Wed Sep 6 2023
Well, things get insanely busy when the grapes start coming in. There are 4 ferments active in the winery. We have to be careful going in there because the ferments generate lots and lots CO2. Doors get opened, fans turned on, then retreat for a while to allow oxygen back in, then go in and do punch downs.
Three other ferments for earlier picks are already done and waiting for the winemaker to rack them off their lees.
The hot summer days of July and August slowed down ripening out in the vineyard, but then things cooled down (briefly) and the vines went into total catch-up mode. Grapes we thought were on a track to ripen in mid-September are ripening *now*.
Someone was very lucky getting rain in that photo. A curious double rainbow there, and curiouser, the color bands are reversed between the two.
Our monsoon season was a dud. Not even an inch of rain. Usually we get 7 or 8. There is nothing but hot dry days in the forecast once again. Mother Nature is a fickle creature.
We saw the highest electricity bills ever for the pump that pulls water from the well and pushes it out to the vines. With no rain to help things, water for the vineyard all came out of the ground. Still, the irrigation is less than an acre-foot across the vineyard, so it's not a strain on the aquifer, just a strain on the checkbook.
The vines are healthy and producing a bounty. The cool May and June probably made that possible. That's when the vines put out the fruit they wanted to do this year and the irrigation kept that fruit going. If it had been hot in May and June, like it was in July and August, it would have been a different story.
Thu Aug 3 2023
Oh my, the news is out: Drinking alcohol, even 1 drink, can raise your blood pressure.
Where does this stuff come from? I'm a science guy. I'm all over it. But come on.
Here's something else that will raise your blood pressure: Ingestion. That's right, now that you know, you all better stop ingesting! That is, eating. Just plain eating. We're not even talking yet about what you're eating.
Here's something else that will raise your blood pressure: Having to pee. So now you know you better stop drinking, not just alcohol, but everything. Hey, I know the country has been experiencing a heat wave for the last month, but if you want to keep your blood pressure from rising, stop slurping that Slurpee. Also turn down and don't down that glass of water, if you know what's good for you.
Oh oh, here's another one. Dehydration. Oh no! So now they're telling us we can't drink thirst-slaking beverages, with or without alcohol, because that raises our blood pressure because then our bladders fill up and we have to pee, but then if we don't keep hydrated, our blood pressure still goes up. That is sinister, wicked, and insidious.
Who came up with this piece of crap human body? Technically, it's just a fancy tube with an input end and an output end, but for goodness sake, don't put anything down that tube because whatever it is it will kill you! (Or at minimum, raise your blood pressure).
Well, you know what. This evening, I'm going to drink a glass (or two) of Pretty Good wine. I might bbq a bacon burger (to medium) for supper. I might even put a fried egg on it. As a side beverage, I'm going to down at least one can of carbonated soda artificially sweetened with aspartame. And next morning, I'm going to have a couple cups of caffeinated coffee softened with 2% milk.
All of those things were at one time or another (or still are) deemed to be unhealthy, and as we now know, are guaranteed to raise my blood pressure.
Hey, I might even watch the news.
Bon appétit and salut!
Wed Jul 18 2023
Until the End of Time – Briane Greene.
I heard about this book on a podcast and had to get it. In the interview, the author was talking about exploring humanity and science as combined topics, getting into why life happened and how matter and energy and the fabric of space-time might explain consciousness. Right up my alley.
The first pages of the book talk about how humans evolved to tell stories. No other animal does that. Humans like to create stories and they like to listen to stories.
So often I find myself thinking, am I wasting my time reading this novel or watching this half-hour TV sitcom? Shouldn't I be doing something useful and constructive with my time and energy? It seems sometimes like I'm wasting so many precious chunks of my life on useless distractions.
But this author comes along and points out that stories are simply in us. Our species evolved this way. It's part of our biology so it is inescapable. It's completely natural. So I'm off the hook! No more guilt. OK, I won't go that far, but it's a relief to think that I'm not just a complete lazy-ass.
And it reminded me, too, of one of the boxes this vineyard checked off, for me. The corporate cubicle lifestyle was not working for me. I know it works for some people and some people don't even think about it. That's ok. But I didn't want that to be my story or at least not the final chapter. I wanted to do something that I could tell stories about, my stories.
Until the end of my time, I guess I'm just being human!
