, for some reason.

Getting back to the point, the plum wine became ready for drinking on Sunday, and I had some friends and family over to the condo (“The Haunted Condo,” as some are starting to call it, though so far the only thing haunting it is me) to try the wine. And despite my worries, they liked it. It wasn’t as bad as I feared for the first wine I ever made, was a lot drier than expected, and was very full-bodied as well.

I actually tried to get a reaction video going, but not everybody wanted to be in the video, so instead I filmed one after everyone left. Below is the video. Give it a watch if you have ten minutes.

Hope you enjoyed that. I certainly did! Or I enjoyed the wine, at least.

If you didn’t watch it, I’ll just reiterate what I said above: the wine was tasty, it was drier than expected, had a nice body, and was overall pretty good. Much better than expected for my first wine (which is more than I can say for my initial writing projects).

And I’ll probably do it again for the pumpkin wine when it’s ready this fall. Maybe I’ll be able to get some people into the video for more reactions. In the meantime, I just enjoyed drinking the wine and sharing it with you (not literally, of course). And I hope you’ll take a look at my other videos on that platform. I don’t post much to YouTube, but when I do, it’s usually something I really want to post there. Usually writing-related and ghost hunting videos, but other stuff too.

Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares. And remember, whether your alcohol is homemade or commercially bought, please drink responsibly.

Winemaking is a Lot Like Writing Fiction

Posted: October 15, 2022 in Reflections, Writing
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So, for those of you not following my social media, particularly Instagram and Twitter, I got a home winemaking kit for my birthday last year. So far, I’ve made two batches of wine with it. The first is plum wine, while the second is pumpkin wine. Yes, you can make wine from pumpkins. You can make wine from all sorts of fruits, vegetables, and other materials you normally wouldn’t think of for winemaking. Anyway, I haven’t tried any of the wine yet. And winemaking, as it turns out, is a lot like writing fiction. I’ll explain both in a moment.

First, let me give you a quick rundown of the winemaking process. You basically take all the ingredients, including the crushed/chopped/quartered/otherwise cut up main ingredient (ex. grapes, plums, pumpkins, etc.), put them all into a big container with fermentation yeast and oxygen, and let it simmer for a week or so. During this time, the yeast breaks down sugars and releasing flavor from the main ingredient. This is primary fermentation. Then you put it in a smaller container with as little oxygen as possible, where it undergoes secondary fermentation. This can last anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, changing containers every couple of weeks until the wine is clear. At that point, you bottle it and let it age for a year before drinking.

This is the pumpkin wine I finished making earlier this week. Looks good, right?

That’s why I haven’t had any of the wine yet. The plum wine won’t be ready until January, and I just bottled the pumpkin wine earlier this week, so it won’t be ready till next Halloween. I hope it tastes good when I finally taste it. Otherwise, I’m going to feel very bad for anyone who drinks the wine with me.

Now, here’s a pop quiz: using multiple ingredients to create a single thing? Going through multiple processes to further refine it? Taking at least a year to work on before it’s ready for consumption? This does describe winemaking, but what else can it describe?

If you guessed fiction writing, congrats. You win a glass of wine from your own stores. But yeah, it does sound a lot like fiction writing. The ingredients for the wine are like the plot, the research, and the words; the primary fermentation is the rough draft; the secondary fermentation is the subsequent drafts where you clean up the story; and the year after it’s bottled is the time until publication, during which you may do further refining for the story until it’s out.

Plum wine, just before it begins primary fermentation, when it’s just a bunch of disparate elements in a bucket.

And, like writing, winemaking takes time and trial and error to get good at. Like I said, I haven’t tried the wine yet. I tried both the plum wine and the pumpkin wine before secondary fermentation, but at that stage the wine is tart and full of yeast and other matter floating around. It was alcoholic, yes, but was it good alcohol? No. Just like a first draft is technically a completed story, but it’s not something you want to immediately release into the world! I mean, all those errors and plot holes you might miss before giving out the story!

But getting back to the wine, I have no idea how either batch will taste once I open them up. They may be completed, but will they be any good? It might take years of trying and failing before I make a good batch of wine. And that’s kind of like writing, too. You can write a story and go over it many times, but you have to keep writing until you’re any good at it.

But maybe that’s why I enjoy making wine. I mean, yeah, I love wine, especially sweet wine, but I also like the process of it. I like taking my hands and using them to create something that people can enjoy with me. I like that it takes hard work, precision, trial and error, and your love of something to create it and bring it together. And I like the many possibilities it presents.

It’s like writing to me. Only I don’t intend to sell this stuff: that requires a license, and I’m not going to jump through hoops for that!

Also, I’m going to need a wine rack and more empty bottles before I make any more wine. Otherwise, I’m going to run out of space for it all in my condo!

Anyway, I just wanted to share my thoughts on wine-making and writing with you guys. I’m going to do a little late night writing and then hit the hay. Good night, pleasant nightmares, and fifteen days and thirty-four minutes to Halloween. Anyone else vomiting spiders in excitement?