Ann's Blog
July 9
Two of Jim's sisters and their families came to help us with our vineyard chores today. We had 6 extra people to help with the weeding, tying of the rousanne, reisling and malvasia vines. Jim even got extra sets of hands to help assemble the new sprayer - a terrific tool that comes with no assembly instructions. I now know why farmers are so self sufficient in repairing their tools - they learn by doing.
July 4
Important rule in the vineyard - when pulling weeds don't pick up the snake by the tail - unless you plan to let him go quickly. Weeding can be exciting as several of our volunteers learned this weekend. Since there was a great outcome - snake was dispatched and no one was hurt we can poke fun at the experience. Thanks to our volunteers who continue to allow us to keep up with all the vineyard chores.
June
The heat just keeps coming. Arizona seems to be much warmer than normal this year. Weather at the vineyard is a terrific break from Phoenix. What a pleasure to spend time and beautiful sunsets with our friends and neighbors in Sonoita/Elgin. Work in the vineyard this month...lots of weeding, tieing up of vines and grading of rows this month.
Memorial Day Weekend
What a difference a month makes! From freezing conditions straight to heat. Now almost 100 degrees during the day and upper 50s at night. Beautiful weather to be working in the vineyard. The Grenache Noir is overloaded with grapes this year. I imagine we will need to thin them out soon. We planted a wildflower garden near the barn using plants we found around the vineyard. Pictures are coming online soon!
May 24 - The wind continues - 30mph sustained with gusts to who knows what. The mourvedre is looking great this year. Can't wait to pick some this fall. Lots of time this month spent attaching the vines to the stakes and the stakes to the wires. Survey coming up soon to see how the vines did over the winter. Already looking like the vines made it through the fall frost with flying colors - now if we could just predict the spring frost (and hold off the vines of course)...
May 17 - new vines starting, old vines picking themselves up after the frost and starting some new growth. Wind seems to be the theme this month - lots of sustained winds and lots of winds gusting down the hill. All of us are grateful for the barn which is built to withstand it all.
May1 - Planting
Thanks again to all of the friends who came to help this year. We were able to accomplish so much in such a short time. I think the only casualty this year was Bob's boots. Lots of sore muscles however. Looking forward to seeing the experimental rows of new types of vines...Thanks to our friends at the Sonoita Cafe for all of the great food and Callaghan Vineyard for the terrific Arizona Wines!
April 30
Frost settled into the lower half of the vineyard - upper half seems to have stayed warm enough. But seriously - frost in the last couple of days of April...
April 23
Wild weather this week. A cold storm came through with lots and lots of wind. Gusts into the 40's and 50's. Rain, sleet snow - but it stayed above freezing! Clouds so low you cannot see the Biscuit. The great news is the vines are fine. Dexter managed to get snow covered and then mud covered as everything melted. Next week is this year's planting event. Vines arrived this week (and were supposed to be warming up) The cooler in the winery was working alittle too well so we turned it off for now. Looking forward to all the excitement of this years planting.
April 18
Spring weather in the vineyard welcomes us. The vines are all starting to show signs of waking up. This is one of my favorite times of the year - warm and sunny during the day and cool evenings. Dexter thinks this is the perfect time to take a nap on his dog bed. The cattle should be returning to the neighbors parcel soon - hopefully bringing the antelope back with them.
April 12
Planning for this year's planting and 2011! Next month, we will be planting some grenache noir and grenache blanc that suffered from winter kill over the past 2 years. In 2011, we will once again be planting 5 acres - this time tempranillo.
March
Spring is here - with lots of wind. Still pruning, probably until the end of the month. We are saving the Grenache for last to try to delay bud break as much as possible.The days are beautiful highs in the 60's evenings still going down near freezing. Winter projects slowly finishing up
February 19
Pruning continues... we are still on the mourvedre block. Looks like this grape is very very happy where it is planted. February has brought lots of rain and snow - perfect for the vines - slow and steady moisture
January 18
Wow time is flying by very quickly. Time to catch up on all of the chores you cannot do while caring for the growing vines. While they sleep - we do all the odd jobs that have been piling up all year.
January 1, 2010
Happy New Year! The sun is very warm yet the air is cold - Welcome to winter in the Arizona high country. The mountains seem to turn white at the peaks each night. It is a beautiful setting...
December 26
Merry Christmas from the vineyard! A beautiful snowfall just before Christmas helped water the vines this month. On the 26th, there was still enough snow left on the ground to make snowballs and a very small snowman. The is very exciting news for Wisconsin raised Arizonans. As the sun sets it is definately getting cold. So far the vines have enjoyed an ideal journey into winter.
December 10
Winter is upon us. The temperatures have dropped below freezing. It is time once again to do the everyday chores (fixing irrigation pipes, etc) and the special projects resserved for the winter season.
Happy Thanksgiving!
November 22
The Sonoran antelope are back to visit! Jim saw 17 this weekend. It is great to see them graze outside the vineyard fence.
November 20
Winter (for Arizona) Fall for those of us from Wisconsin has arrived. About 33 degrees last night with daytime highs around 70 degrees. Now is the time to finish up all the late fall chores. Thanksgiving is fast approaching and I would like to give thanks to our many friends and family who take the time out of their busy lives to help us install fruit wires, remove growing tubes and tie up the vines for their winter rest. Thank you. Your gifts of time and talents are making our dream a reality.
Dexter (our white german shepherd) was really excited to get back on the vineyard. He missed a trip and didn't have a chance to play tag with the cows along the fenceline. This week he spent an entire day at the door making sure he did not get left behind! He is currently racing up and down the road just for fun.
November 9
Beautiful fall days - weather in the 70's this past weekend. The vines are shutting down but the countryside is beautiful. Looking at the vineyard from Elgin road is an amazing site. Thanks to all of our friends, family & neighbors who are helping to make our vision a reality.
October 30
Vineyard temperatures reached 28 degrees last night. This is our first hard frost of the season. Wednesday was very very windy and it looks as if stronger winds had come through the day before blowing most of the beautiful leaves off the vines. Looking forward to starting some of the "winter" tasks this month.
October 20
The lower vineyard has seen some frost this month. We expect our first hard freeze by Wednesday.
October 16
Getting ready for winter - cutting back on the water to the vines and taking the shelters off the new vines. Winter will bring changes to the barn including some updating to the water system and the electrical system.
September 12, 2009
September has arrived! The monsoon is sending us rain and crazy weather - although if we were attempting to harvest this year that would not be a good thing. Luckily, we don't harvest until next year so we can soak up the rain and just enjoy the weather. We are starting to send the vines into hibernation for winter. This means we are cutting back on their supplemental water. Last year, our first frost was in early October. We want to be sure we have everything asleep by then. Despite alot of pruning to insure no grapes this year, some vines just insisted on hiding grapes in their tubes. We picked some mourvedre last week and it was terrific. Not ready to pick yet - would need a couple more weeks. That is one of the beautiful aspects of farming - the vines and the winemaker decide when the balance has been reached. It is a joint decision that does not use a calendar or clock.
August
Wow, what a summer this has been. The weather is warm - but not as warm as Phoenix! The storms are beautiful - blue skies turn into puffy clouds who join into beautiful storms. Last weekend I looked up at the sky and it was covered in stars. Perfect sleeping weather with nights in the 60's. The vines are growing strong.
August is the month that brings many bugs into the vineyard. We have spent a portion of each weekend just walking the rows and removing hornworms and caterpillers. They can eat alot of leaf if you don't keep up with them. This allows us to avoid using pesticides which kill off all bugs good and bad.
Hannah's Hill is a dream in development. We hope you enjoy following us on this journey.