Second event was our wine tasting. We had the second round of tasting of our 2006 Pinot Noir, our first release. We had Sally and Felix, Trudy and Keith, Marilyn and ourselves. It was a very nice wine. I have a whole page of descriptors I will use to create a tasting cheat but for now, how does “dark cherry, spicey, medium tannins, goes well with turkey, lamb and veal” sound? The first picture in this post is our tasting.
Yesterday, the texturing was done inside the tasting room. What a difference it makes! I also bought all the paint and tools for painting the walls and plan to finish that by early next week. I have decided on a “Tuscan” faux finish in mustard gold. The fireplace wall is going to be in terra cotta with alittle granite glitter. I’m getting excited about the painting. My friends, Joyce and Joyce, have offered to help. We also submitted our permit applications yesterday, so they are now in queue. That’s exciting, too.
On a whim, I looked at the Washington County website to see the status of our Land Use permit. It was a whim because I just checked it at 5:30 p.m. last night. What could possible by done in a couple of “work” hours. But yes, it was marked “APPROVED”, changed from pending. Yeah, I’m so excited; about to go into song. But no celebrating yet, okay, maybe a little, because there is still a 12 Appeal period and there will be conditions. We’ve been told the conditions will “not be anything new,” but we’ll see. We should get the paperwork in the mail tomorrow or Saturday. I’m off to go shopping; what else would you do to celebrate!
Can you believe it? It snowed on both Saturday and Sunday. Friday, we pushed two flats of annuals to plant at the winery. Good thing we have a green house up there to store plants until the weather warms up. RJ spent the better part of Saturday at an auction trying to buy shop equipment for the winery. It was all either too expensive or too run-down. I was hoping he would get a pallet jack. On Sunday, we spent the afternoon at the winery. RJ was supposed to mow the lawns but by the time he got the mowers working and gassed up, it started snowing. I taped off all the trim, windows, bar, doors, and fireplace mantel so he contractor could texture the walls and ceiling. Hopefully, by the end of the week, I will have pictures of a clean tasting room, ready to paint and ready to decorate.
What a difference a day makes. Since, my last blog, there have been changes in my crafting plans and updates to the winery progress. As for crafting, AJ is going to change the format of her store, so my stuff will no longer fit in it. Details will be forthcoming in AJ’s blog: www.trash2treasure.wordpress.com. She was kind enough to pack all my things up; four boxes, three backs and miscellaneous. Whatever will I do with it, especially all the scrapbooking and papercrafting supplies? We also met with Washington County. It looks like the Land Use Department will have their report out this coming week and then there is a 12 day appeal period. The Building Department reviewed our plans and except for the Code Summary, it was generally complete and acceptable. I will work on the Code Summary today and tomorrow. Then our plan goes into the review queue which has an 8-10 week backlog. So we’re now hoping to open in late July. In the meantime, we work on whatever we can work on. We cleaned the tasting room out and prepared the floor so the texturing can be done and the floor can be refinished. I help to paint in the next week and we have a work party tentatively scheduled for the first week of May.
So you may be wondering what I did the first 8 years of retirement before we “bought the farm” (pun intended). I am a crafter, all sorts of crafts from sewing, needlework, paper crafts, scrapbooking, machine embroidery, ornaments, you name it. In fact, it was love, addiction and obsession, all in one. When I wasn’t crafting, I was buying craft-related objects, which I love to do almost as most as the crafting itself. In fact, my husband says I have Compulsive Aquisition Disorder (CAD), which I do, but then we have a 6500 square foot house for the 2 of us, so we have plenty of room. In 2000, I started a business, Creative Clutter, and began hosting bazaars at my home twice a year. I also attended bazaars and sold things on consignment in gift stores and wineries. I thought it was time I post two of my favorite craft related blogs to share. The first is one of the vendors I purchase materials from. You seen I own a Grand Mark die cutting machine which I love and I bought it and my die cuts from Accucut. They recently started a blog with great paper crafting ideas. http://accucut.typepad.com/ Feel free to come and use my die cut machine. The other blog I want to share with you is that of my dear friend AJ. She has a shop in Hillsboro, called Sophie’s Cottage, full of cottage, vintage and folk art gifts and home items. I consign “found objects,” napkins and a whole booth area full of paper crafting in her shop. I can honestly say AJ is the most talented and creative person I know when it comes to turning an old firepit-waiting piece of furniture into a great accent for your home. She also is very good at hand-creating folk-art gift items. And she’s not afraid to share her ideas and methods. Her blog is http://trash2treasure.wordpress.com/. Don’t be surprised if in the near future she and I get together and create some sort of craft show in the area. Oh and by the way, I do still craft although it’s harder to find time. I did manage to make a set of ornaments in Australia though. I will be selling some of handcrafts at the winery.
Yes, I know, I owe you a blog or two on our trip to Australia. More to follow.
While we were in Australia, Antonio and his crew finished the posts and wires making the vineyard complete. It is awesome infact. They did a very good job of keeping everything straight. We have “woolly” buds on the “sticks” we planted from our existing vineyard, so I assume there are some on these plants as well. We have only been home from Australia for 3 days, but we’ve had to jump in with both feet on the vineyard and winery. RJ bought a new sprayer to use of weed abatement at home and around the property. The blackberries are cropping up fast. I have been working on administrative stuff (what a surprise), like an OLCC test to prove I know the rules, cleaning up our plans so I can go for our permits, and regular dialogue with the county. We have our Federal permit. The OLCC has posted the liquor license sign and the county has begun their report so progress is steady. I received the three comment letters from the neighbors that went to the county. They are mean and “mean people suck.” It really depressed me because we have tried very hard to be good neighbors and do all the right things. But that is just emotion. Most of their comments are not valid as we do not intend to use their road, pesticides or canons. So there!!! Oh yeah, one more thing, my dear and very generous friend, Charlene, came over yesterday to gather up pictures, memorabilia, and notes to begin our Dairy to Winery scrapbook. I am so excited. She is amazing with scrapping and cardmaking. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with.
