When Dog Tails and Stemware Don't Mix

Before we adopted our pups, I told Aaron I had a few basic requirements in a dog.  I didn't care what breed we got as long as it was a larger dog that fit these characteristics:

1. I wanted a dog with a sense of humor
2. I wanted a dog with floppy ears (not pointy)
3. I wanted a dog with a long tail (not cropped)

Aaron didn't know what I meant by a dog with a "sense of humor" and wondered why this was a requirement and "intelligence" didn't make the list.  Whether Tux, the 100 lb. wonder, plops his rear right in my lap when I am sitting on the couch, or Belle sits in front of the TV and watches "It's Me or the Dog" on Animal Planet with her head tilted, or whether they are just snuggling together like they do every night, they crack us up on a daily basis.  We definitely accomplished #1 on my list and at least Aaron now understands what I meant by a dog with a sense of humor.

The only rationale for 2 and 3 on my list was for cute factor.  I just think floppy ears are cuter.  It's not that I think dogs with pointy ears aren't cute too; I just have a thing for floppy ears.  Like when they perk their ears up curiously when they hear something and have to lift up that big floppy flap of skin and tilt their head so they can hear better. We considered a Malamute, a wonderful breed, but I ruled them out because of their pointy ears and we instead settled on 2 funny mutts because they have floppy ears.

I measure the amount of love I feel by a dog by the circumference of space their tail can cover when they wag their tail when I walk through the door.  I feel 5 times as loved with a long chaotic tail greeting me.  A swinging tail is such a natural movement for a dog and when it is cut off, I feel like they are stripped of their love meter.  A little stub just doesn't do justice. 

Note: I know PLENTY of adorable, wonderful and intelligent dogs with pointy ears, cropped tails, and a serious demeanor (which usually means they are more obedient).  If your dog fits this description, please don't be offended by my silly little requirements. This is just MY personal preference in my own dogs and clearly my rationale does not have any practicality.  I mean, serious dogs with pointy ears might not do things like this.  However, I now understand why some people may choose to get a dog with a cropped tail.  I totally get who those people are now.

Those owners must be wine drinkers. 

For a couple that frequently has a bottle open and 2 wine glasses sitting on the coffee table when we're watching a movie or blogging on the laptop, I've cursed those tails more than I care to admit.  Our wine glass casualties have increased ten-fold since we adopted our dogs nine months ago.

I'm torn between having my love validated by my dogs' wagging tails and indulging in my nightly glass of wine out of the appropriate drinking glass.  How can I decide?  Do I sacrifice broken glass and spilt wine as a result of their tails constantly knocking over wine stems, or do I make some changes in my wine drinking routine?  Their tails are just at the right height and right thickness to smack that glass right on its fragile stem.  And I am a stem glass girl.  I don't like getting my palms around those stemless glasses and getting my fingerprints all over it.  I like to hold the stem and swirl. 

The other night we opened a bottle of our Marquette.  We are opening them gradually to see how it ages.  Amazing how just a couple months of aging really mellows out the wine, yet it's flavor is even more pronounced!  I couldn't bear to risk a tail knocking over our invaluable vintage of Marquette since our demand for this wine is greater than our supply. 

So we made some changes around here.

When drinking wine at tail wagging level, I now drink it out of this more stable, square and squat glass.  It works well and still has a base and itty, bitty stem I can hang onto.  So far it appears to be a good comprimise of my two loves. 

What kind of glass do you drink your wine out of?  Does your dog have a long tail or a short stub (I won't judge, I promise)?

I've Come a Long Way

I can trace back my gardening experience to exactly two years ago.  Before I inherited a huge garden when we moved out here at that time, I didn't so much as have a plant on my balcony in my uptown condo.  My thumb was pretty flesh colored and manicured until two years ago. 

Aaron and I hadn't really discussed taking up gardening before we moved out to our place.  I just thought we were moving out here to grow grapes.  But, a garden?  With flowers and vegetables and stuff?  As if the task of becoming a vineyard owner when I knew nothing about growing grapevines or making wine wasn't daunting enough.  At that point, my main concern was what footware to wear in the vineyard that wouldn't give me bad tanlines or ruin my pedicure.  Prior to moving here, all I had to worry about was keeping the floors clean in my 730 sq. ft condo.  And suddenly, we had 13 acres of land to care for with a 1000 sq. ft. garden alone. 

Two weeks after we moved in on March 1st, 2008, while I was still busy deocrating, painting and arranging furniture, Aaron came home with about a dozen packets of seeds, some potting soil and planters and set it on our Hungarian pine kitchen table. 

