apple picker

More apples dried, hard cider racked and drink ready, more cider started, a tire plugged and the Wise roof- a fresh coat of black sealer on it. I'm overloaded with ripe tomatoes and still have highly productive and more than I can eat of 2 varieties of chard. The native tobacco has bloomed so now I can try and I.D. it for sure. I traded a jug of just started hard cider for more local grown chemical free (organic- but I can't use that word as the government took ownership of it)apples. I may have to cook the apples down to sauce as I have too many to put up by drying. I made an offer on the Colorado place but I hear my offer was not accepted and a counter is coming. So be it. Oh- and I made an apple picker with an extension handle.

the 6' tobacco plant blooming

mobile home on 15 acres in Colorado I'm looking at.

Hmm...doing some deferred maintenance at/on the Wise house for brief periods the past 2 days. The roof is patched a little where there were cracks in the side walls. The gutter is cleaned. The roof surface is raked of limbs, sticks, leaves and walnuts- and hosed and broomed clean. The roof is to get a new black coating tomorrow. No pics, just imagine it all. But here's some of a place in Colorado near Paonia.

Petra on the driveway

limestone rock removed from edge

Today a hole in the sidewalk, from an old gutter drain pipe, was patched and I finally dealt with that concrete THING in my backyard. I chiseled off the rock boarder so it's below the surface now and then filled the hole with wood chips. It's gone and out of the way. I used the rock to form a boarder along/below the side fence.

hole gone

What else...I sold a wheel/tire I'd had on CL all summer. I started another gallon of hard cider- got to keep the supply up. I also started another batch of organic dried apples- every morning a new batch. Last night I finished the lamp shade for the ceiling light outside the bathroom. I added replacement "star wheels" for old timey grinding wheel dresser tool.

How about a video:
http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/tiny-texas-houses-willy-wonka-on-doing-magic-reusing-wood/

Today I worked a bit putting new air filter material in the cb450 filters that I had burned the old paper filter material out of. The UNI filter foam can be had in various sizes via Ebay. Also I sliced another batch of apples to dry and tarred more of the sidewalk/foundation gap along the house.

like new cb450 air filter element

UNI filter foam

I cut up a bunch of small pine shipping boxes for the wood. Some nice boards were salvaged but most, being warped, were cut small for firewood.

Yesterday I picked a lot of apples from trees I planted, on property I've sold. This morning I started drying them.  I also racked the 2 week old hard cider into mason jars- even though it was still active some. I wanted some to drink today! It's a fine product to sip while researching and educating myself on Colorado water rights.

I have too much swiss chard so I picked a bunch and blanched it for freezing. You just drop it in boiling water for 3 minutes or so. I did the leaves separate from the chopped stems. Cool the leaves quickly to stop the cooking and squeeze out extra water and form balls- ready to freeze. There's a boat load of tomatoes on the vines I have to disappear somehow also.

I could have been more careful- cutting more stem out

It's harvest season for all the tree fruits and grapes and such in the North Fork Valley of Colorado where I spent time recently. The food is inexpensive and organic usually. I picked up some organic pasteurized apple juice/cider ($6.99)to add to my collection of the hard cider I have going. I'm short on gallon glass cider jugs so went for the pickle jar and my bag and rubber band air lock. I started it yesterday after noon and the bubbling has started nicely. I'm impressed the other 2 jugs are still going- must be the little bit of sugar added.

juiced Colorado apples becoming hard cider

ferns on forest floor are going yellow, as well as the aspen leaves

Back from Colorado where I looked at several properties in the North Fork Valley. I camped in national forest each night and was immersed in the color change taking place now.

ferns going yellow

One of the places I looked at comes with 2 mobile homes( one should be hauled off ) and 2 vehicles...and a deeded spring with rights to irrigate four acres.

4x4 Dodge and a mini van behind it

the newer of 2 "trailers"on 15 acres w/spring

Cool temps have moved into my surroundings. It was just in the 60's yesterday- warmer in Colorado I think me thinks. It's great to be able to use the oven again. I pulled out some of the gifted homegrown plumbs I cut up and froze a few weeks ago and made 2 loaves of quick bread.

The 2 batches of hard cider are doing well- they like the new lower temps of my make space. The one on the right has really slowed down. The one on the left I made with some spices as well as sugar to increase the strength a bit. The baggie and rubber band work fine as an airlock. You can complicate the brewing of hard cider if you want with all the fancy gizmos and bottling or go low tech. I just use a hose cut from a kitchen faucet sprayer to rack the stuff into a clean bottle sometime in the 2nd week when it's settled down. You can drink it then or maybe let it settle another a week and then put it into mason jars in the fridge- cold and ready to enjoy.

The president just said- "it'll take time to eliminate ISIL". Yes, yes, like it takes time to grow a nice pumpkin.

Colorado 2014

Today, I painted 4 screws for the cb450 front fender, started another jug(2 going now) of hard cider... and posted a picture.

cb450 headlight and front turn signals installed

More cb450 progress. Any day now I'll be riding it around the house. I found the correct turn signal stems and picked through all my light parts and put together 2 good front turn signals and painted them with the olive drab jeep paint. Once the turn signals were installed I was done with the wiring all hidden in the headlight bucket- so the headlight is now installed too. The brake and clutch levers are also now painted with black. The tachometer cable and the brake caliper, pads and lines are installed as well. The brake master cylinder is dismantled and waiting for a rebuild kit.

cb450 brake master cylinder

This morning I started another gallon jug of hard cider. The organic juice with pulp from Whole Foods is about $8 and is a fine buy if you need the gallon glass jugs. The jugs are about $5 at the brew store, so that makes it only like $3 more for a gallon of good pasteurized organic apple juice. With the pasturized juice there's no need to use the campden tablets(sulfites) to kill the  natural yeasts. The red star wine yeast works fine for the hard cider.

the new flatwork near the chimney.

Yesterday I broke out the bit of sidewalk near the chimney that was tilted and sunk. I replaced it with new concrete and topping mix forming a banked turn slopping away from the foundation. I also bottled my hard cider into mason jars and put them in the fridge. Yes, the lids are on loosely. I've been drinking it and it's got a good kick- and no sulfites or any other preservatives. Today I sealed the gap/crack where the walk met the foundation using roofing tar. The dried tar takes paint nicely I've found- so the black will be covered when I paint the foundation.

Petra checking out my seal work along the foundation

I took Petra to run free off of Marshall road-near river

I Just tinkered with the cb450 all weekend. I finished up the coil and condenser wiring and added zip ties to secure the harness to frame in numerous places. I got the new throttle cable in place. This evening I oiled the old clutch cable and now it slides nicely. I installed the clutch lever and the cable is in place. I some how, with parts from 3 bikes, ended up with only 2 front turn signals and they are different lengths. So, I located a used one via the Honda Twins forum and it's on it's way. There's more I did but why bore you all more.

I had to fab some adapters pig tails for condensers

1 short and 1 long front turn signal stems

Remember what I started with:

it's coming apart

...and then to this:

it's going back together- I bake from scratch

...and now this:

almost there-see the throttle cable in place- and the clutch cable...