A Blogger's Mind

In all that we do at the vineyard, with the dogs, with friends and family, in our daily activities, ideas and dreams, and reflecting on where we've been, there is a little voice in the back of my head that speaks up occasionally and says, "Oooh, oooh....pay attention! This could be good blog material.  Work with this, Ashley, work with this."  And I'll spend my afternoons pruning grapevines while composing my next blog post in my head. 

The problem is that these stories floating around in my head are not directly connected to my keyboard.  Maybe someday in the future that won't be a problem, but here in 2010, it is.  Imagine how efficient I could be if I could telepathically post a story on this blog while multi-tasking.  But alas, I can't. 

I am telling you this because for the past several months, I have intended on several occasions to set aside a good chunk of time, so that I can thoughtfully craft these stories into written form for you.  But that "chunk of time" doesn't happen as I always plan.  I've been meaning and wanting to tell you things like:


What we have learned recently about the history of our property and the chaos and excitement that surrounded our own lives when we came to acquire it ourselves...

How we plan to blaze our own trail of history here...

How we would spend $1M in a jiffy if we won the lottery...

The day Aaron almost put me in a straight-jacket because I had a little temper-tantrum in the vineyard when, upon finishing de-suckering and training up all 82,943 Marquette vines (okay, maybe 1500), I went back to the first row and saw they had grown so much, I needed to start all over again.  It's like running in place.  All I have to say is, they better darn well make some spectacular wine, because those are the most rigorous growing plants I have ever seen.  And they will.  I'm convinced my nurturing of these vines will lead to nothing but perfection...

A little bit about Aaron and Ashley's individual roots as a strawberry picker and a bowling alley rat.  Guess which one is who...

Pictures of my farmer's tan vs Aaron's farmer tan and why I opt for flip-flops as my farm fashion footwear....

The latest antics of Tux and Belle...


JUST when I think I can carve out some time to tell you some of these stories, I get a little distracted by things like:

Getting down to the root issue and cause of why, suddenly, neither one of our dogs will eat out of their silver dog dish or even a yellow bowl, but they will both eat out of the red dish.  I still don't know, but am completely puzzled by the fact they can catch a flying bird in their mouth while running through the vineyard (I actually witnessed it), eat it whole, but will then come inside and snub their noses at particular dog dishes. 

Trying to keep up with pop culture, the latest gossip on the Real Housewives, and form an opinion on whether I am Team Jacob or Team Edward so that I can participate in normal conversation with other women rather than ramble on about zucchini and which maternity overalls I want to buy for my vineyard attire this fall.  (Team Edward by the way...as I just finished reading the series)!

Taking an afternoon to harvest the entire garden and then deliver bags full of zucchini, cucumbers, and beans to our neighbors...

Cleaning out our much needed over-stuffed closets to get things ready for the charity pick-up truck...

Taking a roundtrip road trip from Minneapolis to Chicago in 36 hours flat...

Picking out cucumber salad and endless salsa recipes, and trying to decide what to do with 15 lbs of green beans besides freezing, canning, or eating all of it. 

Deciding a month ago, after having our architect friend come out to visit and getting us dreaming, that we might try to put a rush on an addition to our one bathroom, one car garage farmhouse and start with a new garage and mudroom this fall....

Then deciding that may be too rushed...

Deciding to focus on re-doing our landscaping out front...

Then stepping back and re-designing our whole ideal house plan...

And while we were at it, re-designing our winery building...

Then changing our mind three times...

Then deciding to turn our existing house into a guest house, buy the land adjacent to us, and build a brand new house...

And winery...

Then deciding that we will just build a brand new winery building, throw a few cots in there and call it home too...

Then researching a trip to Hawaii because that just sounds like fun and totally unpractical right now...

Then signing up for a get rich quick scheme...


Wait, this wasn't really supposed to be my post on how we would spend a $1M in a jiffy...


And when we take a break from thinking about all of these amazing plans and how we can make it all work in the long run, I spend time on baby name websites, obsessing about them and relentlessly making Aaron talk about them even though he has declared several times he would prefer not to discuss names until we know if it's a boy or a girl, which we will in a month...hopefully...

