Clearing the Vines

This week we've been clearing old vines. 

 After the harvest, the vines are pruned and the prunings are raked into rows and left during the winter months. Now that it’s spring, it’s time to clear them away. It is a process very similar to hauling hay bales; one person drives the truck along the row while one person pitches the old vines to another person standing in the truck bed, who then receives the vines and stacks them. The fourth person follows behind and grabs the stray vines and any large rocks and adds them to the truck bed pile, because every third year the vines are tilled under instead of cleared. 

 I'm the one with my foot in the air, wrestling with vines!

 It’s hard work, and at the end of the day, we are all tired and so ready for a glass of wine!!