Wednesday, March 2, 2011
A NEW SEASON
There is only minor debate as to when the new season begins. Some vintners believe it is when the last grapes make it to crush during the harvest season. Others think it falls somewhere between the time dormant pruning occurs and bud break. Time wise there is a big time difference here. Harvest is in September or October, while bud break has been as close to April 1st as the last frost permits. This is almost 6 months of variance. For me it is somewhere in the middle, maybe more like the calendar with January being the start. When the harvest concludes there still is some warm weather to work within, and here is when you not only shut the operation down, but there are the many small projects that took the back seat relative to other priorities when the grapes were the king. These projects relate to "last year's" season, though obviously they need to be done prior to next season. In January however there are all the things that need to get done before the grapevines require absolute attention. And to know that the new season has started is to know that there is a daily juggling of time prior to the anticipated April 1st "blast off" doing the needed jobs within the weather pattern of warm days and still brutally cold days. Last week was my kick-off for the 2011 year. The string of warm days in a row justified a trip to the vineyard. The number one priority was to do the first round of rough pruning on the Block 1 grapes. Generally grapevines require 2 dormant prunings, doing the first pass right helps tremendously on the effort required for the second. During the first pass the idea is to get the vine to have the basic shape you want. This means getting rid of everything that doesn't contribute to the training method you have chosen. It involves choosing the main canes, trimming off the suckers, possibly shortening some growth that turned out to be overly aggressive in the previous season. If the vines were neglected this could mean alot of work, as much as 8 to 10 minutes devoted to pruning a single vine, which was the case for many of our Nortons. Diane and I walked away feeling fairly successful in our pruning efforts. Nearly all of the grapevines were pruned, leaving only a couple of rows of Seyval Blanc that had been late season pruned to go over again for new growth. And as if we didn't have enough to do, we gathered a bunch of prunings in order to make grapevine wreaths when Diane gets in the mood. The second pruning occurs just prior to bud break, which as mentioned has come on or around April 1st. This is where you decide how many buds you want to leave , with their appropriate spacing, depending on how vigorous the plant had been the previous season. This technically should include weighing off the clippings from the 1st pruning and putting this weight through a calculation specifically assigned to the type of grape you have. Some types can handle a greater fruit load than others. I'll go over the particulars in my next entry. I've mentioned in previous blogs how Diane makes an effort to pull me from the fields to do a little socializing while in the area. She found the perfect excuse this time around by getting us to go to the Virginia Vineyard Association's Wine Expo held in Richmond this past weekend. Held at the convention center, it showcased many of Virginia's 190 wineries by providing tastings of the many wines grown and produced in the Commonwealth. Having tasted plenty of wine, I can honestly say they would hold up well when compared to Napa or Sonoma. Also at the convention the Governor's Cup was awarded to Virginia's top red wine for 2011. It was a Meritage blend from a small microwinery.....quite good I might add.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
The end of the year, but not the end of...
I must confess, I miss it already. Even though the season is officially over, I miss the bull work, the repetition, the looking forward to the "possible" harvest which the migrating birds enjoyed this year. There was the official bud break which occurs about April 1st, and then the rapid growth of shoots which inevitably leads to a huge amount of pruning that needs to be done. This year I taught my brother and his wife the solitary nature of pruning.....visualizing the end intent, choosing the shoots to get you there, and trimming off those that have been determined their place is better on the ground than with the vine.
This year was tough, but I look forward to a completed irrigation system next year to help spur new growth. Even though I only plan to replace half of the vines that didn't make it through the serious drought we had, I wish I could replace all of them and then expand even more. The next expansion isn't planned until Spring of 2012 with 3 new varieties. It can't come soon enough, and once again I'll set up the "perfect plan" to make it all run smoothly....though it hasn't yet.
Last week I was walking the vineyard and I could see the absolutely straight rows of poles I put in with the help of my son Chris. It was his first introduction to farming and driving a tractor....well, at this type of farming anyway. I'm sure that at the end of the day he was mentally trying to figure out if there was a better way. Maybe there is....someday we'll find it....but it was a project successfully completed and that he can be happy about.
The Fall is a time to shut the place down and start looking at all the little projects that were put on the back burner during the hectic growing season. I drained the irrigation system, and my other son Rich was with me and was assigned to finish the trellis system (Geneva Double Current) for the Nortons. We know we'll need the full trellis next year....Nortons grow like crazy.
December will be dedicated to more little projects. But there is one BIG one I'll begin. When we started this vineyard Diane and I talked about the winery, but at the time it was years off. The clock has ticked, the vines have grown, and we are now at the time when we must pay attention to the winery. We have sat with a local architect we like in a preliminary discussion and now we have to get serious. In December I will have another meeting with the architect and we will get the project rolling. We plan on putting the shovel in the ground in Spring of 2012, so that gives us just over a year to do all the advance work. There is so much to do, and I suspect that even with all this prethought we will still run out of time towards the end. First crush is planned for Fall of 2012 and we have to have a place to do it all in. Build a winery, put in the fermenting tanks with the destemmer, crusher, pumps, filter system, etc. etc. Then have a tasting room, a minny bakery on the side, along with a gift shop.
It can seem overwhelming at times.
It is a very exciting time.
This year was tough, but I look forward to a completed irrigation system next year to help spur new growth. Even though I only plan to replace half of the vines that didn't make it through the serious drought we had, I wish I could replace all of them and then expand even more. The next expansion isn't planned until Spring of 2012 with 3 new varieties. It can't come soon enough, and once again I'll set up the "perfect plan" to make it all run smoothly....though it hasn't yet.
