June 8, 2008
Shoot Positioning
Today Seve and the crew finished up the shoot positioning and vine training. For you growers (and future growers) out there it took four guys a total of 87 hours to position 3.25 acres. They did a great job and the vineyard is looking great. I also mowed yesterday as we were supposed to have a bachelorette party do a tour, but once they arrived they just wanted to sit inside and on the front porch and enjoy our wines!
Posted by Stephen at 4:52 PM
May 30, 2008
Fourth Spray
Had the fourth spray of the season today:
Microthiol Special - rate 4 lb per acre
Dithane DF Rainshield Nt - rate 4 lb per acre
Also had the crew out a few days ago to plant the replacement vines we got from Vintage Nurseries. Took them about a half day to get it done, as well as install the grow tubes. Glad that is over with, now the Viognier is all filled in and ready for the season.
Posted by Stephen at 4:48 PM
May 14, 2008
Busy Day in the Vineyard
Today Seve and two others came out to de-sucker the vines. They made great progress, finishing all the Viognier and about a quarter of the Cabernet Franc. They'll be back in a day or two to finish up. Three guys x 10 hours each = 2.5 acres suckered.
Also received some replacement vines from Vintage Nurseries today to compensate for some poor stock we received in 2006. Kudos to Dave Haggmark at Vintage for his great customer service and getting us the the replacements!
Once the guys were done in the vineyard I put down the second spray:
Microthiol Special - rate 3 lb per acre
Dithane DF Rainshield Nt - rate 3 lb per acre
Posted by Stephen at 10:48 PM
May 1, 2008
First Spray of the Season
Been working hard in the vineyard the past few days. Doing some last-minute maintenance on the tractor, sprayer and bushhog. Greasing, tightening, sharpening, etc. - lots of little tasks to keep everything running smoothly.
Last week I applied the first round of herbicide, and since some of the vines were already at bud break I wasn't able to use the glyphosate but had to opt for Rely instead. Maybe could have gotten away with it but definitely not worth the risk. Yesterday I mowed all rows and deer fence perimeter to keep the grass down and hopefully the risk for moisture and subsequent fungi. And finally today I put down the first spray of fungicide after spending some time getting the sprayer put back together from last season's storage. Given some of the troubles I've had with sprayers today went particularly well! Since the vines have only just opened, I shut down the tower of the CIMA P50 sprayer and just used the lower nozzles to conserve chemicals. Rates are as follows:
Microthiol Special - rate 3 lb per acre
Dithane DF Rainshield Nt - rate 3 lb per acre
Off to a great start for the year - right on track!
Posted by Stephen at 9:48 PM
April 18, 2008
Removing Pruning Canes
OK this sucks. I spent the past two days removing all the pruned canes from the rows. Basically the process is to use a york rake on the back of the tractor, and create small piles of canes (4-6 per row) and then drive the pickup truck down the rows, then toss in the piles. Then drive the pickup outside the vineyard and dump the canes. Doesn't sound too hard, except when you realize the rake doesn't grab all the canes and you have to walk up and down the rows to get the stray pieces. Then the piles come apart as you're lifting into the truck bed. Then you get poked in the face and other more delicate places by the occasional stray cane. This was really not a fun chore - have to talk to some of the other growers and see what advice they may have on this one. Talked to Doug and he advised "Call Seve and his crew..." The voice of reason!
Posted by Stephen at 10:00 PM
April 11, 2008
Pruning Summary
So we've finished up the pruning for the year. Actually Seve and his crew finished the work Shannon and I started a few weeks ago. We were actually able to complete the four rows of Petit Verdot, and an acre of Viognier ourselves. Then things started to take off with our new company and we weren't able to spend as much time outside so we had to call in the labor. Took them 105 hours in total to finish up about 26 rows, which is remarkably similar to the time we spent pruning our portion i.e. approximately 4 hours per row (80 vines = 3 minutes per vine) These kinds of operational analysis exercises will come in handy for future budgeting.
Posted by Stephen at 9:54 PM
March 4, 2008
2008 Season Begins
We began the 2008 growing season today. Pruning began on the 2006 Viognier, which are the rows closest to the house. Feels GREAT to be back out in the vineyard, and pruning (although tedious) definitely feels like the first step in the winemaking process. By evaluating each vine and coming up with the best (and at times most creative) way to set up the cordon, spurs, and renewals you really feel like you're contributing to the quality of the upcoming fruit. Nice chilly day, hot coffee and some sharp pruners - this is the life!
Posted by Stephen at 9:21 PM
September 22, 2007
Cabernet Franc Harvest
Text coming soon
Posted by Stephen at 7:36 PM
September 8, 2007
Viognier Harvest
Our first commercial harvest! This is exciting stuff, and we've been looking forward to it all summer long. The fruit was looking amazing in the vineyard, and we are so excited to get it over to Sunset Hills for processing. Basically we are engaged in what is known as a "custom crush" arrangement since we aren't officially a Virginia Farm Winery yet (lots of paperwork ahead...) but the custom crush allows us to produce our wines at another winery.
As always, harvest actually started the day before with equipment prep and lug cleaning. Got up early at 4 AM to continue getting things together before Quentin and the harvest crew arrived. Also had a few friends and family on board to help out.
The plan for the day was to get all the fruit picked and moved over to Sunset Hills to sit overnight in cool storage in preparation for Saturday's processing. Essentially the process is to start filling lugs, and get them quickly into the pickup for transportation. Thus as the crew is picking, I was making runs to Sunset Hills, and unloading the fruit into the winery. It took about 5 hours to get all the fruit picked, and another couple hours to get it delivered and the vineyard cleaned up.
We ended up borrowing some lugs from Sunset Hills, as we only had 96 which can hold about 3,000 pounds of fruit. Looks like we harvested about 2 tons of very high quality Viognier, so we are thrilled with our farming efforts and the fortunate growing conditions Mother Nature granted this season.
We awoke Saturday and got right over to the winery, as we were very eager to help out setting up the equipment to learn as much as we could. Ben Renshaw was on hand directing the operation and was extremely fun to work with, fielding our newbie questions and letting us get real dirty.
The crush process goes like this. First a few dozen lugs are loaded onto a pallet, then using a pallet jack are brought out to the crusher/destemmer. The fruit is loaded into the hopper, which feeds the grapes through the crush rollers into the rotating destemming basket. The empty stems are spit out the end while the crushed fruit and juice flows down into a plastic bin. This mush is then put into the bladder press. Even prior to activating the press, there is plenty of juice flowing through the slots into the stainless steel pan - this is referred to as "free run" juice because it has not been subject to the pressures of the pressing cycle. As the pan filled we would activate the pump to send the juice into our 630-gallon jacketed tank. Repeat, repeat, repeat... You get the idea.
So after several hours of this process it was time to clean up the sticky mess. I mean this is one filthy operation but the yellowjackets LOVE all the sugary juice lying around. Fun. We could care less, because this is what it's all about. There is just something magical about harvest and crush, and now we're starting to see what all the commotion about the wine industry is all about. This is a lot of FUN!!!
Posted by Stephen at 7:35 PM
July 11, 2007
Dropping Fruit
Today Quentin and his crew were out in the vineyard pulling leaves from the east side of the rows, and dropping fruit to manage yield. Been a hot dry summer so far and the fruit is totally disease-free and looking great. Going to all the extra work (and expense) to keep it that way!
Posted by Stephen at 7:52 PM
July 7, 2007
Hedging
Today Quentin and his crew were out in the vineyard hedging. I asked them if they wanted to use the gas-powered hedging tool I bought, but they actually preferred to use loppers as they felt they could do it more efficiently so I said go for it. Once they were done for the day, I had to put down a spray application, which was a cocktail of fungicide, insecticide (for the Japanese beetles) and epsom salts to correct a magnesium deficiency (which we also saw last season.)
Microthiol Disperss = 4 lbs/acre
Carbaryl = 1.5 qt /acre
Epsom salts = 3 lbs/acre
Posted by Stephen at 7:30 PM
June 17, 2007
Fungicide Application
Applied fungicide to entire vineyard, and opted for a strobulurin since we are just prior to bunch closing. Figured I'd spend a few extra bucks and put on the good stuff since this is arguably the most critical spray of the season. Once the bunch closes up is more challenging to get the spray inside, and you're more susceptable to disease pressure. First commercial crop, not risking anything by taking shortcuts or scrimping to save a few bucks.
Pristine = 10.5 oz / acre
Posted by Stephen at 4:31 AM
June 16, 2007
Herbicide Application
Applied herbicide to all the rows today. Even though I have this down to a regular process, it is still the crappiest task in the vineyard. Gotta be a better way.
Posted by Stephen at 4:27 AM
June 9, 2007
Fungicide Application
Microthiol Special - rate 4 lb per acre
Dithane DF Rainshield Nt - rate 4 lb per acre
Posted by Stephen at 10:42 PM
May 29, 2007
Fungicide Application
Microthiol Special - rate 4 lb per acre
Dithane DF Rainshield Nt - rate 4 lb per acre
Posted by Stephen at 9:31 PM
May 20, 2007
Fungicide Application
Got the part in for the sprayer. Can't complain - $20 for the part and it seriously took about 5 minutes to trade it out. Had the sprayer back up and running and got another application on.
Microthiol Special - rate 4 lb per acre
Dithane DF Rainshield Nt - rate 4 lb per acre
Posted by Stephen at 9:29 PM
May 8, 2007
First Fungicide Application
Got the first application of fungicide down after last evenings fun with electronics. Not missing a spray this year after the black rot we had last year, given this will be our first commercial harvest! That said, I did make a hell of a mess with the sprayer. Apparently some water had settled in one of the hose fittings and froze, cracking the fitting. So one side of the lower half of the sprayer wasn't sending the mixture to the nozzles, but instead squirting it all over the sprayer. So now half of the sprayer is yellow. Lovely. Better order the part quick.
Microthiol Special - rate 4 lb per acre
Dithane DF Rainshield Nt - rate 4 lb per acre
Posted by Stephen at 11:13 PM
May 7, 2007
Fun With The Sprayer
Time for the first spray of the year! Supposed to be an easy thing - uncover the sprayer from the winter wrapping, get it filled up, mix the chemicals. Drive up to the first row, engage the PTO and hit the spray buttons and...nothing. You can't be serious!? So began the fun task of debugging the sprayer electronic control - came to find out it was just a blown fuse but it took about 45 minutes to track it down and I lost my evening window of opportunity. Guess I'll spray tomorrow.
