What We've Done These Past Few Weeks

No, it isn't Andrew Goldworthy's latest work. Its a Gerald original drilled post hole, awaiting a heavy locust pole.

Connie's Post:
although the harvest is done, its not the end of the work for the year. after a week of rest, we hit the farm again and have started preparing the vineyard for the spring. the first year viognior vines are ready for the cordon wiring to be set up. we dug holes for the posts and moved the heavy, heavy locust posts into place. there was some delicate manuvering with the truck into the vineyard--as far as we could possibly go to minimize the distance between the post and hole. even that was not enough to keep Gerald's wife from becoming terribly cranky over how heavy the posts felt.

the following week, we hoed and raked circles around the first year viognior vines, to prep for the weed spraying. one of the best parts of the vineyard is seeing new, small little things every time we go afield. this time we got blisters and killed FOUR black widow spiders that had burrowed down in the dirt. in moving posts around i found a sleepy bluetail lizard, too slow from being cold to move quickly out of my reach. during the summer, i can only admire them as they scamper around the tool shed walls. it was fun to see the lizard perk up as my hands warmed him up. the kids and i found the lizard another potential resting spot. we also took soil samples from the field at the back of the house to get them analyzed for nematodes. it's exciting to think of that big field covered with vines!