Last week I was walking the vineyard and I could see the absolutely straight rows of poles I put in with the help of my son Chris. It was his first introduction to farming and driving a tractor....well, at this type of farming anyway. I'm sure that at the end of the day he was mentally trying to figure out if there was a better way. Maybe there is....someday we'll find it....but it was a project successfully completed and that he can be happy about.
The Fall is a time to shut the place down and start looking at all the little projects that were put on the back burner during the hectic growing season. I drained the irrigation system, and my other son Rich was with me and was assigned to finish the trellis system (Geneva Double Current) for the Nortons. We know we'll need the full trellis next year....Nortons grow like crazy.
December will be dedicated to more little projects. But there is one BIG one I'll begin. When we started this vineyard Diane and I talked about the winery, but at the time it was years off. The clock has ticked, the vines have grown, and we are now at the time when we must pay attention to the winery. We have sat with a local architect we like in a preliminary discussion and now we have to get serious. In December I will have another meeting with the architect and we will get the project rolling. We plan on putting the shovel in the ground in Spring of 2012, so that gives us just over a year to do all the advance work. There is so much to do, and I suspect that even with all this prethought we will still run out of time towards the end. First crush is planned for Fall of 2012 and we have to have a place to do it all in. Build a winery, put in the fermenting tanks with the destemmer, crusher, pumps, filter system, etc. etc. Then have a tasting room, a minny bakery on the side, along with a gift shop.
It can seem overwhelming at times.
It is a very exciting time.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
No need to reflect...season's over
Sounds kind of depressing, doesn't it ? In the past I've used the end of the year to reflect, but looking at the last few blog entries it appears that I have been making comments in this regard throughout most of the season as events have unfolded and completely altered my "big plans" for 2010.
Things just didn't go as smooth as I had wanted. They started off on the wrong footing with a delay in the new field opening due to a late soy harvest in 2009. And then my key guy had decided for him that 3 squares a day and a roof over his head, complements of the Virginia Commonwealth, was going to dominate his year. It was one of the driest and hottest years on record, and with new plants and a non-existent irrigation system, it proved that crop losses in the vineyard matched those in other crops.....we lost 50% of our new vines, mostly Cabernet Sauvignon. Diane, ever the optimist when it comes to things of a growing nature, thinks that some will show signs of life if we just continue to water them through October. I'm not too sure.
General pruning and weed control took a back seat to getting the new block up and growing and watered, which pretty much worked its way well into September before this task could be considered done. Way too long for an expansion.
I'm looking ahead to next year, and the year after which as they say will be here sooner than you think. As for the grapevines in Block 1 and Block 2, there is always the pruning that is requiring. This can be done anytime once they become dormant up until they start to have bud break. A mild winter will allow this to be done piecemeal during the next 4 or so months. And then there are the replacement vines to be put in Block 2....almost 1000 of them. Gulp ! But time wise this won't take very long since they are already marked with the irrigation system working to give them a good start.
As for weeding and fertilizing, we have all the sprayers now converted to handle vines already up to the top wire, as well as having directional nozzles to aim at the one year old plants still close to the ground. This past year we added a new piece of equipment that will spray herbicides in the most efficient and directed manner available. We tried it this past year and it was a great success, though we weren't as diligent as we should have been in maintaining a spray schedule.
Our big purchase in 2011 will be an in-and-out tiller. It is just another cool piece of equipment that attachs to a 3-point capable tractor and tills weeds under the wires, toggling out and in around the grapes for absolute ground coverage. It is hypnotising to watch this thing work. When we get the website up we'll have a youtube of it in action. I calculated that it would take nearly 2 weeks to till the two blocks using a conventional tiller so it didn't take much in the way of justification to decide to get one of these fast running Italian machines for next year.
And now I am putting together the plans for the winery. First crush will be Fall of 2012 and we need a winery to do all this in. That means the chrome-plated shovel must be ready to break earth in that same Spring.....just 16 months away. Diane and I have talked about styles and layouts, and right now we are looking at a nice post and beam barn layout. It would fit well with the local architecture and allow us the flexibility to alter the inside to meet our needs. Initially the winery, tasting room, and retail outlet need to be considered, but ultimately a small bakery, coffee shop, and restaurant are to be added shortly afterwards. There is alot to consider and soon we will need the help of an architect to fine tune it, but at least "we think" we know what we want.
Of course, all of this must in some way coincide with my selling my business and home in Massachusetts, both tough nuts to crack in a downer economy, but things always seem to work out with perseverence and focus.
One final note. The birds got to the Norton grapes in a very timely manner. They know the BRIX reading as well as any refractometer does. When I returned to pick them, all I saw was grape bunch skeletons. It kinda capped the year I guess, but on the bright side this was not a major harvest year, and it forewarned us of a problem that needs to be addressed before next Fall.
Things just didn't go as smooth as I had wanted. They started off on the wrong footing with a delay in the new field opening due to a late soy harvest in 2009. And then my key guy had decided for him that 3 squares a day and a roof over his head, complements of the Virginia Commonwealth, was going to dominate his year. It was one of the driest and hottest years on record, and with new plants and a non-existent irrigation system, it proved that crop losses in the vineyard matched those in other crops.....we lost 50% of our new vines, mostly Cabernet Sauvignon. Diane, ever the optimist when it comes to things of a growing nature, thinks that some will show signs of life if we just continue to water them through October. I'm not too sure.
