Hand harvesting

Each year, when the grape harvest gets under way, we see several parcels out back that are harvested by hand rather than by machine. I noticed some manual harvesting going on Thursday, so I grabbed the camera and took a few shots out the window.

About a dozen people worked one of the parcels out behind our house on Thursday.

There's not much to see from this distance (I used a long zoom lens), but the workers use pruning shears to cut the grape bunches from the vines, they fill up buckets and, when the buckets are full, someone takes them to the truck and empties them into larger containers. It's quite a process to see when they get a rhythm going.

These are not happy tourists enjoying a day's outing picking grapes. They're mostly itinerant workers, maybe even immigrants, hired seasonally at what I'm assuming are basic wages. We see some of them (or at least their trucks) every year. Some of the workers also come in winter to help gather the cuttings from pruned vines.

Berry, berry, bo-berry

I don't know what these berries are, but they grow wild on the edges of the vineyard, along with wild blackberries and wild roses. I thought this bunch looked interesting, kind of like a stylized christmas tree.

Pretty berries. I think they might be "troène commun" (privet). And, therefore, not edible.

I worked on sawing wood and grape vine trunks on Wednesday. First, of course, I had to spend about a half-hour getting the chainsaw operating. It sits in the garage unused for most of the year, and the chain gets stuck to the guide. Lots of WD-40 and a screwdriver helped to dislodge it and get it moving freely again. Then I had to add more chain oil (there's a compartment for that). I also had to mix up some gas/oil. The engine is a two-stroke engine that takes a mixture of gasoline and special oil to run, and I had run out. So, there's a special oil for the chain, another special oil for the gas mixture, and third special oil for the lawnmower and rototiller engines (both four-stroke engines). I have to be careful to use the right oil in the right place.

All that is to say that I didn't finish the cutting yesterday. But I'm hopeful that all will be done today. UPDATE: I finished!

Apple piles

It only took about an hour, or less. I raked up the apples under two trees, then put the apples from each pile into a wheelbarrow and dumped them into the compost pile. I made about six trips. Tuesday morning was warm and a little humid, and the biting bugs were swarming. I had to cover myself with bug spray. But the job is done, at least for now. There are still a lot of apples on the trees.

The grass is parched, so I don't really need to cut it now.

Today my plan, as I said yesterday, is to get the chainsaw out and cut up those fallen limbs and Callie's grape vine trunks.

It's starting

It's a months-long process around here. The leaves start to turn to shades of yellow, gold, red, and brown before they drop to the ground. By sometime in November, the grape vines and deciduous trees around us will be bare. Except for the oaks which keep their brown leaves through the winter until spring growth pushes them off.

I believe that these are sauvignon blanc leaves. They're usually the first of the grape leaves to turn.

I have two outdoor jobs I want to get done before the weather changes (right now we're having warm, dry days). The first is to get the apples up off the ground so that I can cut the grass when it's time. The second is to saw up some fallen limbs and old grapevine trunks and add them to the firewood pile. The grapevine trunks are sitting in a pile out by the back gate. They are what remain of the trunks that Callie used to bring home from our walks in the vineyard and they've been sitting out there for well over a year now. It's time.

On the greenhouse floor

The vegetable garden outside is winding down for the season, but we still have several plants going in the greenhouse. There are six or more basil plants, some parsley, and a few pots of chili peppers. We keep other plants in there, too, including some geraniums and kalanchoe along with a desert jade.

We have work to do.

Over the next month we'll be preparing the greenhouse to receive potted plants from the deck as part of our preparation for the coming winter. The potting bench is a mess and needs to be organized and cleaned up. Not to mention the outdoor chores that are coming up.

Abandoned

Every year I take a photo or two of the grapes in the abandoned vineyard parcel out toward the end of the road. The parcel is slowly being overtaken by shrubs and small trees. Another nearby parcel is already overgrown with acacia trees to the point where it's hard to see that it was once a grape producing vineyard. But this one is still recognizable.

A sad looking bunch, but pretty in its own way.

Nobody tends the parcel and nobody, except the wildlife, picks the grapes. Not that they'd be good for much. An untended, unpruned vineyard makes many small bunches of small grapes. I wonder if the parcel could be rescued, but I imagine it would be too much work. It would probably be easier to raze all to the ground and start over, but I doubt anyone around here is interested in doing that.

Try to remember

It's September again. I was trying to remember what was going on last year at this time, but I needed to look back at blog entries to see. Turns out that the grape harvest started on September 1 last year, with the picking of the chardonnay grapes just to the north of our property. We were also helping Tasha recover from her spaying surgery. She started to chew on her stitches and had to wear the "cone of shame" for a while.

The donkey pen (where we haven't seen donkeys in a long time) is mowed, and leaves are starting to turn.

So here we are again. Fall is in the air, but it's still very much summer. I wonder when the harvest will start this year? The grapes certainly look ready.