Rain, snow and ice. Plans to grade the vineyard on the weekend of March 7 & 8 2015 have been squelched by rain. The area received about 5 inches of snow the last week of February. That was followed the next week by rain two days and one day of more snow making the slope much too wet to grade.

I am slightly worried time is running out. There is much to be done. Still to be done- more general cleanup, the all-important grading, planting the clover cover crop and trellis building.

Oh well, a setback but not the end of the world. We shall prevail. We’ll get it done next weekend (or the weekend after that!)

 

03.07.15

I made the executive decision to give it a shot. It was an absolutely beautiful weekend with clear blue skies and temps in the low 60’s. Our son Matt came to help and was a big asset. The skid steer loader was a blast to operate and much progress was made. The ‘thinking rock’ got moved out of the way to a much more prominent spot near the driveway gate. Lots of leveling was done and countless roots torn out. It’s not exactly a precision machine and a professional could undoubtedly have done better, but it’s not bad considering. The large Blackberry patch at the bottom of the hill was mostly obliterated and even more firewood was cut. Generally a success, but we could have used the machine another 8 hours for sure. Since the rental fee is pricey – that will have to wait and we’ll have to make due with what we got done.

See pics and video below for the new, dramatic look.

Next step is the laying out of the rows and planting the clover crop between the rows.

It wasn’t all work -we had time for a little crossbow play!