I think I’ve been pretty accurate in describing winemaking on a small scale. It’s not the romantic days of wine and roses you would think. Much of it is hard work, heavy lifting and a lot of pumps and engines. Spare a thought for the intrepid winemaker who puts his life and safety on the line so that you can sip that insouciant little Grenache or bold Cabernet. Yes, my friends, the dangers go even beyond the threat of drunken deer named Keef.
For instance, we noticed that a lot of Yellow Jackets would find us when we started piling up compost piles of fermented skins. Yet, we could never find their nests. Thursday, we did. As John the Baptist and Louis started loading up hay bales for our winter storm flood protection, suddenly an angry cloud of Yellow Jackets boiled out of the ground near the hay shed and started the attack. Two cans of spray later — and this was the spray that shoots 20 feet — the swarm was somewhat subdued, but active enough that Louis and John had to take Friday off to give them a chance to disperse. Only on Friday, could anyone get close enough to check it out.
Turns out, there were thousands of wasps in a vast underground lair. Except, in this shot, they are covered with wasp spray.
Interesting how fast John abandoned his anti-chemical stance when facing thousands of angry wasps.
Wasps quelled, work went on. And for us, that meant racking the Grenache and Mourvedre. Queue those pumps and hoses. This job involves siphoning wine from one secondary fermentation tank to another, leaving behind the film of dead yeast that has sunk to the bottom of the tank.
It's a nasty job, but someone's got to do it.
If you are a certain kind of terrier, your job is to bark as loud and as long as you can at the sound of the hose.
If you are another kind of terrier, you hide in the bushes until the noise stops.
No matter what kind of terrier you are, you need to step in as much yeast scum as you can and get very pink feet.
Then get very bored with the whole thing and stare hopefully out from the ATV hoping the people get the hint.
the pink toes could very well be my most favorite terrier toe picture ever!
Ughhh, yellow jackets. I hate ’em – aggressive stinging devils.
That photo of the yeast scum is superior. It looks like a rippling brain. Cool.
As I read, I was wondering how JtB would reconcile the use of wasp spray with his usual all-natural, first do no harm approach. Ordinary wasps serve some purpose in pollination, I suppose, but yellowjackets are just plain ghetto mean crazy. I’m not sure what purpose they serve, but it would scare the stew out of me to see a nest that size, and send me running for the petrochemicals! And terrier feets are pretty darn cute! Of course, we feel the same way about little Dachshund feets too.
Terriers wear their freak flags on their feet:>)
Glad you found the wasp nests. Those cans that blast twenty feet away are a wonderful thing.
Great pictures. Thanks
A cloud of angry wasps! Eeauggghhh! I shudder just to think. I so appreciate your posts about the less glamorous, gritty and yes, humorous, side of wine-making. It makes me appreciate your life and adventure – and my Cabernet! – so much more!
nasty wasps! I too would get out the petrochemicals. And then go have a nice sip of something inhanced with verjus.
Pink terrier feet=too cute!
My basic rule of life is live and let live. Works with rattlers, mt. lions, scorpions, why I still relocate black widows and brown recluses, even though Ive been bit by both, sticking my hands into where I should have looked first. As for satans air force, yellow jackets, been attacked stung and bit so many times just because I happen to be on the same planet as them. Still, it’s not till they draw first blood, that I go terminator on them. In one attack, the only time I went to a doc., he said he couldn’t be sure,but he figured I had been stung and bit something like 65 times. To KathyB, after Louis stepped on the opening to there lair, the air was so thick with yellow j’s we could not get closer than fifty or sixty ft. away before being stung. So we jumped in the quad, as I drove, as fast as possible, Louis would throw the cans as near the opening as possible. Then from a couple hundred ft. away, with a high powered pellet rifle with scope, shot the cans open. This knocked their # down low enough to get within 20 ft. and finish the job.
In case anyone didn’t figure it out, John above is John the Baptist, famed in this blog.
don’t even mention wasp spray near my husband. He is allergic to wasps and freaks out the minute he sees a nest. I’ve already lost a few shrubs after he emptied the can on them…
Love the terriers in the ATV photo. They are very subtle.
I had to stop gardening last year when I discovered a wasp nest. Of course, I didn’t discover it until I was pulling weeds 10 inches away from the opening…
I knew wine-making was hard work, because I have seen the stained hands and dry, cracked skin of a friend who owns a winery just a few miles away. But I’ve learned more about the process from reading your blog than from her facebook updates.
Interesting tale and I agree that these posts make me think differently about winemaking.
JB, I liked your addendum. Woulda sucked if the cans got buried in the grass. Also, convince Lisa to harvest some venison or have her fly me out there so I can.
Noooooo. The deer are valued members of the Two Terrier Community, never to be shot.