Linking to Mondavi

Robert Mondavi died today at 94, a life well lived. here are a few news article links:

• NY Times: Robert Mondavi, 94, California Winemaker, Dies
• MercuryNews.com: California winemaking patriarch Robert Mondavi dead at 94
• SFGate: Napa Wine Pioneer Robert Mondavi Dead at 94

Oats

Raley has oats sown in the fields this Spring. They're growing up tall and green and lovely. The vineyard season is in full swing now. Buds began to break early April during a warm spell. There was one night that came close to 32 degrees, and that was all we've seen of old man winter since. The weeds threatened to get ahead of us, but judicious control measures have put them in check and have allowed us to concentrate on the vines. Current focus is on shoot thinning: our pruning efforts this past winter were informed by a year's experience and it shows. We have many more shoots on each vine this year, and can now go through the vineyard picking just the right density for the season. Once we have the vines down to 4-6 shoots per foot of cordon we'll begin the task of positioning each shoot to grow straight by taping it to the lowest catch wire, which is located about eight inched above the cordon wire.

100th Post! New Vineyard Planting

yes! we are still here. i won't make my excuses, as you already know: grad school final project, strep throat (me and boy2), life, life and more life. here is a link to my final project wiki: Collaborative Nonprofits. i recommend using wikispaces for any project. i'm a total convert.

back to the vineyard.

it was a typical blustery april day, threatening to burst into tears or sunshine at any moment. uncle pete, gerald, a friend of the farm, had spent the morning digging holes with the auger and preparing to plant. ger then prepared the rootstock for the planting session. he poured this clear mixture of something and water into painter buckets. it had gruel-like consistency and it protectively coated the rootstock to keep them from drying out. uncle pete and fof (friend of farm) started planting the vines and ger picked up the boys and i from the farmhouse, where i had been working on my final project. we headed out to the proofing, east and west vineyard with the rootstock in buckets and planted 225 vidal, viognier, and nebbiolo vines. i wish i didn't have a no child photo policy, as boy 1&2 found a mud puddle and the ensuing mayhem was captured digitally. the boys ended up wearing the entire puddle and the men wished i had been their mother, as they said they were not allowed to get so muddy growing up. which i dont believe for a moment. i didn't mind it as long as the shoes were off. muddy shoes are the worst. but the boys were satisfied.

we filled in the holes from viognier vines that didn't make it in the west field. we planted nebbiolo in the place of the shiraz, which had suffered crown gall. ger and fof loaded the hand auger into the back of uncle pete's truck and we headed east, to lot 11. once there, uncle pete drove the truck with the hand auger back and forth and wherever there was a dead vine, they would stop, pull out the hand auger and drill a hole. i followed behind, planting the vines as i went.

there was some back and forth between the three men as to how to break it to me that my planting skills were lacking. something about fear, or not wanting to make me mad, or what, but i have no idea where they would get that idea from my general sweet and demure disposition. uncle pete, being a military man or having drawn the short straw, was sent to negotiate a truce for a battle that never happened, and once i was given a refresher in proper planting, i went about fishing among men again. the day was long, but nice. that hand auger is heavy, i can attest. i helped ger drill several of the last holes and it was hard on the shoulder i dorked up earlier in the year. i made a mental note to get into the doctor and more importantly, start working out again. the farm work has always been easier when i'm used to physical labor.

