World Series of Poker - June 9-11th

This weekend, Vineyardwife is managing the farm. Bill is in Las Vegas at the 2007 38th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) No-Limit Hold'em (Event 15). The home base for the World Series of Poker 2007 is the Rio Hotel & Casino. Bill is alongside the likes of poker greats Phil Helmuth, Phil Gordon, Mike Sexton, Arnold Spee. Bill won a 2006 Portland tournament in which Arnold Spee was entered. Let's hope Bill is as cool under pressure this time around under the hot lights of vegas. This is the big time: 2,628 hopefuls entered this event, creating a prize pool of $3,587,222. Only 1 will win the 1st place prize of $637,254.

Bill is in Vegas with his cousin, Nick Fluge, who is using this event as a practice tournament for the World Series Of Poker Championships July 6-17th. Vineyardwife is monitoring the tournament http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/tourney and cheering Bill and Nick on -- while inside awaiting the water tank to fill on the back of The Mule. This weekend, watering needs to be done in the vineyard. Rainfall has been below what is needed to keep new vines nourished. Is that a great wife? -- staying home, working outside in rain watering the new vines while her husband is eating gourmet meals and playing cards with the best of the best?

Go Bill!

Harvest 2006 Recap

Stormy Morning Vineyard Harvest 2006 Recap
Harvest 2006 has officially come to a close. The harvest started on Tuesday Sept. 26th and ended at 8pm Thursday October 5th. How much did we harvest? 19,029 lbs. or nearly 9.5 tons of Pinot Noir. 28 individual home winemakers picked 10,589 lbs. and 2 wineries purchased the remaining 8,440 lbs. Sounds like a lot? It was. In 2005, we picked 8,200 lbs.

The weather was perfect over the 10 days. Winemakers came from as far as Denver to join in the harvest. On Saturday September 30th and Sunday October 1st, we served hamburgers and hot dogs each day. Thanks go out to all of you who came out to help us celebrate.

What did it take to pull it off?

1 incredibly talented, endlessly energetic mastermind to champion this 9-month effort
1 bird defector system
68 hamburgers, 26 hotdogs
28 band-aids
3 boxes of surgical gloves
30 fabulous customers and their crews
23 pairs of clippers
45 five-gallon buckets
6 rolls of paper towels
Fantastically supportive friends and family members
148 bottles of water
99 sodas and 86 bottles of beer
1 propane cannon
18 scary eyeballs balloons
2 wineries to purchase bulk quantities; a great friend with a truck, trailer, know how, and willingness to put it together at the last minute
10 days of sunny weather
407 26 lb. buckets filled with grapes lifted onto the scale
1 Porto-toilet
2 pounds of trail mix
6 bee traps and bacon
3 photographers
Neighbors with nerves of steel – enduring the constant sounds of propane cannon blasts

February in the Vineyard

2007 is a year of expansion for Stormy Morning Vineyard.

Pole Pushing: Bill made plans to expand ~ 3 acres. Before poles can be pushed, the new acreage must be measured and marked. After careful consideration, Bill decided to stick with placing rows 8 feet apart and placing plants every 4 feet within the row. With this formula in play, Bill and his vineyardwife helper measured, marked and placed small green market sticks into the ground - with great precision. Bill is all about precision.

Plans to pole push were delayed weeks due to extrememely wet January weather & a delay in factory production of the raw materials - the pressure-treated poles and anchor poles. Because pole pushing is weather dependent and the crawling tractor is in high demand, Bill got last minute notice that he was next on the job list. So, by himself, he staged the poles, held the poles for the tractor driver. After several frustrating hours, it became apparent the ground was so soft the crawling tractor could not get the grip needed to complete the job. The decided to put the tractor in the barn and wait a few days.

Finally, the weather cooperated and the job began. For the big day, Bill had enlisted the help of a trusty crew. He clothed them in full rain gear and the day began. Much of the day was spent carrying poles and staging them beside the markers throughout the field. Once that job was complete, the crew, Bill and the pole pushing tractor expert started the installation.

Things were going well until Bill and the crawling tractor man noticed the field and newly-pushed poles were a little "off". After a bit of investigation, Bill realized that his well-meaning crew had moved the each marker a bit when they distributed the poles. Therefore, when they then lifted the poles into place on top of the marker stick as the tractor came along, the precision on placement was off. Ugg.

