This is What It is All About

We have been having so much fun the last week or so.  More and more people are coming.  People are enjoying our picnic areas, etc.  Today one of our neighbors dropped by on his tractor (yes, I said his tractor) to have a glass of wine (picture attached).  While not exactly in our business plan, more and more guests seem to come to just have a glass or two of wine.  Last weekend was Father’s Day and we had music, so we had some small crowds hanging around.  Sunday got off to a late start but then took off at 2p.m.  This week, we had a late group on Tuesday, who were great fun.  Coming up this weekend, we have several groups including a group of 30-40 on Saturday, 3 other groups of 6-8 on Saturday, a private party Saturday evening and then a group of 24 on Sunday.  I’m sure we will be tired on Monday, but it is what we have been waiting for.

Another First

Granted there have been many firsts in this new venture of ours, not the least of which is us owning a winery.  But I had one this week that was almost (not really) as impressive.  As you know, I try to take Mondays off to get things done at the house, etc.  As usual, I made a list of things to do this Monday and for the first time in my life, I am sure, I crossed everything off the list.  Of course, RJ said my list was way too conservative then, but I was happy and satisfied with my accomplishments.  RJ finally took a day off.  Of course, his day off is like mine.  He had to spray the vineyard at home, trim the bushes, weedwack, etc.  I wonder if he got everything done off his list.  I do know at the end of the day, he decided he needed a newer, bigger and more powerful hedge trimmer.  Can you say, “Tim the Toolman, uuh, uuh, uuh.”

As to life at the winery, we had a good week last week, but an abysmal weekend.  We’ve attributed it to Rose Festival, crappy weather and a number of local graduations.  We have decided we will log these types of activities in our weekly sales tracking so we no what to expect.  So, “does anal retentive have a hyphen?”  This week so far has been good.  Still not seeing people take advantage of our picnic areas.  But wait until the weather gets better; we will have to take reservations for the picnic tables.

June Events

Starting tomorrow, Saturday, we will have live music from 2-5. We plan on doing this all through summer including some Sundays as long as the crowds warrant it. Also, Father’s Day is around the corner. We will have live music on both Saturday and Sunday, buffalo tasting and sales including some barbecued samples and if you bring your Father, he gets a free gift. And with 4th of July around the corner, I’ll give you a heads up. We are having watermelon and wine. All the watermelon you can eat along with other substantial snacks and live music. Lastly, we now have a commercial cooler stocked with picnic supplies and beverages. So, if you forget to bring your picnic, we have food and supplies available for purchase in the gift shop.  I’ve included pictures of our new cooler and all the goodies inside along with a picture of our ever-growing supply of picnic items.

Day Off

RJ gave me the day off today and I am so glad because I am getting so far behind on things at home.  I had breakfast with the church women, visited Betty, stopped by Goodwill and then when I couldn’t prograstinate any longer, I went home to work in the garden.  I’ve included before and after pictures.  I didn’t get it all done, but I got 2-1/2 beds done; enough room to plant my 4 tomato and 2 strawberry plants.  I have never seen that really tall weed before but I think it came from the maneur we got from our winery property last year.

We had a really fun weekend at the winery.  On Saturday, we had a steady stream of people including one couple who was told “four times” on Friday by 4 different people to come to Plum Hill.  He said “enough already; we’re going.”   Then on Sunday, we had a guest before we were even open and 10 people within 15 minutes.  Had one break all day, but basically a steady stream.  Half the people were repeats and half were new.  The best part was Ron Sabin came mid-afternoon equipped with his guitar.  He said if I had customers, he would play.  As if on queue, 3 groups of 2 each showed up, so he played and they listened.  Then we had some repeats whom all came just to sit and relax.  This lasted until after closing.  A good time was had by all!  We  hope to start regular music for the weekends this Saturday.

Day 3

I can’t believe it has been 2 weeks since I’ve updated the blog and alot has happened.  Most recently, we finished Memorial Day weekend event at the winery.  For those who don’t know, Memorial Day Weekend is the 2nd busiest wine tasting weekend in Oregon.  We ended up with over 400 people here over the 3 days.  It was our biggest event yet.  I have attached some pictures.  Also, some more work has been done on the back patio.  The bar top is in and the area to the picnic table has been cleaned up and small rocks added (thanks Tom).  You can see this in the pictures of the picnic areas.  The county sent us a note that we need a permit for our “cabana”.  RJ has worked it out with them but we need to do some more paperwork and we can’t have picnic tables or people under it because it is an agricultural structure.  Take a look at the patio areas with all the plants, etc.  They are from our neighbor nursery and are for sale.  They should look good, too.  I may have to buy some.  The other picture is RJ with Ghost Monday morning taking alittle rest before our last big event day.

