A lot of the information regarding when to pick, at least in the US, is informed by where most hops are grown: in desert conditions. I live in a humid area and have grown hops as a hobby for a few years and found that if I’m waiting for the target dryness, I can miss the picking window. Sometimes the hops never reach “ideal dryness.” I go more by scent, lupulin color, and feel than by dry matter percentage.

It’s probably too late for most people now, but I just had the thought the other day and wanted to share with anyone who might also live in a humid area who might be having a hard time deciding when to pick. Your hops may not look like someone else’s hops when ready. If you don’t have experience with your hops, you can try picking in stages and see what flavors and aromas develop over a week or two.

My parents had a bottle of Lytton Springs ‘23 and despite me telling them to hold it or at least let it breathe, they said “nah” decided to just go right in. I took a taste and to my surprise it did not seem very tight, tannic, or harsh. It was super fruit forward.

I was told that Ridge was always really tight and tannic, and needed a number of years to age or hours to open up. The way this one Napa guy I know described it, it sounded like it might be near undrinkable if opened young and not given air.

Anyone able to weigh in on their experiences? Is it this site or vintage? Is the aging suggestion for Ridge a bit exaggerated?

Update: As per many of the commenters, it seems Ridge’s Cabs are usually tight and need some time, but their Zins are quite approachable early on.

Pretty much what the title asks.

I know hyperoxidation is often used in Riesling production to ease tannins and increase ageability by dropping out easily oxidized compounds. Does this process also increase the petrol note in Riesling? Are there other wine making approaches that increase this? Any vineyard work or terroir that does?

I haven’t seen very clear info regarding this, so any input is appreciated. I love this quality in Riesling.

Does anyone have any experience with the wines from Caubleist? I saw some aged Riesling, specifically, that I was interested in and I was wondering if these would be a good buy or potentially just old inventory someone’s trying to get rid of.

I assume that anything he’s willing to stamp his name on has got to be fairly good, but I figured I’d see if anyone has any experience.

I'm trying to figure out the best plan of attack to minimize weed pressure in my garden.

I have a 1,000 sq ft community garden plot that had gone untamed for some number of seasons before I got it. I cleared all the weeds and planned a micro vineyard which would have a mixture of grass, clover, and low growing native plants as ground cover. I tried burying cardboard at some key areas to grow the ground cover on, and while it does seem to have helped with preventing things from growing from underneath, once enough shade was provided by the grass and clover all sorts of weeds began to sprout up, I assume from seed. Unfortunately, many of these weeds grow fast and tall, so they have to go.

My current plan of attack is to let everything grow, but to cut it back before it goes to seed. My hope is this will reduce the number of seeds in the plot, and that I can rototill and seed in more grass during the fall to choke out weeds next season. Does this sound at all reasonable or effective? Does anyone have any other advice or suggestions?

(Some of the weeds I'm dealing with are mint, stinging nettle, evening primrose, virginia creeper, and nutsedge, among many others.)

I'm trying to figure out the best plan of attack to minimize weed pressure in my garden.

I have a 1,000 sq ft community garden plot that had gone untamed for some number of seasons before I got it. I cleared all the weeds and planned a micro vineyard which would have a mixture of grass, clover, and low growing plants as ground cover. I tried burying cardboard at some key areas to grow the ground cover on, and while it does seem to have helped with preventing things from growing from underneath, once enough shade was provided by the grass and clover all sorts of weeds began to sprout up, I assume from seed. Unfortunately, many of these weeds grow fast and tall, so they have to go.

My current plan of attack is to let everything grow, but to cut it back before it goes to seed. My hope is this will reduce the number of seeds in the plot, and that I can rototill and seed in more grass during the fall to choke out weeds next season. Does this sound at all reasonable or effective? Does anyone have any other advice or suggestions?

(Some of the weeds I'm dealing with are mint, stinging nettle, evening primrose, virginia creeper, and nutsedge, among many others.)

I’m running a bunch of 15’ long VSP trellises in a mini vineyard I’m setting up. What’s the minimum post thickness I can get away with? I saw some 4x4 posts available by me for cheap, but I’m not sure if they’re strong enough. I can use ground anchors too if need be.

