iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kinda torn now between wanting rain for the trees and wanting sun for the panels 😜

Yes, I know. We did not have an old meter so it did not run backwards. All official now, only a week after it was running.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 6h

Not bad! As we have a heat pump, I was hoping the battery would keep that going overnight, but last night we dipped into the grid for the first time. Wasn’t much sun yesterday! My hope is that we are net producers over the course of the year, which I think we will be.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 8h

To be fair, we had a lot of sun the past week! Yesterday was the first cloudy day, so we had to draw from the grid. But yeah, 25kWp on the roof, it has potential! Went the max allowed within tax rules.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 8h

Well done, Aidan! It’s a nice feeling, eh? I had to buy new jeans and work trousers as I dropped a size a few months ago, but now need to buy more as I’ve dropped another size it seems 🤦‍♂️

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 9h

Oh, I lied. 585 produced in one week, 435 of that into the grid.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 9h

Very punctual! Very ungerman 😜 Man here to swap out the meter so we can start getting paid for the power we pump into the grid. So far 585kW we’ve given them, probably for free.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I pressed 307 litres today, will be losses to racking, then into 750ml Sekt bottles around summer next year.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

It can vary a lot depending on the variety and condition of the fruit, and definitely on the type of press. My hydro will do between 50 and 65% yield, so 130 to 170L for 260kg.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Could it be adjusted, like a malt mill can?

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Apart from a light breakfast, all I ate today was Zwiebelkuchen, went very well with some cider (though after all that pressing I kinda wanted a beer 😜). Early to bed, back needs a rest.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Exhausted. I have very good neighbours, who then helped with sorting and the brewer among them cleaned everything while I did final cellar work. Sugars higher. Need to compare with previous vintages, but high.

A bottle of cider and a pack of cigarettes in the dark.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Working solo today. Have 600kg of fruit to process. Jazzed up on caffeine and nicotine. Music in the ears head down. Schweizer Wasserbirne first.

A mill, press and wash station set up earlier this morning.

Schweizer Wasserbirne pears on a sorting table.

Washed, sorted, ready to mill and press. About 260kg

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

None of us take a wage from it. But we can offset it against tax. Just happens that I do 80% of the maintenance work as I work from home, and if I see something needs done I do it.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

As I can’t sleep again, mail sent to find out if there are financial consequences to me exiting the mobile bar business I’ve been in with friends over the past 5 years. I seem to do the lions share of the maintenance work, & I do all the accounts. Unpaid. It’s social work. I need to do less stuff.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

A fairly chilled evening for me after a nice chat with @deliciouslegacy.bsky.social. Tomorrow I’ve taken a day off the paid job to catch up on pressing, three perries and an apple-perry pear blend that I hope will work.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Late walk for me and Anu as my wife is out harvesting pears. She’s a glutton for punishment. Anu and I swung by the Helden tree that I cleared on Saturday. Fresh falls on the olive nets, hope they keep for a while for a big pressing in 3 weeks.

A blurry border collie rolls on her back on the grass beside olive nets laid under a large perry. The nets are covered in small round green pears.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Did three more trees, keep rate was terrible. Been a bad year for fruit quality. But have enough for what I want to do with this variety.

A woman and a strange black dog under a pear tree.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

We did a Schweizer Wasserbirne just now, with some help so we have more than enough for a pressing in short time. We’ll do another couple trees so plenty for an experryment I need to do.

The ground under a tree covered with a carpet of small pears.

And the ground clear a couple of hours later

A bottle of beer, and the feet of 3 helpers in the background

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

No, this is not how pears reproduce.

A small brown pear with its stalk sticking into another. I found them this way and feel like I was disturbing them

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The closer one gets to the trunk, the more damaged the pears are from hitting branches on the way down. 16m tall this tree.

The thick trunk of this Karcherbirne tree

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I’m on my own today as my wife is down with a migraine. To give you an idea of what a laborious process harvesting these pears is, 2 hours in I have about 40kg. The keep rate on the first pass is low. I need at least 120kg for one pressing. I would ideally like minimum 240kg. One year we had 500kg.