Aaron returning an equally antagonising conversation by making me discuss at length exactly how many feet of trellis wire (which he measures in miles) we need to buy this year, when I have told him he can calculate that himself, while I spell out baby names in cursive on my notebook. 

Getting ready for having house guests three out of the four weekends in August and wondering how many frozen zucchini lasagnas I can fit in our freezer for such occasions...

And tonight.  Tonight it is about figuring out how a former uptown girl, living in the country, is going to drive her Jeep with a trailer to her corporate job in the city tomorrow to pick up a couch she found on sale over her lunch break, when she has never driven a car while pulling a trailer ever before in her life...



Maybe this post gives you some perspective.  Maybe after reading this you want to put me in a straight jacket too.  Regardless, what I am trying to tell you, is I have a lot I want to share and one of these days, when I can figure out how to escape to a desolate island and just write, I will share these stories with you.  Thanks for your patience and continued support!

Name that Vegetable

I've pulled a few things from my accidental compost pile garden recently, thinking they were going to be zucchinis, but instead found, well...I don't know what I found...

All I can come up with is some sort of hybrid zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkin gourd, because those are the leftover vegetables and squash that got dumped in the compost pile last year.  Has anyone seen anything like these?  Or better yet, tasted it?  Can seeds cross-breed with each other to make multiple different hybrids like the ones above?

Meanwhile, I've been doing my best to make the most of my on-purpose garden zucchini.  Mostly by giving them away, and begging everyone I meet to take some zucchinis off my hands.  Last week I was complaining at work about my shoulder and wondering why it was so sore, and then someone reminded me that I had been carrying 20 lb bags of zucchini around while passing them out at work.  As it turns out, zucchinis make great dumbbells! 

But at home, I've been finding ways to use them up.  Like putting them on pizza.  I just buy cheese or pepperoni frozen pizzas and top them off with zucchini slices, mushrooms, oregano and extra mozzarella.

And it is almost like a gourmet flatbread!

And zucchini chips are surprisingly good!  Still experimenting with spices and oils to find the best mix.

I think next time I'll try baking instead of dehydrating. 

Next up this week- No Noodle Lasagna.  Instead of lasagna noodles, you use zucchini slices.  I tried it last year and am going to try a new recipe this year. 

And I'm thinking about a zucchini theme in the nursery!

Is that too much? 



Yes?

Okay. 

Seriously, I'm afraid if we keep eating zucchini, we might start sprouting them ourselves. 

And on my list of things I never thought I would be this excited about..entering a giant zucchini into the County Fair.  I've been eyeing up this big boy to enter for biggest zucchini by weight.  I am grooming him to be a winner by picking all the other zucchini blossoms off of this plant and maximizing energy to get him growing. 

I took this photo several days ago.  He has a few more weeks of growing to do before I get him entered.  Looks like a winner, don't you think?

And the kicker, the 1st place winner gets a cash prize of....

wait for it....

$4!!!!!!

Big money.  BIG Money.  Hopefully I'll walk away with a blue ribbon.  I'll keep you posted.

Schramihana and Other Stuff

Summers in Minnesota are busy. We have just a few months of gorgeous weather and every Minnesotan embraces those months to the fullest.  It means that June, July, and August and even September are jam packed with events, boating, and barbecues.  These months are also the vineyards high season.  We may be working a lot this summer, but we're doing our best to also embrace these summer months with some fun too.  It also means, that with all that is going on, there is a lot to write about, but finding the time to write every time I want to is difficult!  So when I do find some time, I have to condense about three different themed posts into one.  So here we go...

With so many barbecues going on, we do our best to distinguish ourselves from any other Minnesota cook-out.  Here's a snapshot of one at our place.

