Julian’s May Vineyard Report

Everywhere we look there are jackrabbits. I think they were hiding during the rain. Now they have all come out of their burrows to jump around in the grass. They look different from other rabbits. They are really skinny and have long legs and black tips on their ears. Dad says they have to be really fast to stay away from the coyotes. We still wear our rainboots because there are great big puddles to jump in. There are so many bright green leaves on the vines now, and bunches of little grapes too. Well, they aren’t really grapes yet. They’re bunches of little flowers called “flowerettes”, and they will grow into grapes later. The little bunches are as big as my thumb and pointer finger together.

Sometimes when I wake up in the morning my Dad has already been in the vineyard for a few hours. He has to get up really, really, really early when the air is still to spray sulfur powder on the vines. He has to go up and down all the rows dusting the plants with sulfur. This keeps the mildew from rotting the vines. Every time it rains the sulfur gets washed off and he has to do it all over again.

He also goes up and down every row to turn the weeds under with the tractor and disk. When all the clods of dirt are broken up, he uses a hoe in between each vine where the tractor couldn’t reach. My Dad is on the tractor all the time now when I am at school. I like the tractor best. It not a crawler tractor, it’s the kind with big wheels. We wear ear protection whenever he’s driving by because the tractor is really noisy. I want to get up on it but Dad always says, “The tractor is not a toy. It is a big machine and it is dangerous.” There is a picture of a turtle by the gearshift. I know that’s where you put it when you want to go really slow. There’s picture of a rabbit too. That’s where you put it when you want to go a little faster. Dad says I can drive it when my legs are long enough and I have a license. I can’t wait!

Rivervine Press
P.O. Box 585
Geyserville, CA 95441-0585
Phone: (707) 857-3704 Fax: (707) 857 3772
www.grapesgrowsweet.com