Once more into the breach...

Last year's attempt at making apple cider didn't turn out well, and I didn't devote enough attention as to why it didn't turn out well before I disposed of the mix of juice, sugar, and yeast after it sat in a glass carboy for way too long with no result.

Just two nights ago, I went through the steps again, making sure that (a) a significant amount of the juice I'm using was not pasteurized (i.e., I juiced about 2 kilos myself), (b) I added enough sugar to the juice, and (c) the yeast was actually alive (i.e., I proofed it).

The carboy is currently sitting on a dresser in a spare bedroom, the trap in the spout is bubbling away merrily, and if you look at the surface of the liquid in the carboy at just the right angle, it's actually shimmering as tiny bubbles rise to the surface and burst.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

* * *Between this, that, and the other thing, by the time 5 pm rolled around today, my progress with the Current Big Job™ was as poor as it was yesterday. However, I somehow managed to get a fire lit under my butt—perhaps the prospect of a tortured weekend chained to a keyboard provided the necessary motivation, I don't know—and as of a little while ago, I'm down below 3,500 words left in the project.

That said, I finally got some responses to some emails I had sent to my editor, and they may cause me to spend significant time "fixing" stuff because of the scope of the document.

Oh, well. I really, really need to stop complaining. A few weeks ago, I was crazy with wondering if I'd ever get any jobs of significant size again.

Cheers...