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Volume 2, Issue 9 |
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Sign
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The
HandCrafter |
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Check out our Website at: |
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Volume 2, Issue 9 |
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In this Month's Issue: |
Crafts - Birch Lamps | Recipe for Hard Cider | Inspiration for Writing a Novel | Monthly Food Recipe |
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Griswold Mountain Crafts Handcrafted Birch Lamps |
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here for more information and to order your Birch Lamp today! There are several different designs |
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Our Birch Lamps utilize real,
natural birch logs. Note that we DO NOT cut down trees for our lamps! We search the northern woods for unique downed logs that will make lamps with character. |
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Recipe for Hard Cider |
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| This is an autumn special around the homestead. The end of the summer apple harvest means Hard Cider brewing time, just enough time to have it ready for fall get-togethers. | ||||
Warm the cider to room
temperature. This may take
a few hours, so plan ahead. Dissolve the champagne yeast
in one cup of water. Stir
well. Set aside for five
minutes to bloom. In your fermenting bucket,
dissolve the sugar in about 2 quarts of warm water. Stir well. Pour
in the yeast mixture, and rinse the cup to get out every drop.
Begin adding in the cider and keep stirring to thoroughly mix
until all four gallons are incorporated.
Fill up to the five gallon mark with warm water if necessary. Seal the lid with a bubbler
and store at room temperature for 2 to 3 weeks. It is ok to store wherever you store your homebrews.
When you're ready to bottle,
create a sugar mixture of 1 cup of white sugar dissolved in1 cup boiling
water. Drop one tablespoon
of this mixture into each of 24 champagne bottles.
Bottle in champagne bottles
with good plastic corks and twist on wires tightly, as it will be highly
carbonated. Clean up the
bottles from any spills. Bottles are ready to condition
for another 2-3 weeks. Add
your own homemade labels and tightly crimp on foils for decorative
gifts. Remember, as with any yeast
product, there will be settlement at the bottom. When pouring, be sure to leave the bottom half inch.
It is drinkable (I actually like the dregs at the bottom of
homebrews), but some people don’t prefer to see or drink it.
1. Keep bottles cold, as warm temperatures can rapidly release
gas 2. Do not shake up the bottles.
If one gets shaken up, immediately put into your fridge for
several hours or even days to prevent explosion. 3. Never open indoors. Corks
at high velocity can break glass and dent drywall. And a gush of carbonated fruit beverages can make quite a
mess. 4. Never point a bottle at anyone.
Ejected corks can be dangerous.
We've even had corks fly out as soon as the wires were loosened. |
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Check out our website at http://www.griswoldmountain.com |
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Inspiration for Writing a Novel by Frank Holes, Jr. |
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| Writing my own novel has
been a rewarding and exciting experience. I was initially
intrigued and inspired by the song "The Legend" by Traverse
City DJ Steve Cook, which is played on the radio in northern
Michigan. Dogman, a creature of local folklore, haunts the north
woods every ten years, and has been witnessed by locals for several
decades. In fact, when DJ Steve Cook first released his song in
1987 as a 'spoof', the radio station was flooded with phone calls from
the good folks of Michigan who claimed to have really seen the
creature.
I was also inspired by Steven King's Cycle of the Werewolf, in which the story progresses in a month-by-month basis, each encounter leading up to the end of the year climax. It seemed a logical fashion to move my own story along through the year, since according to legend the Dogman would only be seen in 2007 before hiding for another decade. This gave the novel a firm starting and ending point, the length of one year. I first started out writing a short story, but it soon took on a life of its own as more and more of the Dogman's encounters rampaged across my computer screen. In many ways, the story wrote itself. Living out in the deep woods in a small town, I was able to pull stories from my own past wilderness experiences and blend these with the many unique characters around my own hometown. The owl swooping down the dirt road actually happened to myself and a group of friends when we were in high school. It was quite memorable. And the general layout of Twin Lakes, the village where the story takes place, is based on my own hometown. Even the inspiration hill and the ancient CCC camp do exist, and you could visit these if you wished, climbing down into the deep, dark foundations of the now-abandoned buildings. All in all, it was an excellent experience putting down the story into print. I would advise any authors-to-be to write from their experience. Start with what you know, what you have lived through. Blend in characters you know, and situations you have been a part of. And look for inspiration from many sources. Be sure to check out Steve's website for his song "The Legend" http://www.dogman-michigan.com |
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Part mystery, part science fiction, Year
of the Dogman is an imaginative, compelling, and adrenaline-pumping
adventure. Author Frank Holes, Jr. takes no prisoners in creating a
diabolical creature that leaves the forest to prey on the hapless hamlet
of |
Year of the
Dogman |
Autographed copies are available! Email us
at: Or order your copy on Amazon.com by clicking the link below.
See our website at: |
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Recipe of the Month: Beer Lime Grilled Chicken |
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Beer Lime Grilled Chicken Use your favorite pale ale in this recipe.
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| Check out our website at http://www.griswoldmountain.com | ||||||
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Email us at griswold@griswoldmountain.com |
