Wine stirring failure

Some of you may know that during the wine making process there comes a time when an electric drill is the right tool. You put a metal rod with a pair of swivel arms into the drill, they go into the carboy and you stir the gas out of it. Doing it this way is kind of fun.

This drill is the first power tool I bought after we moved into this house, so I probably bought it some time in the mid to late 1980's, so it's probably 30 years old. It worked the last time I stirred wine, but not this time. At first I thought the extension cord just needed to be plugged in more firmly, then I thought I'd blown a breaker.

But no, I plugged the drill into an outlet I knew worked, and the drill didn't. I'm not about to try to figure out why. Buying another meant a detour through crappy construction traffic on the way to my photo gig. The new drill is lighter, more than twice as powerful (7amps vs 3), quieter, and has a keyless chuck. It probably won't last 30 years, but I'm not likely to need to replace it.

No, I'm not going to show you a photo of the new or old drill. If you're really dying to see that, you have to ask.

Just a photo of a pretty flower we found in Wellington.

We passed this building many times on the way up and down Mt Victoria, in Wellington. I'm not sure why the College of Surgeons saw fit to paint their building black. There was a similar building in Dunedin for the lawyers. That seemed appropriate.

Driftwood of the day