First we have Aaron do the cooking out on Schramihana grill.  I do all the preparing and then hand him the food and the barbecue tools.  Schramihana was one of the first projects Aaron took on when we moved here.  As a longtime lover of hibachi style restaurants, he decided we needed to have our own hibachi grill with group seating around the grill.  While I thought painting was a priority, Aaron thought we could not go a minute longer without an outdoor hibachi grill.  So he built one and we adoringly named it "Schramihana" after hibachi-style restaurant, Benihana.

Mastering the skills of the hibachi chef is not an easy task.

It usually involves tossing eggs up in the air and trying to crack them in the air, lighting onion volcanoes on fire, and throwing random pieces of meat at our guests, which 9 times out of 10, they do not catch in their mouth.

A chef's hat and apron is on our list of things to buy so he can get the full hibachi chef effect and try to catch shrimp tails in his hat. 

We had friends from Brazil come visit us a few weeks ago.  Lavinia, was my family's exchange student 20 years ago!  She came back to visit with her mom and her two Portuguese-only speaking children.

Last time Lavi was here, I was an 11 year old with dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Enough said.

This past weekend, we had some friends and neighbors over for an impromptu Schramihana cook-out. 

After aforementioned egg tossing, we threw our guests on the little red wagon that Aaron built and took them for a spin around the vineyard.

They listened to tour guide Aaron talk about grapes, what we have to do to diseased plants, and how to tell when the grapes are ready for picking. 

Of course we can't forget the wine on the wagon ride.

Can you tell the children were just so enthralled? 

Then we made our guests throw axes at a wooden post. 

We had several discussions on the correct axe throwing form.  Scott and Julie both used their right leg as their power leg.

 

While Dave and Amy...

..Wes and Caroline all took more of the baseball throw stance by using their left foot forward.

Even though nobody was really all that good, Scott finally got one to stick!  So I am going to say that stepping forward with the same foot as your throwing arm is most successful, based on his outcome.  Just in case any of you reading will ever face a game of axe throwing. 

And then we started, not one, but two fires.  A campfire for s'mores and for the dogs to enjoy.

And a bonfire....just because it is fun and cool.  There may have also been a few fireworks gone awry, but that's all I will say about that.  

It wasn't until I uploaded all these pictures that I realized the kind of get-togethers we are throwing here.  We basically invite guests over, throw food at them, toss them on a wagon, talk grape to them for 20 minutes, give them sharp objects to throw, and then start a raging fire.  And our guests all seemed to have a good time.  And if not, they were good at pretending.  It's not your typical Minnesota barbecue, but then again, have we ever been typical?

Wine Appreciation, Without Actually Drinking It

I don't mean to discriminate against people who can drink wine, but as this is being written by a pregnant lady, I can only speak from my current situation.  This really is for anyone who wants a little wine appreciation or education, but does not involve actually drinking wine. 

People ask me all the time how I am feeling during this pregnancy.  My answer, "I've been feeling great!  But I miss my wine!"  As I begin my second trimester, I have so far avoided any morning sickness (knock on wood) and have been feeling pretty good overall.  This has been a blessing because had I not been feeling well, the vineyard would be a complete disaster.  I've still been able to go out and work and train and squat and prune and...well, you get the idea. 

On the other hand, feeling relatively well has made my wine withdrawal more pronounced.  See, if I were feeling awful, wine would probably sound disgusting.  But it doesn't.  It sounds so good!  In my opinion, not being able to drink wine is almost equivalent to having morning sickness.  Although giving up wine is for a good cause, it still really sucks.

So, I'm taking this 9+ month opportunity to find some other ways to appreciate wine.  I may not be able to drink it, but there's no harm in smelling it!  Although I sense Aaron is getting sick of me asking him if I can smell his wine whenever he pours himself a glass.  And the client at my work dinner gave me a funny look when I asked him if I could smell his wine too.  What gives? 

Even if you don't drink wine, you know that the bouquets and aromas of a wine are an integral part of the wine experience.  When you're poured a glass of wine, you might swirl the glass, examine its color, stick your nose in the glass and inhale deeply to see how it smells. 

Noticed how none of the above include actually tasting or swallowing the wine?  Right up my alley.  And in wine tasting, our ability to smell and detect aromas is more acute than our ability to taste it. 