A Bouquet for Lyrel

Mimi's irises make their debut at the farmhouse's wet spot out back

Lyrel, so that you may enjoy this post, I will capitalize where necessary and be on my best behavior. Promise. I'm sending you a virtual bouquet (see left) as spring has burst all over your farmhouse in the form of Mimi's daffodils, snowdrops, vinca and irises. Its quite lovely—a postcard that says, "Wish you were here," in yellow, creme, white and lavender. Boy2 and I couldn't resist them and took a cue from a house brownie that had left several bouquets for us to enjoy the week before. The weather at the farmhouse was chilly enough for a fire, but sunny enough that we both could scamper about, searching for the best blooms to cut. Don't worry, I taught him to be a good steward of blooms and we cut a couple from each mound, oo-ing and ah-ing as we went along. Mimi had planted many different varieties I had often admired in the catalogs and its so nice to see them all about the grounds. I then cut some of the tigergrass for greenery and you have a very pretty bush that has the most tiny little white blossoms all along their long stems—they became sweet accents for the bouquet. I don't know if you can see them, they are delicate little things. We carefully arranged them in a parfait glass and then took the bouquet's picture against Aunt Judy's painting in your dining room. Then we had to flee, as they were unexpectedly aromatic and Momma couldn't take it. Hope you enjoy it as much as we. Ps. Your rosemary made it through the winter!

Home

Where have we been? its been a month without a post. is nothing happening at the shoestring vineyard?

of course not. plenty of things have been happening outside. pruning, for instance, is finished.

well, that's certainly blog worthy. where are the pics? where is gerald's commentary?

in the camera and in gerald's head, respectively. west coast pete was out for a week, and ger, west coast and east coast pete pruned; modified two rows from a vertical shoot position trellising to a lyre trellising system, and attended the annual maryland grape growers conference. ger said that was a good meeting. they stopped and saw uncle charlie (never seen in this blog) on the way back. ger has planned and started construction on the bay build out. the cleared site has been cleaned of sticks n' bits and has been seeded with rape seed to help with the erosion.

so they have done quite a bit. why can't we see what's going on? where are the tales of minutia you spill when you have nothing else to report? oh, and the farm diary. we havent seen posts of that for at least six months.

yeh. ive been thinking about that farm diary. i need start transcribing again. as far as the other stuff, as soon as the camera cord and i can find each other again, i'll at least post the slides. tales of the ordinary and other minutiae will have to wait. sadly, our townie is in need of repairs and maintenance, and i am now committed to seeing that it happens. we had our first family weekend without the farm since we went to disney two years ago. it was short, but felt good.

so thats where you've been?

yeh. home. just saying home gives me that happy, hopeful feeling. ger and i hope everyone is blessed to have a home falling around their heads as they pursue many, many adventures, as my family does. and thanks for asking and the interest. i'll catch up again with you soon.

Dreaming of Very Vine Things

a man can dream, can't he?

connie's post:
Here, ger gets dreamy over the cleared fields possibilities. He's taken soil samples. He's walked the field, counting each step in order to calculate a rough estimate of the field length. He looks at how the sun travels across the field. and he thinks. and plans. and dreams.

but there are considerations to be made. here you see where the other side of the vidal acre meets up with another hill, forming a very shallow hallow. hillsides are great for cool air drainage. this hollow has a disadvantage. at the edge of the cleared field is a road that cuts across the farm land. the road dips a little to one side, the cleared side. water run off is causing erosion and is making ger and brother pete think about the implications. ger is considering planting the area with vines, as the hollow slopes down. he thinks the vines on the high side along the road might do okay. he's thinking of what variety(ies) he might try, but first needs to get an actual measurement of the field to know how many vines he can fit into the field. within the next two weekends we are going to plant that area with rape seed as a cover and hope for a good snow.

Discovery!

i find my first arrowhead, ever!

connie's post
Boy2 had his trusty shovel and toolbox at the base of the vidal acre, and was playing where many of the cleared trees are being turned into firewood. i, his faithful momma, kept an eye on him while i tried to make myself useful in what area the boy roamed. that meant plugging some of the holes under the small critter fencing, created by water erosion from some rain storms we had earlier. as i was gathering the rocks and a few remmants of the vidal fence posts, i kept scanning the ground as you can find some pretty cool things. like this lichen bit, here at the beginning of this paragraph. just really graphic looking.

and then i see it!

an arrowhead, made from white quartz!

i never find arrowheads!

