Sat Apr 13 2024
Filaree. I finally searched the internet to find the name. It is labeled "invasive" and that's for sure! Over the years, I have taken the shovel and boot-hoe to this weed when I find it in the vineyard because it is one of those plants that grow "flat and close to the ground and prevents the germination of desirable native species". Yeah, like the native grass that I want to grow in the tractor rows.
All of a sudden this spring, I'm finding it in places it's never been before. This is getting scary.
And dangitall anyway, I was hoping to get a break from eradication responsibilities. Last year it was grass bur (aka sandbur). Fortunately, this weed was isolated to just a few vine rows and I made the rounds several times to pull it up and burn it. I'm crossing my fingers for this year.
The year before, goathead. This was a growing problem (no pun intended). Goathead was present here and there for years but then in 2021 it went wild and took over the whole place. Spotte couldn't take two steps without getting those awful pointy seeds stuck in her paws. And we'd bring them into the house and step on them coming out of the shower. So when they started sprouting in 2022, I was weeks out there every morning doing multiple passes up and down the vine rows and into the open areas to kill those plants. Whew, when 2023 came around, there wasn't but a handful of the nasty buggers out there and they buuuurned baby!
Hey filaree, guess what, you're next!
Tue Mar 7 2024
So there are two competing bills in the current Arizona legislative session that present two completely different proposals for groundwater (aquifer) management.
One bill says, Let's put these aquifers under local management to guide and oversee a scale-back of over-pumping, and start metering and monitoring wells to get a better understanding of what's going on with the aquifer, and use that data to work towards a goal of sustainable water use. This bill is very similar to another bill proposed years ago, which was called the Groundwater Conservation Act (GCA). That prior bill had big support from the citizenry, including both Republicans and Democrats, but it was killed by Republican leadership in the Arizona legislature.
The new bill is not getting any love from Republican citizenry, even though it is much the same as the prior GCA, which they supported. Why? Because the bill, though drafted by a non-partisan commission, was made possible by a Democratic Governor who assembled that commission. In this era of extreme polarization, even groundwater fails to rise above politics for Republicans.
Alas, as the same situation plays out on a national scale, so it goes locally. It is difficult to find a Republican that wants to do anything but keep searching for bottom.
Oh, the other of the two competing bills? It was written by Republicans. It proposes to allow and lock in, by law, over-pumping of the aquifers, all the way to the bottom. This just might be the first time Republicans actually get there.
Tue Feb 26 2024
Look at Them! The ants are awake and starting to emerge. Put the cover on the sugar jar. Make sure your car has gas and the starter is working. Grab the kids and run for the hills and don't stop for anything. Don't go for a walk too far into the open country and for sure, don't go into any underground culverts no matter what you do.
Do you know what this means? The growing season is upon us. The ground temperature is rising and the ants are getting fidgety and that means we are getting close to bud break. Some people put thermometers into the ground. We use ant thermometers here. All natural and dirt cheap.
We have 1 row left to prune. That's it! But weather is showing up so dangit, it might be days before we get that last one done. I hope not. We are hoping for the usual morning lull before the wind shows up to bang it out. Then rain and blow all you want, Mother Nature. We saw you coming!
Tue Feb 2 2024
What did the French winemaker see on Groundhog Day? ... His Chateau.
It's a Groundhog Day to treasure here. The wind was howling last night, rain thundered on the roof. This morning, dark scary storm clouds are all around, covering the mountains with fearsome shrouds, and ominous squalls march across the valley floor.
It's a day to treasure because there are just so many doggone blue-sky sunny days here in Arizona. It is so boring! It's nice to get some interesting weather. The groundhog definitely did not see his shadow this morning so spring is coming early.
And the cool thing is, we won't be on the news. It won't flood or anything like that. There won't be any tornadoes. It will just be wet and mucky here for a while, white snow topping the mountains. And then the boring sun will come out again.
Since it's a stormy rainy day, I'm inside doing chores. Like shredding documents I should have shredded years ago. Like old 401K statements. I can't help but pine for those long lost days of innocence and tranquility, when your name, address, phone number, account number, and of course, social security number was emblazoned on every page of your 401K statement and your checking and credit card statements. Even on pages of purely generic text sent to everyone without anything specific about any particular account, there they are, the keys to unlock the doors to all of my possessions in this world. Man, those were the days. When the old LaSalle ran great.
There is another thing about the rain too. This is the time of year it's really good to get some granular on the ground underneath those vines. That's not easily doable in wet weather. Mother Nature plays with us, sends us these rainy winters sometimes, and we look for breaks in her game plan to get our work done. She is a tricky one.
The filter part arrived today. Oh boy.
Tue Jan 30 2024
Today I was going to finally submit myself to the awful wretchedness of filtering a white wine for bottling. I decided that I wasn't going to try to do this at break-neck speed. I'd take my time, put some good tunes on Pandora, smell the roses.
