Winter Is Behind Us

As I write this I am looking out of the same window where I took this picture just a few short days ago. The ground is clear now, and the temperature is predicted to be 67 degrees by Wednesday. It is now time to play catch up in the vineyard. I still have plenty of dormant pruning to do, which was side-lined as I spent my winter chasing after cows and putting up electric fence. There is much to do in the vineyard other than just pruning. I have 2 rows of vines that were flipped during a hurricane and all those posts are in need of replacement. The irrigation system has been compromised by the severely cold temperatures we had, which caused ruptures in lines where the water wasn't drained fully. Several of our hydrants cracked too, so I need to dig down to the water lines and replace the junctions with underground cutoff valves, which hopefully will prevent a repeat in the future.

We are also gearing up for the Winery to be built this year. The ground is a little mushy now, so it is still too early to bring out the heavy equipment. All goes well we can be starting the actual foundation work in May. It'll be a 4 month project. Getting the place geared up for visitors and tourists has its own priority. Making the winery and vineyard family friendly takes on a mission of its own.

It is more work than Diane, Rich, and I can take on all by ourselves. I am posting internships for those that want to learn about the process.....vineyards, new business venture, tourist attraction, small-scale farming....there is so much to do and learn for someone with an interest. We'll offer room & board and a small allowance.

Diane is still up in Massachusetts, having shoveled even more snow earlier today on top of the recent blizzards. I can hear it in her voice that the weather, and being away from our Virginia home, is wearing thin. Hopefully the house will sell early this Spring.

Cow Tails From The Vineyard: It's All About The Moos

It is a rather slow time in the vineyard. Rich has finished weed wacking all of Block 2, and when the weather permits I will get out there and finish our first pruning on Block 1....I am about half done.
Rich headed back up north today. Christmas just passed and he wanted to be back up in New England for New Years and to help out at Fenway as they use the baseball field for winter hockey. "We" also need to do some repairs with the trellis system in our Nortons. I say "we" because Rich gave me instructions on what he needs to have done before he comes back down to kick start the 2014 season.

But now about the Moos. There are three different kinds of Moos. There may be more but I have only begun to recognize these first three. There is the "I am really hungry" moo, there is the "Where is my calf?" moo, and then there is the "Someone is or will soon break out of the pasture" moo.

It is very important to recognize these moos, for to ignore them will lead to certain disaster and an evening full of frustration and disappointment. It is always better to declare DEFCON 1. the highest alert status possible, than hoping for the best and assume nothing is going to happen. There are mere minutes between a red alert Moo and total chaos.I was on the unfortunate side of this error in judgement the other night, and though the final result was positive, it made for a nightmare of a night.

It really began earlier in the day. We had three jailbreaks during daylight hours, and three times Chris, Rich, and I were within the width of the field as we saw the cows jump or break fences. For each of these we managed to get the cows back in the field, and subsequently repair the fences. The fact is that if a cow wants to jump a fence (it's more like a WWF body slam), they will do it even knowing it might make a mark in their suede coat. Barbed wire is a joke.

We had gone around inspecting the fence one last time before dinner, and we had just polished off our last glass of wine when a fellow farmer called me on the phone and suggested that there were some cows loose (red ones at that) and they had been seen by a neighbor maybe a half mile away from our fields. The point here was that we had heard a moo at around 6 and blew it off. The call came in at around 6:30. Knowing the daily history of our cattle, and also knowing I am the only red angus breeder in this area, putting 2 + 2 together was not difficult.

Chris and I threw on our jackets and proceeded to walk up the main road towards where we were told the cattle were last seen. On our trip there a pick up truck approached us from behind and stopped. It was another concerned farmer who had received the same call.....he was going to check on his gates to see if there had been an escape by his cows. The verdict came quickly....his cows were still in, mine were huddled against the woods near his cattle just plotting their next move. By this time they had walked another half mile further away. Walking to get to them now was out of the question. It was time to get the truck and see if, by holding a bucket of corn while riding the tailgate, we could entice them to turn around on their exodus and return home. It was a trial that turned unsuccessful. It worked for a few hundred yards, but then the lead cow became disinterested in all carrot and no feed, so it suddenly veered off to the side pasture, taking all 7 cows and calves with it. They even stopped at a home and decided to take a loop around their barn and house, leaving cow plops along the way. We even let the leader (U204) have a nibble, but once the pail was emptied it no longer held her interest. Obviously this approach wasn't working; time for Plan B.