General pruning and weed control took a back seat to getting the new block up and growing and watered, which pretty much worked its way well into September before this task could be considered done. Way too long for an expansion.
I'm looking ahead to next year, and the year after which as they say will be here sooner than you think. As for the grapevines in Block 1 and Block 2, there is always the pruning that is requiring. This can be done anytime once they become dormant up until they start to have bud break. A mild winter will allow this to be done piecemeal during the next 4 or so months. And then there are the replacement vines to be put in Block 2....almost 1000 of them. Gulp ! But time wise this won't take very long since they are already marked with the irrigation system working to give them a good start.
As for weeding and fertilizing, we have all the sprayers now converted to handle vines already up to the top wire, as well as having directional nozzles to aim at the one year old plants still close to the ground. This past year we added a new piece of equipment that will spray herbicides in the most efficient and directed manner available. We tried it this past year and it was a great success, though we weren't as diligent as we should have been in maintaining a spray schedule.
Our big purchase in 2011 will be an in-and-out tiller. It is just another cool piece of equipment that attachs to a 3-point capable tractor and tills weeds under the wires, toggling out and in around the grapes for absolute ground coverage. It is hypnotising to watch this thing work. When we get the website up we'll have a youtube of it in action. I calculated that it would take nearly 2 weeks to till the two blocks using a conventional tiller so it didn't take much in the way of justification to decide to get one of these fast running Italian machines for next year.
And now I am putting together the plans for the winery. First crush will be Fall of 2012 and we need a winery to do all this in. That means the chrome-plated shovel must be ready to break earth in that same Spring.....just 16 months away. Diane and I have talked about styles and layouts, and right now we are looking at a nice post and beam barn layout. It would fit well with the local architecture and allow us the flexibility to alter the inside to meet our needs. Initially the winery, tasting room, and retail outlet need to be considered, but ultimately a small bakery, coffee shop, and restaurant are to be added shortly afterwards. There is alot to consider and soon we will need the help of an architect to fine tune it, but at least "we think" we know what we want.
Of course, all of this must in some way coincide with my selling my business and home in Massachusetts, both tough nuts to crack in a downer economy, but things always seem to work out with perseverence and focus.
One final note. The birds got to the Norton grapes in a very timely manner. They know the BRIX reading as well as any refractometer does. When I returned to pick them, all I saw was grape bunch skeletons. It kinda capped the year I guess, but on the bright side this was not a major harvest year, and it forewarned us of a problem that needs to be addressed before next Fall.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
The Dog Days of Summer
What'll you do when that great plan made earlier in the year goes absolutely to pot ? Remember Jerry.......well he came back temporarily only to be "relocated" to a State facility for about 6 months. Apparently the vineyard didn't keep him busy enough to stay out of trouble.
So that completely erased my visiting the vineyard once a month to my being an A+ member of AirTrans, going back and forth to Virginia 3 times in August alone.
Oh, and lets toss insult to injury here and have August to be one of the hottest months on record with almost no rain.
Remember the ongoing project of putting the irrigation system in ? It took 3 trips down to finally get the system working for the Petit Verdot....finally. And it looks like I may have found someone to help complete the layout for the Cabernet Sauvignons during my latest absence, but even so he may only be able to get 2/3 of it done by the time I return 7 days from now. But it is progress. Maybe we'll have the system fully in by Labor Day !
The question then comes down to how many of these vines were hardy enough to survive without alot of water. I guess we''ll see if we get any new growth in the next month or so having been finally properly taken care of.
Working in Virginia, in the fields, in the summer, is an experience in itself. When you get up early in the morning, maybe around 6:30 or 7, you are as refreshed as you're going to be with hopefully a full nights rest (trust me, that's rare for me regardless). It is in the upper 60's or low 70's outside, but the official dew point is barely a few degrees below this. The grass and the weeds are soaked, and any idea of not having your feet completely water-logged within the first 15 minutes of working in the field is utter nonsense. The heat rapidly rises, and for the first half of August this means upper 80's or mid-90's by noon. The dew point does stay put, but the humidity climbs nearly as fast. Five hours into the day you are drenched.....not just the shirt but also the pants, socks, and shoes. And oh, if you keep track of this sort of thing, they have what's known as the Heat Index which basically describes how miserable you are in numerical terms. How about 126 for a number ?....doesn't it just sound bad ?
But this is what is presented to you, and if you want to be productive at all you tackle this head on, putting on the suntan lotion, drinking plenty of fluids, and push on until around noon when sanity takes over and you have to retreat into an air conditioned house. Hey, but this is only 5 hours ! Back into the fields at around 5:30 or 6 to put in another couple of hours after the sun has dropped nearer to the horizon and teases you with what you believe to be cooler conditions.
Update on the BRIX levels....
During August I had checked both the Seyval Blanc and the Nortons. The Seyvals were rapidly moving up, first to a 20 reading and then finally to a 25 reading....already time to harvest !! I conferred with my winemaker and was told that the next time I was down here in Virginia I would have to pick them. So here I was, on the 2nd trip to Virginia in the month, only to find that the birds (we suspect turkeys) were monitoring the BRIX levels also. All the Seyvals were eaten !@!@#@! Our next hope is the Nortons (picture above). As of August 16th they measured 20 on the BRIX scale so we think they will be ready by Labor Day or shortly thereafter. Not sure if the birds like red grapes quite as much as they like the white ones, but maybe we can beat them to the harvest this time and give us enough of a test quantity to make some nice table reds or some blush wine.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
COMING AROUND AGAIN...