Posted by Stephen at 11:00 PM
March 11, 2007
More Pruning
Today Shannon and her mom spent a few hours in the vineyard pruning the one-year old Viognier. My mom was at the rental watching the boys, and I was at the AIPAC Policy Conference in the DC Convention Center. Does this sound whacked? I hope so...
Posted by Stephen at 10:24 PM
December 3, 2006
Petit Verdot Trellis Wire
Today I completed hammering up the Petit Verdot trellis wire, but I didn't have any more tensioners so I jumped over to the Viognier rows and started pulling wire. Got 2 1/2 rows pulled and one row hammered in addition to the three Petit Verdot rows. Even though the work is somewhat boring, it is enjoyable to listen to my folk music on my MP3 player. Can't wait to hear the first live concert in the tasting room - somehow I just know that the loft will be a great setting for listening to some good singer/songwriter material.
Prior to starting in the vineyard I pushed the whirlpool tub into the master suite. It was heavier than it looked...
Posted by Stephen at 10:37 PM
December 2, 2006
Trellis Wire Again
Ugh. Today I began running catch wires for the 2006 plantings. If you've been following along you'll recall this exercise from last year. Since I pretty much have this down to a smooth process, it goes quickly but it is so monotonous. I put in about five hours and pulled all the Petit Verdot wires, hammered up one row and installed the end tensioners.
Posted by Stephen at 10:33 PM
November 24, 2006
End Braces Complete
Today I finished up the rest of the end braces. Not the most relaxing way to spend the day after Thanksgiving but the show must go on. Still, there is something pretty cool about seeing the orderly array of trellis construction cresting over the hill. Click to enlarge.
Posted by Stephen at 10:10 PM
November 19, 2006
Viognier End Braces
Finished up one side of the end braces for this year's Viognier planting. 15 rows (12 full length 400', then a 300', 200' and 100') I was actually pretty surprised how quickly it progressed, I did all 15 rows in about 4 hours, including a smashed thumb and ensuing temper tantrum as well as a little cleanup (moving supplies out of my SUV into the new shed.) This puts me ahead of schedule, as I was hoping to have all the end braces done by the end of Thanksgiving weekend, but looks like I'll have them done next Friday and can start pulling catch wires.
Posted by Stephen at 9:56 PM
November 4, 2006
Cleanup / Trellis Construction
Haven't been out to the vineyard in a few weeks, and it was great to get back to work. Had quite a bit of cleanup to do - taking trash to the construction dumpster, organizing tools, storing equipment etc. Took a couple hours to get it all done, then I had a quick break before starting on the trellis construction. Fell right back into my old routines and methods I honed last year, and finished up the three new rows of Petit Verdot end bracing in a few hours. Decided not to push myself today and headed home about 4:30 to play with Tristan!
Posted by Stephen at 10:51 PM
September 30, 2006
Herbicide Application
Even though the grapes have been harvested there is still a ton of work to do in the vineyard to start preparing for next spring. This morning I spent a few hours applying herbicide in this year's viognier rows to ensure clean rows going into the winter. Definitely helps the first application next April - won't be spraying large weeds just the new sprouts, thus a more effective treatment. Didn't get to finish the whole vineyard though, as it started to sprinkle. Hopefully it didn't rain hard enough to wash off the chemicals, otherwise I'll have to do it all over again which would certainly put a smile on my face...
Posted by Stephen at 9:03 PM
September 16, 2006
Easy Day Mowing
Had an easy day in the vineyard, did a little mowing between the rows. Probably should have applied some herbicide, but didn't feel like doing too much, since I'm pretty burned out on vineyard chores after the past few weeks harvesting. Will get to that next week. Also saw some powdery mildew on the new viognier leaves, so will give a fungicide application next weekend as well. But that can wait a week, and it's nice to have a bit of a break!
Posted by Stephen at 11:03 PM
September 10, 2006
Cabernet Franc Harvest
I suppose it's accurate to say that our Cabernet Franc harvest began yesterday. My brother Jim and I had traveled to Chapel Hill, NC for our future brother-in-law's bachelor party. We went to the Virginia Tech / North Carolina football game, then had to leave early (and miss the REAL bachelor party...) in order for me to get home and assemble my winery equipment. The gear had arrived a few days before and I just didn't have time to build it. So I got home around 11 PM and began assembling the crusher/destemmer and fermentation tank. Took about three hours to get it all ready, including a bit of drama when I couldn't find the drain valve for the tank and thought I was going to have to drive to the Charles Town, WV 24-hour WalMart to devise a plumbing workaround. But I got lucky and found the valve had fallen down into the gaps in the pallet.
Thus after three hours of sleep I awoke to get a shower and head to the vineyard to prep the lugs. As I was pulling in I saw a familiar Suburban in front of me - my cousin Mike Smith and his two boys Ryan and Ben came out to help. I got the boys busy placing lugs in the rows, then Shannon arrived in our rental pickup (we needed to get something to transfer the lugs to our house) and began driving lugs around in the lawn tractor. Jim joined us as well, even though he didn't get much sleep either after our NC trip. Once it became light enough to start harvesting we jumped right in. I began watching the clock, as I had hired Quentin and some guys to come help, but they didn't show. Very unusual.
As we began harvesting it became pretty clear we were going to have a lot more grapes than I had fermenting vessels, pretty much the opposite of my Viognier estimates. Soon into the day, we were joined by Shannon's old boss at AOL, Geno Yoham, a wine enthusiast who had been wanting to pick some grapes since Shannon went to work for him.
The day went very smoothly, and when we were about half done I took a load over to the rental. I returned to get the rest just as Jim, Mike, Ryan and Ben were taking off, leaving Geno and I to finish up the last row and load up the truck.
With all the grapes now at the "winery" we got them unloaded and covered up to keep them out of the sun and cool. Since some of the clusters had a few mummies from my summer black rot infestation, we opted to sort the fruit by picking off the mummies before placing the clusters in the crusher. Sorting fruit DEFINITELY adds a lot of time to the process, and it took about four hours to crush and fill the 70-gallon stainless tank with must. Once it was filled about 90% (which I later learned was too much!) I added my potassium metabisulfite to 30 ppm and pectic enzyme to maximize the juice extraction during fermentation. After the big tank was full, we filled up a 6-gallon bucket for Geno to take home to make a batch of his own wine. Shannon also had to take off to get to my sister's bachelorette party leaving me to finish up the crush.
As part of my experimentation, I decided to just crush the remaining clusters without sorting the fruit, to hopefully see if there was a noticeable difference between the two methods. We'll see, but I gotta tell you it goes WAY faster not sorting the fruit and just dumping in the clusters to the crusher. I would say sorting fruit triples the crush time (obviously depending on the amount of help available.) In addition to the 70-gallon tank I filled up 6 more 6-gallong fermenters, and still had 14 lugs (over 400 lbs) of grapes left. So Shannon decided she'd make some jelly next week!
After a very long day on very little sleep, it really felt great to get the gear cleaned up and take a shower. Finally settled onto the couch about 6 PM, totally exhausted but very excited to have really had a solid harvest, and used the new equipment to get our first batch of Cabernet Franc in the tank. Just like a real winery.
Posted by Stephen at 11:03 PM
September 4, 2006
Viogner Tubes Removed
Had an easy day in the vineyard today, just had to pull the grow tubes off the acre of viognier that we planted in April. It's getting close to the time when the vines will begin to go dormant, and they need time for the trunks to toughen in order to prepare against winter cold damage. If you leave the tubes on too long you run the risk of losing a lot of vines if the temperature dips into the single digits, which is always a possibility in Northern Virginia. And this year, I bagged the tubes right away to avoid them blowing all over the place like last year (which took two days to clean up!)
Posted by Stephen at 12:57 PM
August 19, 2006
Fight to the Finish
What a weird day, total emotional rollercoaster. I arrived at the vineyard with a full day of tasks lined up in my head. As I pulled up and parked in front of the viognier though, I was really shocked to see that all the bunches at the end of the rows were missing and/or damaged. What the hell!?!? I had a total panic attack and thought that there was a hole in the deer fence or something, but after closer inspection of the grapes I realized that birds were munching away on my grapes. The little bastards. I also noticed that insects had begun to enjoy themselves a tasty grape snack as well. In fact I caught a yellowjacket in the act - basically they poke a hole through the skin and stick their head inside and suck out the juice, leaving an empty skin hanging. I also saw ants doing the same thing. Unreal. Looks like the word is out that the grapes are ripe.
Doing my best to fend off an anxiety attack, I started walking the rows to see how bad the damage was, and then I noticed that I still have some black rot in the fruit. So much for Nova being an eradicant. That's when I decided to take some brix measurements to see how ripe the fruit was, so I picked a berry here and there and measured them one at a time. As I expected, the readings were all over the place, so I had to take a wider sample of about 40 berries from the entire block of viognier. Crushed up the berries, mixed the juice and dropped it on my refractometer. Lo and behold we're at 21 brix already, so it occurs to me that I could actually harvest tomorrow. But now there is another problem - I just sprayed last week and Nova has a 14-day PHI (pre-harvest interval). To be honest, I wasn't really sure what exactly that meant, so I figured I better find out.
I swung by Hillsborough Vineyards to talk to Kerem, winemaker, but he hadn't come down to the tasting room yet. I chatted with Zeynap for a bit, then went back to our rental place to hop online. Turns out that the PHI is actually a federal regulation. What that means is that any fruit that is harvested prior to the PHI expiring is considered contraband and the person possessing such fruit is in extremely deep shit. Essentially the PHI has been set to mandate the minimum amount of time that must transpire before the pesticide residue has reached a non-dangerous level.
Well, there was no way I was going to risk going to prison for half a ton of grapes, especially when the entire caper would have been filmed for national television. Thus harvesting tomorrow was out of the question - looks like the earliest will be next Saturday.
