Day 8

    The melting has begun!  After eight days of preparations and hurdle jumping, we have finally started collecting the first drops of sweet, concentrated apple juice.  The weather was a chilly 2 degrees out last night and froze the Macintosh apples enough so that the part that didn’t freeze was sweet enough for fermentation (the Macintosh was at its expected high of 30 brix, but we will wait for the other varieties to rise to 35 brix of apple-y sweetness).  We were set back by a minor encounter of the forklift with the barn door—the door was almost ripped off the hinges while the forklift has almost no damage.  Made of steel (or aluminum??).  Eleanor called a repair service and they will come at some indeterminate time tomorrow morning, but no worries, the melting shall go on.  We might have to do a bit more manual labor, but strong backs build strong character.
    I guess that’s easy for me to say, given that I wasn’t in the barn at all today.  While Inaki, Eleanor, and Ben fought the cold in sixty-minute intervals, I was comfortably seated in front of the computer. I’m doing a profit-stream analysis for 2009 to see which channel, whether it be retailers, wholesale, distant events, or customers who place shipments, yields the highest profit.  I’m interested in finance and entering the corporate world, so this kind of data analysis was great job-training.  I already love the number crunching, although I’m starting to get sore because I’ve been glued to my seat all morning.    
    Between running numbers and errands, I didn’t have time to set up the Facebook account, but I promise it’ll be up soon.  It’s supposed to be another frigid night in the Green Mountain State, so I’m going to curl up to the rest of The Kite Runner in front of Eleanor’s lively fireplace.  Until tomorrow!