Matthew,Marriage,and Motherhood Part 4:2016 In Review -Calving Season

Even though the vineyard and winery are the mainstays which keep this operation running, I need to remind people that it is still a farm. Sure, we farm things other than peanuts, corn, cotton, and soy. Grapes are our "row crop" of choice. But we still have our animals (Diane says they are my animals, not hers).

Our four Red Angus cattle were artificially inseminated (AI) way back in January, and if they were true to form, they were all due October 22nd. There really isn't much for me to do during these 9 months, but as the date came ever closer, I went back to the fields 2 or 3 times a day and walked around the cattle to see if we had any new arrivals. I've gone through this calving thing a couple of times, but it is always a high time of anticipation during calving season.

The first calf to drop was from one of our heifers. It was her first (that is what a heifer means, afterwards it is a cow) born early on October 16th. Sprite little calf. Was up and hobbling within hours. Had many of Mom's features.....nice shaped head, ears that went out horizontally. We don't name our cattle, but this one will get a tag number: D44A. The D represents the year born 2016, the 40 shows the female blood line, and the A shows who its mother was in that blood line. No need to give the bull in the process much significance, though it is noted on the tag above the number. "Sun King" was the absentee father.

I have up to 3 days max to tag this calf before it can out run me or squirm it's way out of my arms. Also, it is during this very short period when the mother has this rude awakening that it has a young one to care for and becomes very very protective. Nothing worse than a 2000 pound angry mother coming straight at you. You can't stop it. You can't out run it.Dangerous times for someone only carrying a tagging gun.

So I was out walking the next day to see if the maternal instinct had arisen in this new mother. She was in the middle of the pasture, eating grass with the rest of the herd. No calf in site. Did she abandon her? Is the calf lost or did it die overnight? Just seems strange to me that a cow would just leave it's new calf and go off on it's own to chew grass. So I started criss crossing the field trying to find the calf. I always keep an eye on the mother to watch it's eyes watching me. Generally they tend to look where the baby is to see if I am getting close, too close. The new mom gave no indication this time. Pretty much ignored me completely. But in time I found the calf, curled in a ball hidden in some tall grass.  It was in the next field where mom must of been hours before. It's ears were flickering. Must have just been tired from all this earthly stuff outside the womb.

Not to lose track that this was a major opportunity, I raced home to get my tagging gear. I returned to the field and pretended I wasn't interested in the calf and in a round about way worked my way over to the calf. Straddling the calf I held it down. It was not happy, or maybe it was just scared. A calf bawling for mom is a bone chilling sound.....enough to capture the attention of the entire herd, and especially mom. I had about 30 seconds before I would be head-butted into the next county.

Under duress the tagging gun always seems clumsy. I had this bright orange tag (think Home Depot orange) with the number already inscribed. I had to get it on the ear straight, with the number facing forward. I didn't want to hit any blood vessels in the ear so I had to feel around where I could penetrate the ear with this arrow sharp tag. I had done this before, but that didn't matter. this time A44X was coming at me. The cries were getting louder, or so it seemed.

And then like the calf roper in a rodeo competition, I jumped up having completed the task. The calf bounced up too, now that my human weight was removed. Mom was not pleased, but she had her calf back. Time for her to bond again. Licking the sore ear. Offering milk to her young one; warm milk solves a lot of ills.

D40A was the next one to drop, born five days later on October 21st, only one day early. It mother, another first time mother, seemed so disconnected from the whole process. This distance I see between the new mothers and their newborns is hard for a human to fathom. Just seems strange to me. Everything seemed fine for a couple days, but on Sunday October 23rd I spotted a problem. The calf had a severely bulging right eye. The swollen eye was white. Even a neophyte in this cattle business knew this wasn't good, so I called the vet right away.

My normal vet was not on duty that Sunday, so I ended up talking to a new vet I had never worked with before. Typical of vets who live around these large animals all the time, they asked that I have the calf segregated from mom before they come out. Nothing worse than wasting time as the owner chases down a sick animal. (P.S. to the Vet: nothing worse than taking a newborn away from it's mother !)

The mother in this case was the one heifer that had always allowed me to scratch it's ears. None of the others really let me get too close. Would it be equally friendly "knowing" I was here to help? I asked Diane to get involved here, primarily as a distraction. She walked in front of the cow, trying to turn it's attention towards her as I walked around the back side of the cow to get close to the calf. The calf was circling its mom about as fast as I tried to calmly approach it, always considering I might have to do a quick dodge out of harm's way should I push mom too far.