So I just sat on the couch getting more and more miserable. At the rate the fruit was disappearing, I really don't see how there will be anything left to harvest. I just wanted to give up, so I went and laid down with Shannon and Tristan (who was taking a nap) and just rolled it over and over in my head what am I killing myself like this for??? But after watching him sleep I got my self calmed down and refocused. I dragged myself out of bed and went back over to the vineyard. No matter what happens to the rest of the viognier this week, we're still ahead. When the season started we didn't think we were going to get any fruit from the viognier, so it's all a bonus. That plus the invaluable experience derived from going through this makes it all a positive experience. Sort of...
Once I got back out there, I decided to focus on the cab franc, which will probably be harvested in three weeks or so. I took a berry sample to check brix progress, and found the cab franc at 17.4 brix, quite behind the viognier even though the vines themselves are far more vigorous. A taste test revealed the nasty vegetative bell pepper component is on the decline, and the sugar is coming up well. A little munching on the skins revealed a bit of spice developing too. These are ripening very well!
So in order to keep the vegetative aspects down, I decided to hedge the entire acre again, which will keep the fruit in the sun and reduce the vine vigor. It took all afternoon, but looked great when it was done. Going to hit them with a dose of Pristine this Saturday after we harvest the viognier to keep the fruit clean as it hangs for a few more weeks. Birds, bugs, and fungus please fuck off - these grapes are mine.
On another bright note, I got my midterm results back from UC Davis - I got an A. :)
Posted by Stephen at 9:57 PM
August 12, 2006
Tying Petit Verdot
The petit verdot were getting a little crazy, so I had to take a few hours and tie them up to the cordon wire, establishing the main cordons for next year. And since we've already got a season of pruning under our belts, I was able to plan ahead a bit and make sure I put a tie at the 18" mark which is where we'll be cutting them off next March. Even chimps can be taught...
Did some leaf-pulling on the viognier to keep the fruit nice and dry and in some sun. The viognier is really tasting good now, I think I ate about 40 grapes while working! And the cab franc is really starting to develop it's color, even though it still has a LOT of bell pepper vegetative taste to it - long way to go before these are ripe.
Delivered some more tasty Nova fungicide to the fruit, to finish off the black rot and prevent powdery and downy mildew. I saw two vines with some powdery mildew on the fruit, so I'm not taking any chances.
Posted by Stephen at 9:15 PM
August 6, 2006
Veraison
It's finally happening - grapes turning purple! Veraison signifies the change from berry growth to berry ripening in grapevines. In red varietals, this is evident as the berries change from bright green to light purple and eventually to dark purple or almost black. Other notable aspects of veraison are:
- increase in sugar
- decrease in acidity (due to dilution)
- softening of the skin
Now when I pick a berry to taste it I don't have to spit it right out before it makes me gag.
As we would expect, the viognier is ripening faster than the cab franc, and a quick test on the refractometer supports this. The viognier is currently around 15 Brix and the cab franc around 13. The Brix scale is the measurement of soluble solids in grapes at harvest, taken with a refractometer and expressed in degrees. In unfermented grapes, degrees of Brix are approximately the same as percent of sugar. After fermentation, the alcohol concentration is roughly half the sugar concentration (actually .55) of the juice. Thus, grapes harvested at 22.5 degrees Brix will produce a wine with an alcohol content between 12.5 to 13.5%.
Have a look at veraison - view image.
Posted by Stephen at 10:17 PM
August 5, 2006
Finished The Cordon Wire
Ah what a relief. Today I finished up installing the cordon wire for all the new viognier planting. Powered through the last six full rows and the three shorter rows on the end. Good thing too, because the vines have grown large enough that they are falling all over the place without a wire to hold up the shoots and the bamboo. Hot as shit outside today though, so I took a little snooze for about 45 minutes in the truck with the AC on around 2:15 - 3:00 to get out of the heat for a bit.
Posted by Stephen at 7:28 PM
July 30, 2006
Viognier Cordon Wire
Today I started installing the cordon wire for the viognier we planted back in April. I had completed the cordon wire for the petit verdot a few weeks back because they are more vigorous than the viognier and had already reached the cordon height (42") and were looking for something to hang on to! Now the viognier are ready - in fact they were ready a week or two ago but I just couldn't get to it. As a result a couple vines blew over, but will be fine once I get the bamboo secured to the cordon wire.
Got three rows done, then it was time for a fungicide application to keep attacking the black rot. Even though the highest danger from the disease is nearing an end (veraison) I'm still going after it. Today I sprayed Nova, which is a black rot eradicant and should put the death blow on the nasty stuff. We'll see. Pretty cool though, the powder come pre-measured in "dissolving" water-soluble bags, which appear to be made of some kind of gelatin or something. Having never seen these, I was a bit hesitant at first to toss a bag in the sprayer - shit with my luck I'd clog the whole thing up. So I put a little water on the corner of the bag, and sure enough after a few seconds it started to get a little rubbery, then just kinda disappeared. Whacked! So I tossed in two bags and away I went.
Nova - 5 oz per acre.
Posted by Stephen at 9:07 PM
July 24, 2006
Mowing For VIVA Day
Tomorrow we're having everyone from our new company come by to check out the vineyard and learn more about our endeavor. Since I haven't mowed in a few weeks I figured I'd give the place a nice mow for our guests. And you'd think by now I'd have this mowing thing down...?
As I was finishing the very last row, I made a slight turn around the end post and didn't see a piece of lumber sticking out in the path of the bushhog. The piece will eventually be (well it would have...) the brace post, and when the post-pounding team was done installing the trellis posts, they laid down all the brace posts to save me the task. So there it lay, waiting for a hungry bushhawg to happen upon it. All of a sudden I hear this tremendous banging and I stop the tractor to see what the hell. I get out to find this piece of lumber wedged up under the bushhawg, with one of the blades jammed in the wood almost splitting it in two. Since there was no way I could have pulled the wood out, I had to unhook the bushhawg from the tractor, and since it's a six-footer I couldn't pick it up to flip it over. Thus I had to use the front-end loader on the tractor to flip it, then using a sledgehammer I was able to beat the blades free. Flipped it right side up, hooked it back on the tractor, and went the hell home. What a shitty way to end an evening...
Posted by Stephen at 9:30 PM
July 23, 2006
Fighting The Black Rot
Since we have been pounded by black rot, I had to call Jim McKenzie at Helena Chemicals to get some tougher fungicide. He sent me both Pristine and Nova. Since I didn't have my fungicide chart on hand I took a guess and opted to use the Pristine first. As it turns out the Nova offers better protection against black rot, and is also an eradicant, but the Pristine is excellent as well. And we're almost done with the japanese beetles for the year, but I decided to give them one last blast of Sevin as a parting gift...
Pristine - 12.5 oz per acre
Sevin - 1 oz per gallon (80 gallons)
Posted by Stephen at 8:52 PM
July 22, 2006
More Hedging And Sprayer Disaster
Last night I got the viognier hedged, so this morning I began on the cab franc. Since it is generally more vigorous, progress was much slower but I was able to move through the entire acre in about three hours. On the down side, I discovered why they sell those chain mail pruning gloves. As I was pulling down a few intertwinded shoots to cut them off I couldn't really see where my left hand was and almost cut the tip of my left forefinger off. Big ouch - got lucky though and only sliced in about a quarter inch. Band aid, keep moving. Then the day really turned to shit...
You will know if you follow this blog that I have been plagued by sprayer problems. Today's spraying chore was another application of herbicide in the rows to keep the weeds down under the vines. Should be easy. Idiot. Last time I sprayed you may recall the sprayer leaked all over the place so I exchanged it for a brand new one. Thus today's spray was with a shiny new sprayer - never been used. I filled the tank and got about 10 rows done and needed to refill. Since we don't have a water supply yet, I have to go over to the neighbors to get water. So as I'm driving back from the neighbors, I pull into our driveway and head down the hill to go to the vineyard when the lawn tractor starts picking up speed. Suddenly the tow cart in which I keep the sprayer ROLLS OVER and almost flips the mower. So I come to a very rapid halt, hop off the mower to take in this clusterfuck I've just created. Picture if you will a 30-gallon sprayer rolling down the hill dragging a tow cart by a rubber hose. Oh I was so pissed - obviously the weight of the sprayer pulled the tow cart over and knocked the pump off. I rolled the cart back up on two wheels (actually rolled it to the other side to straighten out the bent tongue) then tried to pick up the sprayer tank. Yeah right - 240 pounds of chemicals. That's when I lost it. I went and found a big rock and started smashing the fucking sprayer to bits. Over and over I pounded that sprayer with the rock until there was a busted tank leaning against a tree and shrapnel (that used to be the pump) laying everywhere, and the spraying wand bent in a U-shape. Oh I was so pissed. Don't think they'll exchange this one.
Now I have to head down to Winchester to buy YET ANOTHER FUCKING SPRAYER. In the two years we've been doing this vineyard nonsense I've gone through 6 sprayers. Down to Winchester, back to the vineyard, finish the spraying. I'll mention now that they didn't have the deluxe model which I've been using, only the standard model, so I bought that and finished spraying the vineyard thinking that all would be the same. Can you sense the foreshadowing...?
Posted by Stephen at 9:35 PM
July 21, 2006
Hedging Viogner
Time to trim the vigor - went out to the vineyard this evening after work to put in a few hours. Got a lot to do to get ready for VIVA day on Tuesday, when we're bringing everyone from our new company out to the vineyard to check it out. Hedging is essential to manage the canopy vigor, which can cause shading of the fruit and excessive herbaceous character in the wine. Since our canopy is still so young, we didn't have to buy any special equipment this year (probably will have to next year) and I was able to walk up and down the rows using my pruners to trim the excess vines. The rule of thumb was that any shoots that had grown over the top catch wire and were sticking so far out into the rows that they were drooping down got cut back to about one foot above the wire. Seems crazy to say, but some of the shoots had grown 10-12 feet since April! Can't imagine how big the canopy will be next year.
Worked until dark and finished up the viognier. Will do the cab franc tomorrow.
Posted by Stephen at 11:04 PM
July 16, 2006
Black Rot
UH OH. Big trouble. Yesterday I noticed several grape clusters with black shriveled berries, so last night when we got home from the birthday party I looked up some common fungus online. Sure enough, I came across the following article and pinpointed the issue.
