Archive for the 'Post' Category

Meet Bram

Published May 22, 2013 Post 4 Comments

Little Bram was born this morning at 10:18am, and I’m now a father. Achievement unlocked, I guess. Abraham Charles Liptak is 7 lbs, 3 oz, 20 inches long and 100 % cute. He has features from Megan and myself, and so far, he’s been fairly quiet: some fussing, a little crying, but mostly, sleeping and holding onto my fingers. He’s one of the newest members of the human race, along with three others born last night and this morning here.

He’s a wonder to behold, and I’ve seen that said more than once when it comes to describing one’s newborn offspring, and as clichéd as it sounds, I’ve spent more time just staring and marveling at how utterly beautiful he is. For the last 9 months, I’ve realized in a conceptual sense that this is a life-changing event in my life, and it wasn’t until I first saw him that the full impact of that meant really hit home, in a wave of emotion that left me breathless.

It was a long night: almost 24 hours in all, from beginning to end, and I’m happy that that’s over. Megan did an insane job these last nine months, and she’s gone through something utterly terrifying to me, and what she’s gone through is nothing short of incredible. I’m sitting here, in the hospital room as the two sleep, and I can’t think of anything else in the world that I love more.

He’s barely 12 hours old, and I already can’t wait to introduce him to the world. I’m excited at the possibilities that the future holds. It’s going to be an adventure, I think.

DIY Dinner

Published November 27, 2012 Post Closed
Tags:

I was struck with a thought a couple of years ago at the grocery store: this stuff is expensive. I was looking at frozen pizza, an emergency staple that got shoved to the back of the freezer and was used too often. My second thought was: I can make this myself, and I would bet that it won’t taste like cardboard.

Since then, I’ve worked on making my own pizza: it’s simple enough, and takes only a little longer to make. 3 cups of flour, some yeast, salt and a cup of hot water, and I’ve got dough that makes a pizza easily twice the size. I’ll grate my own cheese (a mix of Hunter Sharp cheddar, mozzaralla and some oregano) and recently, mix up my own sauce, and together, it’s something that’s quite good. More than that, it’s somewhat more rewarding to put on the table for dinner. I’ll still get a frozen pizza or order out every now and again for when I’m either really busy or just plain tired of cooking, but that’s become a rarer occurrance.

Back in college, I made my own bread: a superb loaf that was ridiculously simple to make. Since then, I’ve been finding that the foods that I regularly consume that comes in a package are something that are not only easier to replicate than I previously thought, but generally taste quite a bit better, but give me quite a bit more flexibility on just how I want it to taste. I’ve taken to experimenting with my food a bit more than I used to, coming up with some interesting things.

A recent notable example is chicken nuggets. I’ve had mixed experiences with buying a bag of them: some come out fine, but they have a tendency to burn under the right conditions, and a couple of times, they’ve made me ill. Looking around online, I’ve found that it’s reasonablely simple to make them: strips of chicken with a coating of egg, flour and spices. The result was quite good, even if their manufacture was a bit hair-raising (I hadn’t fried anything in oil before). Where I’m stuck with what I’ve got with a bag of them, putting together every ingredient allows me do to more than simply throw them into a heating mechanism.

I’m enjoying this DIY approach to cooking, for a couple of reasons. The first is that it’s simply cheaper to purchase the raw ingredients and assemble them accordingly. A frozen pizza costs anywhere from 4-8 dollars. From scratch, it’s considerably less: Three cups out of a 50 pound bag of flour is about 3%, or 30 cents for what I paid for it. Sauce (from a jar) is about $4, and cheeses are around $8. That comes out to $12.30? Half that, because what I make is about twice the size, and we’re down to $6.15. But, The sauce and cheese can be made into at least 3 pizzas. $2.05 for a dinner is something that I’m more than happy with. To order out costs at least ten times that amount, and I generally get a better deal.