Here are a few things you can do to heighten your wine scent awareness.

You can buy a wine bouquet kit, like one of these below.  I think we got these from Wine Enthusiast a while back.  You can also find them on Amazon and get a very complete set of aromas included.

They offer several different bottled scents that you might find in a wine.  Good and bad smells.  If you've ever read a label on a bottle of wine where it describes "hints of tobacco, plum and a black pepper finish" and wondered how anyone could ever have a nose so polished that they could pick those scents out of the wine, this kit might help.

OR, if you've ever had a glass of wine and thought something tasted really off, but couldn't describe the awful smell or taste, this kit might help. 

They help train your nose to recognize scents that you might find in red or white wines.  The best is to hide the numbers on the bottles and go through and see if you can pick out the smell from the chart listed.  It's harder than you think!  And kind of a fun party game to see who can guess the most!  Because really, what's a party without sniffing glue and cauliflower?

Another option, if you want to save a few bucks on buying a kit, is to make a wine bouquet kit yourself!   It just requires getting your hands on a neutral wine to use as the base.  Ask your local wine shop to help you pick out neutral, blander wine in both red and white.  And I'd suggest cheap too!  No point in using expensive wine when you are going to taint it with different flavors!

Then you can go to store and buy a bunch of ingredients (recommendations below) to put in each wine.

Pour about 4 oz. of wine in each wine glass.

Make sure you number each glass and keep a key of what ingredient is in each numbered glass.  Just don't reveal the ingredient on the glass! 

Here are some ideas for ingredients:

White Wine base:  Honey, vanilla, nutmeg, grapefruit, peach, pear, pineapple (juice), lemon peel, oak, lemon juice, butter, cantaloupe, green tea.

Red Wine base:  Strawberry, strawberry jam, black pepper, tobacco, coffee grinds, oak, chocolate, mint, cherry, green pepper.

You don't need to add a lot of each.  Just enough that you can identify the smell within the wine.  If you need to add a chunk of fruit, just remove it before you actually do the wine "tasting."

Then you can smell the different wine glasses and see if you can guess the scent in each glass.   You'll be a wine bouquet master in no time.  Once you're able to recognize these scents in a bland wine, it will become easier to do so in a more complex wine as well. 

See, it is possible to have fun without actually drinking wine! 

At least that's what I keep telling myself....

The Day We Went to Adopt One Dog...But Came Home with Two

Many of you have heard excerpts from this story, but since it is the one year anniversary of adopting our two dogs, I thought I'd share the whole story with you on how the number of Schrams quadrupled in under two weeks. 

One year ago, Aaron and I had just returned from our honeymoon.  12 and half acres was too much space not to have a dog and we made it our first initiative as a married couple to get one. 

We had been talking about what kind of dog to get since our third date.  Aaron told me he wanted a Husky-Wolf mix and I told him I wanted a Wheaton Terrier, our reasons for liking each being completely opposite.  Despite our incompatibility in dog preferences, our relationship lasted, but it was a big point of discussion throughout our entire dating and engagement life.

We knew when it came down to actually biting the bullet, we'd need to compromise. Thankfully, I was successful in talking him out of any family pet with "wolf" in the mix and in return I agreed on a bigger breed dog that would enjoy frolicking on the farm.

I was finally sold on a Great Dane when we met a couple of well-behaved Great Dane puppies with great demeanors.  Then I went to YouTube.com and found all these videos of Great Danes with babies.  These babies were crawling all over these gentle giants, pulling on their ears, spilling milk on them and the dogs just sat there without giving a care at all!  Knowing we'd have babies and dogs in the same household, I thought it would be a good breed.  Although I was still a little freaked out by their potential size and cost of raising such a big dog.  Note that this concern was based on the assumption we would only be getting...one. 

Ahem. 

