Just E and I hanging at the cabin this weekend. We have had 3 inches of rain in the last two weeks, so lots of new growth again.

The deer are snooping around the vines, but there is not much available for them to munch on – yet! I installed some deer repellent “soaps” called “Whiff” that are supposed to irritate them. Time will tell if it works.

We received the replacement Norton vine from Double-A and got it in the ground. C’mon baby!

The vines are looking pretty good. There is a little black something on many of the leaves and I will need to monitor that very closely. The Nortons continue to be the growth champs with 3 vines popping above the grow tubes! Norton # 5 has a shoot 4-5 inches above the tube and has tendrils gripping and hanging on the top of the grow tube. See pic below.

I did a little work in the vineyard. I finished the Chambourcin  trellis by adding two wires. I attempted two repairs on the drip tape, but the barbed connectors I used only slowed the leaks a little bit. I will probably end up replacing the whole strip since both leaks are in the same run.

I installed some silt fence in an attempt to slow the erosion when we get those hard rains.

Elaine put a second coat of red paint on the gate and it looks like new except for a few dents. The gate is from Elaine’s Papaw’s farm, so there is zero chance we’ll replace it. I painted the gate posts brown to match the trellis and it’s a big improvement over the black creosote look of the telephone poles.

The Bradford pear #1 on the driveway was given a good pruning and looks much neater. And a Laurel behind the gate was pruned. I also worked on completing some of the rock border around the rows. And the rock wall around the Thinking Rock was built up to keep overflows down.

The whole thing is looking better and better.

Future projects include plantings for erosion control, fence posts along the driveway, a solar-lit giant wind chime and at least two more rows of vines. The 80 foot tall white pine will need to come down for more rows.