A Few Changes

Each day there is something new that consumes us, something new we put our entire energy into thinking about, stressing about, obsessing about, getting excited about or spinning in circles about.  Although we've been all over the board trying to prioritize all of our projects for this summer, we're starting to make some headway.

At least I think.

Here is a rough timeline of what has been going on in our heads the last several weeks, going back about 3 weeks.

On Monday, upon meeting with our neighbor who has the building next door that we were going to renovate and rent to use for the winery space, we decided to nix that plan. We realized how much money we'd have to spend to do that and in the end, it would still just be.....a rental space.  We thought, why not throw that money into something we own and invest for the long-term?

On Tuesday, we met with our architect and pretty much got our final floor plans finished for our house addition.  It looks AWESOME!

He was teasing us because when he came over to show us the initial estimates for our house remodel/addition and the numbers came in slightly over budget, what did we do?

We decided to make it bigger. "It's the American way!"  he said.

We thought to make it bigger because, hey, why not make our garage gigantic so that Aaron can do all the wine processing there since we aren't going to do the rental building.  That way we can roll the house addition and the winery into one big plan and get it all done with one full swoop.

On Wednesday, we rethought that plan.  Do we really want to have the winery space connected to our house? Is it just another temporary solution until we do what we really want to do?  Although it might save some costs to have it all rolled into one addition, again, we thought...is that what we are going to want long-term?  To have a winery basically in our house garage?

By Thursday, we were researching buildings options.  Pole barn?  Add on to our existing workshop?

No, we decided.  If we are going to do this, let's do it right.

If we are going to build a barn, let's make it one that we will be happy with long-term.  It'll be the processing facility, tasting room, retail space, and event center.  Let's make it beautiful.

On Friday, I had a break-down.  Coming to the conclusion that we were going to build a winery building,
(a priority at this point given our tight timeline until harvest), it occurred to me that building that AND doing a house addition might be a little much to do at the exact same time.  I have been DREAMING about this addition for a long time and it was finally within reach.  We were ready to break ground in June!  I want my own bathroom!  I want my mudroom and our nice big garage!

After consulting with our accountant, and a loan officer that day, we decided to focus on building the winery first.  Once that is up, we can continue with plans for the addition.  They will just have to be put on hold for the short-term.

On Saturday, I went to an awesome Shoe Party.  I was in heaven!  I bought lots of cute, new, name brand shoes, all for $20 each!

I had dreams that night of having a shoe party in our new wine barn.  Shoes and wine.  Does it get any better than that?!  I started to get really excited about how awesome our new building was going to be and all the different events we can do there.  Okay, I can live with one bathroom just a little longer.

On Sunday, while working on building the new grape press, Aaron stepped on a rake in the garage and got a black eye.

On Monday, he had to give a presentation to a bunch of VPs on the project he's been working on at work.

On Tuesday,  I found out I'll be able to save some time on my long commute to work by doing some work from home.  Huge time and gas saver!

On Wednesday, I spent time researching daycares.  Since our full-time daycare is actually a center on-site at my work, we needed to find a spot close to home we can bring him on days I work from home.

On Thursday, we picked out a site on our property to build the new winery building.

On Friday, I second guessed if that was the best spot and suggested some other potential sites to Aaron.  We made a list of pros and cons for each spot.

On Saturday, our architect came out and helped convince us that our initial spot was, indeed, the best site for the building.  We measured, staked off, discussed the overall look and all the details.  Done deal.

On Sunday, I had an awesome Mother's Day.  Out for coffee and muffins with my two favorite boys at a local, funky coffee shop, a walk around town with the stroller, playtime at the park, an afternoon visit from my parents relaxing in the Adirondack chairs, and a picnic at the beach with some friends and their newborn baby.

I felt like we did normal people things that day.

On Monday, getting dressed for work I was puzzled when my pants wouldn't button.  I looked in the mirror and remembered, "Oh, yeah!  I'm 15 weeks pregnant!"  I decided to take a picture.

On Tuesday, the Social Security list of most popular baby names in 2011 came out!  I was obsessed that day with coming up with names for our still, gender unknown baby.  One more month until the 20 week ultrasound!

On Wednesday, we met with the new daycare, ridiculously close to home, where Axel can go the days I am home, but he'll still come into the office with me the the other days.

On Thursday,  we worked on filling out the application and paperwork to get our Conditional Use Permit for a Minnesota Farm Winery license.  Then, due to some crazy things going on at work, Aaron had to go into work at 1 am.

