Help Meaded

I'm going for a 1 gallon brew which I will flavor after the first fermentation with a mix of blue berries, raspberries, strawberries, and black berries. Mostly because I'm not a fan of plan mead. I find it a little to sweet. The ingredients are 3 pounds of honey and 3 quarts of water i used a wild flower honey made in Austin. Pictured below.

For the yeast i am using Lalvin 71B. It is primarily used for wine making and will bring some grape notes to the party.

I spent the last week finding my brewing vessel and test equipment (graduated cylinder, hydrometer ect.)

The above picture is all the equipment post sanitization. I used something called star san a no rinse sanitizer that I am a little nervous about because every fourm I read said to "ignore the foam" left by the solution. I really hope this works out.

A few things I learned while getting everything into the 1 gallon carboy

1. Honey goes through a funnel extremely slow.

2. Mixing the honey and water in the carboy is tough because i have to shake it until it all mixes. Maybe next time I will use a a fermentation jar.

3. Its possible but not wise to add yeast directly to the honey for the same reason as number 2.

Here is everything all mixed together.

The initial gravity reading is 1.10 and from what I read that is about the right starting place. I have no idea how they hydrometer works I just know I take this reading and subtract it from my last reading do some math more math and get an estimate on how much alcohol I made.