Friday, October 31, 2008


Ronald Stuart Gordon
1939 - 2008


Ron Gordon, 69, finally lay down to rest after a long, hard 30-year battle with heart disease. He fought and lost his final round at West Florida Hospital in Pensacola on Oct. 29, 2008.


Ron was born in Washington, D.C., July 15, 1939, to Irving and Adele Gordon. He and wife Yvonne moved to Northwest Florida in 1999 where Ron found true joy in his happy marriage, his wonderful dog Bingo and his John Deere tractor.


He is survived by his beloved wife Yvonne; four sons: Mark (Dory); Larry (Maria); Stephen (Barbara); and Michael (Haley); one stepson Scotty Correro (Jennifer); sister Terry Gordon; 10 grandchildren; two step grandchildren; and Bingo.




Thursday, October 23, 2008

Homesteading: Making Cherry Wine

The cherry wine is bottled!!! Yay!! It is so good now, I can't imagine what it will taste like when it has aged a bit. You are supposed to wait a year before tasting your homemade wine. I wonder if anyone has ever done that!




What a mess I made while bottling it. I wasn't paying attention while I was holding the siphon tube in one bottle. I turned around and voila! I had splattered wine all over the kitchen. Even after I cleaned it up, my house smelled like a winery. Actually, that is not a bad thing with this cherry wine.


Ron doesn't drink. At all. Ever. And I drink very little. People ask me why I make wine. First of all, I do enjoy a cordial of sweet wine in the evening occasionally. But most of all, it makes wonderful gifts. If you can find the half bottles, you are in luck. So far, I found only one. It is beautiful!


L@@K at my homemade cherry wine! Notice that I haven't put the goldleaf toppers on yet. I'll do that later.


In the middle ages, the smart "healers" used warm wine to clean wounds. I don't think they knew that if you warm it too much the alcohol cooks out. And I'm not sure they knew that the alcohol was an antiseptic and that the sugar promoted healing. But they had figured out that wounds treated with warm wine seemed to heal better. And they still do.


I read an article recently on the curative powers of honey. Fascinating! Of course, it has to be pure honey and not treated or heated. Raw honey. It amazes me that modern doctors are finding that many of the old remedies, herbs and treatments work! We are very fortunate to have modern medicine and old remedies working hand in hand to relieve suffering and cure illnesses.


I only wish they could make an artificial heart that would let my sweet husband live another 30 years or so.


More later....