We now left the truck back at the beginning, where by now the cattle had reversed themselves and returned to. Chris was to walk on one side, I on the other to see if we could turn them. We were able to reverse them and sort of get them headed in the right direction. It was hurtful to watch. A cow's straight line did not resemble any I had ever drawn. A stop over at a pump house to nibble on some uncut weeds around its parameter. Another walk back out to the road slowing a few cars who saw the animals wandering around the asphalt. Rich by now had shown up in the ATV, where he and Chris changed roles. Chris became our resident cowboy as he motored up the right side of the herd "keeping them" from taking a side exit into the woods. This worked well until he dropped into a ditch, whereby he needed to be towed out later after we got the cows home.

The cows now had taken the last turn in the road and probably recognized their fate. They saw the house in the distance and  kept a steady pace along the side of the road. Cars were now backed up a few hundred yards up, and the one I talked to shared  with me her loose cow stories. She appreciated the mess we were in, but at that point it almost  looked like we had it under control. The cows continued, and turned up our driveway headed right to the front of the house, a site they were quite familiar with from previous adventures. So much so that they knew that here was the best grass in the area, and the cul de sac in front became a stopping place to eat up some relatively tall grass. Compared to the dead or dying grass in the fields it must have been almost gourmet like. We, along with the calves, were tired. To let them munch on grass at this juncture was welcome. The calves either lied down or decided a nice warm milk meal was needed. For thirty minutes we all stayed still. I was trying to decide how long we were going to let this go on. We were in control, weren't we ?

But the "driver" in Rich came forward. His patience had run out so he decided to start pushing them to the gate they had broken through. By this time I was in a nice warm truck keeping the headlights pointed on the cattle. Chris created a border on the backside and also ran ahead to open the gate for easy access. It wasn't so easy though; it is much easier to open repaired gates in the daylight than in total darkness. We got them in finally, and proceeded to mend the fence once again. I went and got a couple bales of hay and Chris and I moved them to the middle of the field thinking that that would keep them in for the rest of the night. Little did we know.

The next morning I was greeted in my back yard by the four cows. They were mooing loudly. Seems that they were able to crack the code to get out, but the repairs were too tough for the calves to figure out so they stayed behind (personally I think they fell asleep inside the pasture fences while their mothers had another "Mom's Night Out"). These were the "Where are my calves?" moo that I was hearing after having only a few hours sleep following our exciting evening of events.

I talked to them, like a parent who was just too tired to lecture anymore. All of us went over to the gate and with some coaching, got them to go in without the calves deciding to run out. It all ended where it all began. The cows had their night on the town. Between the 2nd jailbreak and their really unproductive tour of the neighborhood that finished with their eating my front lawn, they were full and spent the day resting and plotting their next move. Need less to say, Chris, Rich, and I spent that day fixing the fence and planning on installing electric. The cows may have won the battle (or at least tied). I will win the war. The next cow that decides to explore the world in the name of the Queen may be dubbed Sir Loin of Elberon !

Vines Are Like Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree

For the first time Rich and I have gotten out in the fields before the new year has started, to prep the vines for 2014. There still is some major catching up to do, projects that were put on the back burner while we hurried ourselves through the harvest season. Rich is weedwacking 7 acres of weeds that ran amuck last Fall. I have started to prune the vines; this will be the first pruning of two that will need to be done before bud break next year. After Rich completes his assignment we will spray under the wires to kill off any winter weeds (trust me, there are plenty) and put down a pre-emergent to prevent new growth. We hope this year we can keep ahead of the weed problem using herbicides alone......we'll see I guess.

As you squint your eyes looking at the above picture, you can see vertical canes that are a good 8" to 10" above the cordon (the horizontal arms). We keep them long to prevent winter born viruses from getting down to the budding region; they will be shortened when we do our 2nd pruning. It is during this second pruning when we do our bud count; we want 2 buds per cane and we are trying to have 6 canes on each side of the trunk. This provides 24 opportunities for shoot growth on each vine, all growing upwards vertically to fill out the trellis.