On Friday, we got initial plans back for the new winery building.  A few minor adjustments and we should be ready to go soon!  Excavation process will begin in a few weeks.  Our township is putting in a dry pond at the edge of our property to help drainage to the lake at that time and the dirt from there will help to level off the spot we plan to build.

On Saturday,  I woke up, rolled over in bed to look at Aaron and said, "what day is it today?"

Conveniences

I will be the first one to admit, I haven't been as much of a help around the vineyard as I was say, 2 years ago.  Although pregnant with my first at the time, I was at least able to spend my free time after work and on the weekends pruning vines, de-suckering, mowing, gardening.

Key words:  free time.

I don't need to go into the whole "kids change your life" speech, because whether you are a parent or not...you should know they just take up a lot of time.  For instance, I used to be able to go to Target and get exactly what I needed and do it all on my own time.  Trips to Target of late have looked like this...

I shared this picture on Facebook a few months ago, but think this helps to illustrate where I am going with this post.

Now, if we were the type of family who could on a Saturday morning, say, "C'mon everybody, hop in the car and let's make a family trip to the store," getting errands done might be a little easier.  Or, if say, I had a husband who hung around the house watching football on Sundays where I could say, "Hey honey, you watch the kid(s) while I go grocery shopping and get a pedicure," running errands would be a lot easier.  And my feet would be happier.

But we aren't...and I don't.

I have a husband who spends the majority of his weekends working on things like...

Which is not a place I want to leave my toddler for a few hours with Dad while I run out.  Confession:  I think I took this picture a year or two ago.  I don't even know what this is! I haven't gotten any pictures of the latest "project".  But, does it matter?  For all I know, this could be part of the grape press he is building for this fall's harvest...

Or, he's figuring out where to put and what to do with all of this new wine equipment...

Or, doing something like this...

And if he's not doing any of the above, he's out in the vineyard stringing wire or spraying the vines, or pruning...

Don't get me wrong...I love the man to pieces and he is a wonderful father.  Given the full plate we have around here, we just have to do things a little differently, which means that about 90% of the shopping for our daily living essentials is left to me.

So I took some recommendations from a few friends and have been turned on to the life of online delivery.

For pretty much everything.

I'm addicted.

Do you know how nice it was to come home to ALL my groceries sitting by my front door?  Instead of trying to fill my grocery cart with an antsy toddler standing in the cart pulling things off the shelves and babbling at the top of his lungs, I filled my cart from my laptop...while sitting in bed at 9pm one night.

Pretty nice.  Thank you Coborns Delivers!  For those of you not in Minnesota, Coborns is the local grocery delivery service.

And they even sell Minnesota wine at Coborns!  Right now, it looks like Alexis Bailly is the only Minnesota wine available.  It's a start, but I think they'll have to expand their selection!!

And what about our 2 Great Dane mixes who go through food like there's no tomorrow?  We usually buy multiple bags of the largest size bags available.  A pregnant woman lifting multiple 40 lb bags of dog food into a shopping cart does not fare well.

Solution?  I hopped on walmart.com and had three 40 lb. bags of food delivered to my front door with FREE Home Shipping!! Seriously. Why didn't I know about this years ago?  I think they might change that free shipping policy after a few orders from the Schram residence, but I am going to take advantage of it as long as I can!

And don't get me started on all the other online shopping I've done.  Aaron asked me to buy him some socks the other day, so I sent him the zappos.com link.  Need new make-up, shampoo, or laundry detergent?  Soap.com.  Diapers?  Diapers.com.  It's endless really.

Of course, I know I can't stay away from my beloved Target for too long.  It is just a half mile down the road, afterall.  But, I've been enjoying these conveniences thoroughly.

So what am I doing with this extra time I am not spending trying to run errands with a toddler in tow?  Last Sunday, when Axel went down for his afternoon nap, I hooked the monitor to my hip and went out to mow the lawn.  And when I finished, I  still had time to throw in some laundry and start dinner before he woke up.

I think I was much more productive than Aaron was the last time he tried to mow...

But, it felt to good to get outside and help Aaron out a little bit.  

"How ARE those grapes doing?"

It's a common question we've been getting lately...

With this spring weather all over the board there has been some concern about what it is doing to the grapes.  Our unseasonably warm March, with temps in the 70s causing the buds to awaken, was met with some temps dropping below freezing a few nights in early April.  Mother nature is our biggest battle and all we can do is prepare as best we can.