So, Bill remarked the field. The next day the crew did not show. Bill performed the work of two people - lifting/holding & then running to the next pole to lift/hold. Extrememly hard work. No photos of that day.......it was a tough day. But the results are beautiful. The newly-posted field is near-perfection.

March in the Vineyard

March was an incredibly busy month for Bill. Pruning. Planting.

Planting: 1,263 new plants were added to the Stormy Morning Vineyard. In addition to expanding to row rows, new plants were added to existing rows to fill-in where plants have died due to to drought. While Oregon climate lends itself to enable "dry farming", we have learned the hard way that new plants require additional watering during their first season. Dry farming relies on mother nature to provide adequate water throughout the year. No irrigation or drip system is used. To give new plants the water they need, during the hot summer months, we hand-water each plant from a 110 gallon tank ferried by our Kawasaki Mule.




Pruning: as Bill demonstrates in the photo, each plant is carefully evaluated. The fruiting canes for the new season are selected, then twisted/tied to the trellis. All other canes are cut away. In a matter of seconds, the growth from the prior year is a mere memory. Assisting Bill with pruning is his trusty lawn buddy - a rolling cart that hold his ties, an apple and an AM radio so he can keep up-to-date with the latest in sports.

Pruning takes several weeks to accomplish. Rain or shine Bill, with a little help from an outside crew completed the task of pruning over 6,ooo plants in February and first wk of March.

April in the Vineyard

April in the vineyard. Final Planting. Trellis work.

Trellis work: Vineyard expansion brings with it the need to install trellis wires, anchor wires. Over 10,000 ft of wire was strung by hand in April to create the trellis system for the new rows: 45-52. Plus additional wires were added to rows 36-44 in preparation for the canopy developing during the season. Daily, Bill could be found pounding hooks, stringing wire, building anchor supports.

Planting: is done one hole at a time by Bill and his one-man auger. All 1,263 holes are drilled. Then each is given a shovel of humus -- which is organic compost. The grafted plants are then planted by hand. Next comes the grow tube -- the green sleeves you see in the photo background. The grow tube is held in place via a bamboo stake tied to the trellis wire.

Day of Harvest - What You Need to Know

What to bring
Friends to help you pick. Enough clean bins with lids for your mash & your secret ingredients. Clippers – or you can borrow ours. Knee pads or a gardening pad can be a good thing. Towel for clean-up – field work can get dirty. Big vehicle to transport your fruit/mash back home; tarp for spillage. You are welcome to bring your own food, drink, wine if you want to picnic.

What to wear
Sturdy shoes or hiking boots. You will be bending and kneeling to pick – wear comfortable pants. Dress in layers. Early morning is best for picking, but can be chilly. Waterproof boots, pants, jacket and a hat - if it looks like rain. Sunglasses, sunscreen and a hat if it is sunny. Clothes to change into for the drive home.

What we provide
Picking buckets, clippers and best known methods on how to pick. Surgical gloves – grape picking can get sticky. Transport of full buckets to the crush pad. Crush/De-stemming of your grapes (or you can take your fruit home whole). Porto-toilet. Drinking water. Handy wipes. Paper towels.

When you arrive
Drive past the crush pad area on the driveway to parking spots across from the barn. Keep your take-home bins in your vehicle until after you are done picking and weigh-in. Walk to the crush pad to sign-in your group. We will give you clippers, buckets, and take you out to your picking row, give you instructions.

Picking Instructions
Orange picking bucket w/ cluster fill rounding the top will hold @ 25lbs. – 100lbs = 4 buckets. Cut the cluster stem close to the fruit. Do not drop unwanted clusters on the ground. If you have concerns on ripeness of a cluster, notify us. Pick your row clean – do not leave fruit clusters. We gauge tonnage per area, so if you leave fruit it drives Bill nuts and screws-up the math. Do not cut vines. What you cut may be next years’ fruiting cane.

Cautions: Bees. Love the grapes. If you are stung, we find yelling helps ease the pain. Also, we have sting-ease/first-aid on hand. Come see us. Uneven ground. Those gophers are sure cute, but have wreaked havoc on the surface of the field. Watch your footing.

Once you have completed picking a bucket: leave the full bucket in the row tucked under the trellis – that way we can drive up the row and pass by to do the pick-up. We take care of transporting your full buckets to the crush pad for weigh-in. After weigh-in, we start the crush/de-stem process, unless you want to skip that step to take home whole fruit. You get to participate in the crush process.