We have walls, 15 hours of weedeating and spring flowers

18 Maggio

Happy Birthday to my old classmate Rebecca today.  Here are the pictures of our construction project and some of my roses which are outnumbering the beetles which eat them each year.  I weedate (invented word of the day) for 5 hours yesterday and 7 today and Raffaele threw in his 3 hours yesterday to clean out the grasses and weeds under the olive trees which we have been ignoring because of the vineyard work.  They need love too, so now they can breathe again.

As you can see from the construction pix, we have a window on the southwest wall of the winery.  This is the floor which will be underground almost to this window, so there is a lot of dirt pushing yet to complete after this phase.  

I changed jobs because of the recent rains we received, but need to get back into the vineyard for another spraying as soon as the wheeled tractor can handle it.  We had lots of input on tractors prior to buying one with tires and all the old guys recommended a tank track tractor while the younger ones said wheeled would be better.  Pros and cons aside, with the grass seed I sowed last year, the tires are getting more traction and we seem to be in good shape.

Finally, my peaches and cream corn seeds are sprouting and I wanted to throw in a picture of my artichokes and our merlot grapevines.

Cantina update, pool is open, happy bd Giorgio

10 Maggio
Lazy butt is back with a couple of photos of our progress about a week apart, the news that the swimming pool is open and seems to be functioning and an ugly view of one of my gloves which finally outgrew its duct tape patches.
The first bill for the construction came in this weekend about the same time the dollar hit a 1 year high against the euro, thank you god (little "g" god).   Like buying a stock at its nadir, I got lucky on this one and transferred money friday to pay for our little investment.
Come to europe now while Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Italy are weighing down the value of the euro!
We had 8 english speakers this weekend, with 6 americans and 2 from the Netherlands.  The season is beginning and now is a really wonderful time to visit along with September and October.
Tomorrow I will spray the vineyard for the 2nd time with sulfur and copper to prevent the various mildews which were imported from america 150 years ago.  It was in revenge for the europeans exporting the starling to us.  I think we came out on the worse end of the bargain.
Bacco is recovering from a little surgery to remove a pyodermic granuloma.  The vet was nice enough to take it off the same day I took him in although I really wanted to do it myself.  I don't think she could have held him down as I did for the local anesthetic.  He took 2 days to forgive me.
I have planted the peaches and cream corn seeds I imported and the little shoots are coming up!  If I didn't mention this before, corn on the cob in Italy is feed corn back home... horrible!
I took my midterm exam for the UCD viticulture and winemaking intro course Friday and await my grade.
That's about all the news fit to print.
Buon compleanno al mio amico Giorgio!
dds

An american in Ascoli, construction update, pollinators of Nascondiglio di Bacco

2 Maggio
The week in pictures (also 2 weeks)

Let me introduce you to Brian Hannon, a man who has lived in almost all the midwest states that start with "I" before moving to Boulder Colorado, marrying an italian and then transferring to northern Italy and now Ascoli Piceno, where I discovered his bike shop.  He got me a trainer which I have been riding in my room, trying to get fit enough for these marchigiani hills.  Notice the Steamboat sticker behind him.  As I miss my place in Colorado, I wondered if he suffered from that as well and he responded in the affirmative,  adding that his wife missed Boulder more than him.   All my local friends need to check out his shop on the western edge outside the Porta Romana near the circonvolazione.
The construction is coming along and we have finished the iron works for the pad and poured concrete to a current depth of 70cm. with 20 to go for the floor.  Raffaele and I put in our good luck charms, mine pagan, an empty bottle of Ch. Petrus which Bill Ross brought over on his last visit, in hopes we can make some really good wine as well.  Raffaele covered the religious side of things with a prayer, cross and other icons in an Acquarello can (the best risotto and available in the USA)
Next we have some of the bees and insects which are buzzing about the place and pollinating various lavender and other flowering plants.
I am trying to get the weeds in the rows under control, which is almost a lost cause and we are still stripping the vines of the buds below the 1st wire, which steal energy from the plant.
More of the same coming up in the next 2 weeks.  Happy May everyone! dds

Flora and Fauna of N. di Bacco in April-Upupas, a Strillozzo and a crane?

