shoulder season

Shoulder season is tough for outside folks: we want to go skiing, but it's not ready yet; we can't (or don't want to) go MTBing or hiking because of the conditions of the trails.  On Sunday we finally got some stormy weather - it's been a dry fall and this was a much needed storm, snow-wise; unfortunately it didn't drop as much as we hoped and we're in another dry patch now - enough to keep us inside as about a foot of snow hit the mountains and rain hit the valley.

When that happens, we're rather at a loss for what to do and thus at a loss for something to post here.  What we did do was make a batch of homemade beef jerky using our new food dehydrator and start a new batch of homemade wine.  For the jerky, we used ground beef and a spice packet that came with the dehydrator; it turned out tasting like Slim Jims, so that can't be all bad.  We'll try sliced beef and a homemade spice rub/marinade next time (we've been collecting recipes).  For the wine, we started another Chilean Carmenere because the first bottles turned out so well ... after three years of aging.  If the same holds true, we should be enjoying this newest wine in about 2017.  (We may have to make some quicker-drinking white in the meantime.)  Even though it's a little chilly in the house, the yeast is still bubbling away happily in the primary fermenter as I type, a very good sign.