Looks like all the rain we had a few weeks ago has caused me a real problem. If I had to guess, I'd say we're going to lose 40% of the potential crop. What kills me is that I was absolutely diligent about my spray program, I was just stuck using that crappy wand sprayer while my $10,000 CIMA was stuck in Italy awaiting shipment. Seems that not getting the fungicide into the blooms early enough is a major cause of black rot infection.
Have to call Doug tomorrow and find out what the hell to do. On the bright side, I did manage to finish dropping the fruit, however it was clear that the last few rows were hardest hit by the black rot. Certainly due to the moisture trapped by the excess clusters and leaves.
Today wasn't all bad. We did some additional shooting for the HGTV show because Shannon's dad Roger and his wife Bev were in town for Tristan's birthday. Since they hadn't seen the site since the demolition, the crew miked them up down the road and captured their reactions as they drove up to the site. Obviously shocked, they couldn't get over the difference with the houses and outbuildings gone, and were blown away by the new view since some trees have been taken down. After we showed them around the site, we went into the vineyard so they could take a look at the progress there. Rog and Bev proved to be TV naturals and provided quite a few good sound bites, although they both seem to be pretty worried about the pace we're keeping.
After a few hours shooting, Shannon, Tristan, Roger and Bev headed out and I worked for a few more hours, until the heat wore me out and I was done for the day.
Posted by Stephen at 9:39 PM
July 15, 2006
Tristan's First Birthday
Today we're celebrating Tristan's first birthday at Ken and Kim Wright's house (since our rental shack is such a little hovel!) Still, with so much to do in the vineyard I still had to get out for a few hours to drop fruit and pull leaves. Woulda been nice to sleep in but...
Posted by Stephen at 9:30 PM
July 9, 2006
Beetle Spray
The japanese beetles are back, seems like the sevin lasts about a week, then they come back and attack the new growth. So I gave them a little treat for their munching pleasure.
Microthiol Special - rate 4 lb per acre
Sevin - rate 1 oz per gallon
Since I had the vineyard looking good for the camera shoot, I decided to spend a little time and take some nice pictures in the hopes that some would turn out well enough for the upcoming Web site redesign. The place is actually starting to look like a vineyard!
Posted by Stephen at 5:47 PM
July 8, 2006
Pulling Petit Verdot Tubes
Decided to pull the petit verdot tubes off today. 90% of them have reached the cordon wire and are doing very well. The HGTV crew was out filming me dropping fruit and pulling tubes, so I just did a quick demo of the process. Once they finished up I completed pulling the tubes off and packed them up in trash bags so they wouldn't blow all over the place like last year because picking them up from all over the vineyard sucked.
Dropped fruit from a cab franc row, and finished up the mowing.
Posted by Stephen at 5:44 PM
July 7, 2006
Mowing For TV
Been pretty busy lately with dropping fruit and spraying, so I haven't mowed in about 6 weeks. The rows are looking pretty unruly, so since the TV crew will be showing tomorrow I had to go out and spend a few hours mowing. Got the cab franc rows mowed, but when the light faded too much I decided to just do the perimeter around the deer fence. Will finish up the mowing in the viognier tomorrow after the crew leaves.
Posted by Stephen at 10:41 PM
July 4, 2006
And Still Dropping Cab Franc Fruit
Dropped two more rows of fruit from the cab franc. Four more to go. Worked a short day today in order to make it over to the Wright's for a July 4th cookout. Good times ahead. And you'll notice I took a day off from the vineyard yesterday. Yes it can be done! Actually stayed home and just enjoyed the day with Shannon and Tristan. Since we've been so cramped in our rental I spent the afternoon re-arranging the house, so now he has his own room and our bed is now in the office. It's still totally cramped, but now at least he has his own space to play in. He really loves it. We can't wait to get this new house built!
Posted by Stephen at 11:02 PM
July 2, 2006
Still Dropping Cab Franc Fruit
Quentin and his crew arrived today to finish suckering the cab franc, as well as help out with dropping some fruit. We all put in about 6 hours and got all everything suckered and 6 rows dropped. That leaves me with 6 more rows to drop fruit.
I also installed the cordon wire for the three new rows of petit verdot. Looks like the tubes will be coming off next weekend, but I'll leave tubes on the viognier for another few weeks as they are lagging behind a bit.
Posted by Stephen at 10:58 PM
July 1, 2006
Dropping Cab Franc Fruit
Got started on dropping the cab franc fruit and what a huge difference from the viognier. The increased vigor of the cab franc is making it take much longer to drop the fruit, around 2 hours per row (80 vines per row.) So I got three rows done and then it was time to get the sprayer filled up to apply the latest dosage of fungicides, as well as the epsom salts (magnesium sulfate as foliar fertilizer) and some sevin for the japanese beetles. Rates were:
Microthiol Special - rate 4 lb per acre
Dithane DF Rainshield Nt - rate 4 lb per acre
Magnesium Sulfate - rate 4 lb per acre
Sevin - rate 1 oz per gallon
This is the last application of the Dithane since it has a 66-day PHI (pre-harvest interval) thus I'll be modifying the spray program next application.
Posted by Stephen at 10:52 PM
June 25, 2006
Dropping Fruit
Today's chore was to continue dropping fruit from the second-year viognier. Essentially the rule of thumb for dropping fruit is as follows:
- if a shoot has not reached the first catch wire cut off the clusters
- if a shoot is well over the first wire and looks healthy and strong, you may leave one cluster
- if a shoot has cleared the top (third) catch wire, you may leave two clusters
- don't let fruit hang on top of fruit, drop one or the other
- the vine should appear to be "in balance" i.e. sufficient foliage per fruit clusters
- when in doubt on a young vine, drop the fruit anyway
Another debated issue contributing to clean fruit is the technique of leaf-pulling. Essentially some people maintain that it is critical to pull leaves from around the fruit clusters. The Dr. Smart book "Sunlight Into Wine", which is the de facto text on canopy management says the proper amount of sunfleck (light spots through the leaves) is about 60%. Jim Law of Linden Vineyards is a big advocate of leaf pulling, as you can read here. However, Doug indicated that he doesn't perform leaf pulling. So I was a bit confused as to which way to go. Fortunately, Mother Nature helped me out a bit. As I was dropping fruit, a storm blew in and I worked in the rain for about an hour. Once the rain stopped, I began to notice that the clusters which hung freely below the cordon dried out much more quickly than those which were surrounded by leaves. Thus, given that the entire year-long battle is to keep the fruit free of mildew it seemed obvious that leaf-pulling is essential, both to allow the fruit to dry more quickly (after a rain and in the morning as the dew evaporates) and to allow the spray to penetrate the clusters better. I will say however, that it definitely takes longer to both drop fruit and pull leaves, but I believe the difference will be in the quality of the grapes.
Finished up the viognier, and headed home.
Posted by Stephen at 2:44 PM
June 24, 2006
Desuckering Viognier
Today I had Quentin and his crew out to desucker and tie (train) last year's acre of viognier. While they were working on that I was desuckering cab franc. Given how vigorous the cab franc is as opposed to the viognier, it takes about 30 minutes extra per row (total 90 minutes) to desucker.
Doug came by to take a look at the vines and advise me on how to drop fruit. He noticed a peculiar leaf pattern on several of the vines, and immediately recognized it as 2,4-D damage from our neighbor, who apparently used it to prepare his field for a corn planting. Luckily our damage was minimal due to a thick treeline separating our two properties, which prevented most of the drift. We shall certainly be notifying our neighbor about his dubious spraying habits.
Doug also noticed several leaves with a peculiar ring around the edge, which he identified as a probable magnesium deficiency. The cure - add 4 lbs. per acre of epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) to my next spray! How kooky is that?
Progress was good on the viognier desuckering, but the crew had to leave early in order to catch the Mexican World Cup game! :) Once they left, I went into the viognier to drop fruit. Got a few rows done then called it a day - should be able to finish the viognier tomorrow.
Posted by Stephen at 2:27 PM
June 18, 2006
First Spray With The CIMA
Wow. It was worth it. New tractor and new sprayer are so awesome that spraying the vineyard is now actually a very enjoyable task. Headphones on listening to my MP3 player, chilling in the nice air conditioned cab riding up and down the rows. It took a little practice to be able to make the turns at the top of the hill with the new weight of the sprayer on the back, but after a couple of rows it was no problem. I just have to lift the bucket of the front end loader up high enough to clear the end brace construction in order to get around. A little tricky, but definitely doable (on dry ground that is...)
Prior to the spraying I finished suckering the viognier, so next weekend I'll start on the cab franc. Good times!
Microthiol Special - rate 4 lb per acre
Dithane DF Rainshield Nt - rate 4 lb per acre
Posted by Stephen at 10:02 PM
June 17, 2006
New Sprayer Arrives!
Finally! Our new CIMA P50 has completed it's journey across the Atlantic and has arrived safely at the vineyard. At last I'm done spraying the fungicide in my rainsuit riding around on the lawn tractor, and the timing couldn't be better because it's really starting to get hot. Bill Reiss from BDI scheduled our delivery for around 10 AM, so I got out to the vineyard early to do some suckering. You'll recall we did the entire vineyard in April, but because second year vines are still trying to push shoots all over the place I have to do it all over again. So since the viognier are a little less vigorous I began with them. Got a few rows done until it was time to meet Bill at the construction site.
Bill arrived and we chatted for a bit about our plans, and what we have currently planted. After that, he gave me a great overview of the sprayer while it was still sitting on his trailer. He showed me the different valves, tubing, mixing tanks, basically a thorough exam of the whole sprayer. Then we hooked it up to the tractor and did some more overview, then it was time to fire it up. Holy shit - LOUD is the word here. Basically the sprayer has a big fan on it, which is compressing a lot of air through 16 atomizers. Up close each one looks like a mini jet engine. I shut it down, then put about 20 gallons in the tank, and fired it up again so Bill could show me the different spray patterns and nozzle configurations.
We positioned the nozzles for our row width and cordon height, then it was time to figure out application rates. Essentially this is a math problem similar to spreading fertilizer whereby you calculate the tractor's speed, the area you are spreading, and the rate of distribution. The CIMA uses the following calculation:
(GPA x MPH x ER x 60) / 500
where:
GPA = gallons per acre
MPH = miles per hour (tractor speed)
ER = effective range (row width)
Once this is calculated, you then adjust the dials on the sprayer to achieve the desired rate. Essentially the dials are graded holes of increasing size which allow more or less fluid through the valves. So to sum up, I chose 40 GPA, 3.1 MPH (B-1 gear at 2500 RPM), effective range of 9 feet. No worries.