In anticipation of this happening, Aaron left on about 25% more buds than normal when pruning.  They don't all bud at the same time, so those that hadn't opened yet should be in good shape.  By leaving more buds on, we're mitigating the risk of having too many buds damaged by frost.  Should be plenty that are just fine or that open up a little later.

These pictures were all taken a few weeks ago, I am just getting around to posting now.  So, there are even more buds and more green than these pictures show.  Aaron said that it is difficult to tell what kind of frost damage was done to the buds this early on.  Although the buds will still grow back if they are damaged, it usually means less grapes from them at harvest time.

Yet, it will still be our biggest harvest year yet!!

Hang in there little buds!

First steps in our garden re-do are done: Pulling up all the old tarp and tilling up the 66ft. by 33ft. garden.

It looks SO much better already!  It's like a blank canvas.

Picking up lumber this week for the garden beds and hoping to get some of the hardier seeds in the ground this week.

On tap for the Schram Garden this year:

Zucchini
Summer Squash
Cucumbers
Peas
Sugar Snap peas
Tomatoes (5 varieties)
Peppers (4 varieties)
Sweet Corn
Red Potatoes
Lettuce
Radishes
Green Onion
Herbs (Cilantro, Rosemary, Oregano, Horseradish?)
Carrots
Pumpkins (several varieties)
Gourds (several varieties)
Watermelon
Cantaloupe

What the rest of 2012 looks like for us...

Aaron and I were going over all the things we need and would like to accomplish in 2012.  I haven't gone into too much detail on any of these until now because, quite frankly, it makes me hyperventilate.

But, I've decided to be of the mindset that we will just have to take this all one day at a time.  And some day, many, many years from now, we'll look back and say, "Remember when we were young and crazy and  started our family, our business, and built our home ALL AT ONCE?"  My hope is that our future selves will thank us some day.

1.  Put an addition on and remodel our current house.  Over the last 5 months or so, we've been working seriously with our architect to come up with a design and floorplan that we love.  We are very close to having our final floorplan, but are awaiting some initial estimates, a big deciding factor in what we are going to ultimately do of course.  Right now, our plan includes putting a second story on our existing house, adding a three car-garage, and adding a new kitchen, great room, and mud room.  It'll be major.  It'll be ridiculously expensive.  It'll be a pain in the rear to live through.  But in the end, we think it will all be worth it.  We talked about just buying a newer house in a subdivision nearby, which would be low-cost and low-maintenance, but that thought was fleeting as that isn't what either of us envision. We want to live on and raise our kids on the vineyard in a house that fits us and our lifestyle.  It's a big price to pay, both literally and figuratively, but we're willing to do it.

Our goal is get the structure up and enclosed this summer (frame, roof, windows).  This will likely mean we'll have to move out for a couple of months to get this done.  Hi, Mom and Dad!  And our dogs will need a place to go to since they are not welcome to live at my parents house.  Anyone?  Anyone?   Of course, we will have to be moved back in by the fall for obvious reasons (baby!)  It will likely take several more years for us to actually finish everything off, which means, we'll have to live in an even smaller finished space than what we are living in now.  More to come on which parts of this addition we are actually able to do this year.

2.  Renovate a building we plan on renting from our neighbor to turn into the winery.   With all of our new wine equipment, progress on getting our winery license, and our largest harvest yet coming this fall, we really need to make sure we have the space to process and start making wine.  There is a large building directly adjacent to our property and our neighbor, who is in full support of our venture, is willing to work with us on figuring out how we can rent that building and make that space usable for wine-making.  That will require beefing up the plumbing, electric, insulation, building out a room for cold-stabilizing wine, putting in drains, etc.  Nothing fancy yet, we just need the space for processing!

This also, will need to be done by September, as that is when the grapes are harvested and will be ready for wine-making!

Anyone have a paper bag I can borrow?

3.  Aaron needs to build a wine press.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, Aaron is seriously amazing at building tractor equipment himself.  He's built so many innovative tractor attachments, and types of vineyard equipment.  I told him he should patent and market these things!  His current wine press is too small to handle the amount of grapes we plan to process this year.  A new one costs $$$$$, but he says he can build one for about $.

