Since we posted….. And no pictures this post.
It’s been busy but fruitful. The vineyard is now pruned thanks to help from S. (our worker) and some fellow farmers J and R of Goosefoot Farms. We’ve also locked up some of the chickens in chicken jail AKA the Leon Millot Vineyard to see if they will help keep the weeds and grass down so we don’t have to spend days/months/years weed-eating, hoeing etc. Bare earth is the way to go in our northern vineyards for the most heat gain so instead of using weed control herbicides we’re seeing if the chickens will do it for us. I’m hoping we don’t get a late frost because it’s been so mild that the grapes have started to come out of dormancy! Yikes. A late frost could potentially wipe out our crop. (Ah, the pessimism of a farmer.)
Trillium-wise, we’ve done 2 nights of camping this month but really it’s more like camping in our friend’s driveways. We just got an Angel Care baby monitor from friend’s of ours so now we can be negligent parents and leave our kids in the Trillium sleeping while we enjoy a later night with friends. Actually works really well, we plug in the base and have the remote with us. We know EVERYTHING that happens in that trailer! I think we might take it travelling!
Ben is also trying to put LED strips in the Trillium for a bit more light but he is being foiled by them at every turn. Not sure why, but I think he’s narrowed it down to faulty LED light tape. Always trying to improve on the Trillium.
The main garden is too wet to till. We decided to till then it started raining again so I started peppers and tomatoes, then promptly forgot about them for a few days. They were started on a heat mat so it could have gone very badly but I remembered about them in the nick of time and no seedlings were lost due to drying out.
We went to the Victoria Symphony to a kids concert which I really wasn’t sure how the girls, mostly R (the younger one) would react to, but they were quite enthralled. There were several pieces that they knew and there was a very rousing rendition of the Imperial March. Needless to say they were happy to hear that!
Ben is sick again and sadly is in camp however, lucky for us, hopefully we won’t get it!
I’ve been volunteering with Nuyumbalees Cultural Centre at Cape Mudge (AKA the museum) on implementing a native plant garden there. We just planted it out on Saturday and I think it will be great. While I agree with all the plants we chose, I’m a bit nervous about how they will survive because they all have their own particular habitats and we have put them all into a garden together. However, with enough mulch and watering I’m sure we can get them established.
In the winery, I finally got tank samples (wine straight from the tank no refinements) sent to the lab for analysis, then I can finish the labels and order them. Artus (the bottling company we used last year) is booked, finally. I did try and book them starting in December but they are been booked up until June. Well, we could have had a date in early May but we are going to be busy then. So, bottles have been ordered and we’re going to have to do a small bottling late April so we have wine to sell at the start of the season.