Check out the sprayer
Side view
Current vine growth
A newly desuckered vine
Post-flowering grapes-to-be
Closeup of a young cluster
When you look at the current vine growth picture, remember what the vines looked like just two months ago...
Posted by Stephen at 9:33 PM
June 11, 2006
More Fun With Sprayers
It just doesn't seem fair. After all the bullshit last week with the old sprayer, then having to run down to Winchester to buy a new sprayer, it doesn't seem fair that the new one would be faulty. But sure enough, today I noticed it was leaking. My tip=off was the line of dead grass running the whole way across the vineyard, so I started looking around the sprayer and sure enough, the hose attachment to the filter was leaking. Unreal. So I decide to finish up the spraying anyway before taking it back and you absolutely will not believe this but now the pressure switch isn't working. So the sprayer won't spray. Nothing. Nada. Nyet. I was sooo happy at this moment I just threw a fit, and started beating the sprayer pump with the wand and lo and behold it started working. Even more unreal. Great, so now the plan is to finish up the herbicide spraying and take this piece of shit back to exchange it for another piece of shit. I think I'll just start building trips to Tractor Supply in Winchester into my schedules because at this rate I'll need a new sprayer every two months when I spray herbicide.
Anyhow, I get it working and manage to spray everything except one row, but the events which transpired and precluded me from spraying that row are too traumatic I can't recount them here, nor the way I managed to put a hole in the deer fence bad enough to require a patch.
It was not a fun day to be in the vineyard, and definitely one of the top five I'll look back upon when I recall the worst moments of all.
Posted by Stephen at 7:20 PM
June 4, 2006
Fun With Sprayers
Today was supposed to be an easy day. Ha.
Got over to the vineyard around 9 AM to spray Rely herbicide in the rows to keep the weeds down. Prior to spraying however, I had to do a quick walk through of the grow tubes to ensure none had blown off, or had vines exposed through the seams. That took about an hour, then it was time to get spraying. I hooked up the spraying rig, drove over to the neighbor's to fill the tank, then came back to the vineyard to mix the Rely. Got my protective gear on, hit the switch for the pump and nothing. The pump was running but nothing would come out of the sprayer. After working on it for 30 minutes, I resolved it was dead (probably bad valves inside from the chemicals). Well isn't that lovely, now what?
I already had $75 of Rely mixed in to the tank, so I wasn't about to just pour it out to work on the pump. So I decided to head down to Winchester to Tractor Supply to get a new pump. Once there, it became clear that buying the replacement parts would quickly become more expensive than a new sprayer, thus I just got a 30-gallon deluxe Fimco to replace the 25-gallon one. Back to the vineyard, now the fun part was figuring out how to get 25 gallons (200 lbs) of herbicide into the new tank without 1) covering myself with it or 2) spilling it all over the ground. By carefully lining up the drain spout of the 25 with the opening of the 30 I drained half, then picked up the 30 and put it in the cart, then poured in the rest. Not too big of a mess. Yeah right.
Thus, three hours wasted screwing around with the sprayers, so I only got to spray the established rows, which means I'll have to spray the new planting next weekend. Please don't rain, because if I put it off another week I'll have a weedy disaster on my hands...
Posted by Stephen at 4:35 PM
June 3, 2006
Vineyard Chores
Since we were out of town last weekend enjoying a mini-vacation at Deep Creek Lake for Memorial Day, it was back to the grind today. Chores for this weekend are:
- Shoot position 2 acres of last year's planting
- Spray fungicide
- Spray herbicide in the rows
- Mow the vineyard
I did a few things at the house before heading to the vineyard, and as soon as I got there I realized the shoot positioning was going to take a lot longer than I had planned. Some of the cab franc vines are already about 8' tall! So instead of shoot positioning taking hours like I had hoped, it took almost 7 hours.
Once that was done, I decided to spray the fungicide, since at this stage of the vine's growth that is more critical than a few weeds in the rows. Alas, the larger canopy threw off my spray calculations and I came up short by one damn row which I will have to spray tomorrow. I suppose I could have gone over to the neighbor's and gotten some more water, but I was burned out (and sun burned) and ready to call it a day. Tomorrow I'll finish that last row with fungicide, and get the herbicide down. Probably won't mow until next weekend, since the grass isn't really that bad so there is no sense in mowing early. Here's what I sprayed today:
Microthiol Special - rate 3 lb per acre
Dithane DF Rainshield Nt - rate 3 lb per acre
BTW, as I was spraying the fungicide the wind kept changing direction on me so I ended up with a lot of copper and sulfur on me. It was kind of weird what the chemicals did to my silver ring - instant tarnish. A quick search of the Internet confirmed my suspicions - tarnish is actually silver sulfide, thus the contact with the microthiol (sulfur) turned my silver celtic ring black. Kewl. And yes, I'll wear gloves from now on.
Posted by Stephen at 8:42 PM
May 12, 2006
2006 Second Spray
Today dawned bright and sunny, a nice change from yesterday. Today's tasks (I thought) were to assemble the shed, plant a few viogniers to replace some that died last year, herbicide the five rows I didn't get to when I did the first round a few weeks ago, then give the vines a big dose of fungicide to last while I'm away for a week. So as I arrived at the vineyard I took a walk through a few rows and realized it was time to do the first pass of shoot positioning, since most of the vines had shoots tall enough to reach the first wire, but were hanging out to the side. Oh boy, this will make the schedule for the day tight. Knowing that, I hustled through the assembly of the shed (so easy with the correct pieces...) and left the doors open so it could dry out from yesterday's downpour.
Shoot positioning is pretty easy work, and you can move pretty quickly, however every now and again you have to stop to tie some vines. I would say the big lesson for the day goes back to some decisions we made during pruning. While we were pruning, we would do some tying of the cordons to the wire, however in many cases we didn't tie the ends of the cordons because the stiffness of the wood kept them in the proper place. However, once the cordons pushed out the new growth, the weight of the shoots caused the cordons to sag down from the fruiting wire, thus many of them had to be tied up. Good lesson to remember next year during pruning - always account for the future weight of the vines and plan accordingly. It took about 2.5 hours to shoot position 2 acres of vines, not too bad for one person. That done, I quickly planted the viognier, and mixed and sprayed the Rely on the five rows, then assembled the spraying rig and did all the cab franc and viognier.
Microthiol Special - rate 2 lb per acre
Dithane DF Rainshield Nt - rate 2 lb per acre
Although it was a hectic day, I can jet off to South Africa with a clear conscience, knowing the vineyard is in tip-top shape.
Posted by Stephen at 9:42 PM
May 11, 2006
Supply Runs / Frustrations
Yesterday was my last day at AOL. Shannon and I have resigned to take executive positions with Viva Entertainment, the production company founded by our friend Lorne Greene and his wife Emily. I'll be President of Production and Shannon will be VP of Sales and Marketing. Seems pretty absurd to think I quit my job yesterday when I signed a $1.2 million dollar construction loan the day before. Seemed like a good idea at the time... Anyway, we officially join the company 31-May, but in the interim I'm heading down to South Africa with Lorne to work on a show for Aegis Media. So today in addition to having to run errands and pick up supplies for the vineyard I needed to start getting ready for the trip.
The day started early as I headed down to Tractor Supply in Winchester. On the way, Shannon called and told me I was supposed to be on a conference call with the resort production manager in South Africa in 20 minutes. Uh, OK fine. So pulled in to a gas station, filled up, and dialed in to the conference bridge, which was ridiculous since the line from South Africa kept dropping out. Since the call was a bust, I continued to TSC, grabbed a few items, then headed over to Helena Chemicals to pick up Rely (herbicide), Mancozeb and Dithane (fungicides). Swung through a mall to get a phone charger for the car, then drove in circles for a while trying to find Home Depot, but stumbled upon a Lowes instead. Had to buy a big plastic shed to store chemicals, since the shack will be getting razed in a few weeks and stuff has to come out. Found a pretty nice one, a 6' tall unit that looked pretty easy to assemble. Once out of Lowes, I went next door to Office Max to get a wireless card for my PC and some supplies for the trip. Quick lunch at ChickFilA and then headed home to the vineyard to assemble the shed.
On the way home it begins to rain a bit, steadily increasing as I near home. I pull into the vineyard and unpack the box. Of course it's fucking pouring by now, but that just adds to the romance of the vineyard adventure. As I begin to assemble the shed, it becomes clear that the box was not properly packed at the factory, and that instead of having three left sides and three right sides, I have five lefts and one right. SHIT that means I have to drive BACK to Winchester to exchange the pieces. Very mad. Very. Mad. Soaking wet, I drive back to Winchester (but I took the trailer off so I could drive faster) and once at Lowes I explain the situation to the checkout girl. Her face goes blank and her eyes glaze over in total confusion as I indicate that we need to open another package so I can exchange my two "E" pieces for two "C" pieces. "Maybe you should go inside and talk to Customer Service" is her advice. Fine. In to Customer Service I go, where I again explain the situation to another primate, who says "you need to talk to the checkout girl." OK I am now getting ready to have a fucking aneurism. So now it's time for action - I go outside to the garden center department, pull down another huge box and proceed to open it in the middle of the aisle. I take the two "C" pieces I need, and lay the "E" pieces I hate in the box. On my way out I tell the cashier "please be aware that the mess in the back does not constitute a complete shed kit, and that you have to mark it as defective and remove it from the floor." Her eyes roll back in her head, and she mutters "Welcome to Lowes" like some android who has gotten out of it's program. Bye, and my sincere apologies to the next poor sap who buys a fucked up shed from Lowes - I really did try.
So great, now I have my correct pieces but my entire day schedule is blown (I was supposed to go to Leesburg to get some new clothes for the trip after assembling the shed) but since I had to backtrack to Winchester that plan was dead. So switching everything around I went in to the mall in Winchester to pick up some dress shirts and slacks from the department store. Cool - got that mission accomplished. So on my way home Shannon calls from my brother's place where we're supposed to be having dinner, so I head over there (still a bit damp mind you) for a quick visit and some Chinese. Once over there, I realize that I never stopped to pick up the trailer again, which I need to take the mower over to the vineyard tomorrow to spray. Aneurism approaching. So at 9:00 PM I decide that since I have to go by the vineyard anyway I may as well go the whole way into Charles Town to the Wal-Mart to pick up the few remaining things I need for my trip. Into Charles Town, back to the vineyard to get the trailer, back home, in bed by midnight. Good grief.
