Planting grapes

I've had the pleasure of sitting in our cool office for a few hours this afternoon wrapping up things for the week but I'll soon be going back to the vineyard to join the rest of the family and crew. We have had the auger running nonstop since Wednesday with almost nonstop planters coming behind it. Fortunately the weather is cooperating- none of the rain that was expected has arrived and the cool breeze keeps everyone from overheating (although today's sun is pretty intense!). Everyone has helped tremendously; Joe drills holes, with Chuck or William to give him a rest sometimes, and everyone else plants or puts together growth tubes to protect our baby vines. Janet comes out for a few hours each day and even Laura has set aside her many tasks to help plant. Richard misses driving posts but we'll need to put the end posts in soon so he will have another chance.

Laura has been communicating with a sign printer and we expect to have the sign for the end of our lane by next week. It's almost as exciting as getting our mailbox put up! We are also waiting for directional signs, which will be put up to direct traffic from Rt. 50.

The tasting room bar is fully installed and has a Layton's Chance leaf etched into the surface. Mark Hubbard did a great job designing and building it and we're really excited for it to be put to use!

I almost forgot to mention our successful bottling day. We had the whole crew out here again to help bottle our three remaining wines. It was a long day but we got all 971 cases done on Tuesday and now everything is ready to go for our May 21st opening. Can't wait!