A different daily grind

It's almost all done for the season. The vineyard pruning, that is. Most all of the vineyard parcels out behind our house have been pruned and the cuttings either burned or piled between the rows for mulching. Just as we hear the humming of the harvesters in the fall, in springtime we hear the grinding of the mulchers as they ply the rows, ripping the pruned vines to shreds.

The guy who drives the mulcher stops to collect a few stray canes before continuing down the rows.

The resulting mulch decomposes through the season and, I presume, helps to nourish the soil. The only remaining step before the vines leaf out is to tie the canes down horizontally to their guide wires. Some of that is done, but most of it remains. That's what will be happening in the vineyard in the coming weeks.