Posted by Stephen at 9:40 PM
May 1, 2006
Spray Record
Had the first fungicide spray of the season on the newly-emerged vines:
Microthiol Special - rate 1 lb per acre
Dithane DF Rainshield Nt - rate 1 lb per acre
I got to the vineyard about 6:45 PM and realized I had to put the sprayer back together in the tow-behind cart. Also, since my previous spray was herbicide I needed to rinse the sprayer thoroughly with clean water. I didn't begin actually spraying until about 7:30, by which time the sun had already dipped behind the Blue Ridge mountains and it was starting to get dark.
All in all the first spray went well - I had just enough in the 25-gallon tank to spray the whole vineyard in one tank since the vines have just begun to grow there is minimal leaf area to spray. But it's a good thing our lawn tractor has headlights, since the last few rows were done in total darkness!
Posted by Stephen at 10:44 PM
Catch Wires Complete
Tonight I went out to finish up installing the last four rows of tensioners, which has become critical since many of the shoots are already at the bottom catch wire. Since we're going out of town for a long weekend vacation, it can't wait, so I got three rows done until it was too dark to see, then pulled my truck up and did the last row by headlights! And since I was too tired on Sunday to clean up from the grow tube party, I had to spend an hour breaking down the tent, gathering trash, loading up the trailer with chairs and tables. Got everything tidied up by around 9:30 PM and headed home. What a long day, as we had to get an early start this morning to sign the construction loan at Vince's office, which of course was captured by the HGTV Dream House crew. I am so tired, and am really looking forward to a few days in Florida.
Posted by Stephen at 9:39 PM
April 30, 2006
Grow Tube Follow-Up 2006
Today we finished up the last of the de-suckering and grow tube installation, and almost completed installing the trellis wire tensioner installation. I was feeling pretty tired this morning after the long day yesterday, but very encouraged with the amazing progress we made. Korte showed up early, and I put him to work with Shannon finishing up the de-suckering. Tristan took a nap in his pack-n-play while we worked, and then Tiago showed up so we put him to work assembling grow tubes for the petit verdot. Shannon and Korte finished up the de-suckering, so she headed home with Tristan and Korte and I continued installing tensioners.
Eventually we got to a row that was missing a trellis post, and I was confronted with a task I'd been putting off for a year. At the west side of the vineyard is a hill, and there is a rock vein running across the slope a la the large outcropping I had to backhoe out. So last year when Donny's crew was installing trellis posts, there were two that they couldn't pound in because of all the rock. Thus I had to get my digging bar and posthole digger and manually dig the two-foot holes. What a suck job, reminding me of the deer fence installation last year. But after an hour of banging rocks, I got the posts in place and nailed up the catch wires.
Part of the tensioner installation process is walking each row after the wires have been nailed up to check nail placement, wire tension, etc. As Korte and I were walking a row I noticed that two of the trellis wires had been crossed between two posts, effectively creating a large "X" between the posts. Oh well, since I was too wiped out to pull it all apart we decided to just call it "trellis research..." By now Tiago was done with all the grow tubes, so the three of us just worked on tensioners until I was totally exhausted so we called it a day. Only four more rows left, and we're done!
Posted by Stephen at 9:38 PM
April 29, 2006
Grow Tube Day 2006
One of the most critical aspects of planting new vines is ensuring they get off to a good start. The primary method used is the installation of grow tubes around the vine, which acts as a mini-greenhouse to keep the new shoots warm, as well as protected from critters. Last year we invited over a bunch of family and friends to help us out. Since there are no chemicals involved, and nothing too heavy to lift, it is a good opportunity for everyone to come out and pitch in. So since everyone had such a blast last year, we decided to do the same thing this year! Of course with one big difference, which was the presence of the HGTV Dream House camera crew who was onhand to record the entire event.
I got out to the vineyard early to distribute materials, to make sure everything was in place when the volunteers showed up. Bright and early at 7:00 AM I was dropping bamboo stakes by each vine. People started showing up around 9:00 AM, and Shannon came early to set up the catering tent, while my mom stayed at our house to watch Tristan while he took his morning nap, then they joined us.
Essentially the process is to have one crew distributing bamboo stakes, then pushing them in the ground, one stake per vine. Then another crew is assembling grow tubes and sliding the tubes over the stakes. One big improvement we had over last year was our neighbor Karelyn's John Deere Gator, which the tube team used to quickly move grow tubes from the assembly area into the rows. This saved a lot of time over last year where everything was walked in.
In addition to the bamboo and grow tube installation, we also had several people hammering in nails for the installation of the trellis catch wires. This was also a critical step, since the vines had emerged from dormancy and the shoots were on their way up.
The last mission for the day was to finish up the de-suckering of the vines, which Shannon, Rebecca and Dan worked on.
Everyone had a great time, and it was all captured for the show by our trusty camera crew. After a full day of everyone kicking ass, we managed to get all the trellis wires hammered in place, all the bamboo installed, and all the viognier grow tubes installed, about 1.125 acres worth! Just four rows of petit verdot tubes to install tomorrow, four rows of cab franc to de-sucker, and tensioning all the trellis wires.
Enjoy the pics!
Thanks to everyone who helped out!!!
Posted by Stephen at 9:24 PM
April 21, 2006
Planting Day 2006
This morning began bright and early, as the alarm went off at 5 AM. I popped out of bed, took a shower, kissed Shannon and Tristan goodbye and took off for UPS. Stopped off for some coffee, and was parked in front of the gate by 7 AM. I was kind of hoping I could weasle my way inside early and get my boxes and get out of there. Nothing doing - place was very secure. So I sat, and sat and got bored so I downloaded a chess game onto my PDA and proceeded to get my ass kicked by the computer about 40 times. Whatever.
Right on time at 8:30 AM the gate opened up and I zipped inside, with a bunch of assholes hot on my tail trying to cut in front of me to get to the counter. Lucky for them I parked quickly and got in first because I would have hated to throw someone in the bushes that early in the morning. So I bop on up to the clerk, give her my intervention number, which she enters in the computer. And by watching her face I realized something was not right. So she calls over another kid to help out, and he takes me to another computer to try and find my boxes. Come to find out the boxes arrived at 5 AM and went right onto the delivery truck, and my intervention which I scheduled last night at 10 PM did not go into the system until 7 AM this morning. So while I was outside sitting at the gate UPS was inside fucking up my day, because now the computer is telling him that the boxes are on the truck on the way to Purcellville, which means I wouldn't get them until around 3. Disaster.
So the kid, who was very nice and quite helpful, decides to go take a look for himself. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. The minutes passed by like hours waiting for him to come back. Meanwhile all the assholes had gotten their packages and left and there I sat staring at the first lady I spoke with. Who then asks the inevitable "what's in the boxes you're picking up?" to which I respond "vines - where's your bathroom?"
After about 20 agonizing minutes I see the kid coming back and lo and behold he has three boxes!!! Wait a minute - three? I was supposed to have four! Apparently the driver couldn't find the fourth box and it went out on the delivery truck to Purcellville. Hmmm. OK then here's the newly revised new alternative backup plan. I had enough vines to get us started, so I called Shannon and now her plan was to swing by the rental on the way back from work to (hopefully) find a box of vines sitting on the deck to bring over with her to the vineyard.
So off to the vineyard I go with two boxes of viognier and one box of petit verdot, ready to rock and roll. By now the clouds have started to roll in and the day is beginning to look like rain. Actually drove through a few sprinkles on my way back.
I arrived at the vineyard at 10 AM and found Mike and the labor crew ready to roll, and also met the camera crew. Chris Barrett, field producer, and George and Pam Patterson, camera and audio respectively. George and Pam live just down the road in White Post, VA and have been working together for many years.
I handed off the vines to Mike who headed into the vineyard with the crew to get setup, while Pam tried to find a clean wireless channel for my lavalier microphone, which I had to wear all day for filming. We finally got on the tractor and began planting vines about 10:45, and things proceeded smoothly until we ran out of viognier (thanks UPS) so we had to pick up all the tools and head to the other side of the vineyard to install the petit verdot. This went smoothly, although we did have to hand-plant one row which was where the original research vines ended up that I pulled out. So we finished the petit verdot and moved the equipment back to the other side of the vineyard to wait for Shannon, who showed up about 15 minutes later - perfect timing!
While Shannon got into her overalls and got her mic on, I did another row on the tree planter, and then it was time for her to take a turn. She has been looking forward to this for a whole year! A quick safety lesson and she was ready to roll. So I handed her vines and she dropped them in the ground. She did several rows until her hands got too cold to hold the vines, so I finished up the last two rows. And no kidding, as the tractor was slowing to a halt with four vines left it started to rain. Looks like the insanity of making today happen was all worth it.
It took about an hour to clean up after the planting, get the tree planter off the tractor and onto it's trailer, and (my favorite part) writing checks and paying everyone. Time to go home and collapse.
Posted by Stephen at 6:16 PM
April 20, 2006
Weather Watching / New Planting Plan
Uh oh...
This Saturday is supposed to be planting day for the installation of 1 1/8 acre of new viognier vines, and an 1/8 acre of petit verdot which we will eventually blend with the cab franc. BUT the weather is not looking good - calling for severe thunderstorms starting tomorrow (Fri) night and continuing through the weekend. If you've ever been out to the vineyard after that much rain you'll know what a swamp it can be, even though it dries out pretty quickly afterwards.
So I got on the phone with Mike Newland, our planting consultant to talk through our options. I was hoping to push planting back a day or two to let the ground dry out, but both Mike and the labor crew are booked solid next week installing other vineyards. So I made the executive decision to move planting up a day to tomorrow.
Great, so I rescheduled Mike and the labor crew, but now I have to deal with organizing the TV crew because they want to make sure they get footage of planting day as background material for the HGTV Dream House series we're shooting. I call Sean McLaughlin, the producer in Colorado to tell him we've rescheduled. After a brief moment of panic, he tells me he'll call back in a bit. Sean calls back to say the crew is available for the reschedule, but that his flight doesn't get in until 3, but he'll be there as soon as he can.