I spent the morning hours clean-clean-cleaning and getting most of the equipment set up and ready to go. Lunch. Then to finish set up, I took a couple gallons of the wine into a bucket, dunked each pad one by one and loaded them into the filter, coarse side, smooth side, coarse side, smooth side… ugh. I was delighted that the last filter pad, when there can't possibly be room for one more, went in without extra effort and without mangling it (I've learned).
Wow, things are going so smoothly! OK, let's get the screw in and tighten this thing up. We might actually get this done without much trouble.
[Insert: When things are going smoothly, look out, a dope slap might be coming!]
The screw went in. I turn-turn-turned it. It was close to emerging through the filter wall on its way to the pads. Wait, I usually see some brass filings get pushed out, but this time, it wasn't just filings, it was threads. Nice, shiny, brass arcs. Pretty. Oh man! Well, keep turning and let's see if there are enough threads left to compress the pads. Nope, as soon as the screw hit the pads it was going no further, just spinning in place.
[Insert: Here comes the dope slap.] Hmm, maybe I should have had that part on hand after watching those filings come out all these years.
Well, the good news is, I don't have to filter today after all!! Yippee!!!!!!
The bad news. I still gotta dismantle and clean-clean-clean everything.
The good news is, did I say I don't have to filter today! Yowser!!!!
The bad news. I still have to filter this wine when the replacement part arrives.
Maybe the world will end first.
Sat Jan 27 2024
Windy today, from the east so it's a cold wind. Tumbleweed that was jammed onto the west side of fences is being returned to sender. Ha!
Bottles arrived yesterday on a semi. As usual, I got a call from the driver, Hey I'm lost and this road I'm looking at doesn't look very good. Uh-huh, so what happened to the delivery instructions to not follow GPS, take this road I'm telling you to take and not the road you are on, and call me ahead of time please so I can remind the driver one more time? Who knows. The answer is blowing in the wind.
Well, all we need now is corks and Whoa Betsy, we can start bottling.
The moon is working up to full. It's sooo bright outside, sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and it looks like it's morning. There is a subtle difference between moon shine on the mountains and the approaching dawn brightening up the sky behind the mountains. I take a second look. Naw, back to bed.
We got almost an inch of rain this last week from the two low pressure systems passing through. That brought the gopher kids up for air so I'm after them again. There are 3 of them. All the traps are out. It's only a matter of time. I tell ‘em, Get out of here, look at those millions of acres of wild country out there, make a run for it! Nope.
I wonder sometimes if Mother Earth is talking to me, telling me to leave. She sent birds to eat our grapes, scorching temperatures to dry up the grapes, mold to rot the grapes, and hail to demolish the grapes. Is she telling me to leave? Oh man, now that's a toughy. But I'm not leaving!
Thu Jan 18 2024
Suddenly the bone-chilling cold days are over and the nights too are warming up and I was outside in the vineyard. Yay!
Yup, that's it. Winter is over in this part of Arizona. For now.
Getting some disking done to smooth out the vineyard floor so it's not such a bumpy ride out there on the tractor. This also aerates the soil. I'll spread some native grass seed I saved from last year and the grooves will hold onto that nicely. Then I'll drag the box scraper around to put down a flat surface. It'll be pretty.
Ah but dangit, guess what's coming up in the winery? Brain death! Yeah, it's almost time to filter the whites. Do you want to know what brain death is like and then come back from it? Sign up for wine filtering at your favorite winery. Tell them you love doing it. They will hand you the keys.
And another thing about filtering, it is intensely stressful at the same time it is killing your brain. It's like stomping on your brain and then putting a vice to it at the same time. The filtering system works only if the wine doesn't really need much filtering to begin with. Otherwise, the filter clogs up. Who dreamed up this insanity?
We prep for filtering weeks ahead of time. The whites have been racked off lees once or twice already. Then we "fine" the whites with bentonite (clay) to clean it up more. It's a nice clear juice at this point so the filtering is just to put the final polish on the wine.
The dreaded day finally arrives when there are no more excuses, it's gotta get done, so it's time to take the plunge. Hours of clean, clean, cleaning and assembly. Hook it up and let her rip. Constantly checking the pressure gauge and fiddling with the pump and the pressure knob and looking hard at the wine as it so-so slowly is taken into the filter. Go go go you *^%$# don't clog because if it does, we have to dismantle everything, hours of work down the drain along with a fair amount of wine and a stack of filter pads wasted. Who ever thought up this machinery is a torture artist from the Inquisition!
But for now, I'm not going to think any more about it. I'm enjoying the great weather outdoors and getting dirty in the vineyard!
