A Tale of Two Vineyard Dogs

 Pruning is almost done, just on schedule!

 

One good thing about the lack of rain (about the only one, we hear) is that the pruning has continued almost non-stop, so we're right on schedule. And the vineyard team has done a terrific job!  We feel bad for them on the cold days -- they don't have, like we do, a natural fur coat!  But they do bundle up pretty good.  Except for their fingers, which they need when they tie the canes to the wires; that they need bare hands to do.

  The cover crop looks gorgeous in our young plantings of Syrah and (behind) Tempranillo  

  The organic cover crop consists of peas, vetch and barley.  The peas are starting to flower!  

  The pruning is all done; now all is left to do is the tying. In cold days like yesterday, it's a no fun job! 

 Did you know that's what a mole looks like? 

Did you know the difference between moles and gophers?  We just learned about it from Zach, our viticulturist: moles are blind and only push the earth up, but don't eat the roots so they're not damaging to the vines.  Gophers, on the other hand, are really bad guys -- they devour vines!  It's so sad to find from time to time a vine that's totally dried up and dead - the work of a gopher.  Since we're organic, we cannot use poison (and we wouldn' want to -- that's not good for puppies!!) so we set lots of traps and we catch quite a few of them.  And we also have built owl houses, which attract the barn owls; gophers are their favorite meal, thankfully!

 Moles do not make holes or eat vine roots--this is the work of a gopher-- the bad guys! 

This is a gopher -- one of the guys we don't like!