February 8th, 2010

What a day! - Pruning in the snow. It snowed nearly all day without settling. Still I managed to do 6 rows. I have only 15 to more left to do.



oh What a night! - Steph in a 3 Hr Traffic Jam on M4, 8pm Kick off against Buckingham Blues - probably the best team in the league, Arrive home at 8:15, I'm on the pitch at 8:20 at 4-4, We were all over them for the last 8mins, Stuart with a 15yd free kick sealed the victory 5-4. We were (and are still) euphoric. Later in the pub we renamed the team "the (old) crown Jewels ". The other football news is that our founder, manager and captain, Craig resigned last week due to other commitments. We have elected Stuart as the new boss.

February 7th, 2010

I was shocked yesterday when I went to Focus to buy some cutting disks for my angle grinder. Nearly £5.00 for one disk! Screwfix do them at £4.27 for a pack of 5. Enough said!

Long day cutting, burnt out my machine but good old Clive a neighbour came to the rescue with his more industrial 9" Bosch. With it in pieces with the help of my father-in-law Dave we were able to lift it off the trailer. Now I have to figure out how to put it back together without a crane??

February 6th, 2010

On our way to Sussex to buy a second hand John Deere Subsoiler and Mole plough.
I have my little helper Andrew for company.

What a big beast, decided to buy it and cut it down as it looks a quality item.

February 5th, 2010

10DegC Today, first time it has made it since boxing day. The sun makes for light work! However, despite the snow I noticed today that the weeds are coming back. Only in patches at the moment and probably growing very slowly, but they are there. I must remember to record what grows and when. I have had to prune most of the Pinot Meunier vines back to 3 buds as they have not made enough wood in the first year. Another note to self is that next year I should lift the grow tubes on a windy Autumn day to allow the dead leaves to blow away. I have noticed that in some of the tubes there is a wet mess that I am sure would not be beneficial and would probably harbour all manner of maladies. Further to that for the first time I have noticed Slugs, I hope they will not be a problem later in the year. I also heared racing from Silverstone today or I am hearing things.

February 4th, 2010

I am now past the mid way mark - in terms of number of rows completed, but as the plot is not square I know that I am not mid way in terms of actual number of vines pruned. So I did a quick calculation and worked out that the actual mid way point is 4 rows to the east of the middle row. This has lifted my spirit as I was expecting it to be a lot more than 4 rows. The up shot of this news is that 5 days into the job I am more than 1/2 way!

February 3rd, 2010

I enjoyed today very much as I had a helper. Yes, James came to help me do some pruning. We chatted extensively about all manner of things and especially wine, terrior, viticulture, geology and holidays. With the company what is normally a long day seemed to fly by. Not only did we achieve a great deal but in some way it has rejuvenated my enthusiasm for what is after all a very monotonous job.

One of the things we discussed was the lifetime of wire used in trellising. I am not exactly sure of the life expectancy of wire but later in the evening after James had gone home I noticed one of our trees that had grown around a barb wire fence. As you can see it must be very old as the wire is ~1/2 way through a very old tree.

February 2nd, 2010

More pruning, I have done ~20 rows. The Bacchus did not make as much wood as as the chardonnay so I am cutting a lot back to 3 buds. Miserable day cold and wet.

Took a photo of soil formation by weathering today. As you can see the ice has shattered the limestone.

lost 3-2 last night. We were 2-1 up and blew it again. I missed an open goal so take a lot of responsibility. However, we only had 6 so no subs.