now i'm that nine year old tomboy in moccasins and pigtails, i'm so excited. weeee! i show boy2, who is equally excited, but who wants to hold it and put it in his pocket. uh-uh. i don' think so. i found it. (totally regressing) i show it to ger's dad and he says i should look around for more—usually you find more than one. eventually, i find something else in white quartz that looks like it might be something a small scrapper like thing, but then again, it could be just an oddly broken, flat white quartz. i bet the erosion uncovered the arrowhead. finally i give up and try to help dad chop firewood, but its just more or less dad taking a break while he watches me flail away—doing a real hatchet job (heh) on the helpless log—until he takes pity on the axe and takes it back.

i take the arrowhead out of my pocket and rub my thumb over its meticulously chipped edges. and i look up and think of stealthy indians crouching among the tall trees, tracking the deer through a foggy day a long, long time ago. if i was that tomboy in moccasins and pigtails, i would have given the arrowhead to my favorite boy. i think of my favorite boy, pruning vines in the proofing vineyard with his uncle. i gather up boy2 and we walk up the path to his daddy.

Perspectives

blackberry shoots spring out of the compacted earth

connie's post:
Its a warm february and life is thrown off by the confusing hot and cold signals nature is blowing our way. while the new vidal vines are doing their best to hit the snooze button and ignore the warmth, we have new plants growing to fill the tall tree vacuum from the previous year. most of them look like weeds and a few look toxic (check out those mushrooms!)—no doubt some are—but as the adage goes, a weed is just a plant in the wrong spot. above you see the start of a promising blackberry bush and there are many more of them. i'm planning to transplant them this march, down at the bottom of the hill to take advantage of the water run off. i like walking through the vidal acre, pausing and looking at the new plants, and it would be great to have a plant field guide to identify them all. i also have plans to resurrect the growing trays at home in order to get a head start on growing lavendar plants. i'd like to see how they would fare along the deer and small critter fencing. i think that's the thing with february. one gets antsy for green of any sort and then all of the sudden, you are growing mesclun in window trays. well, ok. that's me. i really dig having a southern exposure kitchen.

the post installation project in the vidal acre has been completed and the geometry of the posts in the field always makes me think of environmental art. while the proofing vineyard is cozy and intimate, the vidal acre in its infancy seems freakishly frontier-ish. it's wide expanse of dirt, sprouts, and tall fence postings and it reminds me of my childhood driving family vacations out west. the silliness of scale is only enhanced by the field being hemmed in by the surround acres of tall trees.

currently, we are in the middle of pruning our vines and that will be the subject matter for my next post. we have a much, much, larger job than previous years and we are learning quite a bit as we go.

The Talk Tall Trees Make

the exposed tall trees by the vidal acre.

Connie's Post
Often gerald will comment on how he feels the vineyard talking to him as he tends to it—he's referring to the high hum of the wind over the cordon wires, but i suspect he hears other natural conversations as well. and no, i don't think its odd, since i've experienced it as well—the sound of birds and wildlife telling you what time of year it is or the demi-roar of the wind as it whips over the fields of corn like wind on a sea.

i heard a new conversation on sunday, as gerald measured the fallow acre with his feet. the tall trees along the vidal acre were once supported by many other tall trees until last winter, when large sums of money took down a large portion of the wooded area. the tall trees that now stand at the edge are a bit cranky, being exposed as they are. the wind rushes over the hills and bends the tall trees heads together and they grunt and squeak their dissatisfaction at their new exposure while the supporting side trees murmur their sympathies. as i walked up the hill to my husband, i gave them a nod and a rueful shrug—sorry, but knowing what was done is done.

i hope they will grow stronger.

Doors are Done.

