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May 22, 2008

A Roadie Looks at Forty...

Turned 40 today. Sometime in the near future I'll update this entry with ruminations on hitting this milestone. I did manage to have a small "party" with Shannon and the boys, check out the pics at the end of this gallery we put together after the Xerox event we hosted a couple weeks ago.

As for spending a nice relaxing day lounging about the house, well that just ain't happening. Started the day by hitting the road at 7:30 to pick up chemicals down in Winchester. Started seeing some black rot out in the vineyard, most likely due to all the rain we've been having so I need to pick up some additional fungicide to squash this annoyance before it goes any further. Picked up a few parts for the auger at Tractor Supply then headed home. Dug some fence post holes until I got fed up with digging up rocks by hand, then traded the auger on the tractor for the sprayer. Put down the third spray of the season, mostly fungicides but also a special fertilizer - BM86 - to hopefully mitigate the green shot we saw in last year's Cabernet Franc clusters:

Topsin-M - 1.5 lb per acre
Microthiol Special - rate 4 lb per acre
Dithane DF Rainshield Nt - rate 4 lb per acre
BM 86 - 2 qt per acre

Seve and the guys will be out after the re-entry interval passes to do some shoot positioning and vine training. So far the vineyard is looking great!

Posted by Stephen at May 22, 2008 3:59 PM