Studio Update

Starting in late October, Greg and I decided to build a small art studio next to the house, so I could finally get my pottery wheel out of the barn and into a usable space.  We built a 12 x 16 foot framed building on piers with a 12 x 6 foot porch on one end.  There were several reasons for putting up this building, including the art studio space, but also to accommodate guests when we have them, and also as extra storage space.  When I sketched out the idea, I wanted a loft that extended out over the porch, accessible from inside by a ladder.  I also wanted vaulted ceilings in part of it so we compromised and put the loft above only half of the building.  This left a cool vaulted ceiling, which we covered with 4 x 8 sheets of grooved plywood siding, painted white.  It turned out great.  We put a ceiling fan up there as well. 

Anyway, one of my goals was to have it ready for my parents to stay in when they came up for their annual spring visit.  We plugged along on this building until the end of April, then Greg went to work putting on the siding, soffit, fascia and so forth, and I kept working on the inside, painting the cabinets, and building the Murphy bed.  The place is pretty good size for a studio but there was not going to be any room for a permanent bed so I decided to build a folding bed.  It's technically not a Murphy bed because there's no mechanical hardware that easily folds the bed up, only a set of hinges and the strength of two people lifting and pushing it against the wall.  Anyway, Greg let me use his tools but mostly let me build this thing on my own.  I made a few design errors but these were easily fixed, and I made a couple of minor mistakes while putting it together, but I eventually got it assembled, painted and set up for my parents the day before they arrived. 

The only snag I hit was I didn't fully appreciate how tall the thing would end up being.  I wayyyy overbuilt this thing, and used probably twice the lumber I needed.  It's definitely sturdy but the top of the mattress is at about 36 inches from the floor, way too tall for my 5'3" tall mother to safely get in and out of, so Greg and I have been sleeping out there and my folks have been sleeping in our bed.  It's pretty comfy!

Here are a few pictures of the place. 

The mess in the corner is the stereo Greg bought for out there.  It's sitting on the counter right now but he's going to build a cabinet to hang on the wall, with a glass door, and it will have room for the stereo, a place to dock a lap top or whatever, and maybe eventually a TV receiver.  At this point the place is still pretty bare bones, but I got a nice rug for the floor, the cabinets are painted, the counter-tops are installed, and the fan and A/C work.  There's still a good  bit of stuff to do on the outside.  On the inside the windows need to be trimmed out, and the baseboards installed.  I need to get some kind of blinds for the windows, and I still need to build the rolling platform for my wheel, and the work-table that will also function as a dining table when we have guests.  The plan is to have the work table at about counter height, built out of 2 x 6 lumber and plywood.  The platform will be built the same way, with heavy duty casters so I can move it around.  The wheel probably weights 400 lbs or so.  When we have guests staying out there, table will fit on top of the platform and the whole thing can be pushed against a wall.  The table will then be at bar height when it is on top of the platform, and I have a couple of bar stools to go with it. 

I used MDF board for the bottom of the Murphy bed.  I bought a can of chalkboard paint and will paint the underside of the bed with it so when the Murph is folded against the wall, the chalkboard will be exposed and I can sketch out pottery ideas on it. 

Still a work in progress but it's almost finished.  So, come on out for a visit!

Bird Nest in the Vineyard

I was mowing the vineyard yesterday, and tucking the shoots up inside the trellis wires so they wouldn't get caught on the tractor as it goes by.  I spotted this little nest and stopped to take a few pics.  Tiny nest, tiny eggs, about the size of your thumbnail.  Beautiful!

uh oh...

Here are a few pictures of what may or may not be herbicide drift damage to our grapes.  Stay tuned...

Pruning, 2012

Now it's a race! The Sabrevois vines have broken their buds and the first leaves are popping out on the canes. This is very early, even for Sabrevois. This ridiculously mild winter, followed by what appears to be an extremely early spring has pushed everything out of dormancy a good month before our typical last freeze. Hopefully the trend holds and it's like this from here on out. A late freeze really does a number on tender new shoots and buds. I'm pruning as fast as I can and I'm leaving extra buds and longer than normal canes for this year's growth in case we do get a freeze and it kills the vines back. It happens.

The good thing about grape vines though is if you leave extra length to the canes you are pruning, typically the buds that are near the tips pop open before the ones closer to to the cordon and trunk. This means that by leaving extra buds near the ends of the canes, if you get a freeze, those might get killed back but the ones that haven't started pushing out new growth are still a little protected. It creates an extra step if you don't get a freeze and have to go back and prune a second time to get rid of the excessive growth, but it's cheap insurance.

I'm about half way done with pruning. I'm done with the Sabrevois vines and I'm almost done with the three-year-old Traminette. I'll be starting on the four-year-old Traminette sometime this week, and then go to work on the Cynthiana after that. Sabrevois is completely in full bud break now. The Traminette and the Cynthiana are a little behind but just about ready to go too. The longer it takes to finish pruning, the harder it is because once the buds start to swell and open, they're really fragile and are easily knocked off, essentially wasting a cane and leaving a gap where this year's growth should be. I'll have to be more careful while I prune to avoid knocking them off, which means no tugging and yanking on the canes while I prune. I'm hoping to be done with this by the end of next weekend. That may be a little ambitious but we'll see.