It is now early July and I am back on the vineyard.......or let's just say I have just left and am reviewing the work that has been done.
As I mentioned in my last blog we had several things to accomplish in order to make serious progress during this trip. I was able to rent a Ditch Witch and dig the trench to tie the water lines in Block 2 to the main system. Digging down into hard pack was really tough...not only were the cutters having a hard time ripping out the earth that was as hard as granite due to the drought, but as it was trying the wheels spun in the soft top sand and dug themselves in. Try moving a Ditch Witch that has dug itself into the ground....no easy task.
It took a day to dig the trenches needed, and the following day I had to go in with a trench shovel and clean out spots that I couldn't go deep enough with using the machine. In one spot I had to avoid slicing the telephone wire, which surprizingly was exactly where DigSafe (or Virginia's equivalent) said it was.....24" down. Of course I ended up slicing through another wire that wasn't identified, but it must not have been juiced or I would have lit up.
The day after I tied in all the irrigation lines that were preassembled (Diane flew down to help here, along with some pruning....more on that later) and called it a day. I didn't have the energy to test them that late in the day. In case there was a problem there wasn't enough time left to fix it anyway.
Changing subjects.....guess who showed up ? Jerry, of course. After his months (and months) of disappearance, he said he wanted to continue now that he had nearly fully recovered from his stint with depression, migranes,, etc. Well, Jerry owed me hours ( I had paid him in advance some during late winter when the weather wasn't great but he needed rent money) so who was I to say no, at least for now. So I used Jerry to test the system out and once we took care of only one gusher where a coupling failed, it was working fine and was ready to be backfilled. At that point I was mentally and physically fried (it was at the end on my 2 week stretch) so I just delegated it to him to do. While I was there he also started doing the tie-in work for the Petit Verdots.....drilling the bottom wire holes, running the wire, putting up the drip lines and installing the drippers. Hopefully this all will be done by the time I return. Really I hope earlier than my return so we can turn on the water to Block 2 .....it has been very very dry and the grapes need the water for basic survival. Some of the grapevines look rather sad...dead leaves that seemed so promising when planted are completely browned or have dropped off. Oh, the life of a farmer ! Cross our fingers and pray that the roots and trunk are still in good shape. We will know in the next few weeks our survival rate....once we get some water on them and see how they respond. There just isn't alot of rain in the forecast.
The other projects included some pruning, and some spraying. As mentioned , Diane came down for a few days and she was able to pry me away from the vineyard for a night on the town. We went over to Colonial Downs for some horse racing and fireworks on July 4th. They have a nice setup......the best that loser's money can provide. We bet on 9 out of 10 races....we lost on 9 out of 10 races. Now they weren't able to expand their facilities with the money we lost at only $2 a race, but come on, how can you lose a race betting Show on the most favored horse ? Ah, the gamblers nightmare; once again reinforcing why I don't do the Lotto, the track, or go to Vegas. But the fireworks at the track were first class and we had a great time. Of course there was a dark moment. After the show we raced to the ferry landing, got there in time only to find out that the ferry was full and we had to wait an hour (until 1:30 a.m.) for the next ferry to arrive and take us across the James. Bummer.
Diane helped with the pruning. I put her on the Cabernet Francs while I tackled the Nortons. All had become bushes by now and the 3 minutes it took for pruning vines to establish cordons last month now took double or triple the time this month. After a couple of days Diane had done 1 1/2 rows. I was on the Nortons and they bordered on a nightmare. These are being trained with a twin trunk, therefore double the amount of hedge to prune back, not to mention their ordinary vigorous behavior. I got through maybe a little over half of them before my 2 weeks were up and I had to return north. I can't imagine what they will look like when I return again. And those poor Viogniers.......they have yet to see pruning sheers since the initial cutting.
Lastly I did some spraying. I had reconstructed the boom system on the sprayer the last time I was there. It is now capable of spraying sideways at 2 levels in both directions as I ride down a row. It worked quite well actually. Testing out a speed / spray usage earlier in the week I was able to spray exactly 25 gallons of diluted spray of fungicide and insecticide in an hour doing Block 1. Previously this was a 5 to 6 hour job. When you have to rely totally on one person ( a.k.a. moi) you get pretty smart as how to get the work done faster and more efficiently. Now how can I be more efficient at pruning ?
That was my stint at the vineyard in the 1st half of July. I have been home now a couple of days and have gone through my period of decompression. I have already reserved plane tickets for a return trip in August. A one week stay devoted to finalizing the irrigation for Block 2, and more pruning, and seeing if Jerry finished the assigned tasks.
On a more intersting note, Diane tested the grapes we have hanging on the Seyval Blancs and they register a 5% sugar level. They have a long ways to go but we have many more sunny months to bring them up to the 25% Brix level we need at picking. Looks like a late September or October harvesting is on schedule. Maybe we'll have all the other grapes pruned by then !
As I mentioned in my last blog we had several things to accomplish in order to make serious progress during this trip. I was able to rent a Ditch Witch and dig the trench to tie the water lines in Block 2 to the main system. Digging down into hard pack was really tough...not only were the cutters having a hard time ripping out the earth that was as hard as granite due to the drought, but as it was trying the wheels spun in the soft top sand and dug themselves in. Try moving a Ditch Witch that has dug itself into the ground....no easy task.