Wed Jul 12 2023
What's that in the air? Moisture! What are those white things in the sky? Clouds! The monsoons are here. Now finally the highs drop out of the 100s, those clouds give us some shade from the burning hot sun, and the vines get some all-natural irrigation from Mother Nature, which they love.
You know, it's a lot easier to be out in the vineyard when things are going well. There have been times when the vines are not so happy and it's a tough thing to see them like that. This year, the vines are green and healthy. Clusters are filling out. Veraison is just getting started.
We are close to that lull that sometimes happens just before harvest. The vines stand tidy and stuffed into the trellis to make them easy to pick. Almost caught up with weeds. Time to get the winery ready to go. Make sure the crusher is still working. Get yeast and nutrients ordered. Maybe we can even take a couple days away for R&R before the harvest hits us like a freight train. Well, maybe not, but how about a picnic?
Wed Jul 2 2023
It's beginning to look a lot like 2020. Not the pandemic. The heat.
2020, the year that wasn't, was hot as bloody hell and dry to boot. No rain fell until the last part of July. Usually by July 4th we've had a couple monsoon preview thunderstorms. Only 2 of the usual 7-9 inches came down the whole growing season to the end of September. The crop was down 40%. Ground squirrels tunneled down rows, eating roots and killing vines. Birds were ravenous, consuming half of one of our grape varieties.
2020 was a lesson maker. This year is looking like it could be a repeat. Just a trace of precip a couple days ago from freaky weather that wasn't even in the forecast and that's it.
The vines do not like this. And I tend to ride the edge with irrigation at this point in the season, give them just enough, my intention to make a smaller more intense berry. Basal leaves turn yellow here and there and that's the edge. But this is nerve racking. The monsoons should be coming in and messing with my edge, giving the vines more water than I want them to have, keeping them greened up and happy, no yellow leaves, and then I can say well, I tried.
Someone, please do the rain dance!
Wed Jun 21 2023
Take a look at those astonishing blue eggs! They belong to a pair of blue grossbeaks. Those birds are welcome in the vineyard. They eat bugs and seeds (not grapes) and they don't poke holes in drip lines. Grossbeaks seem friendly and curious. They hang around close and keep an eye on human activity rather than skit away.
Summer starts today. The sun reached its northernmost point this morning to rise over a particular notch in the mountains. That notch marks summer solstice from our perspective. It was an unusually cool June early on but someone got the memo and now the hot days are here. Still haven't topped 100 yet but it's coming. The good news, hopefully, is that the time is reduced that we endure these scorching days before the monsoons arrive to cool things down. We'll see.
Hey, evenings cool off here, nights are in the 60s, mornings are cool and fresh. I'll take that over the Arizona metros that keep the oven on hot-cross-buns setting around the clock now until October.
We've been busy wrassling with the vines. Look at the before and after photos there. Gotta get those shoots neatly stuffed into the trellis so we can get the tractor and eventually the pickers up the rows. Harvest starts in 6 weeks. HFS.
We reached a major milestone in the winery last week when we finished up bottling for the year. Barring a freaky run on our, you know, pretty good wine, to make us do an early bottling of something this fall, our next bottling won't be until next February when the 2023 vintage whites tell us they're ready. That would be my preference. Like many tasks in the winery, bottling is brain numbing!
The mockingbird saga might be heading towards conclusion. Who knows. Due to the potential legal jeopardy I might put myself in by divulging possible violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, these details of my recent activity are redacted. █ ████ ███ ████ ██ █████, and now things are quiet. Yay!
Thu Jun 07 2023
This morning I was doing an oil change on the tractor. The mockingbird stopped by, perched on the tractor about 4 feet away from me, and with its deafening voice blurted out one of its songs. I went "Eeeeehh!".
Mockingbirds are very loud. If you've ever been around a rooster, you know how loud they can be. Mockingbirds are a close second. Amazing considering their small size. Keep your ear plugs handy.
I think it spoke to me. But what did it say?
First, some background. I've been chasing this mockingbird for weeks now. Unbelievable this bird will not give up. It has claimed the west fringe of the vineyard and the adjacent open areas as its own. It spends the day flying around the perimeter and then criss-crossing it, making racket the whole time.
The moon waxed to full a couple nights ago. It's like daylight out there once the moon is up, and as soon as the moon is up, the mockingbird is at it. There's a favorite tree outside of the bedroom window that gets a lot of attention. The mockingbird arrives and wakes up the people in the house. I go outside, slingshot in the dark (hoping, hoping), and then hose down the tree (I don't know, in case the bird is still there, or maybe it doesn't like wet tree and won't come back). There are 1, 2, or 3 iterations of this and then the mockingbird leaves us alone for the rest of the night.