4.  Re-do the Garden.  I mentioned this in a previous post, but our garden re-do will require putting up a fence, adding in beds, walkways, and I even want to use some of the space to build in a sandbox so the kids can play while I garden!  We also want to add a very cool yard game which needs its own court!  More to come, but it's something we've envisioned for a long time and think it will be really fun!  Thankfully, I have a garden enthusiast friend, who has been willing to help us out in planning this all out and will help me plant everything the beginning of May!  Thank goodness for that!

5.  Harvest the full 6 acres of grapes in September and start making wine.  I'll start my plug now...please mark your calendars for a weekend or two of grape-picking, wine-tasting, grape-stomping fun in the sun!  We're going to need lots of volunteers this year!  I asked Aaron approximately how many pounds of grapes he thinks will get this year and he said it will all depend.  We are still evaluating any frost damage they've gotten or could get this spring.  But, he said, it is possible we could have 20,000 pounds of grapes.  TWENTY-THOUSAND!  That would be on the high end, but still...

Deep breaths, deep breaths...

6.  Have a baby in November.  One minor little thing, right?  Aaron said no baby during harvest season, so we cut it about as close as we possibly could!  Second time around may not require quite as much prep work, but certainly takes some planning, shopping, re-arranging, etc.  This means that probably towards the end of summer and into the fall, I won't exactly be physically agile.  I mean, I'll be able to pick grapes, but don't envision I'll be much help hauling around 30 lb. lugs of grapes and dumping them into the grape crusher.  And we all know once baby comes, everything else takes a back seat.  Our November and December are spoken for.

7.  Carry on with our day-to-day lives.  We both have jobs that keep us away from home over 40 hours a week.  These are very important since we need to fund all of this stuff we are doing!  We have a little boy we want to soak up as much 1:1 time as we can while he's still our one and only.  We have family and friends we like to spend time with and two giant dogs who need love and require attention.  We still have a house that needs cleaning, a vineyard that needs tending, and our own general health and well-being to take care of.

So there it is in a nut-shell.  Think we've set our sights too high for one year? Obviously, we agree that our number one priority is our family.  There really are only two things on this list that are beyond our control.  The baby and the grapes.  All we know is that at some point this fall, our baby will be born and grapes will be hanging on trellises begging to be picked.  Sometimes Aaron likes to include the grapes as part of the family.  :)   The rest we'll have to figure out what we can accomplish this year.

Schram Fam News

As I reflect and unwind after an eventful Easter holiday, a day when we celebrate new life, it has occurred to me that there really isn't a more appropriate time to publicly announce...

...That this Schram 3, will become Schram 4 in early November!!!

Hard to believe all these family pictures we've been taking this year will be outdated before we even get to the holidays! 

We're pretty impressed by how this adorable and good-natured little one is turning out, that we decided the world needs another Schram kid.  

Dashingly handsome as he is, guess he's going to have to get used to sharing some time and space in-front of mom's camera lens. I can't believe my baby is going to be a big brother!

Schrambino #2 is doing well.  Due sometime after Halloween, but before election day.  :)

Happy Easter!

Spring!

This is the first time I can remember when the official first day of spring actually seems to be a little tardy.  March 21st in Minnesota usually feels like anything but spring.  Often still some snow on the ground and if we have had any spring-like temps, it is usually just a teaser before they fall into the 40s again for a few days.  I  usually declare "open-toe weather" to be mid-April thru September, but I've broken my rule this year and have already pulled out my flip flops and sandals.  Nearly a full month with temps in the 60s and 70s with the 10-day forecast showing nothing but comfortable spring temps, a little rain, and this spring is actually looking like....spring!

In Minnesota, the ice doesn't usually come off the lake until somewhere around the first or second week of April.  This year, the ice was off on the lake in front of us by March 18th!  The grass was still looking a little brown on Sunday, but after a night of rain, it turned completely green on Monday.

Aaron has been in heaven with this weather since he's had a brief reprieve from his consulting work.  A combination of the down-time and the nice weather has allowed him to actually make a dent in his long list of projects.  Stringing wire, raking up all the pruned grapevines, cleaning out the garage and even planting some new grapevines!  Yes, we are a little worried about getting early bud break followed by frost this spring.  We can get frost into early May around here, which is still a ways off!  Aaron has left lots of buds on the vines this year just in case this happens and we lose some buds.

Last weekend, Axel and I went out to help a little bit too.  He's at a great age right now since he is exploring his independence and there is just so much to see and do outside!  I can plop him in the big wagon with some toys and take him out to the vineyard and he'll walk around digging in the dirt, eating it (yes-he did try!), while Dad (and Mom too!) do some work outside.  We were so proud to see dirt under his fingernails!  He even helped by carrying around the bamboo poles and the colored tape we use to identify the different grapevines.