It took a day to dig the trenches needed, and the following day I had to go in with a trench shovel and clean out spots that I couldn't go deep enough with using the machine. In one spot I had to avoid slicing the telephone wire, which surprizingly was exactly where DigSafe (or Virginia's equivalent) said it was.....24" down. Of course I ended up slicing through another wire that wasn't identified, but it must not have been juiced or I would have lit up.
The day after I tied in all the irrigation lines that were preassembled (Diane flew down to help here, along with some pruning....more on that later) and called it a day. I didn't have the energy to test them that late in the day. In case there was a problem there wasn't enough time left to fix it anyway.
Changing subjects.....guess who showed up ? Jerry, of course. After his months (and months) of disappearance, he said he wanted to continue now that he had nearly fully recovered from his stint with depression, migranes,, etc. Well, Jerry owed me hours ( I had paid him in advance some during late winter when the weather wasn't great but he needed rent money) so who was I to say no, at least for now. So I used Jerry to test the system out and once we took care of only one gusher where a coupling failed, it was working fine and was ready to be backfilled. At that point I was mentally and physically fried (it was at the end on my 2 week stretch) so I just delegated it to him to do. While I was there he also started doing the tie-in work for the Petit Verdots.....drilling the bottom wire holes, running the wire, putting up the drip lines and installing the drippers. Hopefully this all will be done by the time I return. Really I hope earlier than my return so we can turn on the water to Block 2 .....it has been very very dry and the grapes need the water for basic survival. Some of the grapevines look rather sad...dead leaves that seemed so promising when planted are completely browned or have dropped off. Oh, the life of a farmer ! Cross our fingers and pray that the roots and trunk are still in good shape. We will know in the next few weeks our survival rate....once we get some water on them and see how they respond. There just isn't alot of rain in the forecast.
The other projects included some pruning, and some spraying. As mentioned , Diane came down for a few days and she was able to pry me away from the vineyard for a night on the town. We went over to Colonial Downs for some horse racing and fireworks on July 4th. They have a nice setup......the best that loser's money can provide. We bet on 9 out of 10 races....we lost on 9 out of 10 races. Now they weren't able to expand their facilities with the money we lost at only $2 a race, but come on, how can you lose a race betting Show on the most favored horse ? Ah, the gamblers nightmare; once again reinforcing why I don't do the Lotto, the track, or go to Vegas. But the fireworks at the track were first class and we had a great time. Of course there was a dark moment. After the show we raced to the ferry landing, got there in time only to find out that the ferry was full and we had to wait an hour (until 1:30 a.m.) for the next ferry to arrive and take us across the James. Bummer.
Diane helped with the pruning. I put her on the Cabernet Francs while I tackled the Nortons. All had become bushes by now and the 3 minutes it took for pruning vines to establish cordons last month now took double or triple the time this month. After a couple of days Diane had done 1 1/2 rows. I was on the Nortons and they bordered on a nightmare. These are being trained with a twin trunk, therefore double the amount of hedge to prune back, not to mention their ordinary vigorous behavior. I got through maybe a little over half of them before my 2 weeks were up and I had to return north. I can't imagine what they will look like when I return again. And those poor Viogniers.......they have yet to see pruning sheers since the initial cutting.
Lastly I did some spraying. I had reconstructed the boom system on the sprayer the last time I was there. It is now capable of spraying sideways at 2 levels in both directions as I ride down a row. It worked quite well actually. Testing out a speed / spray usage earlier in the week I was able to spray exactly 25 gallons of diluted spray of fungicide and insecticide in an hour doing Block 1. Previously this was a 5 to 6 hour job. When you have to rely totally on one person ( a.k.a. moi) you get pretty smart as how to get the work done faster and more efficiently. Now how can I be more efficient at pruning ?
That was my stint at the vineyard in the 1st half of July. I have been home now a couple of days and have gone through my period of decompression. I have already reserved plane tickets for a return trip in August. A one week stay devoted to finalizing the irrigation for Block 2, and more pruning, and seeing if Jerry finished the assigned tasks.
On a more intersting note, Diane tested the grapes we have hanging on the Seyval Blancs and they register a 5% sugar level. They have a long ways to go but we have many more sunny months to bring them up to the 25% Brix level we need at picking. Looks like a late September or October harvesting is on schedule. Maybe we'll have all the other grapes pruned by then !
Friday, June 11, 2010
SO MUCH TO DO, SO MUCH TO DO
It's mid-June now, and I have just finished my 1 1/2 week stint on the vineyard. I remember last year going to work in Virginia a week at a time, usually once a month. This year the workload has grown (no takers on my job opening yet) and I visit with an open-ended schedule in the vineyard. I love working the fields, but I hate wasting 12 hours of driving each way to go to and from. That is another problem to address, but it doesn't help on the workload.
This latest trip was a success in as much as alot of "must do" projects were completed. I was visited by my brother Ron and his wife Barb who realized at the onset that that I would put them to work, especially on 2-man projects where I needed the extra hands. They had come up to Virginia to visit relatives in Maryland, but ended up putting some time in with me as part of a "working vacation".
I taught Ron the finer points of driving a farm tractor with its 3-point hook-up as we pounded in the last of the wooden posts in the Block 2 expansion. From there we used the gas auger to drill holes for planting the balance of the Cabernet Sauvignons that had been stored in a refrigerator from last month. In case anyone asks, a refrigerator can hold 625 grafted vines max.
