Tying Up the Vines

April ties vines to the wire. (Sure easier on the eyes than the motley crew below)
I have a question about how to train the cordon. Option 1: Tie the main cane straight up, prune everything else back over the winter, then next spring train two new shoots out along the wire to form the cordon. Option 2: Take two existing canes and tie them horizontally on the wire now, forming the cordon. I'll figure it out in the next couple days.

The Crew

Cody, Esteban & his son Gilbert.
Esteban is old enough to be my father & Cody's grandfather, but he puts us both to shame. I call him el Martillo - the Hammer.
Esteban has taken to inviting us over to his casa for lunch. Senora Ramona fixes us frijoles con huevos, onions, queso, homemade salsa, some chile peppers, all wrapped up in fresh tortilla - oh yeah.

Cody Craps Out

Wires on the Posts

Sometimes I wondered if this day would ever come.

Pulling Wire

Cody & Esteban working our "spinning jenny." You're supposed to put this on the back of a tractor and let it unspool as you drive down the rows, but we just put it at the end of the row and pulled the wire out by hand. You wouldn't want to pull wire without a dereeling device, because you could end up with a real mess.
The wire is 12.5 guage, pretty heavy. We drilled holes in the end posts to run the wires through. We stapled the wire to the post on one end, then ran the wire down to the other end post, through the holes, and secured and tightened it with a "gripple" device. Pulling the wires tight allowed us to easily make straight lines with the line posts. (We had pre-dug the holes but didn't fill them in until the wire was pulled.)
At this time I'm going to put up three wires: one at 24" to attach the drip hose, one at 46" for the cordon, and one at 58" for the canopy. I also drilled holes for a future third wire at the top of the posts.

Cody's Last Hole

Cody's off to college next week. After a summer digging holes in the rocks, he's committed to getting an education!

My Last Hole

There were close to 2,500 holes dug for this vineyard, almost all of them by hand because of the rocky soil. This is my last one. For some reason one of the end posts was a foot off, so I decided to move it. I soon discovered why it had been put in the wrong place. There was a 600 lb rock sitting right where the post was supposed to go. But my motto is "the rocks can't win," so I spent 30 minutes digging a hole next to it and then using two pry bars to roll it over. The post is now in the right place.
After a summer of this, you get to know the nature of rocks pretty well. You get so you can tell the size, shape and orientation of a rock by the sound it makes when the the pry bar hits it. Rocks are tough, and heavy, but they have one big disadvantage: they can't think.

Agua!

Cody shows his best hustle getting to the water cooler

Sparkling Summer Morning at Cayuse

We got early starts this week to beat the heat. Beautiful out there in the cool of the morning.

2009 Babe Ruth World Series

16-18 year olds championships held at Moses Lake's Larson Field.
Here, the host Columbia Basin River Dogs are in action vs. team from San Gabriel Valley (CA)

Anchor Cables

These are cables connecting the end posts to the screw anchors. I bought the pre-made setup - a little more expensive but saved a lot of work. (The alternative would be to use 10-guage wire, cut each piece to size, and crimp the ends together.)
I get my trellis supplies from Wilson Irrigation & Orchard Supply in Yakima. Steve & Eric down there are pros and have been super helpful.

Line Posts

We're setting the line posts, which will hold the wires. We're using steel posts up here, 8' long, buried 2' deep, spaced 18' apart. Augured the holes as far as possible in the rocky soil, and now coming along behind and cleaning out the holes by hand.