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.

Just finished watering on 08'crop this afternoon. started water on 07' at 2:30 will continue till it rains.I am seeing grape flower clusters but we still have empty spaces on cordons. I think we will have permanant damage from the freeze. o8 plants are growing but we will have some bastard plants to remove. tommy said that the 2500 gal tank is the best buy so it will be purchased soon. lots of wind today more later.jbh

April 2009 Pictures Coming Soon!!!

sandyland vineyard sponsors a race car!

I talked it over with john, the current sandyland vineyard manager (his term expires 1-1-2010) and he agreed that it would be a great advertising tool to sponsor a race car to spread the word about the vineyard. everybody has heard of Nascar and what a great marketing tool that auto racing is and guess what, i just happen to have a car in my shop. john has agreed to purchase (with vineyard money) 4 racing tires and to supply me with my fuel for the year. i will be attending events at Little Sahara State Park, a couple of car shows and will be participating in the Shamrock 200 race event which will be held june 13-14 near Erick, Oklahoma.

anybody want to be a pitcrew member?

rain report

finally got some much needed moisture this weekend. my rain measuring collection device shows about 6 or 7 tenths, give or take one dead beetle bug that got trapped. brad moreau reported 6 tenths so we centainly got more rain than he did. hopefully the sand ranch got more, by the next weekend we should have quite a bit on new growth.

Watchful eye over sandyland Vineyard

look what i got a picture of this winter at the vineyard. only saw him once.

Tuff Spring in 09'

Another windy day at the vineyard. wind must have been 25-40 mph today. Rain is being called for here this weekend but that has been said before. We do need a new rain gauge and ship them to Trish. Will start the drips on Friday, hope to see new growth also. Remember to save empty wine bottles, johnnie

the grape report, no. 44

thought i'd take a minute and post what john and i did last saturday....... spent a couple of hours cutting off the rebar bends so they would look more uniform . we used disc grinders and a gas powered generator (there goes the ozone layer) and went down the rows cutting them. john also tied up the remaining double trellis wires on the east rows. sorry about the crappy pics but the wind was blowing hard and a bunch of dirt was in the air.

two weeks ago the plants were really greening up and had put on a bit of growth. the recent cold weather and snow has put a stop to it all. hopefully they will come out of it pretty soon and start growing . we did notice some green growth here and there though. i even saw a bit of green in the '08 plants but i spent most of my time in the '07 plants.

we also changed out the bug traps, the yellow sticky pads that are clipped to the trellis wires. we are a part of an OSU ag test. john knows more about it.....

stay tuned, i will be posting about the upcoming contest that will happen at sandyland vineyards this year, it should be fun for all that participate!