While he has always been good about asking me what tasks I want to be involved in out here, he at the same gives me a little nudge to take on some new responsibilities.  Like for our negative one anniversary (one year BEFORE we got married), for instance, when he came home with a  "Happy -1 Year Anniversary" card and a gardening set for me.  A new garden tool set hadn't been on my wishlist, but how could I have been anything but grateful to have a man who actually bought me a thoughtful gift to celebrate an anniversary that doesn't really exist.  The message was pretty loud and clear that he wanted me to be in charge of the garden. 

Even though we met when we were both living in Minneapolis, he's a country boy at heart, who grew up next door to his gardener grandma.  Still to this day, at age 93, she grows lettuce like a champ.  What kind of women would I be if I couldn't at least attempt to live up to the standards of his grandma and grow a green thumb?

While dirtying my fingernails and planting seeds indoors all over our 80 year old butcher block table gave me pause initially, I quickly overcame that relunctance and started tackling the garden.  I can't say that first year I was totally into it as I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of work involved when I didn't know what I was doing in the first place.  In my defense, my first year of gardening EVER was in a 25 x 40 foot garden. 

By myself.  Can you imagine the weeds in a garden this size?

But I did this while my soon to be husband was busy planting grapevines, putting in trellises, making an outdoor grill and building a greenhouse.  I mean, if he could do all that and hold a full time job, I could certainly get off my butt and figure out how to grow some vegetables.

And when that first radish came up, I was giddy as a schoolgirl.  I was so proud, that on a rare occurence, I even updated my facebook status that day to announce that I had produced a vegetable.  That radish was all I need to know I was capable of becoming a gardener. 

See, don't I look like a professional gardener in my flip flops and baby-tee? 

There was really no rhyme or reason to my planting the first two years.  I just dumped some seeds in the ground in a somewhat sectioned off garden and waited to see what came up.  I planted things that I didn't know what they were.  Like okra.  What is okra?  I still don't know.  But I planted it because I could.  I don't think they survived though, which might have been a blessing because I don't know what I would have done with it if they had.  Last year, I grew cantaloupe.  I didn't even know it was possible to grow cantaloupe in Minnesota, but I did.  Although they rot pretty easily, and we didn't eat much of it last year, so I'm kicking that out this year. 

With the exception of just a few, I've tried about every vegetable under the sun.  No pun intended.  Some have succeeded and some failed, which is to be expected when learning via trial and error.  I learned the hard way that if you don't pick zucchinis, they just keep growing....and growing.  Which is why I ended up with about 62 giant zucchinis last year. But since I wanted to make good use of my garden harvest, I kind of backed into my cooking last year, using recipes that included whatever came up in the garden.  Which meant I tried every possible zucchini recipe on the planet, and I intend to share those with you on this blog this year.  You never knew you could do so much with a zucchini. 

Get excited! 

Now that it is that time of year again and I am embarking on my third year of gardening, I thought I would share just a sampling of what I am planting this year. With the guidance of a few friends (Thanks Megan! Thanks Stacy!), my garden is a little better organized and planned out this year.  And I'm hoping to get some more flower beds established this year since they've taken a backseat to the vegetables the last few years.

I've got a few started indoors already.  Like the peppers.

And of course, Aaron has his tobacco going.  After trying one of his cigars, he determined that he rolled them a little too tight.  So he'll try it again this year.

And just think.  Later this year the little seeds inside this pack of squash could be blue ribbon winning zucchinis.   You saw it right here, folks. From the beginning. 

I've come a long way  in just two years.  It's going to be a fun season.  Can't wait to get my fingers in that dirt! 

Mead and Mud

I made it almost all winter without getting the inevitable cold, and it finally struck last week.  The good news is it really only lasted a day or two, which as colds go, is almost unheard of.   The bad news is I subsequently passed the cold on to Aaron. 

I attribute my quick recovery to a remedy discovered by accident, or rather, another one of the various wine concoctions we have fermenting in the basement.  It is probably more marketable as an elixir rather than a fine wine.  And upon tasting it, I think you'd agree.

A few weeks ago, we bottled up some mead.  After drinking a few chalices of the vikings preferred libation at the Renaissance Festival last September, we decided to make some mead ourselves.  Mead is basically a wine made from honey and water via fermentation and can have different flavors added.  It is offen referred to as honey wine. 

Last Thursday, as I was on the couch feeling miserable, sinuses putting my head in the clouds, a tickle in my throat, and a stuffed up nose that prevented me from pronouncing my g's,  Aaron came over with a glass from one of these bottles, "Here, take a sip.  Tell me what you think." 

