Race to the Trellis

Ok, so watching my 1 year old vines race feverishly towards the
first trellis wire is about as exciting to non-invested observers as
watching a nail rust. But, I can't keep from checking on their
progress. And to be fair, they are not moving at a glacial pace.
Some of these babies are shooting up at an inch per day some days.

As of last Saturday, 3 of the vines reached trellis height and got "The
pinch". Yesterday, another one hit the wire and got it's top pinched
off. I expect in 3 weeks, they all will be there and then I can have
them training out their cordons.

I know, I know; you are all thinking: "Tim, Get a Life!" But this
isn't that bad a thing to be excited about. I admit, it is a little bit
of an escape for me. People look at my 2 dozen vines and see a fun
little backyard garden project while I look at it as a training ground
for those 20 acres of vineyard in my future. The neighbors see me
in the garage at 2 AM racking 10 gallons of wine from the carboys. Or
see me pressing 100 lbs of grapes with a hand cranked basket press and
think: "What the heck is he doing?" But I am making mental notes on how
this will scale up to the 80 ton of fruit from my 6,000 case winery.

May never happen, but don't tell me that when I am out talking to
my vines. That is our time together.

Thanks for visiting.

Timb