So we get everyone rescheduled and ready to go. Now the only problem is where are the vines...?
Earlier this week I had called Vintage Nurseries to get my UPS tracking number. Using that I had been tracking the vines across the country all week, and knew that they had left this morning from Laurel, MD on a truck going somewhere. Called UPS and the person on the phone couldn't pinpoint where the packages (4) were, so after work Shannon and I picked Tristan up from daycare and headed over to the main UPS distribution warehouse for Northern Virginia, which is in Chantilly. The lady behind the counter was more helpful (though of course more surly) and advised me that since the boxes had not arrived in Chantilly (they were in Burtonsville, MD) to call later tonight to schedule an "intervention." This basically means once the boxes arrive in Chantilly in the early morning - 5 AM-ish - they would pull them off the truck and set them aside so I can pick them up first thing in the morning. OK, that sounds fine. So I called Mike and let him know that I would be able to get the vines first thing in the morning and that I'd be a little late, but go ahead and have the crew there and get the tractor in place etc.
Shannon, who by now is pretty upset that she might miss planting day due to AOL responsibilities, is trying to figure out how she can leave early to be able to take a few turns on the tree planter to actually plant some vines. She was unable to last year due to being very pregnant. So she decides that she's leaving work tomorrow at 2 in order to get out to the vineyard before 3. After we've figured out all this timing, we head home to settle in for the night.
Once at home, I call UPS and set up the intervention, and the plan is to be at the gate in Chantilly when they open at 8:30 tomorrow morning. While Shannon is feeding Tristan I start packing my truck with everything I'll need for tomorrow. By now it's almost 10 PM, and just when I think I'm ready to get to bed I realize I have no lunches for the crew tomorrow. SHIT now I have to run out to Giant to get sandwiches, snacks and drinks. I get that done, come home, pack the coolers, take a shower and finally get to bed around 12:30 AM Friday morning. Which is going to make for a fun day tomorrow because the alarm is going off at 5 AM to ensure I'm at the UPS gate first!
Posted by Stephen at 11:38 PM
April 17, 2006
Stuck Backhoe
This morning I called Rentals Unlimited to advise them their nice backhoe was buried up to it's belly in the mud. The guy on the phone said they could come out to tow it out, but said he'd have to check with the manager to see when they could do it. Hold please. Sure. After a minute or so, he comes back and says "We don't do recovery anymore - you have to figure this out. Call us when it's free and we'll come pick it up." Well fuck you too.
So I start calling around to truck recovery places and finally find someone who can help out, Mark's Recovery in Frederick, MD. So the guy on the phone asks how much the backhoe weighs and I tell him 6 tons to which he politely chuckles and says he'll send over his "small recovery truck" for such a little job. Sure buddy you do that. So I race over to the vineyard to meet the truck and up pulls their "small" truck. Admittedly I have no experience in this sort of thing, but after talking with the driver I realize that these guys pull 18-wheelers out of construction sites for fun, and that this little backhoe job is silly. Fine. They back their little truck up to the backhoe and pull out these two cables that look like they could lift an aircraft carrier and hook up to the tie-down points on the rear of the backhoe. Of course they want me to sit inside and put the backhoe in reverse so I can take over when it hits the bank of the creek. Not what I had in mind - I was hoping to watch through the window of my neighbor's house across the street. Whatever, I hop in and get a front-row seat for the action. The driver moves the hydraulic lever and up comes the backhoe like lifting a toy tonka truck out of a sandbox - I am not kidding when I say the recovery truck engine didn't even slow down when the hydraulics were engaged. Totally awesome. Thanks very much, here's your $290 you fellas have a nice day. Called Rentals Unlimited to come pick up their muddy-ass backhoe. Happy Monday morning!
A very stuck backhoe
This is NOT good
The little tow truck
Posted by Stephen at 10:24 PM
April 16, 2006
Landscaping Continued / Wire Pulling Finished
Another rainy day for landscaping. Started off the morning with a trip to Meadows Farms to get another slender hinoki cypress for the north side of the entrance gate. Also needed some more golden barberry and additional white geraniums (thought we were going to have to replace all the ones that got destroyed by last weekend's frost but looks like they are going to make it!) Shannon met me at the vineyard and we got everything planted except the geraniums. We ran out of mulch, so decided to put the remaining planting off for another weekend. Sprayed the fenceline with herbicide to minimize mowing and weedwhacking chores. Still need to finish up the rock walls but that can get done any time - plants have to get in the ground now.
Once we were done planting, Shannon headed home to relieve mom from babysitting duties and I went into the vineyard to pull the last of the trellis wire. Took about three hours to finish up, but finally all the wire is pulled. Now we just need to get it all hammered in place, but we have a ton of friends and family on the way to help out in a few weekends so that will be a huge help!
Entry landscaping 1
Entry landscaping 2
Entry landscaping 3
Posted by Stephen at 10:08 PM
April 15, 2006
Backhoe Day
Surprise, surprise - our vines have woken up from their long winter nap! Happy to see we've had bud break this week - pics are in the gallery below.
Today's chore was to remove two large rock outcroppings which will be directly in the way of our new rows for next week's plantings. In fact, I've been dreading this day ever since we bought the land, because I knew someday they would have to be dug up, and I had no idea how difficult it would be. Would I need a hydraulic breaker or would they need blasted? I was going to find out today.
I've been calling excavators for weeks trying to find someone to come out and do the job for me, and I keep getting "sure we'll come out to take a look then get back to you." Not a single one of those assholes ever called back. So with planting only a week away it was time to call Rentals Unlimited to have a backhoe delivered. So I figured why settle for a small excavator when I could rent a decent size backhoe and hopefully not need the hydraulic breaker.
The backhoe was delivered right at 8 AM, and after a quick chat with the truck driver I was on my own. Easing into the vineyard I got in position, spun the seat around, dropped the outriggers and loader, and worked the backhoe into position behind the first rock. It had rained the previous couple days, so the ground was still a little soft. Here goes - dropped the bucket in and popped that boulder out of the ground like it was a pebble. Easy! Hey this might not be so bad??? In fact, within about 20 minutes I had the rest of the white quartz boulders dug up. Wow. On to the next outcropping - the big one.
Moved the machine into position, and again dropped the backhoe bucket in behind the first rock. Didn't budge. Uh oh... So I decided to nibble away at the side which worked great. The rock broke apart pretty easily, except for about 10 pretty large pieces (probably 5 feet across, possibly weighing around a ton) which I just rolled out of the hole. All in all the outcropping was torn apart and out of the hole in about 45 minutes. Now all I had to do was pick up the pieces and move them out of the vineyard!
I took the big pieces to the back of the vineyard, as I will be using them in future landscaping projects, especially the big white quartz boulders. Most of the smaller rocks (basketball size and under) I dumped in the creek bed. Found a large pile of fill dirt to put back in the holes. Finished up the whole project in about three more hours. Kick ass!
Very happy about this, and since I have the machine for 24 hours (up to 8 hours on the engine) I decided to do some more work. Dumb, very dumb...
We have a creek down behind the old barn that we wanted to move right up alongside the fence line to get it out of the middle of what will someday be the kids play area. So I headed out of the vineyard and over to the creek. Since the new creek had to go beyond the existing creek I needed to find a place to cross. Seeing what appeared to be a decent crossing place, I put the backhoe in 4WD and started across. As soon as I was in the creek that heavy pig of a machine sunk right up to it's belly in the mud and got stucker than shit. Couldn't back out, couldn't go forward. Game over.
To be continued...
Posted by Stephen at 9:48 PM
April 9, 2006
Herbicide
Time to get the rows cleaned up and ready for planting. This is a relatively simple process, riding around on the lawn tractor towing a small cart behind with the 25-gallon sprayer. I had to create a new rig this year, because the new tractor is not really useful for doing the herbicide spraying. The old tractor wasn't so bad - I could just lean over the side and spray downwards onto the weeds, but not possible with the cab. So I bought a small cart at Tractor Supply, and built a wiring harness to keep everything nice and tidy - check it out.
It took about three hours to get the vineyard and deer fence sprayed, but it's pretty easy work. And to make the chore a little more comfortable, I bought a full face respirator which is a thousand times more comfortable than a nose/mouth mask with face shield. View respirator image.
Posted by Stephen at 9:45 PM
April 8, 2006
Rainy Day / Pulling Wire / Landscaping
Today was a good day to be a duck. Woke up sometime around 3 AM to the sound of a downpour. Lovely - lots to do in the vineyard and rain or no rain it has to get done. So I got up early and headed over to Meadows Farms in Leesburg to pick up plants for the landscaping at the entry to the vineyard from Sagle Road. Decided to put on my full rain suit, which turned out to be a good idea. I was the only person in the nursery, except for the employees who stood in the greenhouse looking out at the idiot buying trees. Picked up 6 slender hinoki cypress, 20 golden barberry, and a couple flats of white geraniums. Everything is supposed to be deer resistent - we'll see...
Left Meadows, swung through Starbucks for a yummy treat and then off to the vineyard. Dropped the trailer at the entrance to wait for Shannon to help with the planting. I figured while I wait I may as well pull out some trellis wire. Only problem with that plan is because of the rain I was not able to drive up and down the rows. Our vineyard has a hill at one end, and when the ground gets soggy it is too tricky to maneuver around up there. Definitely run the risk of sliding sideways into the trellis end posts, which I'm guessing would work wonders on a truck door.
So I decided to just play it safe (if you've been following this blog you've probably just spit out your drink in disbelief at me saying that...) thus I parked at one end of the rows with the rear of the truck facing the row, attached the spool to the hitch, and walked each line out one at a time. Definitely more time-consuming, but there is no sense in sitting around. And in it's own way, it's kind of enjoyable, bundled up in a rain suit, headphones on, listening to some mellow New Age tunes whilst walking up and down the rows pulling wire.
Shannon made it over around 1 PM so we jumped right in to the planting. The vision I had in my head didn't work out exactly - essentially we need to buy more plants. I had planned on 2 cypress on one side and 4 on the other, but needed 5 instead. So we need another cypress and a bunch more barberry because we used them all up on one side as well. Still, we had a good time planting and really enjoyed being out there with each other. Whenever we're doing something like that it just makes the dream seem that much closer.