The other major reason is the ingredients label. Here’s what I pulled offline for a Red Baron 4 Cheese Pizza (admittedly, this is a decent brand):

ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), TOMATOES (WATER, TOMATO PASTE), LOW MOISTURE PART SKIM MOZZARELLA CHEESE (CULTURED PASTEURIZED PART SKIM MILK, SALT, ENZYMES), WATER, CHEDDAR CHEESE (PASTEURIZED MILK, CHEESE CULTURES, ENZYMES, SALT, ANNATTO [COLOR]), VEGETABLE SHORTENING (PALM OIL, SOY LECITHIN, BUTTER FLAVOR), SMOKE-FLAVORED PROVOLONE CHEESE (PASTEURIZED MILK, CHEESE CULTURES, SALT, ENZYMES AND SMOKE FLAVORING), CONTAINS 2 PERCENT OR LESS OF: YEAST, SUGAR, SOYBEAN OIL, PARMESAN CHEESE (PASTEURIZED CULTURED PART-SKIM MILK, SALT, ENZYMES), MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, SALT, SPICE, MALTODEXTRIN, HYDROLYZED SOY AND CORN PROTEIN, ISOLATED CARROT PRODUCT, PAPRIKA, GARLIC POWDER, DOUGH CONDITIONER (WHEAT STARCH, L-CYSTEINE HYDROCHLORIDE, AMMONIUM SULFATE), ASCORBIC ACID.

There’s a lot there that I don’t recognize, and that seems to be the case with most of the products that I’ll pick up off the self. Admittedly, I don’t know much about some of the components, but if I go the distance to making my own sauce and crust, I know exactly what’s going into what I’m making. Some things, like Cheese, is outside of my control, but I tend to go with local companies with a good reputation for quality.

This extends to meals beyond pizza. Chicken Tika Masala is a dish that I’ve made from largely from scratch, as well as bread, salsa, hot chocolate, various types of chicken, hamburgers, and a couple of others. While there are things that I largely won’t be able to make on my own – due to constraints from not owning livestock or poultry, what I can control is most of what goes into the meal.

Breaking one’s food down to it’s rough component parts has been a rewarding experience thus far. The food tastes better (although there’s the points where I screw it up – which does happen), it’s largely cheaper, and it’s something that I’ve made myself. A year or two ago, it never would have occurred to me to try and figure out just how to go about making something like Chicken nuggets. I suspect that there’s a certain DIY mindset that’s bled over from my work in the 501st Legion, playing with Legos as a kid and other things like that, and it’s something that I think should be ingrained more firmly with the public at large. We place an enormous amount of trust in persons unseen, and while I certainly don’t believe in conspiracy theories (that requires a guided intention), I think that it’s far easier to simply not expend extra effort when it’s seemingly redundant.

So, while you browse your local supermarket next, think about what you’re buying.

Before and Away

Published December 31, 2011 Post Closed

 

2011 had its moments. I did some excellent troops with the 501st, read some awesome books and generally got to geek out about some neat things. Started work with Lightspeed Magazine, and published my first article with Armchair General, submitted another couple for publication, which will happen in the next couple of months / at some point in 2012. Went to Belgium, worked on an awesome bit of research. Got married to a wonderful girl.

I’ll skip over the down points. Suffice to say, there were some very difficult points that tested my will and resolve in a lot of ways. Take the bad, learn, and move forward.

2012 looks to be an interesting year. Our wedding is coming up (for the rest of the family), work with freelance publications is beginning to pick up, and I’ve got some cool plans coming up for the first part of 2012.

This year, I’m going to:

  • Continue work on large project. Finish large project. Begin next step of large project.
  • Begin, research, write and collaborate with Megan on a cool historical project.
  • Write, submit, and repeat.
  • Learn, move forward, and continue.
  • Conceptualize, plot, plan and outline the next large project.

The Aftermath

Published September 8, 2011 Post Closed
Tags: , , , ,

This past weekend, I was able to volunteer in both Waterbury and Moretown, two towns that are struggling with the floods. The aftermath was heartbreaking. My hometown was inundated with upwards of 7 feet of flood waters in places, and many other communities around the state were under water, with roads flooded, houses swept away, and businesses destroyed.