One night I'd had enough. Time to kill a mockingbird. The next morning I invested serious time into convincing the mockingbird to scram. I followed the bird around as it patrolled its territory. I walked at a leisurely but determined pace and clapped my hands as loud as I could and sling-shotted the bird when there was a good opportunity. Why providence does not allow just one of those pieces of gravel to make impact is a mystery to me. But quite a number of shots are very close.
I wonder sometimes if I am only relocating gravel rock by flying rock. But no, I felt a change, like a threshold of realization had occurred and there was an understanding, a revelation now between the two of us. I think I was getting through to the bird brain.
That was Tuesday.
This morning, I don't have time to chase the bird around the place. I have things to do. The mockingbird seems to have new-found energy today. It is at the edge of the vines doing its bouncy thing. Fly up, fly down, fly up, fly down, and I know that's behavior to attract the girls, but hmm, I think, right now, that's actually for my benefit. Racket, racket. Gheez laweez.
So as I said, I'm at the tractor, trying to get my stiff worn out body to twist underneath to reach the oil plug, and there's the mockingbird coming close to speak to me in a personal way.
But what was it saying?
I'm thinking there are 3 plausible things it might have been trying to say to me.
1. I give up. I'm going to leave you alone now. Sorry I've been such a creep.
2. Will you give up finally? I'm not going anywhere. What is your problem anyway?
3. I had so much fun yesterday. Will you please do that again?
You know, I think it's number 3.
Thu May 25 2023
Chasing the mockingbird away. One must be persistent. It will not happen in one day. I've been at it for a week at least. Hmm maybe I'm not winning this one? No I think I am. It's worth it. Those birds poke holes in the drip lines. Lots of holes.
It's a gigantic pain in the buttola. The male stops singing when nest building commences. You might not see the mockingbird but you'll for sure notice the holes in the drip lines. It's like a water park when irrigation is going. Find the nest close by. It's a messy thing often built mainly of prickly dried up tumbleweed. Other birds provide their babies a soft lining of grass and thread. Not mockingbirds.
The parents make a beeline from the nest to the outside world to find food to feed the fledglings. They fly underneath the vines, alighting on drip lines as they go, and in particular the final drip line on the last row of vines on the borderline between the vineyard and the great out–there. Other birds land on drip lines too. It's the mockingbirds that squeeze their pointy toe nails right through the polyvinyl.
So that's the mission. Chase that thing away now or deal with the aftermath. Mockingbird males have a territory, so they understand territorial disputes. I can't dedicate all hours of the day to this. Fortunately I don't have to. The mockingbird comes around early morning, then midday, then evening. That coincides with the times I'm close to my slingshot.
I think the mockingbird is aware that my aim is improving. It had to swerve mid-air a few times to avoid the gravel missile. It flies to the next landing, sees me following at a determined walk, maybe gets some slingshot gravel, moves on, repeat. Eventually the mockingbird gives up and disappears.
I do make mistakes! Like this morning when I heard the mockingbird in the willow tree so here comes the gravel missile. Well, it sailed in between two fly catchers and boy did they make a racket in protest. Sorry, sorry, please stay, I'm after the mockingbird, not you!
So I need to be careful. I don't want to chase the other bird species away! I like to think the other birds understand. I suspect they don't like the mockingbirds either because they are so loud, obnoxious and obtrusive, just plain rude and inconsiderate. So they sit on the sidelines and I imagine they enjoy the spectacle of watching the mockingbird on the receiving end of my harassment. I think they cheer me on!
It's a drawn out ordeal at first getting the "go away!" message into that bird's brain. Birds are generally pretty smart, however I think a male mockingbird is way-overly sex-crazed and consequently slow on the uptake. But this evening, more progress, it took just a single slingshot and the bird is gone. Yay!
I see it doing its bouncy thing in the thorny mesquites at the far end of the neighbor's parcel. Good! Thorny branches are an appropriate place for a prickly tumbleweed nest. Not ready to declare victory yet, but still, liking it!
Tue May 16 2023
This morning is so gorgeous, fresh and chilly, and there is moisture in the air. Thunderstorms arrived on the weekend and are sticking around a few days. Just a trace so far, enough to erase tire tracks and foot prints from the dirt lanes and make it all look smoothed out and homogenous. No hail, please!
