Julian’s January Vineyard Report

The vines are sleeping, and there’s been some rain this month. The workers came back to help us burn all the old vine stumps from the old, tired vineyard that Dad pulled out last fall. We got up really early in the morning and made sure that there was nothing around that could catch on fire. Leonella, Abelino, Jose, Jaime, Juan, Rafael and Antonio tended the fire with shovels, rakes and hoses. When Dad lit the fire it went up higher than our house and made a big WHOOSH sound as loud as a big jet plane. That scared Jenna, Mom and Grandma. It doesn’t scare me so much anymore, but I didn’t get too close.

At night Dad, Mom, Grandma, Jenna and I and some friends came over to roast marshmallows on long sticks that we held over the hot coals. I like mine kind of burnt. Jenna likes hers just soft. I eat only the crispy part and keep putting my marshmallow in until there’s nothing left on the stick! Sometimes I burn my tongue.

When it gets late, we sprayed water on the coals and ashes with a hose from the garden. It made a huge spiting and hissing sound, and great big clouds of steam went up into the air. The next day Dad got on the tractor again and spread out all the ashes from the fire into the ground.

Later in the month it rained for a whole week and the creek flooded. Dad put the tractor away because the ground got really wet and muddy. We had to stop working outside. Jenna and I put on our rain boots, raincoats and hats and had puddle-stomping wars in the vineyards. The winner is the one who gets the other one the wettest with the biggest splash of water. It’s a lot harder to tell who is winning when it’s raining! Sometimes we both get really wet and muddy, but Mom just tells us to take hot showers. She makes us hot chocolate and warm things to eat.

Come back each month for a Julian’s Vineyard Report.