Interesting Tidbit in the Local Paper This Week

IS BOEING UP TO SOMETHING IN GRANT COUNTY?

November 14, 2018 at 5:00 am | By CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE Staff Writer

Jeffrey Bishop, executive director of the Port of Moses Lake, said Tuesday that Boeing officials are paying ‘a lot of attention’ to the company’s Moses Lake facility.

MOSES LAKE — Something is happening at the Boeing facility at the Grant County International Airport.

But if anyone knows what it is, they aren’t talking.

“There are lots of comings and goings at the Port of Moses Lake facility,” said Jeffrey Bishop, executive director of the Port of Moses Lake, during a regular meeting of the port commission on Tuesday.

Bishop said that recently, several senior Boeing officials, including a long-term planner, visited the hangar Boeing owns at the Port of Moses Lake and where, up until recently, the company has stored parts and machine tools, some allegedly related to its defense activities.

“A lot of attention is being paid to that facility,” Bishop said.

Bishop said that the Everett-based aerospace manufacturer has cleared out its Moses Lake hangar and is “looking at what to do with the facility.”

The Port of Moses Lake has been considering submitting a proposal to host the production facility for Boeing’s planned replacement for the 757, the New Midsize Airplane (NMA), an unnamed plane sometimes informally referred to as the 797.

In a Friday, Nov. 8 segment of “Inside Olympia,” a newsmaker interview show hosted by public broadcaster TVW, Larry Brown, the legislative director for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union Local 751, said he believes Moses Lake would be a good location for a large aircraft production facility.

“We think it makes some real sense to do that,” Brown told host Austin Jenkins.

In fact, Brown said when Boeing was looking for a second production center for the 787 Dreamliner, his union pushed hard to build that in Moses Lake.

Brown also believes it is very likely that sometime in the next decade, a major new aircraft production center will be built “in a place like Moses Lake.”

“There’s great potential for that,” he said.

Boeing is the fifth-largest taxpayer in Grant County, paying roughly $1.6 million in property taxes on an assessed value of $142.9 million in real estate and business property in 2017.

New CBU Mailbox

We have a new community mailbox installed at the top of the hill. Delivery will be up and running as soon as the Post Office gets out to install their master lock. Please drive carefully!

Scorpion Concrete put in the driveway/pad and did a beautiful job. If you ever need concrete work Sam is the one to call.

Harvest 2018

October 3-5. Picked the Cabernet Franc and the Chardonnay at the same time this year. You just never know what Mother Nature is going to throw at you. The Cab Franc snuck up on me. I was testing the sugars in the Chard, figuring the Cab would be later as usual. Then I figured what the heck, I'll just check the Cab for fun. Pushing 26 degrees! So we scrambled and got everything done. I think I prefer getting it all in at the same time rather than dragging it out over several weeks.

The fruit was gorgeous. No rain since July, just warm days without end. It would have been interesting to let the Cab Franc hang awhile longer, although the acids would have dropped out. Anyway, the winemakers seemed happy. Big thanks again to Beaumont Cellars and Camas Cove Cellars for your continued support.

New Construction on Lot 26

Beautiful ridgefront home rapidly nearing completion. Alderbrook Homes is the builder.

Budbreak 2018

A few days earlier than last year, a little later than "normal." Last season saw reduced yields throughout the state. Typically vines will respond the following year with extra crop. We shall see.

New Construction

...on Lot 40, nearing completion. Another one about to start on Lot 26.
Lots of activity in the area.

Bottling Day @ Beaumont Cellars

Each spring Pete Beaumont brings in a mobile bottler to bottle his wines, including our Cab Franc. The two tons of grapes we sold him in 2016 produced just under 120 cases of wine. (Pete bottled around 4,000 cases overall this year.)

It's a fun operation, everything clicking along at 60 bottles a minute, about as fast as a person (or at least an amateur) can be expected to keep up without pulling a "Lucille Ball."

Our 2016 vintage, I'm told, has developed nicely. Haven't tasted it yet; I'm looking forward to getting a case as soon as it's over bottle shock.

Pruning 2018

It's not even February yet and the vineyard is pruned. A new record I think. I let Panchito do most of it. It's the first time I haven't done it myself. Pruning is always the first opportunity to get your hands on the vines after winter dormancy, and you get to shape the vineyard for the season. You also get a good sense of what went well and what needs improvement in terms of nutrition, water, pest control,etc.

But honestly Panchito is a better pruner than me, and much faster. He did a beautiful job. So I just walked through and tried to inspect every plant. There'll be plenty of work left this year anyway, most of it in the hot sun!