Pull up your trunks

This is part of the vineyard parcel out behind our house that's being dug out to make room for new vines. The canes were cut off and mulched. The guide wires and posts have been removed. All that's left is for the trunks to come out. I wonder when that will happen?

It almost looks like a cemetery. You can see the gaps where vines have died over the years.

Speaking of vine trunks, we have a rather large pile of them out behind the garden shed. Most of them were here when we moved in (almost nineteen years ago!) and I added a bunch more during the years that Callie would bring one home from each of her walks. They're kept dry under a couple sheets of corrugated sheet metal. Old vine trunks are famously used for barbecues in these parts and, I suspect, wherever grapes are grown. People say they give good flavor to whatever is being grilled. I did some of that back before we had the gas grill. Not sure about the flavor thing, but they burn well.

I always planned to burn the trunks in the wood stove, but the stove turned out to be too small to fit them in. Now, with the new easy-to-start chainsaw, I've begun the process of cutting them down to size (one cut does it) and burning them. If I'm lucky and keep at it, I might get that whole pile burned this season. Free firewood!