Making Apple Butter

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This past weekend, my family got together with some friends (and a ton of planning on the part of my Dad) and held our 2nd annual Apple Butter cooking day.

This year's stats:

  • 17 bushels of Stayman Apples
  • 75 lbs of sugar (25 lbs less than last year)
  • 1 dram of clove oil
  • 1.1 fl oz of cinnamon oil
  • 1.1 oz of powdered nutmeg

The copper kettle in the photos is a 50 gallon kettle. We started peeling apples on Friday at 10:00 AM and were finished by 3:00 PM. We started the fire under the kettle around 5:30 AM Saturday morning, adding the first bushels of apples + some apple vinegar. The apples were then ground through the antique grinder you see in the photos and added to the kettle. By 9:00 AM we had all of the apples grinded and added to the pot. Around 3:00 PM in the afternoon we removed the fire from the kettle and began canning. Total 2013 yield: 143 quarts of Apple Butter or 35.75 gallons.

Housman Puppy 2.0

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You can thank Marco for that title. I finally relented and gave up my fight with Steff to get a second dog. Given that Bertie is very attached to a Cavalier that lives next door who he plays a lot with, and where we're moving to has hardly any neighboring dogs, Steff has wanted to get a 2nd puppy for some time now.

I figured that a second dog for Bertie to get used to and to play with would be good for him (and the new puppy). Steffanie found a breeder not far from the new house, so we drove down to Literally In The Middle of Nowhere, VA today to meet her and the puppy.

Here are the pictures:

Midtown

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Drew Geraci has produced yet another excellent time-lapse video, this time of midtown New York City. Drew is a well known time-lapse videographer that I'm a big fan of. You've probably seen his work before and not even realized it, especially if you watch the Netflix original show, House of Cards, which he did the intro credit sequence for. Drew has also previously been featured on my site for his Washington DC time-lapse and the time-lapse he did for the Washington Times of President Obama's second inauguration.

www.District7Media.net @TheVoder @District7M Midtown New York City is the place to be. The lights, cars, traffic, architecture and people make the city come to life as a living, breathing, organism that never sleeps. Take a trip with this time-lapse production into the city and see the sights and sounds that create this magnificent destination. For us, this time-lapse production was produced using more than 50,000 still frames, shot over the course of 6 months traveling back and forth from Washington DC to New York City while we shot for clients. Our main goal was to capture the central part of the city in both visuals and audio. The sound effects used in this production were taken from the various locations we shot and were added in to give you the feeling of actually being there. There were multiple times during this shoot that we were chased off, either by cops or the cold. The subway shots were particularly difficult to get, especially in the wake of the Boston bombings. We were led out and in some cases followed by police officers or MTA officials who seemed intent on getting us for using tripods. The music is performed by the talented Danny McCarthy (Fracture) (Music has been licensed through Killertracks.com) ***MIDTOWN Water UFO*** We captured something we can't explain. If you know what these lights are, let us know! https://vimeo.com/72343954 ***Licensing note*** The majority of this footage is own exclusively by 3rd party clients and we can not license out certain shots. If you're interested in licensing non-exclusive material please contact Andrew at ageraci@district7media.net or call us at 513-259-9231 Follow us here; www.District7media.net www.facebook.com/District7Media Our gear consisted of the following; (4) Canon 5D Mark III's (2) Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 II Canon 24-105mm f/4 Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 II (2) Dynamic Perception Stage Zero's with upgrade stepping motors www.dynamicperception.com Emotimo TB3 - Orange and Black www.emotimo.com/ This production would not be possible without the help, assistance, guidance and inspiration of some of the most talented people out there; Arthur Breese, Jimmy Shea, Gregg Lehrman, Jay Burlage, CA Time-lapse Crew (Joe Capra, Colin Rich, Andrew Walker, Matt Givot, Chris Pritchard, Michael Shainblum, Eric Hinds, Ben Canales, Sheldon Neil) Richard Bently, Patryk Kizny and the rest of the time-lapse community. MIDTOWN - Cinematography, production and motion graphics by Andrew "Drew" Geraci ©2013 District 7 Media All Rights Reserved. No images, video or parts of this production may be used without authorization. This production is for portfolio use only.

So This Is Happening

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Future location of the Housman household.

This photo was taken a few weeks ago, a couple of days after we signed papers.

As to what it will look like? Neither of the following two photos are of our house, or our exact house's future look OR the colors we picked, but it should give you a general idea. The first photo shows the garage configuration, with the doors facing the road. The problems with this photo is that is lacks the rock base around the home and porch, and the garage has a side extension, which we aren't getting. This second photo gives you an example of the rock base around the home & porch, but keep in mind it has the dormers on the roof and the garage is facing the wrong way - both of which we aren't getting.