The bridge between Spring and Summer...

It's been a blustery spring in these parts, which helps keep me on task at the keyboard. The holiday weekend, however, brought two consecutive days of warm temps, calm winds, and sparkling skies. Under these conditions it becomes clear that I need get away from the computer and get outside to see what's transpired around the property.

We scouted the vineyard and found both good news and bad. First the good news: there's lots of vigor to be seen, especially among the Marquettes. And by vigor I mean that the Marquettes have put out grape clusters, and lots of them. (See the red arrows in the photo below.) While cluster thinning is an annual routine in a vineyard because a vine will always produce more clusters than it can effectively ripen, our year two plan is to remove all clusters so the plant can focus on root and trunk development. We made quick work of pinching them off.

Now the bad news: We suffered frost damage that hit all the plants, but the Edelweiss seemed to suffer the worst of it. If it were a fruiting year, a late May frost could devastate the crop. Fortunately, this is not a fruiting year. So the plants have been set back in their progress. Many of them lost all their shoots. I'll be watching them closely to see how quickly they recover.


Also this week, Heidi was back to finish up the grapevine mural. We are thrilled with her work.
Lastly, we finally got around to burying farm dog's ashes. The family bought me a marker to set above his plot, a nice reminder of the world's sweetest dog. Next week, we're welcoming a cat to the homestead. His official name is Elroy, but I expect he'll mostly be referred to around these parts as "farm cat." I've never owned a cat before; it could be an adventure.

I heard a line at Mass yesterday that seemed especially fitting for Memorial Day. "Live a life worthy of the price that was paid for it." God bless you and thanks for stopping by.