Dad and Uncle Pete (East Coast Pete) in front of the new doors

Connie's Post:
The machine shed bay two doors were completed the weekend of 21 jan, so consider this post from the way back machine. remember when mike and his crew came down to the farm and poured the floor? that bay. as you can see, the wise guys are pretty proud of their handiwork.

momma&theboys visited her momma&dad over the three day MLK weekend, so now you know what ger does for fun when by himself. i know, i worry about him, too—but really, he only had two days of fun instead of our three. ger reports this picture is the ending of a very long project that stretched across bits of time during the fall and was undertaken by custom door wizards, dad (BB) and uncle charlie (CC, not pictured)

to create very large, very custom bay doors, the two wizards first put up three horizontal boards across the bay. then they bolted vertical boards to the horizontal boards and attached diagonal boards on the inside to maintain the integrity of the doors. they sawed the one VERY LARGE DOOR in half, vertically. then they hinged the outside of the door edges and viola! custom doors. since the two doors were once one door, they had some trouble as the designed doors were a snug fit and ended up overlapping (just a tad) each other, the top and the bottom of the bay. the doors wouldn't close all the way. so at this point, ger, dad, uncle pete took the doors off their hinges, cut a half an inch off of the top, bottom and where the doors meet to finish the project off. then they rehung the doors to a perfect fit and to the relief of all.

we are looking forward to additional dry storage of our equipment and gear!

Podcast Review: The Wine Scout

Connie's Post:

The winescout targets wine/foodie people who like to do those weekend festivals and tour wineries. i'll admit, i have a soft spot for a shoestring start-up, so when i came across wine scout and found they are a (relatively) local enterprise in glen allen, va, i gave a quick woohoo and subscribed immediately. the wine scout has an interesting premise: people can sign up their favorite wine event—possibly even special guest host their own podcast—and the wine scout then covers and posts the event.

the podcasts on itunes and in their site's catalog are audio, but if you visit their site: thewinescout.com, you can see a featured video of fredericksburg, TX. the podcasts are older—the last podcast is from the summer of 07—but on their site, they also have more current blog posts, so i consider it still active. i like having wine scout as part of my winecast mix as the podcasts are more relaxed and cut on the fly, not as slickly produced as a few of the other podcasts i've reviewed. wow. note to wine casters everywhere: the world has enough bottles being popped or glasses clicking together as a start or finish to a podcast. resist. resist.

winescout currently covers east coast wineries and events and that's a rare thing in podcast land. i listen to winescout to hear about wineries from a consumer perspective and hear how the featured winery presents their brand, their culture and their products.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

previously, on what was once a vineyard blog—but now more like an endless review of the content on my ipod—i reviewed crushpad's crushnetTV podcasting. and while i am so in love with everything crushnet, i was disappointed that the content was not compatible with my ipod classic. i still enjoy watching it online, but there is nothing like content to go. so, i shot them a quick email, thinking i'd just alert them. here is their prompt, proactive reply:

On Jan 17, 2008 8:11 PM, Alan Baker <alan@crushpadwine.com> wrote:

Hi Connie.

We figured out our problem but there is not an easy fix since we have to create new versions and post them. WE can do that easy enough but it means that everybody who has signed up for the feed will have to download all the new versions or they won't load...

yargh!

I'm working on it though, and your feed should start synching to your ipod soon. I just need to figure out how to wrangle things in a way to cause the least hassle for you and other subscribers.

Thanks again for the heads up.

Alan Baker

so stay tuned and rest comfortable, knowing alan is diligently working the issue.

Winecast Review: Wine Spectator Videocast

Connie's Post:
I subscribe to my blogs through itunes, so the wine spectator icon will take you there but you really need to visit Wine Spectator Online as the website will completely spoil you. these vodcasts offer slick, professional produced bite (sip?) size information about a wide range of wine topics. between crushpad and wine spectator, i am learning at a rapid pace. wine spectator online has organized their videos by region, editor's tastings, wine people, learn wine, food pairing, dining & travel and special reports—so anyone can dig deep into their favorite subject or skim along all the subjects easily. wine spectator is pretty seductive for all its professionalism and the vodcasts allows me to gather information from all these wine experts and safely roll my eyes when they drop other experts names that they have studied under to establish their own credibility. and really to be fair, that also protects me and the wine professional from my own dorky questions and newbie attitude—so its a win-win all around!