On Saturday, I drove a group of Norwich University students out to Waterbury, where they worked on one of the streets hardest hit by the rising waters, which took out a number of places in the downtown areas of town, including one of my favorite Pubs, the Alchemist, and a number of state administrative buildings. While I’d seen a number of pictures, videos and driven up and down several roads up and down the Northfield area, nothing prepared me for what I saw in Waterbury: houses with their entire contents in the front lawn, silt baking on their surfaces. Mud and dust filled the air: everyone wore a mask, gloves, heavy boots, and clothes smeared with grime. The scene changed as I drove back out of the village, and onto the interstate: everything was green and untouched.

Sunday marked a work day. I’d driven through the day before, over patched up dirt roads, and into town. The scene was even more striking. Descending into the village, we passed a sign: “All routes in and out of town closed.” Moretown was covered in a fine layer of dust, kicked up from the cars that passed up and down Rt. 100 B. Driving through town, we saw where the bridge into town had been washed out at one end, over a narrow chasm of rock that was still saw the Mad River rushing below it. Megan and I signed in, and helped wash one man’s house before moving on to another, which had seen a couple of feet of water in the main parts of the house. Tearing up the floorboards, I was struck by two things: no matter how secure we see, nature can really disrupt our everyday lives, and that I was tearing up a gorgeous hardwood floor, and the home’s owner was smiling. It was astonishing.

A pack of volunteers had converged on the house: groups of two were pulling up the floor, sweeping up the dust and river muck that had collected under it, and pulled out the nails. Bathroom tiles shattered, sheetrock was removed, pipes stripped out, as we sweated in the dust. It was a rewarding couple of hours of work: by the end of the couple of hours, the floor had been removed, swept and free of nails, while others outside were salvaging what they could of the wood we pulled up and out. Fortunately, they seem to have had flood insurance.

The attitude of Vermonters in the aftermath of the flood has been the most remarkable thing to have come out of the disaster. Everywhere, people were enthusiastic, ready to work, ready to volunteer, and ready to rebuild. Despite the dust, the mud, the destroyed roads, washed out riverbanks, bridges and fields, the people of Vermont have shown that they’re resilient, tough and as a whole, strong. While disasters such as these are horrifying in the damage, they’re welcome in only that they can demonstrate the unity that they invoke from the community. Their roads and homes might be broken, but not the people.

Random Things

Published March 4, 2011 Geek Stuff , Post 5 Comments
Tags: , , ,

The iPad 2 was unveiled the other day by a skeletal Steve Jobs. It looks neat, and it’s clearly designed to entice the next crop of people who held off on the first one. Faster, slightly different shape, new cover, etc. They’ve got a good product, and I suspect that anyone who’s waited a little while will be happy that they did.

That being said, I’m not planning on upgrading mine for, well, ever. It’s a fantastic product (and I’m decidedly not an Apple fanboy) that I’ve gotten a lot of use out of since I got mine 8 months ago. I do a lot of writing on mine, and I’ve been happy that it’s an all around general computer that does pretty much everything I want it to. I don’t do a lot of web browsing on it, but when I have, I’ve generally been pleased. (My one complaint is Safari’s insistence on updating every single open tab when there’s a couple open. It’s annoying). Writing is fantastic, and as predicted, I’ve gotten better at writing on the screen. Moreover, I use the calendar a LOT. Since I take the thing everywhere, I’ve gotten into the habit of writing down dates, something that I’ve typically never done, and it’s nice to have a reminder when I need to be somewhere.

Plus, game developers are starting to get in on the platform, and there have been some very cool games over the past couple of months that I’ve gotten hooked on. There’s the obligitory Angry Birds obsession, and I’ve found two other games lately, Battleheart and Canabalt, that I’ve really enjoyed. Battleheart is a fun cross between World of Warcraft and D&D, which appeals to my geek sensibilities, and Canabalt is a game that’s stupidly simple, and stupidly addicting (running and jumping over gaps on a roof).

I’ve been reading more books on the device as well, mainly late at night, when I don’t want to turn on a light and keep Megan up. It’s not something that I read a lot – I’m currently reviewing Embedded, by Dan Abnett for SF Signal, and between late night reading sessions, I typically pull out my other book, Kraken, which I’ve got in hardcopy.