At some point the calf stood still, right next to mom. I slowly walked in, put my arm around the calf, picked it up and walked ever so cautiously towards the squeeze pen, where I could close up the fencing to protect myself from a cow who realized a bit late that it's calf had been kidnapped.

The vet finally showed up and gave the eye a good look. The prognosis was bad. She thought that maybe mom had given the calf a kick when it tried to get some milk. The eye looked lost, and there was some concern that the calf might be totally blind; fortunately it was not to be the case we found out later. Blood work was taken, an IBR shot was administered, and some antibiotics were delivered under the eyelid to reduce the swelling and deter any infection. We even got a chance to weigh it; a sprite 63 pounds after 2 days!

As of today, almost a month later, the two older cows have not provided calves. At this time they have zero chance of coming through. So what does that say about AI, even after the vet had confirmed they were pregnant? Not much I'm afraid. In the last 8 AI applications, I had 1 bull (last year) and these 2 new calves (both heifer calves by the way). 3 out of 8 even though I am paying for sexed semen, AI injections, and pregnancy checking is not a very good ratio.

Time to bring in the bull!

Matthew, Marriage, and Motherhood Part Three: 2016 In Review

There wasn't one of us missing out on all the news coverage regarding Hurricane Matthew. The hurricane was performing just as many of the models anticipated. Significant damage was occurring south of us. The Carolina's were getting walloped with severe flooding and unfortunately storm-related deaths. Compared to what they experienced, we had little right to complain.

But there is still the optimistic side of us that wants to think that somehow we will escape the wrath of this weather event. Chris was steadfast in getting his wedding underway and on schedule.  He had planned on an outdoor wedding, so the white folding chairs were placed on the back lawn, over looking the pond that reflects the sun on days when it doesn't have clouds to mask its performance.

I on the other hand am more the realist. I took as my job for the day to just get out of the way. My A-type personality would only interfere with Chris' driven desire to stay on message and schedule. My Dad was in town for this event, and some relatives passed through in anticipation of the evening's ceremony; they were my excuse to remain distant.

I am not sure when certain things happened. I was watching from our home's kitchen window the wind and rain sweep across the back lawn, knocking over the white chairs. Was this Matthew teasing Chris to see if he had it in him? By the time I made it over to the winery all the chairs had been brought inside. The arbor that Chris and Lacey would stand under during their vows was at the back of the center space. The huge carriage doors were wide open so you could glance through the arbor and notice nature's wrath was not taking a time out. Fortunately the winds whipped sideways, keeping the torrents of rain outside.

Due to a "miss-step" in the previous night's rehearsal (what rehearsal?), we were all trying to figure out a common way of proceeding with the wedding. Everyone seemed to be in the wrong place prior to the beginning, but we all knew where we needed to be when it officially started. Lacey was upstairs in the loft with all her bridesmaids. Chris had a following of best man and ushers hanging near the front ready for anyone to give a sign. Some people, like Diane, managed to be seated where they were intended. I was completely out of place but worked my way next to her once everyone's eyes were watching the bride come down from the loft and walk the center aisle. The D.J. and the lighting guy had worked together before, so they pretty much controlled the flow.

Ceremonies like this always seem to be thought of positively when they are all done. The vows are the key ingredients that make it all seem flawless.

The reception was in our Function Room. Round tables and plenty more chairs were squeezed in for a truly unique, simple yet Southerly, meal. The caterers, who had originally intended to have a tent set up outside, were forced to grab a corner of our bottle storage room to prep the food. The white chairs set up for the ceremony miraculously were removed to ready the area for a night of dancing.

It was a long night. Guests pretty much ignored the outside weather as much as they could. There were periods when the rain paused, but for the most part it was a miserable night outside the walls of the winery. One of the things Chris did was hire a bus to bring guests back and forth from a hotel in Williamsburg to here. But we have the James River between these two destinations, so ferry schedules were very loosely adhered to. Though these guests made it to the wedding on time, their departure and arrival back to their hotel rooms missed by hours. The photographer never made it home; roads were blocked that prevented her from going forward or turning around. 

Meanwhile our stellar crew put the place back in some resemblance of order; we had a winery to run the following day. Diane and I returned to our home, a few hundred steps away, not realizing others would be sitting in a bus for nearly half the night.

Chris and Lacey were beginning their life together.....officially as husband and wife.

