Hey Dave lots of learning to go by the sounds of it. Don't worry I'm still learning a ton myself! You have landed at the right place with gotmead.com It seems, from the urgency, that you were planning on using raisins to "feed" your yeasts. Unfortunately this wont work out well. To feed your the yeasts you need products like fermaid-o/k, dap, yeast energizer, etc. If the raisins are for flavor then they can go in the active fermentation or in the secondary (after all the sugars have been turned into alcohol and you've removed your solution from all of the junk at the bottom (lees)... this process is called racking). I cannot tell you which is better. May want to start out with a JAOM
I've kept a list of where I found things and here is a cluster of links for you to help build up your knowledge:
Gotmead Newbie Guide is a nice quick read that includes the recipe for Joes Ancient Orange Mead. The JAOM is a quick & easy mead to start with that will produce results. It drove many of us further into the mead game!
The procedure of making mead right: (gotmead likes to break the links with a "..." sometimes)
9-5-17 Ryan Carlson - Modern Mead Making - Yeast in Mead:
9-5-17-ryan-carlson-modern-mead-making-yeast
9-12-17 Ryan Carlson - Modern Meadmaking - Making Happy Yeast:
9-12-17-ryan-carlson-making-modern-mead-yeast-keep-happy
9-19-17 Making Modern Mead - SNA, Racking, Stabilizing and Aging:
9-19-17-ryan-making-modern-mead-snas-racking-stabilizing-aging
9-26-17 Making Modern Mead - Sulfites and Sorbates:
9-26-17-ryan-tom-repas-moder-mead-making-sulfiting-sorbating
The only significant, procedural question, you be left with by the end: How exactly do I cold crash?
Either Vicky or AJ on the podcast 9/25/18 define it as: Cold crash - place your mead (still in primary but gravity no longer changing thus no longer fermenting) in a fridge around 4C for 1+ weeks (generally 1-2 weeks). Helps with flocculation - or clearing the mead by getting yeasts/proteins to stick together.
That's probably 10-12h of podcast. Quite a bit of it is banter/filler... but there is gold in there, even in the banter. I've listened to each of them at least twice; taking detailed notes!
The modern mead making series continues from there but they dive into specific meads like pyments, cysers, etc. That was a little scary for me so I stuck with a traditional out of the gate! I will go into them with fervor once I am no longer doubting myself on the basics.
Extra goodies I've found helpful:
A very help glossary:
https://morewinemaking.com/articles/wine_terminology - fermenters talk weird sometimes!
https://morewinemaking.com/articles/SO2_management information on how to stabilize your mead
https://www.bjcp.org/mead/Mead_Study.pdf - basically a book on this stuff. Some seems out of date but you'll be able to spot it after understanding the podcasts. very helpful section on "balance" & mead faults.
9-25-18 Ryan Carlson - Pairing Yeast to Meads:
9-25-18-ryan-carlson-pairing-yeast-to-meads
10-2-18 Ryan Carlson – Pairing Yeasts to Meads – Part 2:
10-2-18-ryan-carlson-pairing-yeasts-to-meads-part-2
8-29-17 Ryan Carlson - Oaking Your Mead:
8-29-17-ryan-carlson-oaking-mead
that oaking podcast is well supported by this supplement:
https://morewinemaking.com/web_files/intranet.morebeer.com/files/oakinfopaper09.pdf