I also haven’t upgraded my iPad since I got it – it’s still on the original iOS system, which I’m content with. I’m not particularly won over by the introduction of folders, or the removal of the lock switch (which I really like having). It was fine when I got it, and I’m still pleased with the purchase.

I’ve had the pleasure of writing for the website Blastr a number of times over the past couple of months (the articles that I’ve written are linked in the ‘Writing’ tab here), coming up with lists on all sorts of things when it comes to science fiction. It’s fun to relate what we love to read and watch to current events or to pick apart a franchise for things, and while it’s not particularly smart writing, it’s fun writing, and I’m really enjoying delving into a topic and finding a wide range of things.

By far, my favorite one to write thus far has been the ‘83 Crazy Differences Between Fringe’s Alternative Universe and Ours‘ piece, which allowed me to look at one of my favorite shows, Fringe. There have been a couple of things added, and if the show goes on, I’m sure that we’ll be able to add an update to it at some point.

Lists by themselves are meaningless, I think: the usual top ten or top one hundred lists of the ‘best’ and ‘favorite’ types are always so contingent on people’s individual tastes – and they fall into either the list of safe choices, where few people can argue about the selections, or a bunch of obscure or other ones that gets people arguing about everything that wasn’t on the list. It’s frustrating to read comments, I’m finding, because people either don’t read the article and think about it, or read it and ignore what you’re trying to put forward.

Such is life. I’ve got a couple of lists that I’m working on, and I’m excited about what’s to come.

Last year, a friend of mine and I started up a website called Geek Mountain State (a play off of Green Mountain State), designed as a catch all for all things geek in Vermont. So far, it’s been quite a lot of fun to write for. The idea for the site goes back to 2009, when I was driving out to Middlebury for a talk by author P.W. Singer, who wrote a book called Wired For War, (I wrote a review for the book for io9, here, and interviewed Mr. Singer, here.) an examination of robotics in the battlefield. It struck me that there were probably more talks like that around the state. Over a year and a half later, I’ve heard more and more about all types of science and technology news, commentary on the future, politics, geeky events and things along those lines throughout the state, and after speaking with a friend of mine, we decided that the idea had merit, and we decided to launch a blog, along with a Twitter and Facebook feed, to capture these sorts of things happening around the state.

Looking at almost 30 other websites, we’ve been able to update a daily list of events happening throughout the state that relate to geek interests, either in the typical geek interest levels, such as science and technology, but also gaming and book signings, while we prowl through Flickr and online for photos of niche things that catch our interest: ruins, wind farms, bookstores, and quite a lot more, along with blurbs and links to articles that fall under the same heading, as well as short pieces that I’ll put together.

The site’s not quite where I want it yet – I’d love to see a larger audience (it’s certainly growing though), and eventually, our own domain that we can maintain ourselves. We’ve got some ideas that we’ll implement as time goes on – I’d love to begin interviewing people in all walks of geek life, get some more original articles, new writers, and monetize the site on a local level, for local businesses, but some of that is pretty far down the line. Eventually, I’d love to get to the point where we can solicit and commission local science fiction and fantasy (and pay people to do it!), but I don’t know how to get there yet. Personally, I’d love to see an anthology of local speculative fiction, by local people – that would be beyond cool.

This year, I’m thankful…

Published November 25, 2010 Post Closed
Tags:

…to have a job.
…to have the means to support myself.
…to be able to put food on the table.
…to have the means to enjoy my time.
…for the books that I have read.
…for Blake Charlton, David Forbes, Paul Thompson, Paolo Bacigalupi, N.K. Jemisin, Karin Lowachee, Charles Yu, Neil Gaiman, Ian McDonald, Joe Hill, John Joseph Adams, Christie Yant, Aidian Moher, John Denardo, Brit Mandelo, Annalee Newitz, Charlie Jane Anders, and John Scalzi.
…for io9, SF Signal, Tor.com and Blastr.
…for The Walking Dead, Stargate Universe, Caprica, Castle, House and Fringe.
…for my family being close by.
…for the road cone that by brother left on top of my car as a prank.
…for the internet’s rage to correct things that are wrong.
…that I haven’t been attacked because of my race, religion or by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
…my car works.
…the City of Montpelier and its three bookshops that I regularly visit.
…the libraries in the area, and the librarians I’ve worked with.
…the stories that I’ve found of Norwich alumni in Belgium.
…for the sacrifices that they made.
…the students and people who I work with who actually take responsiblity for their lives.
…for my the strides that I’ve taken with my writing.
…for the gigs that I’ve gotten.
…for my education, and how it’s changed my outlook on the world.