Winter in Virginia is a strange combination of some really pleasant weather with days in the 50's to what seems to be a series of cold snaps where the temperature never gets above 30. Compared to Syracuse or New England this must seem quite balmy, but when you have to be in the fields working with your bare hands as you prune and tie up vines, it can be numbing on the fingers. Though there are periods when we think we have caught up on our work and our projects work their way in doors (i.e. an unheated barn), taking care of vines is a year round job.

Somehow we also have to find time to put up new fencing for the cattle. T29's calf likes to squeeze through the barbed wire and walk the backside of the fence. Why, I don't know other than wanting to relive the experience it had with being born in the "outside world".

There is a winery to be built in 2014 too.

The Amazing Race

When I finished the previous blog, I had been told the night before that T29 had escaped. She was a week overdue on her calf, and this no doubt was a sign of her anticipation and frustration. The fence she left behind was a mess. Four barbed wires all ripped to shreds and tangled; no doubt the result of her jumping over and/or bulling her way through. The other cows and calves were on the opposite side of the field, so I opted to take a walk along the tree line and see if I could spot her. The adjacent field is owned by another farmer, and he had soybeans still to be harvested. They were maybe 30" tall and a dull brown in color, so you would thing that just by looking over the top of 100 acres of beans I could spot a huge animal.  I spent a good hour walking around, visiting the spots I would go if I was a cow.I had no success.

I returned to my pasture having collected my hammer, fence staples, and spare wire, and proceeded to fix the fence. It was now "solid", or so I thought.

For the next three days I wondered around the back fields looking for T29. I called the Sheriff's office thinking that if someone woke up and found a cow eating their flowers that they would know it was mine....not that I would know how to collect it if that happened. I also went down to the local tractor equipment store and let a member of the local hunt club know that I had a cow on the loose, possibly two, so he should notify his hunters to be on the lookout. A hunter with a quick trigger might manage to knock off a calf.....their coloring and size isn't much different than a small deer.

It was on the fourth day that I went into town to run some errands, and I came back and thought I'd eat some lunch when I looked out and saw T29 eating my side lawn grass.  I slowly walked  over to her and started my ritualistic conversation. She apparently really didn't want to be bothered, so she started walking towards the pasture and back woods. I suppose I could have shooed her into the pasture, but if she had a calf how would I ever find it ? So I slowly walked beside her and for the most part she ignored me and kept walking. And kept walking some more. Nearly twenty minutes later and easily a mile away on the other side of the field she walked and eventually stopped in the middle of a small corner of the field.

I knew what she was doing....looking to see exactly where her newborn calf was and with her occasional mooing try to draw it out of the woods. Within minutes it peeked out, and then the two were united. I approached them and Mom decided to only let me get so close. She turned and started walking even further away from our pasture.

I wasn't going to allow this to happen. If she went deep in the woods I'd never be able to corral her and get her back. And with hunting season I didn't want to lose the two of them for another night. I started to jog next to them hoping I could cut them off and turn them around. The mother and calf started trotting in the away direction.

Being a marathon runner I decided I'd be damned it I was going to let a 3-day old calf out run me, so I went into a full sprint, barely enough speed to cut them off but after a minute I was finally able to get ahead of them to make them turn. Once turned however their trot slowed down to a brisk walk, and they beelined to the pasture, now a good 25 minutes away. As long as they were headed in the right direction I wasn't too concerned, though I knew the fence there wasn't open. But to race ahead to open it probably would have had them turn again. So I followed a few hundred yards behind them thinking they would be standing by the fence when I got there.

I eventually got my way to the back gate by the pasture, and the two of them were no where to be found. At this point I was tired and hadn't had lunch. Time for a break before I worried about them again. When I exited the house a half hour later there they were nibbling grass in my back yard. T29 saw me once again and decided to start going to the back woods again, calf in tow.

