What to pack for vacation?

Am leaving for McCall, ID tomorrow after work. Two great friends are tying the knot! Hopefully I've got enough wine!

Wine is sunlight held together by water

The benefit of starting at 6am is the awesome light! 

Hahaha!

Fire season

As you can imagine fire season gets pretty serious in eastern Washington. Its dry and its windy! Currently a state of emergency has been declared in 20 Washington state counties. The number of fires and accumulated acreage burned grows too fast for me to keep up from the vineyard. But at 6:30 this morning this was the sky. At 6:20 the sun was still behind such thick smoke that you couldn't even tell where it was at all.

Vineyard Inferno

The vineyard is a very dry place.

The last couple of weeks have proven to be both beautiful and cruel. Working out in the vineyards is calming and peaceful. It is also dry, dirty, sweaty and sneezy! Oh, did I not mention HOTT! Ya spelled hot with two Ts, 'cause thats how hot it is. With exception to one day, it has been between 90-109 degrees Fahrenheit. This means starting at 6a.m. in hopes of getting more field work done. Normally 6 to 10 is a wonderful time, the sun has a soft light and the air is almost cool (lowest temperature in the A.M. has been 68F). Then there are days like last Thursday, when it hit 90 by 8:30 but didn't get hot enough to go inside until 12:30. I am pretty sure I got next to nothing done but sweating that day.

Me, when its not super hot yet.

Throwback Thursday

Leaf stripping at Paradisos del Sol Vineyards four years ago. Crazy, that is the same thing I was doing today!

Head in the vines

For the most part my head is not in the vines this much but its gettin real hot out!

Morning in the vineyard

One of many to come!

Inventory buddies

Everyone hates doing inventory. But its always a bit better when you have good company. Every month I do inventory with either Bob or Milton (Millie, because she is a lady. I will elaborate on the cat story at later time). Both kitties leap from pallet to pallet, yelling encouragement in the form of slightly angry sounding meows, thoroughly excited by my amazing inventory activities. Sometimes this extremely dry task seems to not take long enough because the winery kitties make it seems like a fun game!

P.s. Yes, I do spend WAY too much time by myself :)