Pond Rocks

We ended up with a very good week last week which made up for the previous week.  This week is shaping up to be good as well (except today, you would have to be a muscrat to go out in this weather).  Anyway, it has given me some time to catch up on projects in the tasting room.  I finished the Snowman trios for the church bazaar, tagged a bunch of stuff and started to clean the back room.  I’ve bagging and pricing found objects to use in jewelry, scrapbooking and collages.  A new found friend uses old metal to make jewelry and we have lots of old metal.  Last week before RJ left for California, he moved the gravel to around the back pond and then added large rocks that came out of the vineyard.  I call them Russell’s rocks, because Russell from Australia, got them all out of the vineyard and made a nice pile.  Pictures below.  I also promised  you pictures of Waterbrook’s new facility that I visited when I was in Walla Walla a week ago.  I was going to pass it off as our new facility, but not even I can lie that much.  Impressive isn’t.  They will produce 250,000 cases of wine out of that facility.  At our peak, we will produce 3-4,000 cases.  A different world for sure!

100th Posting and Muller Thurgau

My last blog post was my 100th.  Yeah!  Now, I want to get to 10,000 views.  We’ve had a great week at the winery; lots of visitors and sales.  And we’re supposed to have a nice weekend with regard to weather, so picnics are in order.   We got the labels for our Muller Thurgau so we are ready to sell it.  Our official release is Memorial Weekend, but we’ll sell it now.  Here is a picture of our packaging plus a couple of pictures of our picnic gift items I mentioned in my last posting.

Back in the Saddle

Even though I had a great visit to Milton-Freewater, it is sure good to be home.  We had a good day at the winery and I got alot done.  I ordered a bunch of mustards and black wine shirts, so if you have been waiting for your size or flavor, it will be here before Memorial Day weekend.   Then last night, I poured wine at Forest Grove’s First Wednesday.   That went well, too.  Speaking of Memorial Day Weekend, don’t forget to put us on your route.  We have one of the lowest tasting fees; $5.00 and you get a souvenir glass.  We will have live music each day, catered food from Sundial Bakery, at least one new release (maybe 2) and our friendly staff.  Our patio is covered, so plan on a picnic or two.

I’m Gone Again

Some people think I never work in the winery.  Others know this is not true, but once again I’m out of town.  I had the chance for a tag-along trip to Eastern Oregon that I couldn’t pass up.  It meant I could spend 4 days with my parents.  So I’ve been gone since Friday, returning late on Tuesday.  RJ has had to hold done the fort with some help from Henry and Joyce.  While here, Walla Walla was having their Spring Release event, so I HAD TO GO!.  It was education, you know.  Anyway, we started Saturday with an 8:30 brunch at Forgeron, trying 4 of their wines, plus sparkling.  Very nice pairings.  Everything was lovely, except the polenta, which had a case of the stickies.  Then we went to a friend of a friend of a friend’s house, where we picked up a 12 passenger van and 4 more ladies for a total of 7.  We managed to hit 9 more wineries before the end of the day and were still walking.  We had some very good wines and some mixed experiences with regards to hospitality.  Everything from thimble size tastes and a limit of 3 for your $5.00, to generous tastes, large food spreads and 25 wines plus barrel tasting.  Everyone charged $5 except the Incubator (a cluster of small, new wineries).  Most wineries refunded it with a purchase and with one winery, you got a free glass.  Few wineries had entertainment and most just had cheese and crackers for food.  I managed to pick up a case including 5 reds, and can’t wait to share the wines with my friends back home.

What a Way to End a Day

Poor RJ.  He had a rough day yesterday.  His one big goal was to get the concrete pads poured for the feet of our slab oak bench.  As a reminder, this bench came from one of the oak trees we had to cut down due to disease.  Our friend and glass blower, Dave Johnson (Ol’ Dave Johnson to us locals) took the log and milled it into a giant slab for a bench.  We still haven’t figured out where we are going to get the 16 men and 8 mules required to put it in place.  Back to my story….  Unfortunately, RJ had to cover for me in the tasting room for a couple of hours so he didn’t get to his concrete project until the end of the day.  First he had to dig out the dirt (keep in mind this is a dairy farm with all that is left behind (so to speak) and it has been raining, so the stench is quite bad.  Then he made the forms and leveled them very carefully.  Just as he finished the final smoothing, the skies opened up and down-poured, puddling his beautiful concrete.  About all he could do was rescue his tools while getting soaked.  But that’s not the end.  He had used the old (not to be confused with Ol’ as in Dave) Ford Tractor to haul the concrete and parked it at the end of the ramp in the backyard.  Just like last Friday when the tractor was parked across the main driveway, it decided not to start.  On Friday (and Saturday morning), RJ performed all sorts of automotive/tractor surgery (things I have no clue about; things like bypassing solenoids), before he just got a bigger hammer and whacked the starter a few times which worked.  Unfortunately, last night we couldn’t find a bigger enough hammer, so alas the tractor stayed out and the seat will be wet waiting for RJ to work his magic.