If I just followed them I would be right back to where I was hours before. What I did was jump the fence into the pasture, and follow them in parallel until we got to the back corner where there was another gate where I could hopefully be able to let them in, assuming that was their plan (I know it was mine). I had with me a bucket of corn and by now I had captured the attention of the other three cows and their two calves. They came running down to where the action, and the treats were. I needed to open the fence,and here now were another potential five escapees. I decided to feed the cows that had exhibited good behavior, open the gate and see what happens.

T29 worked her way down the fence line, her view being blocked by weeds and shrubs bordering the fence. Her face popped around the corner only to see the other cattle were having a major snack on the corn I had brought out. She was not going to be without, so she mozzied into the pasture aiming directly to the bucket of corn which had by now been totally emptied. I closed the gate right away having finally gotten all the cattle together after four days.

I texted Diane to share my victory, displaying a score: "Dave 2, T29 - 0". Not wanting me to have too big a head, she texted back "I think the score is more like Dave - 2, T29 - 2."

This left only U204 to have her baby, and on the day I wrote this blog entry, December 1st, I am proud to say that she gave birth to a fine calf which was two weeks late. My herd has increased from four to eight within the last 5 weeks. My cow affairs are behind me, though I have to castrate some, tag others, and think about AI'ing the adult cows in another month or two. Time to get back into the fields while the weather is still reasonable. Need to weed wack and prune twice, along with some trellis repairs, all before April 1st, 2014.

 

The Beat Goes On: X406 has her calf

It was only a couple days ago when X446 had her calf, and wouldn't you know it but the others felt the need to stop waiting to get the show on the road. I did my early morning walk around the pasture, and one of the sure signs that a calve is going to get born is to see the expectant mother off on her own, away from the participating in the normal herd gathering.(There are other signs but I'll spare you)

X406 was all alone, hundreds of yards away from the others, hidden behind the same dog fennels that had so well hid X446's calf. I decided not to approach her; I could hear her thinking "Geez, don't I get a little privacy?". But I suspect humility is not a common emotion amongst cows, after all, it has been many a time when they'll drop their load while looking at me straight in the face.

I returned to the house in anticipation.

That afternoon what I had anticipated came true. On the opposite side of the field X406 had her calf. Maybe she did the cow's equivalent of jumping jacks on the trip over in order to spur this birthing process on. I don't know. The calf was on the ground, getting tongued by her mother as all the other cows watched on. It was T29's turn next.

Have you noticed I haven't given them names? Even though you are told not to give them human names should they eventually be served on your plate, the fact is that I have called them by their tag numbers for so long that it might as well be a name, albeit unconventional. They have their own personalities too, so it is hard not to have some kind of attachment. X446 and X406 are the youngest of the four, having been born back in 2010. I'm guessing that they each weigh 1300 pounds or so. Light in frame relatively speaking. They both tend to be followers and will keep a safe distance away from me. Neither is assertive with the other two cows, and as far as mothering is concerned, they will keep an eye on their calves but they don't have any problem putting real distance between them. The only real reward of having the calf right next to them is that the calves will want to readily relieve the mother of udder pressure. You can tell that weaning these calves is right up there on their priority list.

U204 was born in 2008, and compared to the others she is the buffalo of the crowd, easily at 1600 pounds. Absolutely huge. With that she has some obvious strengths....one of them is to bully everyone else away from the mineral barrel or the pails full of corn I occasionally bring out to the field. Don't ever get head-butted by U204; she'll send you into the next field. One thing strange about her behavior is that she really is the matriarch of the group, putting a watchful eye on the calves even though they aren't hers.She will quickly walk over and block them from me should I get close. And the other thing that is at odds with this behavior is that she is the only one that will let me pat her on the shoulder. Shy of the ever so often smell and tongue lick by the others to see if I, as a human, am good to eat (or maybe to identify me), the rest all stay at a full legs reach.

T29 was born in 2007, the oldest of the clan. When I am around she keeps a very close watch over me. She will never allow me to get too close, and I think she treats the others in the same fashion. Though the herd may shuffle around the pasture during the course of the day, she always is slightly away from the others.

Of the four cows, all were artificially inseminated except U204. U204 needed a "cleanup bull" to do the deed. Hence why she is due to have her calf a full month after the others. Using AI is a preferred method to achieve pregnancy if you are trying to improve specific traits within your herd. As big as U204 is, I am surprised that a bull was found to be big enough to handle her.