Additionally, I was wondering how deep people dig their holes for 6 foot tall trellising. I was planning on 2 feet down as that works out well for 8 foot posts, but I fear that’s too shallow. 

On many Rieslings I get this note on the nose of dish detergent. Specifically it smells like the glass may not have been rinsed well, not like you’re actively washing dishes. When I first noticed it I thought it might just be poorly rinsed glassware, but after consistently tasting it in many Rieslings, and in glasses that I’ve cleaned, I’m confident that that’s not it. I get this note in the crisper styles.

Is this “minerality”? Is this the petrol note people refer to? “Steely”? Does anyone else perceive what I’m describing in Riesling?

Many bars and restaurants should give more attention to their acoustics. Some places are a cacophony of voices as everyone raises their own voice to be heard, while others blast music to mask this. I’m aware there are studies showing people drink more when there’s loud music, or an argument that it provides privacy, but some places are too loud, imho. I’ve avoided or left places that I’m unable to hear or be heard. I know the studies may show loud music boosts sales of the people that are there, but I’m not sure they tracked the people who avoided the situation entirely. There’s not much of a point in going out if you’re unable to talk with others. 

Establishments with good acoustics are able to straddle the line where people don’t need to get in a shouting match to be heard, while allowing enough music and acoustic treatment to provide privacy. Even if it’s a lively bar with loud music, good acoustics makes everything better. Some places are lucky with their layout that it ends up working out, but many really need to put some effort into this. For venues that groups of people gather together in, installing acoustic treatment should be seen as essential as painting the walls. 

Acoustics is something that often gets overlooked, but I think a little bit goes a long way here and can greatly improve customer’s experience. 

I’m mid-30’s male with neck pain and stability issues. I have also been diagnosed with hEDS (hypermobility). 

Trying to get advice from those with experience on possible procedures to look into when researching doctors. I currently have every disc in my neck either bulging (C3-C4-C5) or herniated (C2-C3, C5-C6-C7) and the spinal canal is being touched when in extension and flexion. This started with an injury years ago with damage seen at C5-C6-C7. 

I’ve seen a few doctors so far, each with a different conclusion:

• First doctor (Ortho): said the disc didn’t look bad enough to cause pain. I tried cortisone injections after this, which did nothing. 
• Second Doctor (Ortho): initially recommended a foraminotomy, then he changed his opinion to a disc replacement surgery after additional testing (fluoroscopy guided lidocaine). Believes the vertebrae are pinching the nerves when I move my head back.
• Third Doctor (Neuro): recommended no surgery because it didn’t look bad and I can still do every day tasks, recommended more PT. Didn’t believe the vertebrae pinched on nerves to cause more pain.
• Fourth Doctor (Phsyiatrist): Gave me a month long anti-inflammatory regiment, and believed the pain was due to inflammation and bones rubbing against each other. Honestly, this helped a bit, but doesn’t fix any stability. I take an anti-inflammatory here or there when things get more irritated.

 

I don’t necessarily want surgery, but I don’t want to remain unable to do what I currently can’t. I also weigh the reality surgery outcomes now vs when I’m older. As I mentioned, I’m looking for procedures to keep in mind when searching for doctors. I won’t do spine fusion. I’m open to disc replacement and whatever other minimally invasive surgeries are there, as well as other procedures (stem cells?). 

Any recommendations or personal experiences are appreciated. Additionally, I’m looking into HSS for my next opinion, so if anyone has any recommendations in regards to that it’s appreciated. 

I had a bill for bloodwork go to collections. I had believed insurance was responsible for some routine bloodwork, had it reevaluated, thought it had been resolved or forgot about it, ultimately leading to it going to collections. I disputed the collection and had insurance reevaluate it again. At this point collections put it on hold and I thought it was likely resolved after not hearing about it for 3 months. I wish I had recorded the call because I remember the debt collector implying that everything was settled, rather than it was simply put on hold.