We knew we wanted to adopt from a shelter, which would likely mean a mixed breed anyway and I figured a mix wouldn't be as big.  I started searching on petfinder.com the day after we got back from our honeymoon and saw a number of Great Danes mixes in need of a home.  I inquired about a few before I saw two adorable 4 month old dogs, with their own separate listings.  A white dog with black spots named Daisy and a black dog with white markings named Tank.  Based on their similar description saying they were found roaming with their sibling, I realized they were brother and sister. 

They were both with different foster homes at that time and we didn't know which one we wanted to go see first.  I knew that whichever one we went to go see first would likely be coming home with us that day.  And then I would have felt like I was tempting fate by only seeing one or cheating one out of the opportunity of being adopted.  So I asked the foster homes of each dog if we could arrange to see them at the same time, so that we could  better decide which one we wanted to make a part of our family. 

In my naive state of mind, I actually thought it would be easier to decide which one we wanted by seeing them both at the same time. 

We got to the foster home on the Thursday before the 4th of July weekend.  They were both there, Tank stumbling over his big clumsy paws and Daisy, playful and sassy as could be. 

The lady from the rescue group was there too.

"We're doing a two for one special on these two.  One adoption fee...both dogs." 

What a deal!  Seriously, that made me laugh.  As if a $300 adoption fee would make any dent in the entire cost of raising a second Great Dane for its lifespan. 

That's when I looked at Aaron.  I've seen a lot of puppy eyes in my life, but none like the ones he gave me that day.  If those eyes could talk they were saying, Can we take them both?  Can we?  Can we? 

"Some woman in Iowa found these two in her garden," The Rescue Lady said.  "They were so starved they were eating her garden hose!  That's why their ribs are showing.  We think they were dumped on the side of the road by someone who didn't want them.  They had ticks all over them.  But we've had them checked out and all their shots are up to date.  They just need a loving home and some meat on their bones." 

I looked at the dogs again wrestling with each other, their loose skin flapping and I pictured them traveling the road together, trying to survive and fending for their lives.  And all they had was each other.   I knew if I didn't put my foot down and declare which dog I wanted most, I was toast.  But I couldn't do it.  I couldn't pick just one. 

"Why don't you take them both home with you for the weekend," the Rescue Lady chimed in, noticing my indecision.  She knew she already had Aaron as she could see it in his eyes. "Then you can watch them both over a few days and decide which one you want to keep."

Do they give awards out to rescue group workers?  Seriously, she was the best sales woman I've ever met!  She knew what she was doing and I fell for it hook, line and sinker.  She knew we weren't bringing one back.  And before I knew, both dogs were in our car coming home with us "for the weekend."

I turned to Aaron when we were a half mile down the road as the dogs licked my face.  "We're keeping them both, aren't we?"

He nodded, a big smile on his face. 

On the way home we stopped to buy a gigantic kennel since we felt completely naked with absolutely no dog necessities or accessories to speak of.  All we had was the leash they came with and a little bit of food so we felt completely ill-prepared for this task ahead.

We invited my sister over and her two kids and decided to keep it a surprise that we had adopted two dogs.  First order of business was giving them new names.  Specifically Daisy, since Daisy is also the name of my niece.  Things would've gotten confusing with two Daisy's, especially with one being a dog.  We thought Tank was very fitting and often wonder if we should have kept his original name.  But because these were our honeymoon puppies, I liked the two wedding theme names together, Tux and Belle. 

Second order of business was testing out these supposed gentle giants on a small child.  My rough and tumble 4-year old nephew seemed like a good test. 

Until they knocked him over, even though he was laughing in this picture.  A little current day insight:  the dogs still play as playfully with him and they are now 40-60 lbs bigger than these pictures.  He's a tough guy, but not that tough. 

Much better.

Does it get any sweeter?

Okay, yes it does.  Dogs spooning!

Among other awkward sleep positions.

Is there room for me in there?

 

And on the 4th of July, we watched fireworks as a family at the end of our driveway.

And that my friends, is how our family was created.  I can't imagine it happening any other way. 

Have a safe and happy 4th of July weekend!

 From the Schrams

Aaron, Ashley, Tux, and Belle.