Every day I go out into the fields and do a head check. T29 is due and one of these days I expect to see a third calf, or at least signs of one on the way. The sign came one evening when a hunter knocked on my door. It was well after sun down and he was on his way home after an afternoon of sitting in his deer blind waiting for a buck to walk by.

He didn't see a buck, but he did see a huge dark brown animal, bigger than any deer he has seen in this area. Upon readjusting his eyes he realized it was one of my cows, and he was nice enough to let me know I had a cow on the loose.

It was too dark for me to go looking for it, so I postponed my search until morning. Anyway, if I had gone out that night it would have spooked it and I am sure it would have bolted into the next county. When I did my head count in the morning, I found out it was T29, who had torn through the barbed wire fence......destroying it.........to find out if the grass was greener on the other side. The search was on.

And now I have five (cattle that is)

I was driving south from Massachusetts having just gotten back from France the day before and my phone started to ring. I was in New Jersey.

Though I live in a mild state of paranoia, believing there is a State Trooper watching me just to see if I pick up my hand held cell phone, I decided to answer it anyway. It was Anna. She and her daughter Katrin were kind enough to keep my cat alive while I was gone for over a week. They also had the task of counting my cows periodically to see if any had given birth. Three of the four were expecting when I took off to Europe, and while Diane and I were there Anna had emailed us and said X446 had a calf on the last day of our voyage.

But Anna wasn't calling to tell us another calf was born. She cautiously gave me the news that she couldn't find the calf that day. The two of them had walked back and forth across the nine acres, and the cows weren't too helpful in helping her locate the newborn. Even X446 seemed noncommittal. Other than tell her I'd look around when I got down there, and I was on my way, I didn't know what else to say. The next six hours of my drive my brain was racing from "there's nothing I can do until I get there" to thinking a hunter had a nice piece of veal in his cooler, to wondering if a coyote had made off with the carcass. I kept driving. My arrival was well after dark so the search had to resume the next morning.

I didn't get much sleep though I was exhausted from the traveling I had done over the past two days. There wasn't any real food in the house, so once I defrosted an English muffin and smothered it with peanut butter, I woofed it down, poured my coffee, and went out to the Back 9 to start my search. Believe it or not, trying to find four huge red angus cows can be difficult at times. You just can't stand on a high spot and glance around, hoping they are standing against a contrasting backdrop easy to see. They do get down on the ground, or crouch under trees, making them hard to spot. And last night's resting ground may not be the same as the night's before, or the night before that.

So I started to walk first to the latest hangouts. They weren't there. My next approach was to walk the parameter, and by the time I went 3/4 of the way around, there they all were just staring at me wondering (A) it's about time you decided to show up, to (B) what's your problem? Like many a kid's movie where they have dogs and cats talking in perfect "human speak", I hear these cows with human intellect trying to communicate with me telepathically. Only cows have certainly a different perspective than I do as to what is important or annoying.

I walked up to X446 and asked where her baby was. A blank look came on her face. Mine too as a matter of fact. Getting answers wasn't going to be easy here. But the cows were in an odd part of the pasture. There were thousands of tall weeds called dog fennel surrounding them. Cows don't like to eat them and there isn't any real forage under or within them.  Generally not a good hang out spot, but it would provide refuge for a weak and tired calf, so I started walking around the immediate area and it wasn't long before I found the calf, curled up into a ball having rested the night. Mother came over and she and the calf reunited for their all too frequent milking that occurs until the calf learns to graze. Weaning won't happen for another five months.

I called Anna and let her know the calf was found. She obviously was relieved not really knowing what more she could have done at the time. It was now time to be on calf alert for two more.....X406 and T29 were overdue.

The Tale Comes To An End

It is now Sunday. Our boat needs to be back by 9 a.m. on Monday morning, so with no nearby places to moor, for all practical purposes we need to be at their docks the night before. We have nearly 40 kilometers to cover today, so it'll be another day of just pounding the pavement, so to speak.

