and on the topic of winemaking:
the pear wine has had some time to age, there is a somewhat powdery mouthfeel which definitely is the result from harvesting the pears before they had fully ripened (had no other choice since i was going on vacation after that) and its still a bit sour, but its getting noticeably better every week
ive been experimenting with putting some wood chips in, so far the wood toasted to give a sweet flavor is faring much better than the wood toasted for vanilla flavor, but i have to be careful not to add too much wood since it can easily overpower the flavor of the wine and throw it off balance

this is how i live