The shoots are growing by leaps and bounds -- in fact we wish it was not so warm, since the quick growth will give us long internodes and thus more distant positions. But as farmers, we don't get to choose -- Mother Nature does!
Bloom is probably 2 or 3 weeks away -- hopefully just before Mom goes to Europe! She is leaving on May 19 -- and we know how sad she is to have to miss so much of the vineyard development at this time, when the vines change almost daily.
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Some clusters at the 'pompom' phase -- you can see why they get this name!
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Our 'Insectary' is starting to bloom -- in a few days it should be covered with lots of beautiful flowers!
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Other than the vineyards, a few more things are going on -- like the new pizza oven we are building! It should be finished by next week, and then we will celebrate with a Team Party on May 9. Pizzas and BBQ!We are so looking forward to it, mostly because some treats are sure to come our way (and if not, Chico is great at stealing food, anyway).
Another exciting news item is that we already have a new bee hive. One of them did thrive this past season, but the second collapsed due to the insecticides that contain neonicotinoids. :-( So Mom and our friends Millie & Tom, who live across the road, helped Steve (The Bee Master of Sonoma County, remember him??) and Dan get the new hive in. We will be harvesting a ton of honey from the 1st one soon -- we can't wait!
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The pizza oven is almost finished, then the BBQ willbe back next to it
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The first bee hive is doing great, and the second one has just gone in!
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