A bucket and fruit crate under a pear tree, with lots of pears on the ground.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Ready to start harvesting these beauties

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Bei deiner nächsten Bestellung lege ich dir einen Kertelreiter-Aufkleber bei 😜

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I should say that my undercurrent of displeasure had dissipated during the meeting. They have more plans and with new partners in the network, we already now a local organic bakery (they are very good) wanting to do a tasting event and stock our cider and perry ☺️

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Oof, I didn’t expect the Helden tree to have dropped so much so quickly. Normally we press this at the end of October. But looks good.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Sold me on the beef, got my soul with the pears 😜

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Using the morning walk to decide what we harvest today.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It became clear to me that their main target is raising money from grants for their own projects. They don’t represent cider makers, & although we are planting new orchards that fit their definition, we’ve had no support for that either. The size of a tree should not be a quality criteria for cider.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Today I cancelled my membership of Hochstamm Deutschland, an organisation that supports the preservation & promotion of meadow orchards & products made from them. Our old orchard doesn’t count as the trees are half-standard & too close together for their strict definition. Also done nothing for us.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Kinda feeling angry all day. Now off to a meeting of the Naturpark partners, where for 2 years we’ve asked the Naturpark to do more to promote & make partners visible. Nothing has happened. The filming a couple weeks ago was more about promoting the park rather than what we do. Will speak my mind.

The old, abandoned station house at Oberschefflenz. Such a nice building, but left to fall apart as the owner, who does not live locally, will not sell it.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Right. Today I am going to do a purge on memberships, clubs, organisations, Patreon subs and subscriptions. If I cancel on something, it’s not personal, I just need a reset. Will likely include an org that on the surface fits the ideals of the work we do, but I start to think we are not aligned.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Decided instead of continuing to write an article I wanted to have done by Sunday (ain’t gonna happen), I would assemble our new pizza oven. Satisfied.

A Gozney Arc XL pizza oven on a stand, with a small torch lighting the inside.

Flames inside the oven as I do a first firing.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I wasn’t sure I was getting it, but knew it was possible. The installer is a good friend, so he got me the full shebang. Makes sense to be able to work off-grid, don’t see the point otherwise.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Now have Brad Pitt shouting in my head.

A page in an assembly manual saying “What’s in the box”.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Very much those vibes when I go down to the cellar now 😂 Love it. Will have to paint those supporting laths black, or do some leftover oak floorboard cladding to make it a feature 😄

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Final config and tests were done today. If the grid fails, our battery and solar can be used to keep the house running for a while. Now we just wait for the power company to come and fit a new two-way meter so we can claw some money back from them.

A 22kW black slab of a battery with a glowing purple ring and the word Sonnen on the front.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It was just turned on yesterday, they go a full load on the first cycle from the mains, then testing it today, etc… then it’s on solar from then on.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Meanwhile, and the other direction, a really intense partial rainbow. The photo doesn’t do it justice.

A view across a large horse paddock, taken with a wide angle, and the ends of a rainbow can be seen on the left and right, very intense colours.

Another view of one end of the partial rainbow, looking like a Signal being sent to the heavens. This time our apple trees in the photo too.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I guess this is my life now. I see the sun rising I want to see how much energy we’re producing 😜 Today we will be the first full day with our new solar setup, it was activated yesterday evening. They’ll be back today to tidy up and run tests for the off-grid mode.

The sky and clouds glowing pink and orange in the early dawn.

The read out from our solar app, showing we are producing 0.1 kW before the sunrise

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Pancake packed into a carrying case to go to vet. She is not a happy cat. But there’s a parvovirus doing the rounds in the village, and she needs a booster to be safe.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

No 😁 My first thought was it’s be great for the future cidery space, but as the barn is currently in chaos, full to the brim with “stuff”, it would not be good to add to it, when the conversion is probably a few years away.

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Barry M @barmas.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Nice! Had the pleasure of tasting through bottles when Adam was over in April. He’ll be pleased to hear that!

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