…most of all, for Megan. I would give up everything above for her.

A Stranger’s Gift

Published November 6, 2010 Post 4 Comments
Tags: , , , ,

I have one particular addiction: books. There’s very little that I don’t like about them, from an orderly line of them occupying a shelf, the heft and weight, to their universal format that allows them to be accessed by everyone. (That sounds like a dig against eBooks, but it’s not). Inevitably, when I am drawn to a bookstore, I end up with a couple volumes that caught my eye under my arm as I leave the store.

This happen earlier today after a late lunch when Megan and I wandered back home. A local store, The Book Garden, is holding a sale for their used books, buy one, get another free. I’ve picked through the store pretty well, and I’m always happy to see that they’ve got a replenished collection every time that I go in. This particular trip, I found that they had a pair of Harry Potter novels, The Sorcerer’s Stone and The Deathly Hollows, neither of which I had, and both in hardcover. I’ve bee working to get all of the book for my own collection (in hardcover), and used bookstores usually have a couple of them, I picked up the pair, intending on adding them to my collection (with just a couple of others (Books 4 and 6) left to pick up after that before I had the entire set.

The books bagged, We walked home along Barre St, where we came across a trio of children playing on the sidewalk. The three of them were bundled up against the cold, but looked like they were having fun. They spread out across the sidewalk and a demanded a password to cross, giggling. Megan guessed Cat (or Kat, they said it began with K) and I guessed people for mine, and they allowed us to pass. One little girl said that she could read the sign on the side of the truck parked across the road, and read it for me.

Impulsively, I asked them if they liked to read. Her dark face lit up with a wide grin and nodded. I pulled one of the books out of my bag, The Sorcerer’s Stone and handed it to them, asking if they wanted it. They took it out of my hand and look even more excited, and ran inside. I overheard the brother tell his mother that a ‘nice man gave us Harry Potter!’ as we walked by their apartment’s door. I hope that the mother’s reaction wasn’t that her children had just been given a book by a stranger, and throw it away or forbid them to read it, but accept it in the spirit that it was given: impulsively, with the intention that they will read a fun children’s story, one that I greatly enjoyed as a youngster. Their excitement was tangible, and he way that their faces lit up gives me some hope that the book will be enjoyed (maybe in a couple of years, or hours).

Books, I think, should be given out more freely, and their use encouraged in the instances when that’s not possible. It’s certainly something that I’d like to do more, and I wonder if i should start picking up books that would appeal to children and find some way to distribute them to those in need. Reading is important, essential, and some of the stories that I’ve heard from family members and significant others about the abilities of children in the school systems, I’m worried about some of them. Hopefully, I’ve inspired a couple of kids that reading can be, well, magical, interesting, and exciting.

A Couple Random Things

Published October 18, 2010 Post , Geek Stuff Closed
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This past weekend was the Wizard World Boston comic convention, held at the Hynes Convention Center in downtown Boston, something that the New England Garrison has been planning for almost a year now. This has been quite the year for conventions for the group. We were at the Boston and Granite City Comic Cons earlier this year, then Celebration 5, and now this one, with SupermegaFest coming up.

Generally, I’m not a fan of conventions. I don’t like standing around, waiting for people to take pictures of me with them. I never really feel that it’s a good use of my time and so forth, but this one had a bunch of options to allow us to really interact with the general public: A Jabba the Hutt puppet that people could pose next to, and a shooting gallery, where we raised around $840 for Autism Speaks, a charity that the NEG works with closely.

The weekend was also Megan’s first time at a con, along with the added bonus of getting to see some of the people from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I’m not a huge fan, but she and some of her friends enjoyed it – We inducted James Marsters into the 501st as an honorary member.) Adam West and Burt Ward (Batman and Robin – at $60, they were too expensive to really talk to), Doug Jones’ Manager (Jones himself was talking to someone else when I was around) and Christopher Golden, who wrote the book Baltimore, or, the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, which I coincidentally picked up at the same con.