Fri Jan 12 2024
Tuned into Mark Knopfler
Romeo and Juliet
Brothers in Arms
a couple more then
he just played Local Hero
with a full band and strings
nothing on this planet tops that
nothing!
next up
Stevie Nicks Sarah
then You Won't Forget Me
holy shit
Safeway
want some ice cream
the whole freezer aisle empty
a catastophre
everything lost
then at the end cap
a handful of 1/2 gallons saved
and on sale!
take just one can't be greedy
Friend calls
the cabin has been sold
it was coming but goddamn
end of an era
everything changes
everything goes
no more suppers
no more good times there
no more reason for anything!
except to bloody carry on
whatever to get it started
again
Sat Jan 6 2024
Excerpt from a recent AZPM.org article:
Water issues will also be key for the Legislature amid a severe long-term drought in the arid southwestern state. Concerns are growing in Arizona about shortages from the Colorado River system, which provides the state with about 40% of its water, and about shrinking supplies of groundwater and regulation in rural areas.The primary source of water for growing winegrapes in Arizona is rural groundwater, ie. acquifers. The secondary source is rain. This is because winegrapes are grown in locations far away from the aqueducts carrying Colorado River water to Arizona cotton and alfalfa farmers.
[Governor] Hobbs has cast drought as the "challenge of our time."
Tue Jan 2 2024
I saw gopher activity erupt last month in one of open fields on the property and thought I'd better jump on that before the critters got tired of the dried up grass roots and moved into the succulent vines. I talk to them. I say, Get out of here, there are plenty of wild fields out there so you don't need to be here in my vineyard, so get out or else! Do they listen?
Spotte looked longingly as I set traps in the concrete soil and then was obviously disappointed when they came up empty. Something about that hard soil, so hard that the gopher tunnels run just underneath the surface with sometimes just the thin thatch of shorn grass and weeds covering them, and in that situation, gophers are harder to trap. The mounds are dry and spread out thin and it's difficult to tell which is the newest one that shows where the gopher was most recently digging.
Then an inch of rain fell. Whoo-ee! Now the gophers have something to work with. Massive mounds pop up, in a line, from here to there and there and there. Loose, moist soil must make gophers just plain giddy. It's like they aren't paying attention anymore. With all those mounds and eating holes, I have something to work with too. It's an easy job to tell where they were digging last and that's a good place to set traps. Gophers are soooo obvious. Do they realize?
And voila! Yesterday, the first gopher of the year comes out in the trap (dead, the trap kills). A honker male to fill up Spotte's tummy. This morning, another one caught, probably the mate, and she had moved into the vines.
It looks like there might be a couple kids still in the field and kids grow up so I'll have to get to them before there's a million of them to deal with. And I'm sorry, I don't like to kill them, they are amazing creatures, but they gotta go, they can't be here in the vineyard, the two things just don't go together.
Spotte just thinks they are yummy!
Sat Dec 30 2023
Well, dangitall, it's long been time to get back to this! And the holidays give me the antsies. What the hell am I doing? Time for some R&R. Not that kind. No, I'm talking about the other kind of R&R. When the year turns over I go into Review and Reflection mode.
The idea was to semi-retire to a rural, peaceful existence and do some lighter-style farming. The vineyard checked a bunch of boxes. Farm and get dirty – check. Outdoors a bunch – check. Be our own bosses – check. Make a living – check. Way cool!
But the winery... Do you ever wonder where all the time went? I know. It got hoovered up by the winery. Want a hobby? No. Want to work on projects? Forget it. Well, I haven't figured it out anyway. Trouble is, the wine is where the bulk of the money is.
We're getting older. Imagine that. After each harvest we ask ourselves again, Can we pull off another one? Do we want to do another one? Grapes are heavy!
And then a new day gets started with a dawn that lights up the east with intense orange and yellow underneath an ashy blue watercolor sky. On my morning walk, I look at the vineyard in its stately winter repose and wow, what a beautiful sight! Wait, are those fresh gopher mounds? Count your days, fellas!
Things to contemplate on for sure.
In the mean time, some practicalities. Like right now, we hit a few milestones in the winery. The 2023 white wines go outside overnight to "cold stabilize" so extraneous tartaric acid precipitates out in our tank and doesn't show up in the bottle in someone's fridge. Other wineries might use glycol systems. We take advantage of Mother Nature providing us nighttime temps in the 20s (yes, that's right, 20s in Arizona).
And the 2023 reds complete malolactic fermentation about this time of year (that's a chromatography test in the photo). Those wines get their first dose of SO2 since crush to kill off any remaining MLF bacteria and preserve things, and then we top the barrels to full (no more air gap needed for the MLF CO2).
This is also a good time to tally up the number of gallons of wine stored in the winery because the feds want to know how much alcohol, i.e. excise tax, we're sitting on.
I'll have to catch up on things that happened during harvest. Lots to talk about!