Matthew ,Marriage, and Motherhood: Part Two 2016 In Review

When you are juggling a lot of balls, there are a certain number of balls you feel comfortable keeping in the air and one more ball thrown in the mix inevitably means balls will begin dropping on the ground. Nothing could be more of an example of this than the introduction of a new winery building, and the completely new businesses of retail and wholesale wine sales. The success of this venture is key to the continued operation of the farm and vineyard, and need less to say it soared to the top of everyone's priority list almost all the time without exception.

Though Diane was in charge of retail operations along with her normal wine making duties, Rich jumped in to be the primary grounds keeper and I took on the responsibility of bookkeeper and outside sales contact. I did my cursory work in the field, but it was never really enough. Rich found himself torn between doing the required vineyard work, but also trying to keep the winery as spiffy as reasonably possible. When he was mowing the winery grounds, he wasn't pruning or arranging shoots. And Rich is also the age that many of his friends up in New England are getting married, so Rich would disappear in the middle of the season to take a 600 mile jaunt to watch a few "I dos" and share in some pre-wedding parties. Tough to say no to a party which included old friends.

It was a difficult year in the vineyard, not even counting the lack of attention that occurred sometimes.

Our normal budbreak comes in the first week or two of April, and 2016 was no exception. Our Seyval Blancs, Cabernet Franc, and to some extent our Petit Verdot all responded on cue.The downside to this was that we received a couple of killer frosts shortly thereafter. We saw the browning of the buds, but we really didn't know the total extent of the damage until we harvested.

If there is a positive slant to this agonizing loss, it was that the vines have a tendency to over produce additional basal buds and "buds of questionable origin" that will allow us to better balance our fruit growth in the following season. But that is then and this is now. Upon harvest we found that all the substitute growth didn't really help to deter the loss of yield. We easily had a 50% reduction in output when compared to the prior year. This certainly is a bummer but it is a problem more visible 6 months to a year from now when we go looking for the grape juices that eventually lead to bottled wine. There is a commodity market for grapes we can tap into if we need to, but it is better to draw from one's own inventory.

Summer went along as expected, though we had more than our fair share of rain. And rain in an established vineyard is an unnecessary evil. Established vines have a very deep root system, so they can get all the water they need from down under. Besides, we have irrigation set up so we can supplement water via  this way should we need to.

As Fall approached, we went in to our normal routines, if there is such a thing. When grapes are ready they have to be picked. High humidity generally brings on the molds that are detrimental to producing good grapes. Molds love sugar just as people do, so if a fungus starts to take hold it is only a matter of days before the damage becomes too much. For the most part we stayed ahead of it. You can tell by the number of bee bites you get while picking. Healthy fruit has very little sugar seepage, and wasps and bees tend to not bother you. Once grapes start to pop, whether it be from expanding too fast (caused by rains) rupturing the skin, or by molds attacking the grape and making it soft and oozy, swarms of yellow jackets compete for the sweet fruit.

But it wouldn't be Fall in Virginia if we didn't have to worry about hurricanes coming up the east coast, or swarming in from the Florida panhandle. Hurricane Matthew was the Hurricane this year to contend with. We watched it as it approached from the south and then taking a customary turn up the coast. You see the maps drawn by the weather forecasters that include as many as 15 computer-derived models for likely hurricane paths....all had them getting up to the Carolinas before it turned out to sea. This may seem like a good thing, and I suppose it was, but the winds and rains that reach out from the center path of travel are just as concerning.

OK, we're fine with this. It happens nearly every year so it is no surprise. So let's throw in a twist here. My older son Chris decided to get married during the hurricane season. October 8th. Which overlapped with harvest time. And get married here, in Virginia....at the winery. Hmmmm. If you want to talk about priorities shifting, this is a key example.

As much as Chris did most of the planning and work putting together this wedding, and he really did do nearly all the work, vineyard attention was diminished.  We hurried the best we could to pull in all the grapes still on the vines, but we fell significantly short of the job that needed to be done. When the significant day arrived, we hadn't even touched the Scuppernongs, which normally are picked throughout October anyway as they slowly ripen, and we left half of the Nortons still on the vine. Our Cabernet Sauvignon was also ignored, but we didn't expect a big crop of those anyway.

The Nortons took a major beating in the hurricane, while the Scuppernongs were relatively unscathed.

But oh, what a wedding !

