Day Two on Gainey Ranch

This morning was nicer than yesterday, a little warmer and lots of sunshine. We teed off at around 10:00 am at Gainey Ranch Golf Club. This is the same club that we are staying at. Our gracious host, John Dimetra, has not only allowed us to stay in his condo, but invited us to play at his course. It was a great day to play golf. Here are three pictures of today's round.





I must say, as far as scores go, I personally did better today than yesterday. Tomorrow we are playing at the Golf Club of Scottsdale, so things could turn for the worst. That course is supposed to be the toughest one of our three day stay. An added bonus is that we will be playing with our childhood neighbors, John and Kurt Peterson. Wish us luck.

Well Day one is over

It was a long day but a good one. My Dad, Patrick and myself are staying in a condo on a golf course at Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona. This morning we went to the Gainey Ranch Pro Shop and my brother and I took a half an hour lesson from a pro named Randy. He helped Partick and I a lot. It was a great half and hour lesson. We left straight from there and drove about 30 miles up to the mountains to a golf club called Desert Mountain. Pictures are below, but let me just tell you we lost many golf balls, and enjoyed spectacular views. After golf we had dinner with some friends from Chicago, and now we are about to relax for the evening. More to come.

Our First Day in Phoenix

Well my brother, Patrick along with my Dad, Ed, and myself arrived in Phoenix Arizona Last night and it began. It was like we were kids again. Just laughing and being boys. We went to bed late and got up early. Day one of golf is today at Desert Mountain, it should be fun. I will post more as we go. Here is our Morning Picture.

An Interesting Weekend

Well it has been awhile, but I thought I would send out an update. Life with Joe and MJ is great. We have spent every evening for the past two weeks tying grape vines to the posts they will grow up for the next thirty years. We both got to work and come home around 5:30 or so and tie vines until we finished a row. Each row takes about two hours to tie the 125 vines. Then we eat dinner and fall over.

Well this weekend we finished the vines, but not before a four foot surprise on Saturday morning. MJ and I were in the garage about to get in my car and head to the bank to clear up a mistake, and IT happened. The sound that most Texans know and never forget rang out in the garage. It was loud. The distinct vibration of a rattlesnake's tail caused MJ, who was about six feet from it, to stop and turn right around. I proceeded to ask her to get the dogs, who were also in the garage, and take everyone into the backyard. I went and got a hoe and drug that four foot long snake into the driveway and decapitated it. Below are some pretty good pictures of it post injury. It had been nearly a year since the last rattlesnake murder, so it came as quite a shock. On top of that, Monday morning while tying vines we came across another little rattlesnake curled up under a vine that I happened to be kneeling down to work on. This was just a baby, but it also fell victim to the hoe and is no longer with us.



Here are just a few pictures of the vineyard taken this Labor Day weekend. You can see just how much they have grown.

This is MJ and our yellow Lab, Zoey, entering the vineyard.

Here is the view from the Master bedroom window. I do not know about you, but to me that seems like a lot of grape vines.

Christmas in August

Well MJ and I got the opportunity to go on a Christmas vacation in August. Marilyn, MJ's mother, decided a while ago to take a vacation for Christmas this year. So we went to The Sandals Royal Carribean in Jamaica the first week of August. My parents, Ed and Arlene, went along with MJ's brother and sister in law, Jammie and Britain Brewer, and her parents J.E. and Marilyn Benham. We had a great time in the sun with great weather. Highlights included, great food, a trip to Dunn's River Falls, some magic, a plantation tour, and two rounds of golf. Overall we had a great time and here are a few pictures of the trip.

MJ and Joe one night before Dinner


One of the Holes on the Half Moon Golf Course, an awesome view.

Ed and Arlene Waldron, Joe's Parents



Joe and MJ, then J.E. Benham and Britain Brewer


Ed Waldron teeing off at White Witch Golf Course.


All of us on the plane going to Jamaica.


All of us once we arrived at Sandals on Sat August 1st.

We have a WInner

I just wanted to show everyone the growth we have had at JMJ Vineyards. As you know in the end of May we had some damage to all our plants from Thrip bugs that looked like this:



In June the Vineyard looked like this:





Today it looks like this:



The Winner is one particular plant that has grown so well that it has reached the 51" wire and is now growing along it to its right. I know this sounds confusing, but each plant needs to get to the 51" wire for optimum fruit growth and this plant has already done this in just under 3 months, and I am as proud as a new born baby's daddy. Well not really, but you understand.

Hope you enjoy these.

