Welcome 2010!

Hello everyone it's been a while. One of my resolutions (ok, the only REAL resolution) is to stay current and post more on this blog. This sounds familiar because on every other blog I see a post like this one every now and then. So I'm not alone!!! :)
Wally says hi and is glad to be home from the pet resort. It was fun, but he missed us tremendously (I"m sure of it).
We were in Louisiana for the new year celebrations, visiting our friends who moved away from austin :( They are well, with a wonderful baby boy that we fondly call D3. We always have fun down there and we are lucky to have this tradition.
This weekend we will celebrate Ben's birthday...he's soooo old (chuckle).

It's the end of a decade people, let's hope the teens hold peace and prosperity for us all.

BEST WISHES!

stuff we heard on the greenbelt...

"it's an Aggie Airedale!...WHOOP!!!"



"look at the size of it..."
(inside joke for the three of us present)

"i think it's shallow enough here."




"take a good picture so i can paint it later"


and my favorite of the day....

"is that a show dog?"

365 + 1

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

today is one year and one day that Ben and I have been married. we made it!!! ;)
we have been so blessed and we look forward to the next 100 more years...

wine: phase II

well, it's a tad overdue but here is the second phase of the wine making process. we started with the grapes we crushed 7 days before (possibly too long...maybe 5 days of fermentation would have worked as the juice is pretty dry) regardless, there was plenty of juice coming out of the grapes!



we pour the grapes in batches into the wine press and turn the handle to press out every last drop of juicy goodness from the grapes.
in total, we got about 15 gallons of liquid from the pressings. we even re-pressed the grapes, which i highly reccommend as that yielded another gallon or so. we poured the liquid into the glass jugs through a sieve to strain out any bits that escaped.







wally helped with the whole thing, supervising from the patio :)

new generation of wine makers...

well kids, with the economy in the slumps still we have resorted to making our own hooch!!
just kidding!!
we are just partaking in one of ben's family traditions...making wine. we started with about 150 pounds of some beautiful cabernet grapes and went to work crushing them to bits to start the fermentation process.





sweeten the pot...





check out our flickr stream for more pics...we are letting the crushed grapes ferment for about 7 days, then the reall work begins with the wine press. stay tuned...for the next step in the wine process!!
peace out

raindrops keep falling on my head...

...Drip drip the trees for all the country round,
And richness rare distills from every bough;
The wind alone it is makes every sound,
Shaking down crystals on the leaves below...
-Henry David Thoreau

yay for the rain in TX!!

some wally...

just some pics of the Wally...enjoy!


a close up...


wally and his girlfriend Mia


oooohhh the sleepy baby!!!!