April 20, 2010
These are the birds of the morning, the super cool looking Upupa and a sparrow-like bird called a Strillozzo..  the crane is of a mechanical nature and will help them put the big iron rods in place to make the cement walls earthquake proof.  Bacco is guarding his soccer field.
We had a whirlwind trip up to Bra, a town of 30,000 in the Barolo area of Piemonte, where in nearby Pollenzo, the university of gastronomic sciences has its HQ and undergrad school.  I was wrong in the previous post in that the masters program is getting bigger and will move to Piemonte from Emilia if all goes as planned.  There are now 3 classes made up of many americans, so you all still have a chance to spend a great year in Italy with Slow Food!  We were invited to share our story with the graduating class for career day and I wish we could hire a bunch of them as they are all qualified and enthusiastic.
We got to see our friend Stefania and met her husband Fabrizio, who treated us to pizza at Cinema' where the motto is Stop War, Eat Pizza.  It is a new restaurant started by ex students of UNISG and was very well thought out.  Stop by during "Cheese" at Bra which is the most fun cheese festival in the world and comes around every 2 years.
dds

Apple blossom time, cement floors, Spring planting and career day at Bra

17 Aprile

The granny smith tree and the redbuds are in bloom as we suffer through another rainy period, just enough to make work in the vineyard miserable.  Yesterday, I tried stripping off the buds from the trunks of the vines, but after a row each of Merlot, Pecorino, Cabernet Franc and Incrocio Bruni, I figured I was about a week to soon as many of the buds have not yet exited enough to merit the work.  We have been passing the time instead with lawn work and new plantings, from bulbs to daisies to spruce up the place for this year's guests.
The winery construction, luckily, has not been derailed by the damp weather and the "earthquake-proof" sunken concrete shafts are all placed and the beginnings of a floor are visible.
Tomorow, we are off to Bra to talk with the students at UNISG on career day and will take them some of our olive oil (not sure I want them to suffer with our wine from stomped grapes).  I will be spending the
5 and a half hour drive thinking about what I can tell them which might be helpful.  On a sad note, we heard the master's program is coming to an end (the great year I spent in 2006-07).
The pictures are of apple & red bud blooms, the construction and Raffaele preparing his anti-mosquito zone with citronella plants.

d

59 pillars, newly mown grass, baby branches and chomper's bbq in Italy

9 Aprile
We celebrated the day after Easter, Pasquetta, with an outdoor bbq replete with a few snowflakes.  Now we are right back at 70 degrees, but for one day, mother nature slowed our outdoor cooking a bit.  Our friend Camillo has won the right to don my brother's bbq squad cap, Chompers for the day as you see.
We finished the tying of the 30,000 vines, but not before I returned to row no. 1 and re-tied about 1500 to bring some order and symmetry to the whole thing.  The next job is to strip the trunks of each vine of all the  new buds which want to erupt from below, but this should be an easy task in comparison.  I have now mowed the newly sown grass twice in the vineyard and it is looking pretty good.  I just hope it serves its purpose to choke out the weeds as well as it has served to prevent the tractor from slipping while ascending.
The construction crew has 3 more days to finish up the digging and pouring of the 59 pilons sunk 16 meters deep to protect us from any of the major natural disasters including "end of the world" level events.   After that, maybe we will see walls going up.
We have been truly blessed with great spring weather for working in the vineyard!  Rain is forecast for next week on Monday and Tuesday and with the tying behind us, I say, "Bring it on"!

dds

Happy Easter, 1st construction fotos, mt. flowers and bacco with make up

4 Aprile

Buona Pasqua a tutti!  Finally a day of rest.  We have finished 153/160 rows of the vineyard, tying each vine with 4-5 ties made of plastic in 2 calibers.  My hands are relishing the break as there are holes and fissures in all my fingers, it seems.  Luckily, this is a one time only job, with subsequent years we will tie up only those outliers which have broken or were too short or distorted, etc.  

The winery construction has started this week and they have placed about 30 of 59 eventual "pilons" (sp?) which are sunk 16 meters, filled with re-bar reinforced cement and which will protect us in case of nuclear war, meteor strikes, armegeddon, etc.  

I spent 3.5 hours weed eating the new vineyard where the grasses had reached waist high and the new vines were in full time shade, then took Bacco to the Sibillini mountains for a hike partway up Mt. Vettore.  When we arrived at the 1st big snow field, I crashed and let Bacco do his snow bath thing.  The flowers are starting to bloom in the lower mts, such as crocus and others.  

The photos are of a european goldfinch,  the winery construction site, Bacco with his make up, Bacco removing his make up in the snowfields of Vettore, and mt. flowers.