jack colville visits the vineyard...

sunday afternoon I took jack colville to the vineyard, he didn't get out but I drove around slowly and described the operation in detail to him. he really enjoyed the trip and I had fun visiting with him. saturday morning john and I pruned 6 rows of the little vines before the rain came. we got 6 tenths of an inch. check out the flower clusters in the big vines!

new campsite addition...

Eco-Friendly Transportation

MAY 2009

More pruning.....and more pruning. The vines are growing everyday. They need attention everyday also. The warm weather and the recent rains have really helped. The green nursery tape is used on the tender growth and the ag ties are used to straighten the main stock and the cordons. We finished the 2007 crop after working from 8 AM to 5 PM. Scott and Leon went for lunch for us...the manager makes us work without too many breaks!

5-9-09 workday.......

saturday was overcast and chilly but we managed to get to prune all of the '08 vines. lots of dead plants though and also noticed a bunch of "rootstalk red" vines. the rootstalks probably need to be dug up... some discussion was had on transplanting some of the plants that are too close together and using them to replace dead plants or rootstalks. john and i found two rootstalks in the '07 crop, they look different and have absolutely no flower clusters on them.

we do have some extremely healthy plants that are loaded with flower clusters, they are so thick that they will have to be thinned soon.

edward ortega also showed up to work but he left as soon as he heard leon wasn't frying fish...

Just left the vineyard and at 10:00 we had recieved 4'' of rain.

April 2009

Work weekend at the Vineyard...Friday afternoon Tom arrived with his trencher. He is mighty proud of this 40 year old machine that always runs and never has problems. Well, after a complete engine overhaul...it did run. (Am sending this pic to Ditch Witch for their museum) He trenched a water line to the campsite and the cattle pens. Great job TGH!

That afternoon we pruned the 2007 vines and checked for freeze damage. We also planted trees to someday provide a windbreak on the west side of the vineyard. We also are making a patio area where we plugged bermuda and planted trees. We would like to build a fence around it so if you have any stockade fence sections or would like to volunteer to build a decorative fence.....more to come with May pictures.

OSU is / was conducting a research project for a certain insect. However, the plastic tags have not done well in the SW Oklahoma winds.