First, apologies! The first quarter of the year, apparently, got away from us, as far as posting goes.

We will endeavor to do better.

In January, we got the first of several ‘atmospheric rivers’ (translation: buckets and buckets of unceasing rain). Our vines were NOT flooded, thankfully. But surrounding vineyards and pastures were. In the first photo, you can see a body of water beyond the Red Dog and our vineyard. That was our neighbor’s smallish fish pond.

Normally, the pond is the size shown in the second photo (below), or smaller. But the rains swelled the Cosumnes River and it ‘merged’ with the pond… and all the fish absconded!

Throughout January and February, the rains continued, hampering our efforts to prune off last year’s growth on the vines. Happily, it was cold enough to hold off bud break nearly through March. The end of the torrential rains delivered some vibrant rainbows and we were able to complete pruning, even with a two-week vacation in March!

As of the writing of this post, we DEFINITELY have bud break…

So, we are off to the races for a new growing season. Woo hoo!