The opportunity to take part in the shooting gallery was definitely the highlight, because I could act out a bit and be really ridiculous with it. Kids, somewhat unsurprisingly, are really good shots with dart guns, and I was hit in the face and head a lot. Something about a Storm Trooper falling flat on his face seems to get people laughing, so that made it worth it. I’ve got a couple of pictures here.

I’ve been doing a bit more reading lately, and I’ve got a stack of really good books stacked up next to my bed. Paolo Bacigalupi’s Pump Six and Other Stories is the book that I’m carrying around at the moment, which is a fantastic collection from a fantastic author, while I’m also reading the aforementioned Baltimore, which is proving to be a really cool read (and with some awesome illustrations from Mike Mignola), Cherie Priest’s Dreadnought, which is proving to be fun (but not quite as much fun as her prior book Boneshaker, but better than Clementine), Masked, edited by Lou Anders, which is a fun, but somewhat dense anthology of superhero stories, and Nights of Villjamur, by Mark Charan Newton, which is proving to be a slow read, and unfortunately, not as good as I was led to believe. (It’s interesting thus far though). I’ve got a couple of other books on the horizon that I really want to read before the end of the year: Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House and China Mieville’s Kraken.

I’m thrilled at this pile of books, and some of the other ones that I’ve read already this year – The City and the City (China Mieville), Pattern Recognition (William Gibson), Stories (edited by Neil Gaiman), Spellbound (Blake Charleton), How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (Charles Yu), Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (N.K. Jemisin, and the River of Gods (Ian McDonald, just to name a few, because I’ve fallen into company in person and online that have pointed me to some fantastic books and I feel that I’ve learned and grown as a reader and writer because of them. There’s been some duds of reads this year, but overall? I’ve been pulled into fantastic world after fantastic world.

Still, reading is something that I enjoy, and I’ve been finding that I really don’t enjoy the entire book-blogger environment that I discovered. Too much drama, complaints about how SF/F isn’t perceived as a legitimate genre, sucking up to authors and so many reviews a week / month that I can’t believe that people can read and retain the contents of dozens of books a year. It’s not for me, and I’ve found that I’ve got little patience and interest in it. I’ll stick with my moderate pace and go from there.

John Scalzi posted up a fascinating essay earlier today, Today I Don’t Have To Think About…, which fully and utterly puts one into one’s place. After being amongst and listening to a number of coworkers, family members and friends complain about how things are going in their lives and the drama that ensues, this is a really good thing to read, because there are people who are a helluva lot worse off than me in the world. It’s hard to remember that sometimes, but it’s worth remembering. I’ve taken the essay and printed it out. One copy went onto my desk’s wall. I’m not sure where the other nine will end up, but they should be read.

Cidering Time

Published October 11, 2010 Post Closed
Tags: , , , ,


This past weekend, my parents, my brother and sister, along with their significant others, my Uncle Tom and Aunt Jan, myself and girlfriend and our dog gathered at home for what has a yearly tradition: cidering. It’s become a time when we all gather (if able – this was the first time that I’ve been able to make it in a couple of years) and spend the day working to press a large amount of homemade apple cider for the next year.

When my family moved to Moretown in the early 1990s, we build a house on the remains of an old farmstead; the ancient foundation has largely crumbled away to a hole in the ground, but other parts remain: the barbed wire embedded in the trees in the woods, the remains of the fields that makes up our front yard, and a half dozen apple trees that line the road.

For the first decade of our living there, we didn’t really pay attention to the trees: they were a curiosity, things that attracted the deer, and provided ammunition for my brother and I. (Armed with a long stick, you can hurl a fist sized apple several hundred feet in any direction) As my parents became satisfied with home improvements, and found that they had more time on their hands for new projects, my father stumbled on the idea of harvesting the apples for cider. Armed with some directions, we gathered that year’s crops and armed with a couple of knives and a tiny food processer, we spent a ridiculous amount of time grinding the apples, eventually destroying the mixer. My dad, ever the inventor, put together a frame, a slab of polished granite and a car jack, and created a rudimentary press.

