We were lucky enough to have some help come in on Friday night. Aaron's Uncle Don (who you might remember from this) and Aunt Diane rolled in from WI in their camper on Friday to come help for the weekend. I love when they come to town because they are such willing hard workers. It's just in their nature to be busy and helpful. After doing some work outside on Friday night, we had some pizza and finished eating at 8pm. That's when Diane said, "Well, we still have some daylight. Should we go out and dig some more holes?"
What?! I think I was already in my pajamas and brushing my teeth for bed at that point! They are amazing. As I've mentioned before, I am still working on that farmer mentality.
So we have Don and Diane to thank for sparing our Saturday helpers the blisters and aching muscles they would have received from manually shoveling holes. Don and Diane worked the auger to pre-dig everything!
I had to tell Kevin and our neighbor, Les, to slow down on planting so there would be enough left for the rest of the crew when they arrived!
I tried my very best to get photos of everyone who came, but I know I missed several people. As I was sorting through them, I realized all I had was this picture of Scott's legs.
So, let this photo be proof that Scott A. helped out on Saturday. If I recall, I was attempting to capture his dirty knees. He actually came prepared with knee pads, but was nice enough to lend them to my dad and sacrifice his own clean knees.
They were a good team, my mom and dad. Dad planted and mom stomped.
And there was mud. Lots of mud.
Oh my gosh. Did I just post a picture of somebody's bum?! I can't believe I did that! Who invites guests to come help them plant and then post obscene pictures like this on the Internet? Well, I assure you I will respect this person's bum and won't tell you who this belongs to. This muddy bum will remain completely anonymous. No one will ever know who this is.
Did I mention that this planting party was a big babyfest? Oh boy, did we have babies!
Starting with this little lover...
Evelyn came prepared in her red checkered strawberry overalls. I wanted to keep her, but she belongs to these friends....
Laura and Jeff so far have had perfect attendance at all two of the Schram Vineyards planting parties. They've already signed up Evelyn for Schram Vineyards bootcamp when she's a little bit older. More to come on that.
You know what is the best? When you meet people randomly. Like the way Aaron and I met Henry and Kim and Marg. Just by striking up conversation while sitting at a restaurant bar last December having a glass of wine. It was the night the snow starting falling for last year's big Christmas storm. We started talking about the weather, then wine, then exchanged business cards....
...And here they are today, along with Marg's husband, Don, helping us plant! I love stories like that and I love that they volunteered to help us!
Don't they make planting grapevines look so romantic?
And then the next babe showed up. Here's Julie with newborn Ivan, who has the best. hair. ever. They supervised while daddy, Michael, got down in the dirt.
And then it rained. At about 10:45, we got a dumped on. And since all our food was still up in the house, we decided to corral everyone into there. And then more people showed up right then and we had about 40 people taking cover in our home at the peak of the day.
It is probably worth noting that: a) had we actually been prepared with a rain back-up plan, we probably would have had the chicken coop ready, b) our house is what you would describe as "cozy", c) we only have one bathroom, and d) we don't have central air conditioning, which we could have used with 40 bodies in the house.
But everyone rolled with it and we took advantage of our downtime to have some lunch and do some wine tastings. I had to laugh when I saw people using the dog beds as seating to eat lunch. We had our guests sample our Marquette wine we bottle in December. And also tasted some great wines from our friends at Parley Lake Winery, right here in Waconia, and Fieldstone Vineyards in Morgan, MN. It was all about Minnesota wine!
And when it cleared up, we went back to work. Henry and Marg got creative by putting Target bags over their shoes so they wouldn't get muddy.
I think there were others who wished they had thought of that.
And these two showed up in their adorable rubber boots.
Lindsey is lucky enough to claim these cuties.
And she also claims Beau.
And then the sun FINALLY came out. It was either the sunshine or baby Colton that brightened the day.
Kevin and Jaxon clowned around. Apparently real men don't wear gloves. Actually, I think they just forgot to bring them.
This was taken moments before Aaron decided to start a mud fight with his sister, Angie, and threw a mudball at her back.
Sibling rivalry, well into their 30s. Does it ever end?
I was nice to my sister, Allee, who managed to stay clean for a little while. Until...
She joined the muddy hands club.
I even had three of my favorite girls help me plant tomatoes and peppers in my garden.
Okay, one of these girls was more of a hindrance than a helper. But she really wanted to be in the girl picture with us. I won't say which one.
And just when we thought we had seen enough babies for the day, one more showed up!
Tux and Belle were curious about all these little creatures all day long.
And they finally found Cade, right at their level where they could sniff out and nudge this sweet smelling little bundle. I think it was good exposure for both of them.
And what a mom for putting up with two giant dogs sniffing her precious little boy. Thanks, Shannon!
By evening, I was wiped out. Taking pictures all day is hard work!
But Steve came to help string up wire on the posts.
And Don and Diane weren't ready to quit either.
We got a lot done this weekend. And we thank all of our volunteers for your help and support in continuing the success of getting Schram Vineyards off the ground.
Or should I say in the ground. Whatever.
Now I need to go to bed.