2017 Goals ~ Let’s go with Healthy, Wealthy and Wise… and a couple donkeys

I absolutely adore that the advent of the New Year gives one a sense of renewal, a chance to reflect and consequently focus on ones short and long term goals.  We have lots of changes planned for 2017 and, I must say, yes, I must, that we are very, very excited (and a teeny bit scared).  We will be putting all our eggs into our  entrepreneurial basket and focusing our time specifically ~ Pumpjack’s to our new wine business Terroir au Verre and me, Piddlewick, to my Pumpjack & Piddlewick  Shop and the life that goes on behind it, so our blog will get a bit of a face lift too this year.

Welcome 2017! It’s make or break time.
(Hmmm, maybe not a good euphemism when talking about entrepreneurial eggs.)

Downsizing, Giving it all up, Changing your Life… Is it very hard to do?

I’ve ‘given it all up’ in my life, not once, but twice.  By choice. The first time I gave up everything was to travel the world by bicycle.  When I met people they would inevitably ask, “What’s the hardest thing you have had to do?” The answer was always ~ to go.

This answer remains fundamental, whether changing your life style, downsizing or, as in our case, Following our Dream. Giving up the life you know, the life you are comfortable with, is the hardest step to pursuing change.

Naming a Wine and Designing a Label is harder than you think!

You watch the vines come to life in the spring and then slowly the leaves start to unfurl and tiny grapes begin to make themselves shown.  You harvest, you press and ultimately you make wine. Then you watch, wait, test, test again, keep testing, adjust, taste, adjust, put in a barrel and finally!… bottle.

Through this all it never really occurs to you what it will be called.

Our First Harvest (2015) – a limited edition success

Our first harvest is in, has been made into wine and is now, as of today, in barrel!!! I for one am really proud, and particularly of Pumpjack for all the hard work he did, through out the year, to make the vineyard produce something we could actually harvest.  Twelve hour days, 7 days a week, along with a bit of blood, huge amounts of sweat, and not a few (of my own) tears may not be everyone’s glass of wine, but at least we can call the wine ours.

Getting ready for the grape harvest – Time to Test

The time is coming close now, when we will be harvesting our grapes and making wine. But how do you know when to harvest?  There are various tests, but on my simplistic level, I will be testing the level of sugars. This gives an indication of probable alcohol level, and depending on the results, plotted over time, you can estimate when to harvest.

Of course that does not take into account weather. Warm weather can speed up the ripening process, so your sugars increase quicker. And of course vice versa if it is cooler.  Then there are the grape predators – birds, wasps and a variety of other insects,… and ducks. We certainly have our share of those and so I have been hard at work putting up scare-cd’s to try and keep the birds at bay. But there is little I can do about the insects. (Even our duck, Maggie, keeps trying to steal the odd grape or three whenever an opportunity presents itself.)

Maggie Duck thinking grapes look tasty. Read more about Maggie

Maggie Duck deciding which ones to eat. Read more about Maggie

Summer work in the Vineyard – Tucking In

With summer in the vineyard it is time to ‘tuck in the vines’.  I love the picture these words  create. It always makes me think of tucking the vines in to bed for the night.  And, in a way, it is a bit like that.

Spring in the Vineyard – The Darling Buds of April and May

If you’ve read any of my other posts about our vineyard, you’ll be coming to realise that a vineyard’s work is never done.  Each season brings a different requirement. Obviously harvest in autumn, but then there is pruning in winter and come spring, de-budding.  But what is ‘de-budding’?

Winter Work in the Vineyard – Not a fun job (unless you make it so)

When we think of vineyards we generally think of autumn and harvest, when the grapes are collected and made into wine. This is the busiest time of year for both the vineyard and the winery. But there is lots of work to do in the vineyard through out the year.  In winter, there is the pruning and tying down, getting it ready for the next year’s harvest and beyond.

Our First Harvest – Wine Making, Cleaning and Beer

There’s an adage in the world of wine making – making wine is 90% cleaning and 10% beer.  The Cleaning has to be done and done thoroughly, both before and after using any and all equipment. Why so fastidious? There are a lot of mildews, rots, chemical reactions and more in the world of agriculture and so, to limit the chances of spoilage, you clean. And yes, wine making is part of this agricultural world, just rather glorified beyond the likes of, say, wheat growing for cereal, possibly because you have to do rather more to get to the complete product.

Our First Harvest – Pursuing grapes, bees, birds, mildew and rot

We were given the go ahead to work on our vineyard in September, right in the middle of harvest time. Talk about thrown in the deep end. But the plus side is from the get go we would know what we were dealing with, which would then highlight what the priorities would be in the vineyard in the next year, as well as what would be needed in the winery.