I took a swig and said, "It tastes like cough medicine."  Granted I was stuffed up, it still tasted like a milder version of cough medicine- not one where you wince after swallowing, but still the same honey flavored alcohol taste nonetheless.  It still needs a little work, namely some sweetener or additional flavor before it will hold a candle to the Renaissance Festival mead, which itself was really nothing to write home about.  We're working on correcting the mix with some sugar and flavor so that is tastes smooth and not like a Halls cough drop.  As it stands right now, I'll be more likely to swallow it like a shot while plugging my nose than pair it with a burger when grilling out with friends.  Or maybe my honey wine palette isn't quite developed yet.

Is it coincidence that after taking a shot of mead, my cold disappeared as fast as it came on?  I don't think so.  I think I am onto the lastest fad in cold remedies.  I mean, if a second grade teacher can market Airborne with all those vitamins and herbal extracts, I could market our homemade mead as a cold remedy, right?

Anyway, after Aaron and I were both feeling better, we took advantage of the 64 degree whether by pruning some more grapevines, and letting the dogs run outside.  And there was mud. 

Lots and lots of mud.

Where this type of behavior...

Resulted in mud prints...

Everywhere.

Poor guy doesn't know why he's stuck in basement.

The snow is finally gone.  Now we just have to deal with a few more months of mud!

Planting Party 2010 (and a 2009 Recap)

Temps hit 40, the birds are chirping, we are down to only a couple of inches of snow still on the ground, and starting this Sunday, we'll gain another hour of daylight.  Spring is just around the corner, which means, here at Schram Vineyards, we are preparing for our 2nd Annual Planting Party!

Have you ever been to a planting party?  No?  That's probably because it is a party Aaron and I invented to get free labor from our friends and family.  We figured if we just put "party" at the end of it, that would make it sound like fun.  And it works!  Since we don't have wine to sell yet, and thus low funds to monetarily pay for laborers, instead we sucker invite our friends to help plant grapevines in exchange for some Minnesota wine tastings, and plenty of beer on hand for a grueling, but fun day with good people. 

Come be a part of Schram Vineyards history as we grow our vineyard from 2000 grapevines to about 3300!  This year's event will take place on Saturday, May 22nd.  This is the only weekend in May that is not a holiday of some sort, so you have no excuse!  May 1st is May Day.  The second weekend is Mother's Day, third weekend is the Fishing Opener (yes, this is a holiday in Minnesota), and the last weekend is Memorial Day weekend.  So save the date...May 22nd.  And, just like last year, we will put a plaque up on a row you plant, named by you, after you...whatever you want. 

For those who couldn't make it last year, here is a recap of Planting Party 2009.  We managed to hold it on the coldest day of what was an otherwise very nice month of May.  Those of us who were out there at 9am, found ourselves clumsily planting with mittens on our frozen fingers!

This is my friend, Laura.  She is with child in this picture.

Her husband, Jeff, came to help too.  Hi Jeff! 

And Tommy and Holly, planting geer in hand, posed with my Dad.  This was in the morning, before Holly's knees started bleeding.  More on that later.

Who are these studs? It's Tommy, Aaron, and Steve.

Look at this cute couple!  Just one month before they were married, planting their future together. 

Last May, before we were married, I could say these clowns were just my fiance's relatives.  Now I have to claim them as my two sister-in-laws and brother-in-law.  I'm not sure what Angie is doing in this picture. Hmmmm...

Aaron's sister, Lisa, came from her Wisconsin farm to help.  She is the coolest girl I know because she can drive a tractor better than I can ride a bike.  And she was only 16 in this picture. I need to take some lessons from her. 

My brother-in-law, Mike, and our friend, Adam were rockstar hole diggers.  Notice Adam's green sweatshirt in this picture. 

Look at these good lookin' fellas on a beer break.  Now Adam has now stripped down to his white muscle shirt.  It was 50 degrees, but he had to work on his tan.

Even my city living brother, Eric, came out in his Converse shoes and blaze orange gloves and tried his hand at manual labor. He dug a hole.

But he brought a pretty cute kid with him..  Any time we needed a little pick me up, we'd watch Hank with his heart shaped glasses and engineer pants just chillin' in the swing. He's a cool kid.

There he is again, with my sister-in-law, Jill. 

Here's Holly again with another little helper.  She's smiling through gritted teeth.  What a trooper.  She was so determined to finish planting all the vines, she worked all day long and her knees started bleeding.  At least that's what she said. We have affectionately named a row in honor of her. "Bloody Knees" planted by Holly

Another little helper, Wyatt. Or is it Sawyer?  Oh, I can't tell!  They're twins and I can't see his face.  He decided to plant.... himself.  This soil does wonders for 2 year olds.  He grew a lot this year! 