Several years on, the process has become a bit more refined, and takes just an afternoon. This past weekend, people began to arrive early in the morning, where we harvested several bushels of apples in crates and buckets. By the time Megan and I arrived, the next step was largely underway. My sister in law, sister’s boyfriend and mother had set around a table with sharp knives and cut the apples into small pieces, loading them into buckets for the processing team.

Without trying to over think the entire weekend, I’ve come to appreciate the times that we come together for this, even if it’s just the immediate family and a couple of others. In the past, family units in the United States were busy groups of people, working on a number of projects collaboratively in order to gain a collective result. Reading over old accounts and stories, it seems that this was a given fact of life, but that seems to be a value that’s been lost in modern day society. To get a gallon of cider, all that we have to do here is drive to the grocery store and buy one. I’m not wholly convinced that the effort, time and money put into a gallon on demand is really worth the entire experience of seeing the family coming together and working for something that we’ll reap the benefits of over the entire year.

Since destroying a mixer, Dad has sought out ways to better mash up apples, and build a top for the cart: a board with a garbage disposal in it. My uncle took on the apples, dumping them onto the flat surface, and pushing them towards my dad, who forced a steady stream of apples and water through the hole and disposal unit. A bucket, lined with a cloth sack, captured the mash the came out the other end. When the bag was full, we stopped the processor and removed the surface.

My task became the compressor: this method hasn’t changed. The sack was then tied off, placed in a plastic bin to capture the juice, and covered with a polished granite slab, which was then pressed down by a car jack underneath a two by four. The pressure forced out the juice, and the tilt of the cart let it flow to the other end. After three rounds of compression, the jack and granite slab was removed, and we collected the newly-pressed apple cider into a large jug, where it’s then allowed to settle, and individual containers were filled by my brother and my aunt.

The entire process runs until we’re out of apples, and at the end of this weekend, we walked away with something like fifty or so gallons of the stuff, which has since been sealed and frozen. Afterwards, we collect back in the house, where we’ll talk over food and drinks, and generally relax after the day’s efforts.

Over the next year, we’ll endure my father asking if we want another couple of gallons, because he’ll want to turn off the freezer to conserve electricity over the winter. We’ll roll our eyes and take a couple of gallons home at a time, where we’ll share it with friends and enjoy it over the next year, until next autumn. In the time between that, we’ll pick away at the trees, pruning away branches periodically, while the red frame rests until it’s called back into service next year, when the family will gather once again and repeat the whole process. I for one, can’t wait for next year.

Interruptions

Published September 17, 2010 Post 1 Comment
Tags: ,
I saw the man’s body tumble across the roadway this morning when I drove to work. A dark blur, suddenly upright on the sidewalk before he was suddenly in the middle of the roadway, no more than a hundred meters ahead of me in the oncoming lane of traffic. Cars stopped, and somehow, the man was able to pull himself up and back on to the sidewalk, where the owner of a silver pickup truck had stopped, just above the sidewalk. As I drove by, I could see that he was white: I guess hitting a pedestrian with a truck would do that, but the victim was on his feet, and didn’t seem to be injured. Traffic resumed as I passed, a sudden interruption in a number of people’s days, but fortunately, not for one of those people.
As I waited, just moments later at the stoplight at the intersection of the street, I listened to the radio while trying not to think about what I could have seen. Soldiers from the Vermont National Guard had returned home: families gathered to meet them, and reunite. A wife of a soldier noted that in the audience, there were family members who had lost their loved ones in the conflict abroad, but they had shown up to greet the comrades of those lost. Longer interruptions in people’s lives as the demands of the country supersede those of the family, some more significantly than others.
I try not to think about how easily life can be interrupted, and I can’t help think about how satisfied I am with the way things have gone over the course of my life. I’ve yet to face any sort of issues like what I’ve seen and heard, today and beyond, and I am extremely thankful for that.
“When ships to sail the void between the stars have been invented, there will also be men who come forward to sail those ships.” -Johannes Kepler

Blog Stats

  • 90,028 hits

Twitter

Archives

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 872 other followers

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 872 other followers