When we learned last month that I had to have shoulder surgery, we looked at our project list (with a bit of anxiety). We prioritized the big ones that required both of us. We are so grateful for friends who came to help! Guess we keep kicking down the road again: painting all buildings, new gutters and roof, more fencing, trenching more water lines, trenching heat from boiler to little house, paint pool fence, build new metal storage shed, rebuild front drive gate, and many others.
The selected big projects were:
- redo melon boxes and drip irrigation and plant melons (no photo yet)
- finish the vineyard trellis support system (photo below)
- cut and stack firewood for 2022-2023
- tie emergency well drilled last summer and storage tank into fire defense and irrigation system (photo below)
- build fire-resistant metal shed around the new emergency well (photos below)
We use a great deal of recycled materials, free materials or auctioned bargain materials for projects. For the arbor, we did buy 69 u-bolts, 12 bags of concrete and some ox\acetylene gas for cutting arbor trellis support crossarms. The vineyard arbor materials cost was less than $150. For the metal well-shed, total materials cost was about $75. The plumbing parts were most expensive (Biden’s fault of course), about $200, mostly because the high-volume pressure regulator was pricey. Regulator needed because the water storage for the emergency well is on the hill and gravity can generate 160 PSI. The irrigation system can only handle 60 PSI. But the fire hydrant needs all that pressure.

Vines are young and trellis essential now for decent harvest in future years. Three rows for 60+ grapes — wine, table, juice and raisins, eventually! Probably 1\2 mile of wire in all 3 rows of 3 levels of 2 wires per level, plus main wire.

Below, left to right: wellhouse metal frame, David getting Heather with some supplies, David (and Heather) installed panels while Neil measured and cut them.



Phenomenally, with Heather’s help, we completed the irrigation tie-in AND the metal well-shed in ONE highly motivated day (yesterday) because …
… below is me today for the next two months, followed by eight months of rehab. David now needs all kryptonite to stay FAR away.