 

Joe had fun swinging too.  I knew we kept that old swingset for a reason.

We grilled out for lunch on Schramihana. 

Although I will tell you grilling burgers for 40 people on a chilly spring day with dirt embedded in our pores was a little overwhelming.  I think we'll opt for more of the family style meal this year. 

This is Bob, appropriately wearing his John Deere hat.

And Scott working hard.  He is a fellow grape nerd.  He and Aaron get along swimmingly.

Overall, it was a really fun day!

We worked hard.

And played.  Fore!

Some got a few swings on our sudo golf tee.  Here is Adam again, now changed into...his evening farm attire.  We are very posh out here on the farm.  Three wardrobe changes. 

And then we drank.  Lots and lots of Minnesota wine.

And admired our work. 

Old friends, new friends, blog friends, family, have I enticed you enough to come this year? Or, to come back again?  I promise we'll have knee pads so nodody's knees will bleed.  If you are interested in more details on the Schram Vineyard's Planting Party, please leave me a comment or email us at schramvineyards@gmail.com and we'll put you on the email list where we'll provide more details on the event.  Keep your fingers crossed for a beautiful day this year!

The Corral

Back in January I got a phone call from Aaron while he was shopping at Menard's.  The store nearest us is closing for renovations for several months and they were having a big sale getting rid of all their inventory.  I figured he'd pick up that new cordless drill that he'd been talking about for 30% off or maybe some tools for one of his various projects out in the garage.  You know, things like that.  Things that a normal guy would go to buy at a hardware and home improvement type store. 

Aaron:  Hey, honey!  They have these shed-type buildings outside at Menard's and they are on sale for really good price.   

Me:  A shed?  Like how big is it?

Aaron: Well, it's kind of like a big building, probably about the size of a one-car garage that has a metal canopy-like roof and it is open on the ends and around the bottom. 

Me:  So they are selling huge sheds at Menard's that are open on the ends of it? I don't get it.  What is its purpose?

Aaron:  Well it's wide enough and tall enough I was thinking I could park the tractor and put some of the vineyard equipment in there.  I don't think I could find anything this size for this price.  It is like a third of the price for what you could buy it for new!

Me:  I guess I am having a hard time picturing this thing.  But, whatever.  So you think it is a good building to park the tractor? 

Aaron:  Yeah, well...they are actually selling TWO of them.  And I was thinking maybe I could put one out in the field and one by the garage.  I'll just enclose them in with building material so they aren't open.  If I get both of them, we'll save a lot of money down the road!  I'm running out of garage space and these are like 3-4 times as much if I buy them new!  They are a realllly good deal. 

Me:  Hmmmm...TWO big metal open like buildings? Do you really need two of them? 

Aaron:  Honey? Remember that nice camera I got you for Christmas?

Me:  Yeah. 

Aaron:  Just reminding you.

Me (sigh):  Okay, fine. 

Apparently he couldn't bring them home that day because the store needed them until they officially closed their doors, which they finally did last week.  So last weekend, Aaron hitched up the trailor and went to pick up his new metal canopy roofed "sheds."

 

It wasn't until he drove home with this that I realized what he was talking about when he was describing these "open shed-type buildings."

They are the shopping cart corrals.

Somehow he failed to describe them to me that way.  Which would have made our conversation back in January a whole lot easier.  I think he knew me better than to tell me that he wanted to buy the big metal things in the parking lot of Menard's that you throw your shopping carts into.  Doesn't every girl want one of these in her yard?

And now we have two of them. 

At our home. 

Shopping cart corrals.

Try not to be too jealous. 

In an effort to make the best of the situation, I am looking for ideas of what I can do to make two shopping cart corrals camouflage into the vineyard.

Maybe paint a mural on it?

And now I am coming up with my own ideas for how we can use these.

A party pavillion for when we entertain in the summers?

Maybe enclose in part of it so it could be a doggy run for Tux and Belle on days when we don't want them running loose all over the vineyard?

Ooooh...it could be where we do the grape stomp if we have a rainy day!  That way we are covered but don't have to worry about getting the chicken coop building all dirty since the bottom of the corrals are open!

"No,"  Aaron says.  "I am going to enclose them and use them to store equipment." 

I'm still working on him.  Any other ideas for me?

****Want to hear the second part of this story?  Check out the The Shopping Cart Corral Update to see it in action.