Staticfree Blog

Today marks the official *"OFFICIAL" rubber stamp* start of fall as it moves towards winter. At least in the eyes of Geekhaus, anyhow. As most members of Geekhaus are not religious (certainly not any Major World Religion™ anyhow) we celebrate the onset of the colder months with a few ceremonies: the cider crock and the placement of the weather-shielding.

Apple cider is best either hard and hot non-exclusive-or mulled and hot. As such, Geekhaus has determined the best way to ward off the cold is to keep a constant supply of hot, mulled apple cider. It's a wonderful thing to have and makes your house smell like fall.

Never-ending Hot, Mulled Cider

• 1 Crock Pot
• An empty tea bag or tea ball
• 2 Gallons of apple cider (cheap, store brand is just fine)
• Mulling spices: Cinnamon, Cloves, Orange Peel, Nutmeg, Anise Seed, Allspice, anything else that sounds tasty

Fill the crock pot with the cider and heat up for an hour or two on high. Add the spices to taste. Use the tea ball for any non-ground spices. I recommend lots of cinnamon, a decent amount of orange peel and nutmeg, and only a small amount of the remaining spices. Especially try not too add too many cloves - they can easily cause the entire pot to become too bitter.

Reduce the pot to low and leave it running while you're at home. The spices should seep into the cider over time and a good amount of the water will evaporate. All this will increase intensity of the cider's flavour making a very tasty, hearty beverage after a few days.

As for weather-shielding, Ryan and I have been putting up shrink film window insulation over all of Geekhaus' downstairs windows. Basicly, it's shrink-wrap for your windows. So far it's working fairly well, albeit it's a bit of a pain to get it sticking to our old, disintegrating window frames. This is the first year we've used it, so we don't know how effective it is yet. Hopefully it'll work as an insulator and not just stop the drafts.

Spiced-apple air, a warm house, good music, and a small computer occupying my lap - the only things missing from this perfect scene is a fiery hearth, my wonderful Carolyn, and a cozy blanket.