Sore Muscles and Tired Mind

I struggle to write a blog update for this weekend.  We worked all weekend at the winery, but it’s tough to report progress.  RJ finished getting the lights up after a trip to Sherwood to get the two missing sets.  I decided to attach a picture, but please do not judge the look from the picture.  The white ceiling overshadows the lights in the picture, but not in real life.  The “boys”, RJ and Henry, worked on clean up.  They managed to fill an entire dump truck full of trash, e.g. building materials, demolished stuff, broken concrete and bricks.  They also burned a significant amount as well.  While they worked for 2 days, it is hard to show progress because it looks like what it’s supposed to.  Joyce worked on the yard.  She got all the bushes pruned and dead-headed and then got what we call the “burm” weeded and bark dusted.  It looks terrific!  I helped with yardwork and the clean-up, but mostly worked on the kitchen cabinets which are going to take forever.  Let me explain the steps.  First, all the doors and drawers have to come off/out.  Then each one has to be thoroughly cleaned to get what I think is 50+ years of grime off.  The cabinets also need to be cleaned and all the various gadgets detached.  All the hardware, nail and thumbtack holes as well as gouges need to be filled in with wood putty.  Each cabinet, door and drawer need to be sanded.  Then the $100 worth of molding (136+ feet) have to be cut and tacked on.  This will add architecture but will not be easy because figuring the inside measures of the molding is hard to do since there is nothing to measure against.  RJ thinks I should do a template, but how do you do a template where every pair is a different size.  Anyway, then everything has to be painted, resanded to distress, and lightly stained.  I have gotten all th doors and drawers cleaned and puttied and have started the sanding.  I have also begun cleaning the cabinets and everywhere I turn, there is another nail, thumbtack or weird plastic device that has to come off leaving more holes to fill.  Here is a before picture.

Today, I got to participate in Kramer Vineyards’ barrel tasting to see the characteristics of each of the 2007 red wines, including our Plum Hill Pinot Noir.  The wines are coming along and I will in all honestly and no bias (ha!) tell you our pinot is tasting quite nice.

Lights and Labels

I haven’t spent much time at the winery this week.  My house has been a mess.  I had the flu for a day (I think my body just needed a little extra sleep).  And I’ve done my regular errands.  But things still moved forward.  The most exciting thing is that all of our labels got approved by TTB; yeah!!!!  Somebody will have to explain to me how the three labels that were the same except for varietal ended up with three different formats in order to get approved.  Don’t get it.  Anyway, the labels are at the printers.  In three weeks or so, we will have wine to sell.  Details about our wine will be on our website, www.PlumHillWine.com once we’re ready.  I am scheduled to have a wine table at Forest Grove’s 1st Wednesday in July.

The second thing that happened this week is the purchase and installation of the lights.  I really like them, but I’m not including pictures because the white walls dwarf the lights.  This won’t be the case once we have power and some more things in the room.

Lastly, a couple of friends have taken or are taking the server’s permit class online for us, so we will have some help for our opening, etc.  If you are a local friend reading this and want to get your permit and help out, let me know.