During the week it was rather hot, so outside work was restricted to early morning and late evening, when the sun wasn't as glaring and a slight breeze made working the vines tolerable. I taught Ron and Barb how to prune 3 year old vines, establishing the cordons for next year's cane growth. We would go back in the field around 6 p.m. and work until 8 or so when light was too dim to make good cutting decisions, and when we were just exhausted enough to call it a day. There would ALWAYS be another day....there would always be more vines to prune too.
We concentrated on the Seyval Blancs while they were there. I have 10 rows of them, somewhere around 500 vines. They had grown so much since their first pruning that it took nearly 3 minutes a piece to cut off the unwanted shoots, not to mention all the fruit clusters that the vines had already allowed. Normally we would remove all these clusters but there were so many, and the vines were growing so well, that we left a couple on average on each vine for a Fall harvest, allowing us to get warmed up on wine production 2 years ahead of schedule.
Ron and Barb eventually had to leave, and after they departed I planted the 625 Cabs and worked on the spray systems for the next visit. The Japanese Beetles are out in full force now, and they love grape leaves. I also have to consider all the fungus issues that come with hot humid temperatures. Prudent spray use is necessary just to keep even.....I don't really know how the "organic" guys do it.
My next visit can't come soon enough. My mind is already back in Virginia and I know I still have the Viognier, Cab Francs, and Nortons to prune a 2nd time. I also have to tie in the irrigation system into Block 2. We have been rather lucky lately so the need to connect all the drip lines hasn't made it a priority (at least not with everything else that needed to be done).
It had been so dry in the Spring that my back fields still haven't been planted. We had soy last year, and it is getting a little late for corn. Maybe we'll get a grain in ?
This latest trip was a success in as much as alot of "must do" projects were completed. I was visited by my brother Ron and his wife Barb who realized at the onset that that I would put them to work, especially on 2-man projects where I needed the extra hands. They had come up to Virginia to visit relatives in Maryland, but ended up putting some time in with me as part of a "working vacation".
I taught Ron the finer points of driving a farm tractor with its 3-point hook-up as we pounded in the last of the wooden posts in the Block 2 expansion. From there we used the gas auger to drill holes for planting the balance of the Cabernet Sauvignons that had been stored in a refrigerator from last month. In case anyone asks, a refrigerator can hold 625 grafted vines max.
During the week it was rather hot, so outside work was restricted to early morning and late evening, when the sun wasn't as glaring and a slight breeze made working the vines tolerable. I taught Ron and Barb how to prune 3 year old vines, establishing the cordons for next year's cane growth. We would go back in the field around 6 p.m. and work until 8 or so when light was too dim to make good cutting decisions, and when we were just exhausted enough to call it a day. There would ALWAYS be another day....there would always be more vines to prune too.
We concentrated on the Seyval Blancs while they were there. I have 10 rows of them, somewhere around 500 vines. They had grown so much since their first pruning that it took nearly 3 minutes a piece to cut off the unwanted shoots, not to mention all the fruit clusters that the vines had already allowed. Normally we would remove all these clusters but there were so many, and the vines were growing so well, that we left a couple on average on each vine for a Fall harvest, allowing us to get warmed up on wine production 2 years ahead of schedule.
Ron and Barb eventually had to leave, and after they departed I planted the 625 Cabs and worked on the spray systems for the next visit. The Japanese Beetles are out in full force now, and they love grape leaves. I also have to consider all the fungus issues that come with hot humid temperatures. Prudent spray use is necessary just to keep even.....I don't really know how the "organic" guys do it.
My next visit can't come soon enough. My mind is already back in Virginia and I know I still have the Viognier, Cab Francs, and Nortons to prune a 2nd time. I also have to tie in the irrigation system into Block 2. We have been rather lucky lately so the need to connect all the drip lines hasn't made it a priority (at least not with everything else that needed to be done).
It had been so dry in the Spring that my back fields still haven't been planted. We had soy last year, and it is getting a little late for corn. Maybe we'll get a grain in ?
Monday, May 17, 2010
KEEP FOCUSED ON THE PRIZE
Alot has happened since my last entry. Part of it is that I have been relentless and focused on getting the work done that needed to be, and a good part of it is that I have had the help of others when I pleaded to the world for help.
To begin, Jerry disappeared from the map. His landlord even showed up looking for him because he skipped out of paying his rent. He has become a ghost who someday will reappear....they always do. And then I looked at several people to fill his spot, only to find out that the better, reliable workers were all taken elsewhere, and those that feigned an interest were no shows or not committed to the cause. Maybe the recession is over (or maybe farm work is REALLY hard and no one wants to do it). So what I did was get hold of Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia and presented internship openings to see if I could get any students that wanted to learn the vineyard trade. They are having their exams now.....possibly some interest there when they're over ?
But in the meantime I had to get to work. The vines were due to be shipped in at the end of April and lots had to be done before then.
My older son was shamed into helping for a week, so we drove down together in a 17 hour drive, stopping at vendors to pick up wire and machinery, along with stopping at a plastics vendor to chew him out for poor delivery. It was a long drive but Chris made it through without a complaint. Our mission together was to lay out the fields (Block 2) in a grid pattern and start pounding in posts. We did nearly all the field while he was in town. I think Chris had a new found respect for the work that goes in to just this step alone. Poles just don't "appear" in the fields. Each one needs to be placed, jockeyed into position, pounded, readjusted, and pounded again. Over and over and over. The 2 of us completed all the poles for the Petit Verdots, and got well into those needed for the Cabernet Sauvignons.
