My February Vinegars

Gulf Wars came and went, but my 'vinegars' stayed at home. Lesson learned. Apparently months are needed to brew vinegars in winter.

Good news came this afternoon when I was in my big closet getting supplies and I saw mothers formed on at least 5 of the solutions. The thickest are on the peach (below), pie cherry and chocolate.

The maraschino cherry and pear each have a thin layer; the raspberry and honey appear to have none. The raspberry is in a regular neck mason jar and filled almost to the top so I have to wonder if it's getting enough air. I can't remember if I added any vodka to the honey mixture (another lesson learned - NOTES!), but I can't believe I didn't. I wonder if the anti-bacterial properties of the honey are at play......

Tomorrow I'll check the pH in the 3 with the thickest mother to see if they're ready to stabilize. Fingers crossed!

Cool Weather and Vinegar Brewing

We've been hit with an extended patch of unseasonably cold weather and with my side board being against the north wall of my house it just isn't staying warm enough for my vinegars to brew, even with me stirring them nightly in an effort to keep the oxygen levels high.  Tonight I've moved all the jars into my big hall closet close to the water heater hoping that it will keep the ambient air temperature warm enough to get the vinegar bacteria growing.

Making Vinegars to Use in Sekanjabin

A few weeks ago I started soaking fruits in vodka in order to make cordials so I can use them to make vinegar to use in making Sekanjabin.

A few days ago I strained the raspberries, pie cherries, peaches and pears out of the vodka. The vodka had sugar-laden water mixed into it to make cordials; I put the fruit into another jar, added sugar-ladened water, a couple teaspoons of vinegar containing mother, as well as a piece of mother I had in the side board. Today the maraschino cherries and the 80% chocolate have been taken out of the vodka, given the same treatment and into the side board they've gone with the others.

In an effort to speed up my other mixtures I've added some of their cordials to each of them. Good thing I didn't do it as I originally thought I should. I had used pure 80% alcohol vodka and, come to find out, the highest alcohol content you can have without slowing down fermentation is 10%.

After 2 years I ~finally~ finished a necklace project taught to me at BAM. (Come to find out I needed glasses with LOTS of magnification.)

The necklace is based on a Byzantine necklace, dated C.E. 500-700, found in Cyprus. To make I had to cut short pieces of wire, make a loop, wrap the end around the 'stem', thread on a bead/pearl, make another loop, etc. Making an end that has nothing hanging from it is a LOT easier than making them while trying to balance an additional loop in the mix.

Thank you, HL Avelyn Blakenye, for sharing your knowledge and talent with the rest of us!

The Making of My New Tent - The 'Front Door'

I've been kicking around ideas about how to close the 'door' of my tent ever since I decided to go with the wattle and daub design. A zipper makes a lot of noise and would definitely distract from the image of opening the door of a house. Tying and untying straps didn't feel right either.

Someone had suggested using magnets as closures, but after pricing earth magnets I decided that was too cost prohibitive, but the overall concept of using them stuck with me. Then the other day it finally hit me - velcro. While it will give a modern sound when being opened the act of opening the door will be fairly fluid, much like opening a regular door. Closing it will take a moment to line the flaps up properly, but I think will work well. For a safety factor at night I will be including ties on the interior flaps so I can tie my door shut at night.

The over all design is a flap on the outside of approx. 4.25" width (the opening side door jamb) with a 2.5" wide privacy flap behind it where the loop Velcro will reside. On the backside of the outside edge of the other side of the 'door' I'll sew on the hook part of the Velcro.

To open the door you will have to reach behind the 4.25" flap, grab the edge of the 'door' and give a pull. Easy peasy.

When closed the baffling will give excellent privacy and should give very good protection against wind getting in or opening the 'door'.

The Making of My New Tent - More Canvas

I ordered another 12' x 15' tarp ($35.79 + $16.82 S&H) and had to make another trip to the laundromat ($4.50 - washer; dried outside).

The Making of My New Tent - What Was 'Building a Regency Pavillion'

When I originally decided to build my tent I had designed a regency pavilion. (See drawings below.) But after gathering all my supplies and getting down to the actual cutting of canvas I just couldn't make the cut of the corner gores. Seriously.

I went home that night after A&S and started giving considerable thought to why I was having trouble with making that particular cut in the fabric. After several days of rolling it over in my mind I realized that the problem lay with the fact that my persona would not have traveled with a tent. Were they to go on a pilgrimage, etc. they would have stayed in inns.

With that thought in mind the changes that ensued came quickly and amazingly easily. The new design is now a wattle & daub house. After conferring with a former shire mate with amazing artistic talents I will be painting, using a 1:1 mixture of exterior latex paint:water, large timbers on the house. My artist friend will come in with a lighter color brown and paint in highlights. She will also be painting the roof to appear to be made of thatch.

This design feels absolutely perfect!