Hello, friends!!
I’m laughing to myself this afternoon because the last time I published a blog post was nearly a year ago, and what brought me to my computer today is the same reason why I decided to write a post before – rain. Weeks of rainy days have brought us indoors and delayed us from finishing up the pruning and tying down of canes in the vineyard. It is nearly impossible to work in the mud, so I’ve committed to cozying up inside and gluing myself to the computer.
And I’ll happily distract myself and procrastinate a little by sharing a spirit-free cocktail with you.
But first, let me catch you up to speed on what’s been happening here at the vineyard. Should I start with the positive and exciting or the super-scary and exciting? I suppose I’ll start with the super-scary and finish on a high note.
If I type out all that we need to accomplish within the next ten days, I might have to break out my inhaler, but I really think you want to know what’s been going on, so I’ll take my chances. I’ve been a mad mix of stress-eating Nutella by the spoonful, making due with four solid hours of sleep a night, and rocking back and forth while mumbling Psalm 23. Our vineyard is planted with 16 acres of vines, and within each acre are about 1,000 plants. Because we’ve received so much rain this spring, all of the fruit farms are prolifically producing. That sounds great, right? Well, with a very limited workforce here in our valley, that means all of the farm help around here is spoken for.
Our team of three is two rows away from pruning all 16 acres of vines, and my arms and hands have dearly paid. I sleep with braces on both arms every night, and despite my efforts, my hand get numb at times, and my handwriting resembles the scrawl of a kindergartener. Also on the agenda, we have to finish building our tasting overlook, where we will hold our appointment-only tastings. Construction has been delayed on that project because of – yet again – the rain. We also need to bottle and label our wines (SIXTEEN THOUSAND BOTTLES) before throwing our first wine dinner in the vineyard.
We are also slated to receive 1,250 new vines in two weeks. We still need to dig 1,250 holes in which to plant them, so I’m strongly feeling that it is a good idea to postpone that project until the first of July. Is the timing optimal? Not so much. It’s a more attainable and sanity-saving goal, though.
😝😝😝
Okay, the panic is kicking in, so let’s switch over to the positive happenings. Steve and I surprised our families and tied the knot – just the two of us here – back in February in the middle of a snowstorm in the middle of our Chardonnay vines! Then we took a road trip down to Arizona, where I saw the Grand Canyon for the very first time. It was covered in SNOW! I will have to write a separate post highlighting that beautiful trip. We recently took tank samples of our wines and got placements at three of our favorite spots in Denver, and we will be pouring our wines with one of our favorite Colorado chefs, Alex Seidel, at the Telluride Reserve in August!
And we are throwing our very first wine dinner in our vineyard on Friday, June 14th, and it thankfully sold out this morning!
UTTER.
CRAZINESS.