new year... late june.

I have not updated since the end of last year, which might have left some of you on the edge of your seats like a cliffhanger of a tv series.
Well, like any good tv show, I'm back for another season of beating grapevines into the submission, battling bad bugs, and longingly listening to the trains go by.

I've seen my first Japanese beetle already. We've replanted about 600 vines. I'm caring for about 7 different varieties of grapes that are going to bear this year. It's pretty crazy.
I am happy though because I know more this year than I did last year, and I'm in a -take no prisoners- mode with the grapvines. I used to very gingerly prune them just so, but now that I know that pretty much nothing can kill them, I'm pruning hard, and stringing them up.

We're fighting weeds and fungus like crazy this year thanks to all of the early rains we had. My garden is looking pretty sad as it kept getting pummelled by rain whenever I would try to plant anything. We've only had light fungus pressure thanks to a well timed spray program and things have overall been going rather smoothly.


Now on to the hard part --- the winery.

It's hard to imagine how this whole endeavor is going to take shape. It's so hard to think about all the tons of grapes that will be pulled off the vine soon and need to be made into delicious wine.


Agh! So much work when I think about it. We'll see how it all goes. My camera went swimming while Jason and I were on a fishing trip, but I promise to post pics soon.