Finished the Concord. I've been working on it as I could over the last few days. I found a new Dutch drop ornament for the top which works perfectly. I stripped and sanded the case and applied several coats of Jacobean walnut stain. The top and base didn't need as much stain as the main part of the body, but I think I got the color pretty even overall, and I finished up with several coats of lacquer. The original rotor kept time perfectly, but it was a bit on the noisy side. I drilled a small hole and did nothing more than add a few drops of oil and now you can't even hear it unless you hold the clock right up to your ear.

This small backyard press makes about a gallon of cider at a time. The grinder is powered by an electric drill. A car jack is used in extracting the cider from the mash. The apples were found nearby in a century-old abandoned orchard and from other "volunteer" apple trees. Gnarled and spotty (we cut out the rotten spots), the apples nonetheless made delicious cider. I don't know if the apples count as "wild" exactly. Maybe "feral" apples would be more accurate.