When I was scheduling bloodwork for this year's physical I noticed there was still the outstanding bill on my record. I called collections to inquire about it, they had to reach out to either insurance or the blood lab, and a few days later took the collection off hold. Now I'm told by the collections agency that if I pay them it will bring down my credit score for the next 7 years.

At this point, I'm happy to pay the bill and forget about this, but I don't want this to affect my credit score. The bill is just over $110. I see things that suggest that medical debts under $500 will not affect your credit score. Can anyone verify if this is true? Also, the debt collector was suggesting that I put the bill in legal dispute and I just need to pay $1 to do so and that I couldn't use certain types of credit cards to do so (mastercard, discover, ets). That seemed sketchy and weird. Do I need to get an attorney? I just want to avoid the credit score hit. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I apologize if these questions seem dumb. I read a bunch of articles and watched videos and I’m still confused on a few things I want to clarify. Hopefully this helps others too. Thanks for any help.

• My understanding is that in spur pruning, you keep last year’s growth (canes) and prune it to 2 spurs. What prevents the spur position from growing super high? I know they get taller, but I don’t see any that are 6 feet tall on older vines. Even choosing the lowest spurs, they’re spaced out a few inches away.  Over years that would work out to several feet. Help me understand what I’m getting wrong?
• The head/graft union of my vine is a couple inches out of the ground. To reach the bottom wire I need to direct my canes/future cordons up, then over. Do I just trim the growth coming off the vertical part? Will growth continue coming from here each year?
• If I wanted to go from spur pruning to cane pruning, do I cut everything back to the graft union and hope some spurs will emerge from the union, or would that just kill the vine entirely? In the case of a spur to cane pruning conversion, this growth should just be leaves without any grape clusters, resulting in a year of missed fruit, right? 
• The new vines I planted this year mostly have grape clusters coming from what appears to be older than 1 year growth. Is it actually coming from 1 year growth which just happens to look like older growth because it’s so close to the graft union? 
• Are bull canes really something to be avoided? I have a hard time balancing that with choosing the strongest canes. I have some that are between 1/2-1 inch in diameter. They seem like 2 year growth, which would make their diameter fine, but also have new growth that has flower clusters growing, indicating that it’s not 2 year growth. What I read and observe just seem to be opposite things. 
• Does this balance on the vine sound right? ~3 ft cordons, 4-6 inches between shoots, 2-3 clusters per shoot, 20-40 clusters per vine.

Who wants to share what they think is the best LI wine? I’m talking about the quality of the wine itself, not the venue. You can choose a specific bottle, a specific winery, a different place for different styles (red, white, sparkling, etc). I’m a little bit of a wine nerd and I’m looking for some new wines to try and just see what people think.

I’ll update my post with my favorites after a few comments roll in.

Some of my favorites:

• Bedell: [Cab Franc, Malbec, Albariño, Verdejo]
• Suhru/Lieb: [Teroldego, LaCrescent (a hybrid), Syrah/Shiraz]
• Borghese: oldest vines, decent reds and rose with many offerings
• Raphael: [Malbec is solid for $13 a bottle]
• Chronicle: [I forgot which label, but they had a Merlot/Cab Franc blend that was awesome. The sur lie Sauvignon Blanc was solid too.]

Passing a little judgment on any votes for Pindar, Osprey, and Duckwalk 😝

I have a 2021 Seltos that I brought in under the recall. The dealer installed the software, but didn’t change the engine. Now, a few months later, my car has nearly no oil and I don’t see any oil marks on the ground where I park. I checked the oil after my car started making a brief kind of clicking, hollow engine sound during throttle on occasion. Is this something I should go directly to the dealer for, or should I bring it to my local mechanic first? I would hope they inspect it for free, but I’m unsure if that’s the case.

Some background info:

• I’m the first owner
• 63k miles
• regular full synthetic oil changes. I believe it’s about 7k miles between those changes. I should have evidence of some but possibly not all oil changes.
• last oil change was about 6k miles ago
• car should still be under the 10 year 100k mile warranty
• piston ring was checked 6 months to a year ago