Birthday Weekend

Connie's Post
January had a bitter bite as i grew up in mighty MO. Zone 5 without global warming and nothing to stop the winds sweeping off the prairies will do that to a winter month. i remember short days of white, grey and black and pressing my nose against the window, sad to see the ice that kept birthday parties with relatives to a rarity. Nowadays, january is unexpectantly warm in maryland (zone 7 and a high of 50°) and birthdays are more pleasant. before we headed down to the farm on friday, we had a momma's birthday, special edition of backwards night. backwards night is subversive element we made up when there was just boy1, and is a revered treat for boy1&2. its very simple. we go to the mall and eat an ice cream cone with sprinkles FIRST (gasp!) then ride the indoors carousel one or two times and then eat dinner. whoa! blows your mind, eh? dessert first? decadent!

i was in the mood for decadence, though, and the best part was when we had dinner at saigon cafe (pho or grilled pork?) and the boys sang to me happy birthday together. that was the best. when we arrived at the farm house, it was still cold, but ger quickly made a fire and it put us right to sleep.

today we all went to the vineyard and while gerald made plans and measurements to finish the tool shed room walls, i walked the vidal eastern vineyard to see how the sleeping vines were faring. i remember walking the vineyard the year before and thinking of what a lunar landscape we had made in taking out the big trees and burning the debris. it looks a bit different now. the vines are sleeping well and for every yellow flag there is now a post, awaiting the cordon wiring for the vines to scamper up. vegetation is growing between the vine rows, all sorts of odd plants i need to look up and some grass as well. there are blackberry shoots struggling out of the compacted earth, with purplish sticker canes and leaves. they will have to be taken care of, as they are growing in the wrong spot, but they got me to thinking. i bet at the bottom of the vineyard hill, along the deer fence, i could put in several blackberry vines. they would be situated just right to take advantage of the water run-off and they would have the benefit of full sun and being inside of a fenced off area (muha-ha). so im going to look into that further, in mid-march, when it is best to transplant them.

after gerald and boy1 finished their preparations for the tool shed room, they joined me and boy2 in the vidal vineyard and we put in the remaining posts and removed the big rocks we dug up. ger and boy1 are now back in the vineyard, working while boy2 and i remain at the farmhouse. i'm working on a logo for a friend. later on, we will have champagne and ice cream cake. heh. i've waited my whole life for a birthday like this. thanks.

Vineyard and Wine Podcast

Connie's Post:
It was the Christmas that the adults jumped up and down in glee and wonderment at their gifts and the children opened their mouths and stared at us. to be sure, the kids got great gifts, but this year, the adults received their secret hearts' desire. gerald bought me the ipod classic (wooohooo!) and swears it is as bad as the day we got wireless internet. it reminds me of dr. seuss' oh the places you'll go! book. the world is completely in the palm of my hand. i'm even starting to break gerald's resistance to the pod culture with all the cool content i'm churning up. when i first started looking into podcasting i thought the audio cast would be plenty fine. TURNS OUT I'M WRONG!! well, don't get me wrong, i still really appreciate the audio only casts of long lectures (itunesU!) or coffeebreakSpanish.com (learn spanish in 20 minute increments!)—perfect for the workday commute. but when i have downtime and can watch as well as listen, i'm all over the videocasts. i'm subscribing to tons of podcasts and as i go along, i'll let you know what i think of each.

Crushnet TV — Inside Wine Making. crushpad, the ultimate mashup between web, a brick and mortar site, vineyards and wine—think of it as wine 2.0.— brings us this truly great subscription with plenty of west coast-oriented vineyard interviews and wine making action. this weekend, ger and i watched the pruning 101 and pruning vines at eaglepoint ranch march 12 2007 episodes. it made us wistful, as our vineyard as been put to bed and lies dormant. crushnet TV takes the viewer to the vineyard, explains the process of preparing, growing and harvesting the perfect grape. then they go to crushpad, located in san francisco, and show what it takes to turn those perfect grapes into perfect wine. crushpadwine.com is a great enterprise—they provide wine enthusiasts a great education and practice in making wine at a fraction of the cost—so that anyone (most of us) that can't afford a vineyard and winery can still participate in a very satisfying and meaningful way within the wine industry. crushpad isnt just for those seeking a vanity bottling to give during the holidays. wine businesses using crushpad commerce are receiving significant attention. here is a few postings from the crushpad commerce page:

