April Reflections

This post…

Begins a series of monthly reflections,

which will serve to give background to the stories/videos.

…

“April Reflections”

With the pruning complete before April began,

the focus was already on planting preparations:

Before: tobacco planter. Now: grapevine planter

-Lining up the rows with tobacco stakes,

-counting the missing vines,

-modifying the antique, newly bought, tobacco planter,

-refining our planting technique,

-trucking trellis equipment down from Black Ankle as part of a bulk order (News flash: The vineyards at Black Ankle are nearly doubling in size!),

-planning the planting event,

-and taking care of a few farm things.

 …

Midway through the month,

the vines arrived..

Thousands of baby grapevines

More thousands of baby grapevines

Polly and Tom took two weeks off from their other jobs,

and the planting ensued.

…

We broke ground on Sat, April 16th…though plagued by rain, we still managed to get 500 vines in the ground…

…

The next day, Sunday afternoon,

a crew of friends and family arrived to help us plant…

-Brian Bolter, the owner of Red Red Wine Bar came by with his son, Bailey,

-A couple photographers (http://www.stephanieleephoto.com/  http://www.johnnymartyr.com/) were snapping shots,

-and a local news crew even stopped by to write an article about the event.

…The ground was still muddy rendering the tree planter unusable for the first portion of the day,

but all the extra hands made for an extremely productive day regardless.

Thanks to everyone who came out!

…

My brother, Dan, showed up to work Monday morning…

As a team of four (Polly, Tom, Dan, and I) we worked to plant the remaining 6,000 vines.

Day: Planting

Night: Trimming roots in preparation for planting

By Friday, April 22^nd, we had them all safely in the ground.

Grapevines tucked neatly into the ground with the tobacco planter

…

Trellis installation began without hesitation…

…and will continue into the month of May.

…

Trellis work - Pounding line posts

…

The baby vines are showing green, and the roots are taking hold.

The older vines are shooting up. Some 6-8 inches tall…

Merlot - May 2nd

.

Looking forward to May, growth, and flowering :)

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