One little adaptive strategy that grapes have is that within every node where a bud pushes out, there's also a tiny secondary bud, and a really tiny tertiary bud that will push out if something happens to the primary and secondary buds. The only problem with this is that while the secondary and tertiary buds create new shoots that grow into canes, these buds are not fruitful so you don't get a cluster of grapes from this node (there are a few hybrids that do have fruitful secondary buds but none of the cultivars we are growing do this). So, a late freeze can do a lot of damage to this season's crop, but not necessarily damage the entire vine.

Hopefully we're out of the frost window and well into spring at this point. Hope-Hope-Hope...

Winter Gardening

One of the long-term goals I've had since moving to Iowa has been to have a greenhouse so I could extend the growing season both in the early spring and also the late, late fall. Over the past month or so, I've been putting together some ideas on how I can transition to full-time farmer. One way is to be able to grow produce for local farmer's markets, restaurants, and eventually start a CSA/subscription farm. One of the things I'm really interested in is food security on the local level, and helping the community, in my case my little town, grow and produce more of what it consumes. Our vineyard is the first step in this direction. Greg and I hope to be marketing wine under our own label in the next few years and in spite of the dramatic growth of artisan wineries in Iowa, and all over the Midwest, there isn't one in our county. We intend to change that. Expanding into raising other types of produce gels well with the existing vineyard, as we have already purchased the tractor, implements, and tools we need, so the additional expenses are fairly minimal.

In conjunction with the vineyard/winery, we've got plenty of space for several greenhouses/high tunnels, and Iowa State and Cornell have been researching growing raspberries and blackberries in tunnels with some very good results. I'm considering doing this along side the vineyard, and there are several potential markets for the berries, including restaurants, wineries, farmer's markets and bakeries. I'm researching the feasibility of putting up a big tunnel and raising fall-ripening berries. I already have the majority of the equipment I would need, I'd just need the tunnel and the plants. Oh, and I also have two hives full o' bees!

In the meantime, I bought this...

on Craigslist last week. It's a 14 x 44 foot tunnel greenhouse that I bought from some folks up north. They used it to raise cut flowers and nursery plants and got out of the business and put the tunnel up for sale. Nice people. They're delivering it next Saturday. This is a decent sized greenhouse and it comes with all of the fans, benches, lumber, and so forth that we would need. We'll put it up this spring and use it get a jump on this year's garden, and see what kind of production we can get from it before it's warm enough to start the outdoor gardening. I'm going to use this season to get a handle on growing for markets and one restaurant customer who's interested in what I'm doing. I'm going to start out at our little Albia Farmer's Market and spread out from there. There are five markets within about 20 miles of me, all on different days of the week, starting in early May and running through October. Keeping good records this season should allow me to estimate the volume I'll need to grow to cover the markets, restaurant(s) and a small CSA.

I'm taking a self-directed crash course in all of this and I'll document the progress on this blog. Feel free to ask questions or offer input.

Snowy Morning Pictures

Here are a few pics I took this morning. That's the frozen vineyard out there. I've done a little pruning but have most of the vineyard left to do.

After having almost no snow all winter, conditions were perfect last night for light, fluffy snow. It was fairly calm all night so the snow stuck to every surface. It was beautiful this morning. Of course, the wind kicked up and blew most of it out of the trees
by mid morning, and by this afternoon, the snow was drifting across the roads making little snow dunes in open areas. I went to the dump to get rid of some construction debris, and had a fun time getting it out of the truck. I'd loaded the truck on Monday thinking I'd get to the dump on Wednesday when it was 40-something degrees, then procrastinated until today, and of course everything was frozen into one solid chunk of drywall scraps, trash from the barn, and assorted pieces of plywood and other lumber from constructing the studio. What a pain that was... I finally situated the truck on enough of a slope that I could get into the bed and shove the whole frozen pile out to the tailgate, and finally tipped it out, and drove out from under it.

Cracking the Code

Iowa wines have been getting some very good press lately. Here's a link to a story that aired last night on our local news. Slowly but surely, Midwest winemakers are learning how to make terrific wines with the cold climate grapes we're able to grow here.

http://www.kcci.com/video/30523859/detail.html

... and here is a write-up on the growth of small-scale wineries popping up all over the place. If you have the chance, take the time to stop in and check out what they have to offer.

http://westernfarmpress.com/grapes/local-wineries-boosting-us-economy

... and here's a link to a review of a local Iowa winery's offerings.

http://blog.nowandzin.com/2012/02/16/wine-country-iowa---schade-creek-vineyard--winery.aspx

... and finally, here's a link to the Iowa Winegrower's Association, to see how much has happened in only about 12 short years.

http://iowawinegrowers.org/

Very exciting times around these parts!!!