Matthew, Marriage, and Motherhood: Part One 2016 in Review

2016 is coming to a close, and it has been anything but typical. I have refrained from doing the typical slogging through the season. Enough with weed killing, pruning, leaf pulling and harvest. This has been a year of "Firsts", and just doing anything the first time takes a great deal of effort and time. So much so that writing a blog is of  "C" level priority, which I am now finding a little time to devote to it.

I am going to split these end of season entries into several sections. Maybe it's because I have these flashes of ADD which won't allow me to sit long enough to bang out a full length review of the year. Maybe it's because if I give you 10 pages of updates it might put you to sleep.

In one of my previous posts I mentioned the new winery building. Well, it finally was completed and we had our Grand Opening in mid-April. We had a soft opening back in November, nearly a year ago. Then we didn't have electricity (we used a  generator for the lighting), and we didn't have bathrooms (bless the invention of porta-potties, though they are what they are). We were able to start selling before the holiday season. What was good about this timing wasn't necessarily finally creating some sales. It was able to get us thinking seriously about the marketing and just get the basic operational flow going without the massive surge we expected 6 months from then. It also put a candle under the butt of the builder to show that this is not a project he should retire on.

One thing I want to point out here is that having an official winery building does not bring back flashbacks of Kevin Costner in 1989 movie Field of Dreams. Do you remember the phrase: "If you build it, they will come"?  Well, this may be true for the Grand Opening, and it was even true for the absolute bust of a Balloon Festival we had. But once the novelty wears off, there is a never-ending challenge of attracting people to a rural winery.

Sure, compared to other wineries that seem to be spread out but still attract visitors, ours is an island in the middle of a rather rural, and what seems to be an isolated agricultural community. Until recently there were few other venues that brought visitors in from adjacent communities. A river on the north seems to be an insurmountable wall preventing people coming in from Williamsburg. And the county to our east looks at Surry County as the equivalent to the wild west, where GPS directions bring visitors in via rural, barely 2-lane roads that weave and bob so much they wonder if they will end up in Kansas.

Let's face it, there are just so many tastings the locals can attend, and though our wines are very good (visit our Facebook page for comments), they reflect the pricing of a micro-winery, not a high-volume operation that can send pricing spiraling downward due to immense economies of scale. Someday that'll be us, but not now. So we are going, and will probably continue to be going through our marketing plan to constantly make revisions to see what works best in attracting customers from "far away lands".

What we have found is that for those that have ventured so far to have found us, they love the quiet setting, the fantastic employees we have working for us, the wines, and the design of the new building. Oh, and don't forget the goat tower!

Bud Break 2016

I have been reminded by both the happenings in the vineyard and by blog readers that it is time once again to keep everyone informed about the vineyard, and of course the new winery. There has been  a lot that has happened during the 5 month hiatus.

Bud break this year has already occurred. When Rich sent this picture it was only March 14th, a full 3 1/2 weeks ahead of when buds burst open last year on April 10th. It happened in the Seyval Blanc, and so far the other varieties are their normal laggards showing only signs of "fuzzy" buds. Rich has been more diligent than me in the vineyard. He has been working rather hard, and putting in some long hours, trying to get the vineyard ready for this year's action. He has completed most of the pruning, and has even moved over to prune the Norton grapes which I ordinarily do. My time is spread fairly thin with the winery and all. Though I have been able to finish pruning the Scuppernongs, I have spent very little time even thinking about the other vineyard. So it is good that Rich has made it his priority.

The winery work has been mostly inside during the winter months. Though I have been watching over the progress, pictures and descriptions explaining walls without drywall, walls with drywall, are a rather boring way to describe progress. A portion of the building was completed so that we could open up the tasting bar and gift shop just prior to Thanksgiving. It was like pulling teeth with the contractor to get this far. We still didn't have heat, and our lights were run off a generator. A porta-potty was all we could offer at this point since the bathrooms weren't completed. It was a tough few months, but our customers recognized our situation and enjoyed our wines anyway.

For the most part the winery is completed. We still have some "issues" which hopefully will be worked out in the next week or so. They better be, since our Grand Opening is Saturday April 16th.

We had a new member join our herd. A baby bull was born September 21st. Don't get me going on the advantages of using sexed semen; it obviously didn't work this time around. All of our cows (4 in all) have been artificially inseminated and are all due this coming September, so we'll see how that goes. I have decided to raise the baby bull and trade it for another bull in about 12 months. If I don't it'll be trying to ride its mother and sister and in-breeding isn't my idea of expanding the herd.

Lastly, for those that were watching this strange structure be built, here is a picture of the final product.

It is the world's tallest goat tower ! Goats coming next week.