Once again, this doesn’t appear to be the year to make wine from our grapes. The birds beat us to the fruit.
About two weeks ago, I saw some evidence of bird damage and rather naively thought there were plenty of grapes for everyone. I also thought that netting the rows would be a large expense and massive time-suck. Ordering netting would take a while to arrive and who knows what might happen in the between.
So, I did nothing. Actually, I hoped a little. But admittedly not with all my heart, since I honestly wasn’t looking forward to the de-stemming and washing and crushing. We’ve been talking about scaling back the rows of vines so that they would be more manageable. “Know your limits” – that’s what grandma used to say. Not my grandma, but I’m sure someone’s grandma said that. I think we could better handle about five rows (currently have eleven). With five rows, I could potentially install a simple deer fence around the whole vineyard and bird netting could go up and over the top of the deer fence… at least then we’d only have frost, bugs and fungus to contend with.
Related Posts
this post reminds me of something else grandma used to say: “birds are assholes.”
Neither of your grandmas ever said “birds are assholes!! Your grandmas loved birds. But all of your grandmothers would have said “no your limits!”
Oh, I see now that I was misquoting them. I thought they said I needed to understand (aka “know”), but really they were admonishing me – “No!” and the “limits” part was probably part of a longer sentence like “Your limits will be your undoing” or “Your limits will be the end of me.”
Okay Alan!!! I did not mean to use the word “no”. I meant to use “know”. Like I sometimes do use the wrong word………..