Walk a mile in my shoes...

There are 5,280 feet in a mile. There are 43,560 square feet in an acre. If you have a wide open field, you can cordon off an acre by measuring a square with 208.7-foot sides. Not being much of a numbers person, for some reason today I find these measurements comforting. Maybe it's because my feet hurt.

It was a perfectly pleasant late March day; the sky was overcast and the wind, slight -- a rarity in these parts. Temperature at noon: 40 degrees F.

In 48 days, a handful of our generous and kind friends will sacrifice their day off by coming to Four Cedars Farms to help us plant the 650 grapevines that have been ordered and paid for. Before they arrive, we've got a bit of vineyard construction to get done. A few days ago, I showed you the pile of posts that will have to be set. Yet even before we get to that, there's work. And so, we started...

There are 16 rows in all, set 8 feet apart. Since the vineyard extends south, where the full length of rows can be viewed from the kitchen, we felt there would be no worse blunder than to have crooked rows. So hubby and I measured the 320-foot rows carefully, using stakes, twine and paint so that each row lay perfectly parallel to the next. Starting near the west fence, once the staked and twined rows were painted, we moved the stakes and twine 8 feet to the east and repeated the steps. Farm dog observed.
At the end of the day, sixteen perfectly parallel 320-foot rows were marked with orange spray paint. In three weeks, we'll use the orange lines to center our herbicide sprayer as we drive down the rows to kill the grass in 36-inch strips. That will leave us with 60-inch strips of grass remaining between each row. We'll need a wind-free day for that task.

Once the herbicide does its duty, we'll run the 36-inch tiller over the dead grass to work up the soil. Then, we'll have to pull out the measuring tape again, to mark the 20-foot offset for our posts. When the posts are in, we'll be ready for planting. The vines will be set 8 feet apart, 40 per row, which leaves me with 10 plants that won't fit into the grid. I'm not yet sure where I'll put those 10 plants; with 9 more acres, or 392,040 square feet to work with, I'm not too worried about finding space.

One more thing to know if you visit. If you're interested in getting a bit of exercise, simply do as I do. Walk the vineyard. It's 16 rows, up and down -- that's one easy mile.