It's almost time!

First off, this sweet baby is gracing us with his presence this weekend while his parents (the hubby's cousin) are enjoying a weekend away at the Fresno State game in San Francisco.  First time they have left him over night, in his 9 1/2 months.  We are lucky enough to get him.  He's a pretty happy baby, but he was asleep while I was taking pictures today, so you get a sleepy picture instead.  He fell asleep in the truck while we went to go get feed, so I decided to leave him in his car seat to prevent waking him up.

Next up, we ended up not starting harvest this week like they were planning when I wrote the last post.  Not sure of the exact date they are starting, but it will be early this next week.  So, this afternoon, the hubby is out terracing the rows to get them ready to lay trays on so the raisins can dry.


This whole process starts off with him discing the rows last week to get rid of the furrows (what the water flows down).  Here is a picture of what a disced row looks like.

Pretty huh?  It amazes me that there can be so many weeds down those rows and then when he discs them, they end up looking like this.


This is the terracer rig that hooks up to the tractor.  That's the hubby on the tractor, don't get to close...he get's pretty dirty doing this!

There is a hydraulic ram on the terracer that allows him to adjust the angle of the blade while he is sitting on the tractor.

Then, see the giant steel roller being pulled behind the terracer?  That smoothes and compacts the dirt.  Very important because if the ground isn't smoothed out, it wouldn't work well with the trays.  Soil and grapes don't mix when your trying to make raisins.  Make sense?

And this is the finished product.

I tried to take the picture that allows you to see the angle of the terrace and how it's not just flat.


Not too much longer and we'll have grapes on the ground!