Planting pictures

Thanks to Brad for taking some photos during the day.

The vine shelters are the Snap-Max brand, 30 inches tall. The 36 inch shelters were sold out. The Snap-Max was purchased from Spec Trellising. It’s a shame they don’t have online ordering. You have to call their 800 number, and then wait for someone to help you. Would be so much easier for everyone involved if they had pricing and online web ordering available.

Around lunch time, the first row was done, and the second row was about halfway finished. Lunch consisted of sandwiches and some delicious chili that Sarah made.

The crew gets back to work after lunch.

Danny and I planting the second row.

Deb and Beth are planting the third row.

For once, I am outstanding in my field. So is Danny.

The crew is busy digging holes before the next rain storm rolls in.

In between rain storms, Brad got in a picture of the progress so far.

Planting Complete

Today, the vines went in. The number of people and the time which they showed up turned out to be perfect. We finished planting the vines at 5 pm. It’s almost like we knew what we were doing. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all those who showed up and helped. This could not have happened without them.

• Bryan and Deb
• Brad
• Danny
• Charles
• Karen and the kids
• Ron, Beth and Christian
• Nathan
• TJ

There are two people who come and help on the property every Saturday, my brother-in-law and my father-in-law, Justin and Howard. I would not be able to get any of this even close to ready to be done without them.

Behind the scenes are our wives, Nancy, Marianne, and Sarah, who are either bringing us food or watching the kids so that we have time to get this done.

I’ll take full credit for the idea to put a vineyard in, but it was not possible without all of the help.

Brad has some pictures that I will post next week.

Planting Day Weather

The forecast for Saturday is “isolated” thunderstorms. In the early morning, the chance of rain is under 20%, but as the afternoon approaches, the chance of rain goes up a good bit. As is typical in southwestern PA, “isolated” really does mean isolated. It might rain all day on the vineyard, but not at the house. Or it might not rain at all at the vineyard. It also might be raining on one part of the property and not the other. Of course, the weather forecast, similar to an economic forecast or the ancient oracle at Delphi, is sufficiently vague so as to be “accurate” regardless of what the outcome may be.

Deer Fence Update

With some extra help today, the deer fence is almost complete. There are few sections that need some ground stakes, and there is a 24 ft section that needs to be added.

The fence was attached with a tool called a hogringer, made by Stanley. It was extremely handy for attaching the deer fence to the top and middle wires. The open rings slide in like staples in a staple gun, and a pull of the trigger closes the ring around the wires that are inserted in the opening in the tool.

The morning started out by putting all of the h-braces in place. The horizontal posts were put in level, which led to some unusual configurations based on how the ground slopes. There are several h-braces that do not look level at all, with respect to the ground, but a bubble level shows that they are very close to being level.

This is after all of the work done the day before.

One of the H-Braces that doesn’t look quite level.

Finally, the deer fence is all in place.

At the end of the day, the front yard Foch had started to unfold some buds.

Trellis Posts Done

Today was a perfect day to take off from work, and finish off the trellis posts. It took all day, but all of the line posts are now in place. Hopefully, the thunderstorms will hold off for tomorrow long enough for the H-braces and the deer fence to be put in place.

Vines on the way

I received confirmation today that the vines are on the way. This past week, the starter came in at the local tractor shop, and it fit just fine. The one I ordered online was not the correct one, even though the sales person at the other end said it should work. The interesting part is both places sourced their starters from the same place, Dixie Electric. I get the feeling that the IH 574 had several different starter combinations, and without the serial number and a good cross reference, it will be hit or miss. The part number from Dixie Electric that fit was TS-1262. It installed with some minor issues (it is very easy to cross thread a copper bolt). The tractor starts very nicely now, and it is obvious that the old starter did not have much life left in it.

We got a lot done this Saturday, despite the fact we uncovered a rather large rock, and we broke the shear pins on the auger when it was completely in the ground. Both of these problems were rectified with a sufficient amount of manual labor. There is one of the H-brace posts to be dug, and 18 holes for the line posts were dug. A dead tree that was just waiting for the deer fence to go up, so it could fall on it was pulled down as well.

The weather for this coming weekend looks very promising, but the deer fence needs to go up before any vines can be planted. The remaining post holes need to be dug, the horizontal portions of the bracing need to be placed, and the deer fence needs to go up this weekend. Sometime this week, I need to find 60 more 4″ diameter treated wood posts. The local Tractor Supply is essentially out of stock. There are a few misshapen stragglers left over from the last pallet, none of which are suitable for the vineyard.

The email for the spring planting party went out today, so please check it out, and let me know.

A Wet Spring

Every weekend has followed at least one day of heavy rain, sometimes more. Today, the ground was nice and dry, but that was after three days of no rain, and sunshine. It is amazing how much easier it is to work when there is no mud. Today, the H-brace posts were acquired. The selection of round 4″ diameter posts was not very good at all. I think some of the locust posts that were kept are straighter and in better condition than the ones bought at the store.

When it is not cloudy, the sunsets at the vineyard are spectacular. This makes it difficult to get a good picture because of the contrast between the sun and the shade.