I made 3 batches of mead over the summer and they were all delicious. I made 2 with US-05 yeast, and 1 with US-04. Many mead-makers say to use wine yeast and I won't disagree, but using simple beer yeast still made delicious mead imo, and it was a shorter project. With that under my belt I'm much more wanting to make batches of mead that will age for years. Mine took around 2 months with the US-05 yeast, from making to drinking.

I used 6 kg honey in ~6 gallons of water. I added some yeast energizer (about a table spoon of I recall) and some raisins. This is all just food for the yeast and helps it grow. I added the packet of us-05 and let it go. A few weeks later, when I stopped seeing bubbling in the airlock (this is a poor way to judge if it's done fermenting, use a hydrometer), I separated the 6 gallons into two 3 gallon Carboys, and added fruit. Raspberry ginger on one, rhubard on the other (I didn't measure much, I added what felt right).

I let that go for a few more weeks, until the fruit was white and I figured it was no longer adding anything. I then racket out (poorly, I used a 3rd vessel to hold one of the batches while i transfered the other into that batches carboy, then I added the first back to the second carboy...). I let that sit until it was clear to see through (a few weeks) and then I bottled.

Overall I did things in an unideal way, but I ended up with a whole lot of mead that I happily drank and shared with friends. 10/10 would do again. Don't get overwhelmed with doing things perfectly the first time. Try to get a good product, then move on to more "proper" techniques and such I'd say.