Commerce News

Wine Spectator Awards 92 Points to 2004 Jean Edwards Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Stagecoach Vineyard "Intense and vibrant, with wild berry, raspberry and black cherry fruit that's vivid, rich and concentrated without being heavy or dense. Drink now through 2012. 300 cases made. —J.L."

---

Dain Wine Scores 92 Points Crushpad is excited to announce that Dain Wines Brosseau Pinot Noir received 92 points from Robert Parker at a recent wine evaluation.

Belated Resolution

gerald gets his first wine barrel for christmas!
photo from beer-wine.com

Connie's Post:
January, 2008. a happy new year to all checking in and all those who keep faithful tabs on the vineyard blog. gerald has been faithfully posting as he can in between work, the vineyard, the boys and the townie. i have to say, fiscal management and freelance absconded with any precious minutes i might have had to record the latest updates of the vineyard. it had been a rough ride. now, with an A in fiscal management and closing down my freelance business, i'm resolving to blog continuous all throughout 2008—this means harvest, crush and fermentation.

this year, i was able to gift gerald a recoopered french oak 10 gallon wine barrel from beer-wine.com. it was hard to tell who was more excited, gerald or me. it was extremely difficult to keep the barrel a secret. i had it delivered to the townie and luckily the boys&i arrived home earlier than gerald. it was comedy and chaos as we pulled up to the townie. my parents had just come up for a visit, boy1&2 were talking on my cell phone to their dad on his way home and i tore up the stairs, trying to lug the box up the three flights of stairs to the loft closet before gerald made it home. we lost my cell phone in the process and haven't been able to find it since. gerald is excited—he has been making wine without oak, as he wanted to get a baseline of what the grapes themselves had to express without it. He's thinking that this upcoming year is the year to try the additional layer of complexity that oak barrels add to the wine process. This upcoming year will be a big year, as we expect we will have enough proofing grapes to contribute to the Port of Leonardtown Winery, as we are members of the Southern Maryland Winegrowers Cooperative. stay tuned, our little vineyard is growing gang-busters!

gerald was able to get to the farm over the holidays with the girl, who hadn't been up since we practiced moving the big rusty tank into the vineyard. they built a spray boom, which i haven't seen yet, but on the tow behind the sprayer there will be a boom with two sprayer nozzles on each side. gerald will be finishing that up soon, in time for spring. on the shoestring vineyard, the largest portion of winter is preparation for the upcoming season.

this weekend, the whole family was here, but it ended up a bit raw for momma and boy 2. gerald has been reviewing the farm log from 2007. last year at this time, we had a heat wave of 72°F on January 6th. fortunately, it is not that warm this year—today's high is 43° F. but as i mentioned, there was a bite to the wind that made boy2 and momma long for the farm house, fire, and wireless internet. while boy2 and i stoked the fired, watched power ranger episodes on utube and researched kaizen events, boy1 and his dad made progress on the second bay, getting the wallboards up. they worked well with each other.

we will spend the night, tonight, and head back to attend the open house gerald's dad holds at the beginning of the year.

december around the vineyard

quiet, in contrast to the hustle of crush and primary ferm, drifts through the vineyard these days. Careful use of 'quiet' should be taken here, as a vineyard is mostly quiet, even in the busiest months. It is mostly silent sunshine, whispering breezes, and (occasionally) hushed rainshowers. December, especially, is a quiet time, as folks concentrate on inside work and preparations for the coming growing season. The shaggy vines stand sleeping in their rows as the cold air of winter moves in, the dropping tempature nudging them further into well earned slumbering rest.

