The Making of a Vineyard Part 2

I know it has been awhile since I last posted. I need to put "blogging" on my weekly schedule!

Lots going on...But first...we have finish putting in the vineyard. Here is a little pictorial of the job.

This is the auger we rented to dig the 500 holes for the vines.

It was so heavy and beastly that Keith came up with the idea of having the 4 wheeler tug the thing, with him hanging on to it, around the hill side.

Of course that meant I had to have a crash course on how to drive the quad.

I'm afraid there were a few times when I mixed the brake with the gas knob and Keith had to bear the brunt of my mistakes. I didn't always have a light touch with the brake either.

We followed the red flags, that Keith and Richard had in place using True North so that the vineyard would lay in a North/South slope. Using string and measuring tape we flagged out two rows at a time, marking the spot for the holes every 6 feet. I would drive along the marked flag, stopping between the flags and Keith would drill the holes.

That took us 2 1/2 days.

The next step was me digging out the dirt that the auger had loosened and Keith filling the holes with water, placing the vines in the holes, filling the holes with dirt, placing a bamboo stick next to each vine, then finally placing the protective "milk carton" around the young tastey plant (tastey to deer that is).

That took 4 days.

It rained all day the first day of planting. Which was nice for us has far as not having the hot sun beating down on our backs....not so nice for me at the end of the day to have to wash four muddy dogs.




One day our friend Don stopped by and gave me a hand digging out the holes! That was great help. Then Keith was kind to me and gave me the last of the 4 days off. He finished planting the last 100 vines by himself. Actually after that day off, he did the rest of the work in the vineyard. I haven't been back accept to walk the dogs by.

Keith has it all done, the drip system is installed and working and all the "milk cartons" are on the plants. I have to still get the final photo off the camera but this is pretty good representative of how the hillside looks.

Soon Keith will be cutting hay, just as soon as the wind dies down and the rain is gone.