Aaron tried out a process called grafting.  It is a way to turn one type of vine into another by attaching a cutting of one type of grapevine onto the established root and vine of another.  In this case, he wanted to turn a Briana into a Petite Pearl simply because he wants his Briana plants in a different location and there were three Briana plants where he decided he wants to have all of his Petite Pearl instead.  He figured if he could turn those three existing plants into Petite Pearl through this grafting process, we could get fruit on it by next year, rather than tearing out the old plant and planting a new one and waiting another three years for it to grow again.  Pretty cool way to do it if it works!

This weekend's big project--planning out the garden!  After last summer when my hands were pretty tied up with a little infant, I am looking forward to getting my hands dirty again this year and getting my prize zucchinis and all sorts of good veggies back in my garden!!  We decided to start from scratch this year, pulling up the landscape fabric, tilling it up, building a new fence and making it more aesthetically pleasing and gardener friendly.  Thinking something like this...

Which means, we have a lot of work ahead of us!  

Catch-up

I didn't post about this earlier, since it came up rather quickly and per my usual, I got caught up on something else and forgot that I forgot about posting about it.  Then we went on vacation, which was bliss (pictures below), and now I am just getting back into the swing of things again.

So I am posting it now.

Aaron and I had the chance to present at our Township board meeting last month!  As I mentioned in a previous post on our winery progress, getting over this hump is a big one for us.

All it took was one email to the Township saying we wanted to start discussions on our winery plans, and boom, we were on the agenda for their next meeting.

We went in prepared, confident in our story and our plan, but cautiously optimistic.  We didn't want to be too hopeful the outcome would be totally in our favor.

I have to hand it to Aaron because after we introduced ourselves and gave some background, Aaron gave a presentation that covered all of their concerns.  He was able to proactively address any issues that might have come back to us.  He explained exactly how we plan to mitigate any potential issues.  These include, traffic, parking, water and sewer, etc. And, it's hard not to be captivated and inspired when listening to Aaron talk so passionately about his vineyard and winery plans and dreams. By the time he was done, there wasn't much to argue with.  The board members were practically raising a glass of Marquette and toasting to the idea!

Okay, maybe not.  But by the end he had cracked a few smiles on their previously stoic faces and got them asking questions (purely out of their own curiosity) about Minnesota wine.  We considered that a win.

And so, while we still have a long road ahead of us and still have to circle back with the Township on the  issue of traffic and dust control, we were given the go ahead to proceed with the county in applying for our Conditional Use Permit.  That is our next task to tackle.

The wheels are in motions!

With regards to our vacation, it was wonderful!
We had a little vacation getaway to Cabo San Lucas earlier this month.   4 adults and one toddler was a pretty good vacation ratio.  Axel was such a trooper the whole week!  We hardly heard a whine out of him from the time our plane took off.  He knew we were in paradise and spent the week exploring all the new sights and sounds and made lots of friends with other vacationers along the way.  Here is just a sampling of pictures from our week:

A Classic

It was two years ago on Valentine's Day that one of the most outrageous events occurred in the history of our family.  Sometimes, when I see people I don't see that often, they will say, "Oh, I love your blog!  I loved that story about the dogs running into Target!"

And I smile and say thank you.  It's nice to have at least one story from my hundreds of posts over the last several years that is memorable to people.  I mean, even though that post was from like, TWO YEARS AGO already, it still remains a classic.  So, I thought I would link to it again, here, for anyone who could use a good laugh today.

While the dogs continue to add a lot of flavor to our lives and are still full of energy, they've calmed down just a bit.  They still like to clobber us on the couch at night after our little guy goes to bed.  They know that is their best chance of gaining our full attention and getting some good belly rubs.  Someone younger and busier has been movin' in and they know they no longer rule the house.

How far back into this cabinet can I go?

One day last week at daycare it was costume day.  As I was tearing through the closets the night before trying to find something that would be considered a costume, that would actually fit him, I came across these...

Remember when I was pregnant and I got these lederhosen?  Actually, I think I received two pair in two different sizes as gifts!  They looked humongous at the time, but when I put these ones on him, they fit him like a glove.  And he still has a pair to grow into!  You can never have too many pairs of lederhosen for your child. 

He drove the girls MAD at school.

Who wouldn't swoon over a Schram in lederhosen?