Northern Flicker

One of the coolest birds and by far one of my favorites (next to hummingbirds, yellow finches, and birds of prey- hawks, eagles, and falcons) is the Northern Flicker. I see and hear these birds all around my house, however they are very skittish and take off in a moments notice. They are very colorful and normally take no parts of bird feeders. I noticed a few years ago that they would occasionally hit the soft suit vs. the hard suit cakes we put out for the woodpeckers, and luckily today I was able to snap a few photos of the flicker fattening up for winter! If you don't put out bird food, I suggest it is time you did to see birds up close like this one!

Time To Wine

After a long travel day (from Ireland) and a good nights rest, our grapes came in from California and we had to crush and de-stem them.  We are making two kinds of wine this year with the anticipation of reserving one of them.   To “reserve” one just means that we are going to let it sit in a barrel for an additional year, allowing it to “barrel age”.  The two types of wine we are making are Brunello and Cabernet Sauvignon.  Here is a video of the beginning, we took close to 1,000 pounds of grapes and sent them through the crusher and de-stemmer machine.  Here you see us mixing the grapes up to even it out and add some chemicals to the must.  Then after a week to ten days as fermentation slows down, we have to press the grapes (click here for a vid. pre-press) and get as much of the juice out as we can.  In this video you see Mr. Cocker and I moving the grapes to the press by the use of the high tech bucket! And this video shows the wine getting squeezed and transferred to the stainless steel holding tank.  Now the wine will sit in the steel tank for 48hrs before they move it to an oak barrel.  The idea of waiting is to allow some of the solids to fall out of the solution and in the tank and not in the oak barrel. (solids just means dead yeast cells and anything else that was dissolved in the juice).  Lastly the cool thing with the grape press is that in the beginning when the wine is sort of free flowing out the wine is still a bit sweet, but as water pressure is added to the press the last bits of wine that come out are much more dry and tannic, tasting like a very good but young wine.

Ireland Update

I am not sure where to start, after sorting through some 14 + gigs of photos my eyes are a little gooey. Some of what I am adding may be a duplicate but it is easier for me to start from the beginning. Going back in time, here are a few of us at the airport bar.

Our flight was actually quite nice considering it was a red eye. We left JFK around 9:40pm and arrived in Dublin ready to catch a bus and some breakfast. In our travels we stopped at a round tower at Monasterboice (click here for a video). Of course what struck me was the amount crows and their respective loudness, (or ravens) Our next stop was to see the Proleek Dolmen and legend has it if you could balance a rock on top of the dolmen you would be granted good luck. Here is me succeeding.

Giant’s Causeway, I already posted a bit about the causeway, but here are a couple more pictures and click here for some video. click for video and the steep steps.

I forget the name but here is a picture of a rope bridge that was supposed to be closed for the season, but if you look closely enough you will see someone walking across it.

Here is a random picture of the country side

and here is a picture of Ossian's grave and a video.

What isn’t included in the video and the picture is the 3/4 to 1 miles hike we had to take to get up there. This site was not marked from the small rural road at the bottom and our driver had to drive about 3 miles out of the way just to turn around.

Next stop Carrickfergus Castle. I think this was built around 1100 and inside the castle was a fresh water spring, so when invaded they could hold up inside and still get fresh water. Here is me going down the stairs.

While in Belfast we took a ride out to the shipyard and got to see where they made the Titanic! this is the dry dock.

Click here to see Maryann singing Patsy Clines Crazy.

Here are some random shots of us

Don trying his first Guinness, do you think he likes it?

and an old man that was trying to pick Lori and I up!

Scary old dude, when he got to the pub he ordered 6 vodka and cokes and drank all but two of them. Leaving the last two for us if we wanted.

he even bought us shots (these had whiskey on top of baileys) Not exactly the easiest to stomach. We didn’t want them because who knew what else he had done to them?

Next we hit The Ceide Fields. Unfortunately the weather was terrible and the tour was cut short. Under the bogland of these fields lies the most extensive stone age monument in the world dating from 5 to 6 thousands years ago. Here is a video Lori took down by the water.

Here we got to see a very old two headed grave stones

Here is a link to more information.

In the town of knock in 1879 there was a apparition and now today people come from all around the world to visit the site and get some holy water. Me on the other hand was searching for a pub and guess what we found Nothing, No pubs were open not even the town hotel? Very strange but that just shows you the bad times that all of Ireland is going though, our bus driver told us that they are losing a pub a day to closure.

At belleek pottery there was a little joke that Don had purchased a 23 thousand dollar statue (for his rock garden) (notice the hoppeapparition in the glass)

Donegal Tweed, here was a place that they still make tweed using the oldest looking machine (click for video) Once you get there they give you some Irish coffee to loosen up your purse strings. worked for my wife .

Tobernalt holy well. Out in the middle of nowhere this natural spring flows. Back in the day and even some people today believe in the healing powers of the water.

Almost done! I am sure I have missed a lot but my eyes are done just like Lori was in this picture

.

Here are a few more random shots

In the tables are the taps!

Don joining a band.

Help moving a sign.

last night: Cabra Castle. Here was a cool castle that we got to stay in. We also got to crash a wedding they were holding. Dinner at the castle

Now the funniest part of the castle revolves around the supposed hauntings there. Notice the chandelier above Don . When you walked on the floor above the chandelier vibrated and clanked together. I had already gone upstairs leaving Don, Michelle, and Lori. Once I crossed the floor the chandelier made noise and to be funny Don started speaking to the lights! He’d say two different names and depending on which one I’d shake the lights violently or softly. Well this attracted some other guests of the castle who really thought some mystifying haunting was actually happening, to the point where the other guest started cautiously saying the two names! Too damn funny (oxygen stat)

All in all we had a great trip, with a great group of people

THE END.

We are home

We have been home for a few days unwinding and getting back into the grove. I have over 14 gigabytes of pictures and videos to sort through and I will be updating as time permits. We had a great time with our group and above is a picture of us all on our last night in Cabra Castle. Oh and here is a picture of the castle's mascot Oscar

Murals

Just some of the murals we came across in Belfast. Some of our group took the "black cab" tour of Belfast, unfortunately Lori and I were not one of them. In the tour they were driven into the heart of Ireland's conflicted areas, areas that have very large fences separating the two sides. Also, there are gates that can be locked down that allow no passage. We saw the gates and the murals above, but did not get to see the more off beat areas of the conflict.

Waterfall, grave, and halloween

It's been awhile and we have been to many places and I am afraid that I will not be following the time line, however, here is a couple of pictures of some of the things we saw.

The waterfall was not exactly an easy walk. The path was 3km long and for the most part uphill! What they should have done was provide either a golf cart to take people up and down, oxygen, or at least a pint of Guiness.

Here is Maryann sitting on the grave of Finn McCool's son. This also was a bit of a hike up through a side of a mountain. It was an adventure but totally worth it!


Lastly, here is Don with his new pal, he has made many new friendships here with the locals!



Gotta run, more to come, today is a shopping day