In the wine room, BB hooked up a small space heater. The room is tucked in a corner of the house and not heated directly. Lately temperatures have been dropping a bit low for the wine's comfort. Unlike vines, the wine gets cranky when temperatures fluctuate. The heater is small, but should be adequate to keep the room a cozy 55 degrees. The trick was setting the gauge to maintain that temperature, as there are no markings on the thing. BB started the heater Friday night, and monitored the room the entire weekend, making adjustments all the while until he was satisfied he hit the mark; slow, patient work.

wunderkind and other activities

context:
Mike, sibling #3, doesn't make it to the vineyard often.
the previous 1.25 hp auger lasted about two weeks before it died, to be replaced with 8.25 hp 2-man unit. I worked this one with West Pete this weekend. Just about spun us around helicopter-style a couple times. Got 2/3 of a hole done before we broke it (see below).
First time with the new wine room, and temps are a concern. Pretty stable so far, though. I admit to being pretty pleased with the reds at this point. In keeping with my approach of tampering as little as possible with the fermentation to better get a sense for what the grapes can express naturally from their place, the malolactic ferm was skipped in all the wines.

and now, the latest goings on relayed from West Pete...

Yesterday Mike put in the remaining 20 end posts on the north side of lot 11. He also hung the doors in the wine room, fixed the auger after Gerald and I stripped a bolt, got the generator working for dad, put the baseboards into the concrete floor, cooked a steak dinner for seven, and probably made it to the legion in time to catch the Missouri-Kansas game. We probably won't see him again until next November.

Today Dad and I got the rest of the end posts done on the south side. One hole ended up out of line and may need to be redone. We also got a row of the smaller posts put in. There are probably about 60 remaining to do. The new auger works pretty well, though several times it has gotten stuck where it either took three people or lots of leverage to pull it out. Happenned with both the 6 and 8 inch bits. I am not sure if the two man auger is going to be manageable when we put on the extension to dig deeper holes for fence posts, though. Its really hard to move around and we might want to consider our options.

Gerald and I racked most of the reds last night. None of them seemed like they were in trouble, and a couple had some good flavor to them already. I've seen the temperature in there get down as low as 48, but usually its in the 50s.

I don't think anyone remembered to check the rain gauge this weekend, but I think we did get some rain last week at some point.

Dad and I may be able to get the remaining posts in to lot 11 tomorrow if the weather is reasonable. He is planning on staying until Tuesday afternoon.

-- Peter

sleep

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

For Your Ear Buds

Grape Radio—if there is one reason why an ipod shuffle is on my list, this website is it! i've listened to a few of the casts and they are of a good length, detailed, and satisfying. they also will post vodcasts as well— always a treat. i stumbled on this while searching vineyards @ utube—yes, i was taking a break from my paper!—and i recommend this sincere site to everyone interested in what goes into the bottle.

a bene placito!

A Reason Why Port is Served at the End

Connie's Post:

It is evening. we are at the townie and gerald is making ham quesadillas to go with the vegetable soup reheat. we both have a glass of port, as this time of year, port is very nice. i'm relating stories from work, so gerald finishes his glass early and opens a bottle of sangiovese for our meal—a totally respectable bottle of il canneto 2004 sangiovese di toscana. he hands me his glass for a sip. mind you, i'm still sipping my rich, lovely tawny port. i sniff and sip the sangiovese.

"after the port, this smells like ketchup and tastes like nothing." i grouse, handing the glass back.

"you must immediately post that comment on the blog," answers my husband. "i suppose that's why port is always served last."

and so i do, as i know its been a month and a half since i last posted.

to our faithful readers of the blog: do not lose heart, keep checking in. i plan to do several way back posts to chronicle the harvest and the status of this year's vintage. plus, its november/december, post hole digging time—don't want to miss that! pete flew all the way from the west coast to participate, so that gives you a sense of importance post hole digging has on the shoestring vineyard. same photos as last year, different acre and i believe at least one man is wearing different clothes.

i apologize for the infrequent postings. my fiscal management class has eaten up more time that i thought it would! this weekend, it will be different! it will be different.