It's Spring! We finally have budbreak - a littler later than usual, but the days have decidedly warmed up, the sun is out, and the vines are waking up. And so are the gophers! I've gotten good at hunting them. Ed is in the vineyard doing the final pruning, with help from some of the crew. They had 'pre-pruned' some weeks ago, removing the tall canes from the wires and leaving about a foot on each, and now the pruning can go much faster. Now that the vines are coming back to life the leaves are busting out, and they're pruning down to two buds. Every year we have had a killing frost in April that has hit hard in a low spot in the vineyard - a swale that catches the cold air. It usually affects only a few vines, although last year (in 2008) frost was widespread throughout the state, some vineyards lost their entire crop, and we had some frost in higher spots. We were pretty lucky though and made it through relatively unscathed. Still, even though it feels like Spring the nights are cold and we're not out of the woods yet. The Spring sunshine is warm though, and sometimes after a lot of hard digging and hunting it just feels good to take a rest in the
warm grass and soak up the sun.