The sun is close to peaking over the edge and so bright at that spot it is hard to look at. It is working its way north each day to the notch in the mountains that marks equinox in another month or so.
Out on the patio with my coffee to set up my day. What impossible feats will I accomplish today? Well, let's see what's on the list.
First, the vineyard. It's time to walk the vines, that is, literally walk the vines, look at each one, and do whatever needs to be done. Train, tie down, tie up, lop off dead stuff, check on the babies, bring a shovel along to dig out the weeds around the trunk.
The battle with the ground squirrels continues. Find the latest holes, insert smoke sticks, check back in a few days.
I should hook up the mower to the tractor and if we get rain (to keep the dust down) do some mowing in the vineyard.
Some of the varieties are flowering. That means fruit set is a couple weeks away that that's when we start putting out nitrogen so I need to get the fertilizer ordered.
The winery. Bottled wine yesterday, and you know, it's pretty good! One more bottling to go, yay! That one needs to be racked a second time to stay on its road to bottling in June hopefully.
The driveway and road could use some tidying up. Still some old tumbleweed out there rolling around, catching on the fence, and now new weeds to level off. Having the mower on the tractor will be helpful there. Also could tidy up around the house.
I can pretty much guarantee that list will not all get done today. But we'll put a dent in it!
Sun May 14 2023
Coming up on six weeks since the deep freeze event. Our Sangiovese was looking pretty sad. We've been patiently keeping an eye on it and take a look now. What a difference!
Grapevines are tough creatures and boy are they ever tenacious. The vines are looking pretty healthy now but the deep freeze still did its damage. We'll eek out maybe 1 or 2 clusters per vine versus the usual 16 to 20, and those clusters will be precious indeed!
Found this pretty thing on the crush pad this morning. Don't remember seeing one of these before. It's red! That usually means "hands off" so I just said hello.
And then this is the brown version of the sphinx moth we get around here. It starts out as a brown caterpillar. The green caterpillar looks identical, other than the color, and transforms into the more gray-colored sphinx moth. Both are gorgeous.
The caterpillars like grape leaves a lot. They are hard to spot in the leaf canopy but you can tell there's one lurking in there when you see a shoot stripped bare of leaves or notice all the caterpillar poop on the ground.
Sun May 7 2023
What do you do when the going gets tough? When the task list is too long? When the way ahead looks impossible? When it looks like you should just throw in the towel? When you feel beat up, worn out, weak and helpless?
Call the cavalry! You know, Edward Scissorhands.
Suckering. Done. Thinning. Done.
Whew!
Fri May 5 2023
Winery work is largely brain numbing, for me anyway. Mundane tasks abound. Top up barrels, measure and top up SO2, clean, clean, clean. I know, some people eat it up. Different strokes. It's the sort of work cellar rats thrive on. We are both wine maker and cellar rat here and I don't want to think about entrusting another set of hands and noses and palates with our wine.
But there are moments in the winery that are oh-so gratifying. Like this week when finally, the last of the 2021 reds found their way from barrels into tanks to put them on final the road to bottling. We have been tending to these wines for more than 18 months, watching them come along from grapes on the vine to the crush pad, through fermentation, pressed into barrel and nursed along until this week, they require one final stage before they go into bottle. Yay!
Tue May 2 2023
Got up yesterday early, beautiful cool morning, in a good mood, out for a morning walk with Spotte to look at the situation in the vineyard. Mood turns droopy.
We're way behind on weed control and suckering. Those get bold italics now on the chore list. Thinning needs to start soon. The ground squirrels are brazen, out and about, mocking me. Mockingbirds scout the vineyard for nesting spots. And there's a stack of winery work to do this week. On top of that, we think there is an iron deficiency in the vines and the remedy is to put out a foliar. It needs to get done prior to bloom, which is imminent now, but the whole week is forecast windy all day and all night and our foliar sprayer does not work in the wind.
Accchhh!
Mother Nature, I need a pause button! Pause the birds, pause the squirrels, pause the weeds, pause the vines, pause the weather, something!
Got up this morning and what? A gorgeous sunrise, crisp chilly morning, and the wind is… calm! I jumped on it and hooked up the sprayer to the tractor, loaded it up, and got a good piece of the foliar done before the wind arrived. Hope to get another chunk done tomorrow morning, assuming Mother Nature lets me push the pause button one more time.
Well, getting something done. Thank you, Mother Nature!
(And what put her in a helpful frame of mind?)