During this time Diane came down for a few days. Flew in and flew out. It gave Chris and I the chance to just work till we dropped.....Diane took care of feeding us along with doing some vineyard work in Block 1.....planting new vines where vines had died over the winter (or before) . She could only stay a few days, and found her escape on a Monday. Chris was quick to jump on that bandwagon too seeing it as his only available exit strategy. I don't blame him really. When I get down on the vineyard there is so much work that I rarely come up for air. Any food in the frige or the cabinets is used to allow me to survive and continue working. I just can't find the energy or time to go into town to buy food for well-rounded meals. With Chris he felt captive to this mentality and with his major contribution behind him returning to Massachusetts was looked forward to as a place for recovery.
And with a few more posts to pound in, I hired a guy who talked the talk but didn't walk the walk. He did however drive the tractor for 3 days so I could pound in the balance of the posts we had (we were still short around 20 posts which we'll get in at a later date). I offered him plenty of work after I left, recognizing this wasn't a career move for him. Being yessed to death but no-showing seems to be a trend down there. I was once again totally empty handed.
So a few weeks went by and I did a return trip to New England to earn a living, to only have my mind back in Virginia knowing vines would soon be on their way. Over 2700 vines arrived at the vineyard during that last week in April. I tried to contact the UPS driver to have them placed in the shade......communication was difficult at best. Fortunately my next door neighbor was able to move them well under the car canopy to keep them from being dried out in the sun.
On this trip Diane drove down with me along with her brother John. I think he was purely curious about the whole process. Diane and I have been talking about it for years. Her sister Annie came down once to help put in a fence so there were stories that needed to be tied together and a visit by him would allow this. And of course his help was surely needed.
Once again I was driven to get as much work done as I could, especially with 2 other people volunteering their blood and sweat (well, Diane is not really a volunteer). Diane focused on planting the Petit Verdots, while Johnny and I drilled holes with a gas powered auger ahead of her to speed up the planting. After 3 days John had fulfilled his duty.....the Petit Verdots were fully drilled and fully planted and he found a flight home. Once again we had dove into the project head first. No time to show John the sights, something he wished we had time for. Diane promised that if he came back "off-season" we would have time for more touristy stuff.
So that left Diane and me to get as much done in the upper field for the Cab. Sauvignons.
We did leave the vineyard for a short while though.....a kind of a breather. We visited Smithfield and went to a farmers market......nothing great there to buy, and the a local Inn was selling alot of their furnishings that didn't go along with their remodeling plans.....nothing there we needed either. Diane also zipped into town to pick up some food for me too, since she knew once she flew home (an unplanned flight, but I had to stay to finish the planting) I wouldn't leave the land.
Our efforts were spent on drilling holes. The Cab. Sauvignons required 1750 holes, and with that they need to be measured out between the posts before they were drilled. It is a 2 person job to efficiently do this. Constantly lining up the holes, measuring off of each post, and then drilling.
Now don't think that drilling is easy. Picking up an auger, placing it in position, repositioning it as required and then finally drilling is like doing 4 bench presses per hole. And then don't think we're drilling through soft crumbly loam.....THINK CONCRETE !! It has been dry for so long that the clay-filled soil was impenetrable. Even with both of our weights leaning on the 2 handles of the auger, there were times when the auger bit only was able to dig down an inch or two and kick up fine silt. It was tough going But after 4 more days we were able to drill 1140 holes.
Now this number wasn't the "magic number" we wanted, which was 1750 holes. But understand Diane's brain was clicking to solve this problem....i.e. not having the time to drill and plant all the vines. Her idea was to completely empty a spare refrigerator we had of its shelves and use it to store the vines we couldn't plant, which is what we did. We placed (more like jammed) 625 vines in the refrigerator (make a note that this is maximum capacity !) and turned on the machine to 37 degrees. This would keep them dormant until we were ready to plant them.
It was now time for Diane to fly away. She had an early (early equals 5:30 a.m.) flight out of Newport News on the following Monday, and that left me with the duty of planting all the Cabernet Sauvignon vines not put in cold storage. It took 4 days to do it....that's alot of deep knee bends (thank god it wasn't more bench presses), but it was finally done in time for me to drive back on Friday.
I had been down there 2 full weeks. With the help of John and Diane (and of course Chris previously), we got alot accomplished. There is a ton of work left, not to mention that grapes are actually growing on all our vines in Block 1 that have to be pruned off.
Block 1 needs to be pruned. A spray schedule has to be initiated. The irrigation system has to be extended into Block 2 (and that requires drilling wire holes, running wire and drip lines, putting in the drippers), completing the planting of the chilly Cabs., weeding (and weeding and weeding). It has now become a full time job.
I am due back in 2 weeks. Can't wait. Really.
To begin, Jerry disappeared from the map. His landlord even showed up looking for him because he skipped out of paying his rent. He has become a ghost who someday will reappear....they always do. And then I looked at several people to fill his spot, only to find out that the better, reliable workers were all taken elsewhere, and those that feigned an interest were no shows or not committed to the cause. Maybe the recession is over (or maybe farm work is REALLY hard and no one wants to do it). So what I did was get hold of Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia and presented internship openings to see if I could get any students that wanted to learn the vineyard trade. They are having their exams now.....possibly some interest there when they're over ?
But in the meantime I had to get to work. The vines were due to be shipped in at the end of April and lots had to be done before then.
