What happened?

Sorry for the lack of updates, did I mention that October was a busy month for me? Perhaps I can bang this out while waiting for the paint to dry on my daughter's Halloween costume. She's going as an ice cube and one of her friends is going as a penguin. I'll take pictures.
Today is the third or fourth day of rain here in central Texas. We caught the edge of Hurricane Patricia and consider ourselves lucky. We're still looking at the news feeds to see how bad the damage was. If the rains continue, things will be problematic. Mudslides, flash floods. The power has gone off a few times, but so far nothing more annoying then resetting all the clocks. As I said, lucky.

My daughter is going to experience a not so pleasant right of passage tomorrow. A friend of hers died in an automobile accident last week and the funeral services are tomorrow. We all feel the loss for the Wood family. Through tear stained eyes I've watched my daughter go through the stages of grief in private this week. As parents we can comfort and offer support, but it in no way diminishes the loss that occurred.
I'm supposed to be good with words and perhaps offer some consolation to those close to Katrina, but it seems that anything I say would fall short. Her star was snuffed out before she had a chance to shine. There was no malice, no ill-intent. Three people lost their lives last Saturday. Wrong place, wrong time. The only thought I return to was one written by Christopher Reeve in his book Still Me, "Accidents happen for no reason."
Knowing what I know as an adult, a parent, lives can be taken in an instant. It shouldn't have to happen to children, but sadly it does. When my mom dropped me off for school, she always ended our conversations with, 'I love you'. At the time I thought she was trying to reaffirm herself. After all, I was young, immortal and bulletproof. Why would I need to hear those words?
Time has a way of playing some pretty cruel jokes on us foolish mortals. Now I say the same three words to my kids as I drop them off for school. Buried deep in my subconscious fears, I hope those are not the last words I will speak to my children.  

I can't complain but sometimes I still do

This week was hectic, but not pull out your hair insane. We're gearing up for Christmas. The way this works is that I'm doing double workloads from now until about, oh say, Black Friday. Two appliance trucks, double the regular truckloads. Three or four pallets of paint normally get delivered? Try eight on for size.
One more reason to get on with my life.
I try and not think of the amount of merchandise, that line of thinking paralyzes. Instead I break it down into things I can handle.
Some Jehovah's witnesses paid me a visit while I was busy scanning things in. Honestly, don't they have some one else to bother? I'm trying to work here. It was pretty awkward and uncomfortable. Whenever they whipped out their Jesus tablets, I changed the subject. I walked them to the door and they gave me a CD of an ASL bible. Just what I need, a coaster for my coffee mug.
My understanding is Jehovah's witnesses MUST go out and spread the word. Here's an observation: If you are trying to brainwash convert people, you are really trying to convince yourself. I've heard the arguments and I'm convinced it's a cult, not an actual religion. Your status in the church is dependent on how much money you donate. All this talk about Levels in the 'church'... It's one big airplane scheme! Don't worry, I hold the same disdain for those batshit insane Scientologists. (Started by a sci-fi writer no less!) Google Squirrel Busters if you want to see some crazy.
If you get some deeper meaning out of it, fine. Keep it to yourself. Wave it in my face and we are going to have a problem. My moral compass is fine and I don't need any version of a book written two thousand years ago to tell me right from wrong.

As if I wasn't busy enough

October is the busiest time of the year if you are a band parent. Marching contests. Friday night football games. We are 0-5 so far. Not very promising. I'm considering suggesting the marching band and starting lineup change places. Anything would be better.
The wife and I went to Seguin, about thirty miles away from San Antonio. There we spent time at Texas Mead Works. Primarily we discussed starting a business of producing mead.
The informal tastings I've held, friends and neighbors whom I've shared with have been giving me great feedback. Believe it or not, I think I'm getting a following. People are asking me when the next batch is out and what am I making now. That's been a running battle because I want to please people and I want my mead to be the best it can be.
What I discovered was I need to let my product age more. Patience was never my thing. I thought I was being good by letting it age a year. Now a guy who makes mead the way I like to tells me to double that. Age it two years. On the plus side, he likes my Serrano pepper mead.
We crunched the numbers and I'm writing up a detailed business plan to create a stand alone meadery, not part of a winery or brewery. What's funny is that we may have to improve the house before sweet smells start coming out of the garage. The wiring would have to support the equipment and machinery needed. Looks like I'd gut the garage and rebuild it from the ground up. A water line with filtration system. Insulation for temperature control. Air conditioning at the very least. The meadery tour I took had a walk in refrigerator. Sounds like I would almost be better off finding a warehouse to rent. Well, I haven't discounted it. We're looking into business loans. The first one I ran into they said up front the interest rate would be 9%. That's more than my house. Thank you, No.
So let's assume I get a large stainless steel cooker and two-100 gallon fermenting vats into my garage. (There's also a bottling machine, filtration system and label maker, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.)
One thought I had was to get a large shed in the backyard for bottling and storage. I'd also run my test batches out there. Sorry to say, but this 'hobby' is taking over the house. Time for it to move out on it's own. If you drew a triangle from Austin to San Antonio and Houston, there are four meaderies in that area. A few more meaderies exist up near Dallas, but that's not too important to this story. Texas Mead Works grew out of Blue lotus winery. Run by Mike and Melissa Poole, they make mead the way I make it, except on a much larger scale. They're good people and I hope to get to know them better. They are an inspiration to me.
Then there are the other fine mead makers. Enchanted Manor is also a winery that makes the mead for the Texas Renaissance Festival. Rohan Meadery is a winery, apiary, and working farm. I'm itching to go out there one weekend.
Then there is Griffin Meadery out in Willis, Texas, just north of Houston.
I'm sensing a theme here. Several names of what to call ourselves have been bandied about. The one we are leaning towards is Centaur Meads or Centaur Meadery. 

The American Mead Makers Association first annual report states that in 2012 sale of mead was $48,624. In 2013 sales jumped to 112,000. That's a 130% increase!
The 2015 report states there are 236 wineries that make at least one mead. Stand alone meaderies number around 150. The reporting is a little spotty because there are around 42 meaderies in development. I'd like to imagine I'm in that number, but I doubt anyone knows we exist yet. Sales for 2014 increased by 42% which is still pretty impressive and they had a lot more data to work with.
There are finer points to work on. Legislative definitions of what we do and produce. Carbonated/non-carbonated, single digit alcohol levels vs. double digit ABV. 
Once you get the basics down, you can make mead taste like nearly anything. There is a trend among craft brewers to use hops in the cooking process. This makes the mead taste like an IPA. Add to the predilection of craft breweries kegging and carbonating their mead, well, it tastes like very expensive beer. If I want beer, I'll buy or make a beer.
Centaur Meadery will make mead that looks like wine, but tastes infinitely better and about the same ABV as wine.
In my business plan I referred to myself as the Willi Wonka of meads. That's not an empty boast. Sweet, spicy, tart or tangy and anything in between. I suppose I could do sour too, but I'm going to make what tastes good. My first professional batch will be a traditional mead so as not to scare folks off.