Casualties

Winters are rough on grape vines and this year was no exception. There was a period of time in the winter that the temperatures dipped down to 7 degrees Fahrenheit. Grape plants don't like that very much and when combined with the challenging growing conditions in our part of the world the added stress was just too much. Grape farming is all about renewal. So I had to rip out the dead old plants to put in the new ones. Actually "rip" is the technical term. I dug the dang things out. Farming provides lots of time for meditation and my mediation as I struggled with stubborn root systems is that a shovel is the tool I have used most in the vineyard. This is what a grape vine cemetery looks like.