Finished up around 3:30, so Shannon went home to relieve my mom who pitched in to babysit Tristan. Since it was still daylight, I decided to pull more wire until I couldn't take another step. Productive day though - only two rows left needing wire (then a lot of hammering, but the big crew will be onsite in a couple weeks to help out with that!) As I was pulling out of the vineyard I bumped into mom, who came by to inspect the day's activities. We got an A+ for our efforts, and another A+ for Tristan being such a good and snuggly grandson! :)
Posted by Stephen at 9:32 PM
April 2, 2006
Jamming on the Catch Wires
Busy, busy, very productive day today! Another early start, and jumped right on paying out catch wire for the rest of the spools that I had on hand. Ran out of wire with six rows left, but that's OK because progress has been great - will swing in to Tractor Supply this week and pick up six more rolls to finish up the cab franc.
Once I ran out of wire, I started hammering nails attaching the wire to the trellis posts. I decided to stop hammering once I finished the viognier, both because it was a good stopping point, as well as I needed the use of my right hand for AOL tomorrow!
With plenty of daylight left, I decided to work on installing tensioners to tighten the slack in the attached wires. Managed to install six rows of tensioners before calling it a day. Current status of the catch wires (out of 12 viognier and 12 cab franc rows requiring installation) is:
-- 12 viognier and 6 cab franc rows wire payed out
-- 12 viognier rows wire hammered to the posts
-- 9 viognier rows tensioners installed
Hopefully I'll finish paying out wire next weekend, then that leaves the upcoming grow-tube crew to help finish up the hammering. Getting close!
Posted by Stephen at 8:55 PM
April 1, 2006
GC / More Hammering
Got an early start today to keep the momentum of the catch wires going from last weekend. Out in the vineyard by 8 AM, and spent a few hours paying out catch wires. Around 11:30 our general contractor, Ron Hawes, came by to take a look at the soon-to-be construction site and talk about the process etc. Ron didn't just come by for that, the Executive Producer for HGTV's "Dream House" series asked him to be present for part of our on-camera audition (which we spent the next five hours doing). But that's another story that I'll detail in an upcoming entry once we know how it all turns out...
Posted by Stephen at 8:50 PM
March 26, 2006
Catch Wire Continued
Guess what I did today? Yup - payed out three rows of catch wire and attached one of them to the trellis posts. My hand was pretty sore from all the hammering yesterday, so I did one row and called it a day. Very productive weekend - all the viognier wire has been payed out and ten rows have been attached. Will finish it all up next weekend (install tensioners and attach last two rows) then start on the cab franc. Might plant a few trees/bushes at the entrance to the vineyard, depending on if I can get a rough design in time and the weather is nice!
Posted by Stephen at 10:28 PM
March 25, 2006
Go Hammer!
Today I was fortunate enough to have some people take pity on me and come out to the vineyard for some hammerin'. I got out to the vineyard around 7:45 and started paying out catch wire. I got four rows laid out then took a little coffee break.
My sister Rebecca and her fiance Dan came out around 11, and after a quick lesson on proper staple banging they were off and running, attaching catch wires to the trellis posts.
Rebecca and Dan finishing up a row
While they were working on the catch wires, Shannon came out to finish up the last two rows of pruning. Her dad is in town for the weekend (missing his grandson terribly!) so he got babysitting duties which allowed Shannon to come out for a few hours. Once Shannon was finished, she ran out and got us all lunch. After finishing up lunch, my buddy Rob "Lefty" Klause came out to do some hammerin' as well. Nothing stranger than watching someone hammer backwards and upside down...
Look everyone! A lefty with a hammer!
Doing honey-dos for the wrong honey...
Hopefully he didn't get in too much trouble for skipping out on his chores at home. While Rob was out he also took some footage and sent me over the video file - I'll get it posted soon!
Rebecca and Dan took off about 3, and Rob hung out for a while and I joined him in attaching wire. Between the four of us, we got 6 rows of wire attached! Now I just have to construct the tensioners etc. to finish them up.
Shannon ran home to pick up Tristan and her dad so they could come join in the festivities. She got this great back carrier so she couldn't wait to try it out.
Roger thought the new tractor was pretty cool - slightly more advanced than the one he used to drive as a kid...
Roger takes the tractor for a spin
So it was a very busy and productive day in the vineyard! Many thanks to Rebecca Mackey, Dan Greenberg, and Rob Klause for their efforts. :)
Posted by Stephen at 10:00 PM
March 19, 2006
More Catch Wire Installation / Arithmetic
Installed more catch wires today. Got two rows done.
For planning purposes, I believe if I operationalize this I can get it down to 2 hours 45 minutes per row, which multiplied out for the 23 remaining rows is 63 hours 15 minutes. Factor in 10% error for mistakes etc. and I'm looking at 70 hours to complete the rows. Minus one weekend for planting and one weekend for a trip to Florida to see Shannon's family, I figure I have five weekends left before early-May which is about when the shoots will be reaching the 8" wire. Possibly sooner given the mild winter we've had.
Currently I'm scheduling myself for 14 hours per weekend in the vineyard, Shannon around 4-6 assuming we can always find a sitter. Budgeting time for building the shed, planting the entrance, herbicide application, mowing, spraying, etc. and this all adds up to one big-ass problem. Oh and did I mention MAYBE planting some Christmas trees? It appears I should have started installing catch wires a month sooner!
Not to worry, just have to call in the troops. In fact, Rebecca and Dan will be out this weekend to pound nails and help string up the wire after I've pulled it out each row. And I think I'll have the boys out one day to swing their hammers to gain a little more time. And if worst comes to worst I can have Quintin and his crew come out to bail me out - now that I think about it I'll probably have them bring hammers with them when they come out to help plant. Yeah, that's the ticket...
Never a dull moment out here!
Posted by Stephen at 4:17 PM
March 18, 2006
First Interview / Installing Catch Wires
Today began early - was out in the vineyard by 8 AM, and what better way to kick off the day than by working on the rock wall at the entrance to the vineyard. Good times. Just did two loads in the new tractor to get the blood flowing, and besides I needed to put a few chips in the paint of the front-end loader - it was a bit too green!
Started installing the catch wires to the trellis. We're going to eventually go with Smart-Dyson configuration, which is a vertically-divided canopy, but until the vines are established there won't be any downward growing shoots, so I'm just installing the upper wires. Six 14-gauge catch wires (three pairs) are nailed to the posts spaced at 8" - 10" - 10" above the cordon wire (which is 42" from the ground). Each pair is tied to the post at one end and crimped at the other end into a tensioner, which is then attached to the other end post with 12.5-gauge wire and ratcheted tight. Probably best to just have a look at the pictures!
Since there is so much wire to pull I bought a $50 device that allows me to attach the spool of wire to the hitch of my truck, then I just drive up and down the rows paying it out. I worked on this until noon, then Shannon came by and we had a visit from Paul and Warren from www.VirginiaWineTime.com - a blog about the Virginia wine industry. Great guys and we really enjoyed talking to them, as they are big supporters of our industry. Their respect for the work we've already put into it, as well as their enthusiasm for our future plans meant a lot. They plan on doing a future article for the Shenandoah online paper, so we'll keep an eye out for that.
Paul recorded some of our conversation and actually went to the trouble of posting it as a podcast on their site. Hopefully you'll always be able to access the archive here: March 2006 Entries
So they hung out for about an hour, then it was back to the fun stuff. As anyone who has been reading along with our adventure knows, the first time doing anything in the vineyard is always challenging. Thus when it came down to figuring out how best to build the tensioner connection it took several tries to get it right. By the time I was running out of daylight I had only finished one row. That pace is NOT going to work given the limited amount of weekends I have! Hope to do better tomorrow...
Posted by Stephen at 9:40 PM
March 12, 2006
Cabernet Franc Pruning
Back to the pruning today. I got into the vineyard around 11, and Shannon dropped Tristan off at her mom's and joined me a little later. We had an easy, enjoyable day working up and down the rows together, and knocked out four more rows, which leaves us four rows to finish next weekend and then I can start pulling trellis wire.
Vine before pruning / training
Shannon took a little break after finishing a row to go joyriding in the tractor - nothing like taking a spin around the vineyard with a simple-minded doggie chasing you (Gypsie of course). Figure we may as well play in the tractor a bit so it's not always "just work".
As we were finishing up, our neighbor Karelyn and her two kids Ashley and Jackson came by for a visit. I had promised the kids rides in the tractor, so took each on for a spin around the land. Jackson is a big fan of the loader - the "big scoop" as he calls it. :) Since we actually aren't living at the vineyard, Karelyn and her husband Jerry are kind enough to let us keep the tractor at their place so they can keep an eye on it for us - tractors do go missing in the country!
We headed home around 3:30 and Shannon went to pick up Tristan while I laid down to nurse some muscle strains - still getting back into "vineyard shape" this time of the year. Will toughen up over the next few weeks pulling trellis wire and working on my rock wall entrance for sure.
Posted by Stephen at 7:05 PM
March 11, 2006
New Bush Hawg
Long day today, and an expensive one at that. Started off this morning with a trip to Tractor Supply to get a new bush hawg - a 6' King Kutter to replace the 5'. Problem last year was with 9' wide rows, I was having to spray extra herbicide under the vines (over 2' wide on each side) so that I only had to mow one pass, yet it always seemed I was missing grass on either side of the bush hawg. So hopefully the new one solves that issue. I also had to purchase trellis wire because as soon as we are done pruning I have to begin running the catch wires. And in one of those moments of utter stupidity it occurred to me as I was standing there calculating how much wire we will need that I grossly underestimated the amount. The 14-gauge wire comes in 1/2 mile rolls, and for some reason I thought I'd only need a couple rolls. But once I started actually doing the math I realized that to put 4 catch wires on 25 x 400' rows I'll be needing almost 8 miles of wire! ACK. So I grabbed all the rolls they had - eight - and will have to go back when they reorder. Thankfully they also carried an unrolling jig that you attach the spool of wire to the hitch on your truck then just drive up the row paying out the wire behind. That will be a great help. So when all was said and done, and after picking up some miscellaneous maintenance items and a couple p