July 24-27, 2009

BIRD UPDATE: As you know the birds invaded our vineyard this last week wiping out maybe 50% of our Sangiovese grapes. John and Scott tried bagging the grape clusters with paper bags. Hard work with not so good results. Sat night Scott built the nifty extra large paper towel dispenser and mounted it on the three wheeler. Sunday morning we used an entire roll of baling wrap to cover all except 4 rows of the 2007 crop. The birds were upset. We found some birds tangled in the netting as you will see Leon helping untangling a small robin. Tangled in the web you will also see Scott trying to sneak grapes. With only 4 rows left unprotected we thought we might fake out the birds...not to be. We walked thru the rows as they moved from uncovered row to uncovered row. We made "Terror Eyes" out of the sacks and stapled them along the rows hoping to scare the birds away. ("Terror Eyes" are available for $50.00 per balloon or $44.00 per balloon for 6 or more....so we made our own!) Monday morning John had purchased a partial roll of netting and was trying to drape the netting until Scott and he could get the tops and bottoms tied down. A special thanks to Dr. Gary Strebel for his valuable time and his encouragement to get the grapes covered NOW!
DEER UPDATE: Please start saving your hair clippings, especially men's or untreated hair. Fill knee high hose with the clippings and mail them to John or Scott. We can hang these every ten feet on the perimeter of the fence or we can try soap shaving every 6-8 feet on each row. The soap method could result in unwanted bubbles in our wines so start collected hair clippings from your barbers!
SANGIOVESE GRAPES: Please note how much they have matured in just two weeks and how beautiful they are!