Updates, Visuals, and Narcoleptic Furry Friends

Doors in place, the barn looks more like a barn every day!

Restoration on the granary barn is moving right along.  The next few steps include roofing, flooring, and a glass walkway over the grain drain (more of a grain receptacle but the rhyme was downright impossible to resist). 

Can you pick out the areas where old wood had to be replaced?

Apart from the few replacement boards in the rear, the wood used on the exterior of the retrofitted barn is original.

At the moment we are patiently awaiting the start of Veraison (the point where green grapes begin to ripen and turn red, brown, or yellow depending on variety).  The vineyard crew is currently occupying themselves by updating and performing maintenance on culverts (rock lined drainage channels) throughout the property.

It may not seem that exciting to you, but to us…

We are repairing the hickory panel flooring in the big house and ceramic tile has just been installed in the dishwasher area of the tasting room.

Where doors will soon hang.

Infrastructure (drains, lighting, air vents) are also being installed in our 22,000 square foot cave system to open in the fall.  We are slightly excited about this…

Seconds before it flew away

Creepily appropriate given the release of a certain film today.  This little friend performed a narcoleptic suicidal head butt attack upon our photographer near the outer door of the winery this morning.  Worried that the little insect inhaling machine had injured itself during the fall, we gently transported it down to the old Smith Barn where we quickly and quietly snapped this photo.  After making a few hissing and clicking noises (seconds after this photo was taken) our little sonic friend spread its fleshy wings and flapped upward into the rafters.  Bats are a great benefit to wine and other crops world wide, capable of consuming between 1/2 to 2 times their own body weight in insects nightly.