OK, we had to take a break from the frivolous part of travel to do some of the serious required work in this part of the country. With the family here, we drink around 30-45 bottles of wine a month and as I've said that could be expensive if you bought it in the government store. There's an option and that is to make it yourself.

You walk into the storefront and order 30 bottles of whatever variety and style you want and the clerk puts the juice in a plastic container. $139, or about 4.63 a bottle. You break open a packet of yeast making the transaction legal, pour it into the juice, and walk out the door.

30 days later, you come back with your own bottles and bottle your brew. The clerk brings out your fermented juice containers and you do the rest.

Here is my brother-in-law Rick putting the finishing touch on a new bottle of wine. First, at the immediate front, you wash out and disinfect the bottles you have brought into the place and hang them up to drain. Then they are filled with the device Rick is operating from the plastic containers, which also sucks off the foam. Then directly behind him the big silver thing corks them as you put each bottle in.

The rookie brewmaster hard at work filling the never ending bottles. I'm not smiling ... but I don't know why as you sample as you go and there are always leftovers.

Once they are corked, you heat shrink the little cap around the top of the bottle and label it if you want. This batch will be Bruce's Baywater Bilge for a lot of obvious reasons. The guy that runs this little shop is a really happy person ... can't figure it out!

The 60 bottles for this month's run took us about 35 minutes to fill, cork, seal, and load into the truck .... and we actually made it home to enjoy. Actually it goes into the basement to age a bit longer, but it is drinkable a short 30 days from the day you put the yeast into the grape juice ... really facinating process.