My older son was shamed into helping for a week, so we drove down together in a 17 hour drive, stopping at vendors to pick up wire and machinery, along with stopping at a plastics vendor to chew him out for poor delivery. It was a long drive but Chris made it through without a complaint. Our mission together was to lay out the fields (Block 2) in a grid pattern and start pounding in posts. We did nearly all the field while he was in town. I think Chris had a new found respect for the work that goes in to just this step alone. Poles just don't "appear" in the fields. Each one needs to be placed, jockeyed into position, pounded, readjusted, and pounded again. Over and over and over. The 2 of us completed all the poles for the Petit Verdots, and got well into those needed for the Cabernet Sauvignons.
During this time Diane came down for a few days. Flew in and flew out. It gave Chris and I the chance to just work till we dropped.....Diane took care of feeding us along with doing some vineyard work in Block 1.....planting new vines where vines had died over the winter (or before) . She could only stay a few days, and found her escape on a Monday. Chris was quick to jump on that bandwagon too seeing it as his only available exit strategy. I don't blame him really. When I get down on the vineyard there is so much work that I rarely come up for air. Any food in the frige or the cabinets is used to allow me to survive and continue working. I just can't find the energy or time to go into town to buy food for well-rounded meals. With Chris he felt captive to this mentality and with his major contribution behind him returning to Massachusetts was looked forward to as a place for recovery.
And with a few more posts to pound in, I hired a guy who talked the talk but didn't walk the walk. He did however drive the tractor for 3 days so I could pound in the balance of the posts we had (we were still short around 20 posts which we'll get in at a later date). I offered him plenty of work after I left, recognizing this wasn't a career move for him. Being yessed to death but no-showing seems to be a trend down there. I was once again totally empty handed.
So a few weeks went by and I did a return trip to New England to earn a living, to only have my mind back in Virginia knowing vines would soon be on their way. Over 2700 vines arrived at the vineyard during that last week in April. I tried to contact the UPS driver to have them placed in the shade......communication was difficult at best. Fortunately my next door neighbor was able to move them well under the car canopy to keep them from being dried out in the sun.
On this trip Diane drove down with me along with her brother John. I think he was purely curious about the whole process. Diane and I have been talking about it for years. Her sister Annie came down once to help put in a fence so there were stories that needed to be tied together and a visit by him would allow this. And of course his help was surely needed.
Once again I was driven to get as much work done as I could, especially with 2 other people volunteering their blood and sweat (well, Diane is not really a volunteer). Diane focused on planting the Petit Verdots, while Johnny and I drilled holes with a gas powered auger ahead of her to speed up the planting. After 3 days John had fulfilled his duty.....the Petit Verdots were fully drilled and fully planted and he found a flight home. Once again we had dove into the project head first. No time to show John the sights, something he wished we had time for. Diane promised that if he came back "off-season" we would have time for more touristy stuff.
So that left Diane and me to get as much done in the upper field for the Cab. Sauvignons.
We did leave the vineyard for a short while though.....a kind of a breather. We visited Smithfield and went to a farmers market......nothing great there to buy, and the a local Inn was selling alot of their furnishings that didn't go along with their remodeling plans.....nothing there we needed either. Diane also zipped into town to pick up some food for me too, since she knew once she flew home (an unplanned flight, but I had to stay to finish the planting) I wouldn't leave the land.
Our efforts were spent on drilling holes. The Cab. Sauvignons required 1750 holes, and with that they need to be measured out between the posts before they were drilled. It is a 2 person job to efficiently do this. Constantly lining up the holes, measuring off of each post, and then drilling.
Now don't think that drilling is easy. Picking up an auger, placing it in position, repositioning it as required and then finally drilling is like doing 4 bench presses per hole. And then don't think we're drilling through soft crumbly loam.....THINK CONCRETE !! It has been dry for so long that the clay-filled soil was impenetrable. Even with both of our weights leaning on the 2 handles of the auger, there were times when the auger bit only was able to dig down an inch or two and kick up fine silt. It was tough going But after 4 more days we were able to drill 1140 holes.
Now this number wasn't the "magic number" we wanted, which was 1750 holes. But understand Diane's brain was clicking to solve this problem....i.e. not having the time to drill and plant all the vines. Her idea was to completely empty a spare refrigerator we had of its shelves and use it to store the vines we couldn't plant, which is what we did. We placed (more like jammed) 625 vines in the refrigerator (make a note that this is maximum capacity !) and turned on the machine to 37 degrees. This would keep them dormant until we were ready to plant them.
It was now time for Diane to fly away. She had an early (early equals 5:30 a.m.) flight out of Newport News on the following Monday, and that left me with the duty of planting all the Cabernet Sauvignon vines not put in cold storage. It took 4 days to do it....that's alot of deep knee bends (thank god it wasn't more bench presses), but it was finally done in time for me to drive back on Friday.
I had been down there 2 full weeks. With the help of John and Diane (and of course Chris previously), we got alot accomplished. There is a ton of work left, not to mention that grapes are actually growing on all our vines in Block 1 that have to be pruned off.
Block 1 needs to be pruned. A spray schedule has to be initiated. The irrigation system has to be extended into Block 2 (and that requires drilling wire holes, running wire and drip lines, putting in the drippers), completing the planting of the chilly Cabs., weeding (and weeding and weeding). It has now become a full time job.
I am due back in 2 weeks. Can't wait. Really.
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