Once again we started our engines at 8:30 in the morning, and headed north on another gray and dreary day. Our RPM's were around 1500, which by taking time checks as we went by KM markers came to about 9 km/hour. It's possible to get to our destination at around 2 if all goes well. 

The countryside was nearly the same as what we had seen before. Parks bordering the river with the occasional camper tented with a view of the water. Fishermen....those that were taking it seriously and those that used the activity to just get out of the house. Pastures and cows, more pastures and more cows. We made bets on when we would see the first vessel on the river, discounting dingies, and we were both wrong. It was 10:30 before a recreational boat was passed going in the opposite direction.

It seemed like every 10 kilometers or so there was a good sized city we passed through. From our vantage point they were indistinguishable. But then again we were still frazzled from yesterday's multi-lock day and the distance we covered. At one point we saw a 2-headed cow.....ask Diane about it.....apparently our coffee hadn't kicked in yet.

It began to rain again. What else is new. We did a little steering from inside  but soon came back on top......visibility wasn't that good down below and we had two large locks to go through. I just like to be able to see the goings on in these locks so getting wet was the trade off. Locks on the river are massive, for they have to be large enough to handle the commercial barges and the tankers that go up and back. Being a little tiny boat in one of these locks, and watching all the water change places on our behalf is mind blowing. These locks were manned, so we just had to get inside and hold on for dear life as hundreds of thousands of gallons of water brought us up to a new level.

On the trip we ended up going through a 10 kilometer man-made canal that skirted the city of Lechatulet. It was straight as an arrow; we could have put the boat on auto pilot if it had one. Boring too. It reminded us of the by-passes that we see on expressways that are the alternates to the business route. We didn't much mind at this time since it got us to our destination faster.

We finally got to St. Jean de Losne about when we planned. It was a huge boat marina, and LeBoat had a corner to themselves, seeing that it was a major mooring port for their operation. They easily had over a hundred boats there, and I would say 2/3 of them were bigger and larger than ours. Obviously boating in France is big business. We backed into an empty berth, tying stern in to the dock. Fortunately I had a week of experience to help me control the boat in reverse.......I've learned a lot in a week.

Diane and I put our things in place and decided to go for a walk and see what this town had to offer. It would have been nice to stop by a grocery and pick up just a few things to cap off our final dinner meal on the boat; there was absolutely nothing open in St.Jean de Losne. Pretty town, but empty shy of some young local men standing on a street corner shooting the breeze. We walked over to the beginning of the Canal de Bourgogne that went to Dijon and well beyond. For those that want to do the canal scene there are plenty of offerings.

Our our return to our boat we found that two other boats had backed in adjacent to us. There was a young couple from Israel that spoke fluent English. The wife was going to the U.S. in a week to participate in an international math challenge taking place in Cambridge. It's a small world. Another couple had been given a boat to use for a week from some friends that decided to cut their trip short for some odd reason. They had a place in Dijon and a unique background, the two of them originating from England with the Mr. having a professor's post in a French university. They invited us over to their boat for an evening of drinks and an opportunity to share stories and pick each other's brains. It was a fun time and a great way to unwind from a long day.

Our next day was rapid fire too, as we got our boat checked in, jumped in a taxi to get up to Dijon (about a 45 minute drive) where we grabbed a train that would take us back to Geneva. Diane made plans for us to stay the night there, with our plane taking off Tuesday mid-day. When we arrived in Geneva the hotel was supposed to be within easy walking distance from the train terminal. It was easy if you weren't dragging suitcases and didn't take the wrong turn. It was mid-afternoon when we got there and had "the pleasure" of seeing the red light district in full swing readying for the night's entertainment. The ladies walked a five block area that was just down the block from our hotel. That evening we went out to dinner, one of the few times we really went out to eat, since most of our meals were on the boat. We went to a restaurant with a Swiss theme (duh), with its leprechaun dressed waiters, the bull horn and accordion for musical affects, and its regional wines, none of which topped those we had on our trip.

We returned to our room and ate the chocolates that had been put on our pillows. Our trip was officially over, except for an entire day of using trains, planes, buses, and cars to finally get us back to Massachusetts. The day after I jumped in my truck and drove another 12 hours to Virginia.

It was a great 40th wedding anniversary, even with the rain.