One of many transformations

We will start harvest on Monday, now.  Since Central California has a storm coming in, with a 40-60% chance of rain, Chris didn't want to risk the grapes getting rained on after being picked, so we're gonna wait till the storm passes.  A good rain while the grapes are drying on the ground has the potential to completely ruin that season's crop, and that makes for a VERY upset farmer.  


So, while there isn't too much going on around the farm this weekend, I'm going tell you a little about our house.  Papers were finalized in March of this year on a place with a ranch style house that was built in the early 60's, on 10 acres.  About 8 of it is planted in vines and the other two consist of the open land around our house and the 'pasture' area around the barn.  


When we bought the home, pretty sure EVERYTHING in it was 'the original'.  The carpet, the linoleum, paint, windows and i'm pretty sure the kitchen cupboards hadn't been cleaned since the house was built.  


So when blogging times are slow, I will show you little pieces of our home that we have changed over the past 6 months.  First, Chris & I, with the help of my parents, painted the ENTIRE interior of the house.  Now that was quite the chore.  The walls were white, but didn't look white because of the years of wear and tear.  So they are all now 'Seaside Sand'.  I wanted some color in our bedroom, so this is what we did:

The inside of our closet

The north wall of our bedroom (don't worry, we completely finished it)

I know, paint isn't all that exciting, but just know for the next post that the ugly nasty brown, shag carpet that you see didn't last :)

Total Beauty

Last week while Chris was discing at our home place, I was inside making dinner.  Now, our kitchen faces the back yard, and I was being a good little wife and doing the dishes, which doesn't always happen on a regular basis.  I just don't understand how TWO people can make so many dirty dishes.  I gotta figure out how to fix this problem, because you see, we bought an older farm house...WE DON'T HAVE A DISHWASHER.  So now just stop and think, for those of you that do have one, please don't EVER complain that you have to load or unload the dishwasher...I have to wash all of ours by hand so stop your complaining.  :)

Now that I'm off my rant, I can move on to what this post is about, because let me tell you that all of the dishes that are piled up in our sink doesn't define "Total Beauty".  Just trying to be real people, because you know you let those dishes pile up on occasion to.  It's nothing to be ashamed of!

As I was standing at the sink washing the dishes, I was looking out the window at this gorgeous sunset!  I dropped my scrubby sponge, rinsed my hands, grabbed my camera and ran out the back door.  I had to capture it, and it looked so neat with the dust settling as Chris was finishing up.  See, look...isn't it AMAZING!  I think it's pretty neat how God can use dust and pollution to make something like this.

Just thought I would share these with you.  I thought they turned out pretty cool!

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!