Chicago Update

Wow what a difference 990 miles makes.... Low 60's at night, and highs in the low 80's. No air conditioning and fun by Mom and Dad's pool. Marijon arrived on July 10th and we have had a great time visiting our Illinois friends. We have had a great time visiting with the Janeks, Swaffords including baby Eli who is awesome, LaMores, and visiting our old Church River Valley Christian Fellowship. Life has been good. Mike Janek and I have had a great time riding bikes until he was forced into a crash last Saturday and here is a picture of that result.


He actually was very lucky for someone who crashed a road bike at 20 miles an hour because the guy in front of him got caught up in a set of railroad tracks they were crossing. He gets his stitches out Tuesday and we are going to ride again before I leave to come home to Texas.
We have had some fun in the pool. Shown here...

The dogs wanted in the pool really bad, but my mom was very against that.

Then my dad secretly made a plan to get them in the pool and we were successful, and my mom was very upset. This is Zoey swimming. Both our labs love to swim.





And here are a few vineyard pictures from late June when my parents, Ed and Arlene, were in Childress. I put them to work in the vineyard and they did great.



Me and my Momma in JMJ Vineyards getting rid of weeds, fun right?

In Chicago

Well after a very long drive I made it to Chicago, my parents house, yesterday at around 1:30 in the afternoon. The 4th was great. My sister and her entire neighborhood was busted by the cops for illegal fireworks last year so they moved the celebration to my parents house this year. They live in an area that would ensure no police interruption. It rained most of the day but around 6:30 pm it stopped and we had a great fireworks show after dark. Immediately after the show I got a very good nights sleep. Today was very nice, a day by the pool, and hanging two ceiling fans for my momma.

MJ has been in Santa Fe all weekend and seen a spectacle called the Wine Festival. MJ and her mom, Marilyn traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico and have been going non-stop all weekend. They have seen some great art, a lot of different Wine Tastings and good food. MJ tells me she had the best guacamole ever, they made it right in front of her at the restaurant.

Well I will be in Chicago for a while with the rents, I miss my wife and Childress already, but I am looking forward to visiting with old friends and time with mom and dad. Until next time.....Have fun in the heat, in Chicago I can sit outside and not sweat, who would have thunk?

Update

Well here is a little update without any pictures. MJ and I are back in the same town. For the past two weeks we have been in Austin, and then this past week I have stayed in Amarillo for a leadership training. Here is a run down of things happening in our lives:

• Marriage is great, our four day trip to Austin two weeks ago was so fun
• House is great, showers will be finished on Tuesday, plumbing done Monday, we move in at some point Tuesday or Wed.
• Vineyard is growing, despite the damage noted below, they are growing and some are growing fast!!
• Work is uncertain. Toby Tucker our Assist. Sup is leaving us and that may mean a change for the administration of CISD. I have no idea if this will trickle down to me or not, but one thing is for sure, change is often not welcome, but is often good. We shall see.
• Parents, My, Joe's, parents are coming on Thursday, and I cannot wait. It should be fun to hang out with my parents in Childress, TX considering they spend most of their time in the small town of Chicago. Should be interesting.

That's all for now, I will post some pictures of our vines growing soon.

How are your summers going?

Pictures of Damage

Here are photos of the damage in the vineyard after one week of recovery. Looks as if some will be fine. In the photos there are some new leaves that look healthy. But as you can see there are many plants in the vineyard that are very damaged. At the bottom I included some of the star vines that are actually putting out little fruit clusters.

Stress

This is something I have never experienced before, crop damage caused by a crop duster. In our vineyard on Sunday I was casually walking through doing weed control and began to notice plants with leaf damage. Some plants were entirely torched while others were just a leaf or two. It is the opinion of the experts that the vineyard was hit by a vapor cloud of 24d, a nasty chemical, that was not concentrated very high so the damage is not as bad as it could have been. Either way I have a hard time with some farmer spraying their field and it damaging mine. If you cannot keep your stuff in your field, wait for a better time to spray and leave my stuff alone. Some people will say, "That's just farming," but this is not cotton, these plants are planted once and will grow for 30 years, so this stuff effects growth for years. Frustrating.

My hope is that these very tough plants pull through and continue to grow. It will take about two weeks to really see if any need to be dug up and replaced, so we shall wait and keep our fingers crossed.

Here is the damage.......

This picture shows damage on the leaves to the left and healthy leaves on the right.


This one shows the damage on the top of the plant where the newest buds have come out.


And this picture shows a plant that is almost completely damaged

Growth

Growth is something I try to achieve daily and lately I have found growth in a few areas that truly needed it.

#1 My marriage, although a relatively newly married couple, MJ and I have grown thanks to the attention of our Church, pastor, friends and family. If you have not heard Trey is preaching on Marriage the entire month of May. So come on by at 10:20am on Sunday and hear some truly impacting stuff.



#2 My faith. Thanks to a new friend, Jenkins, I was introduced to a book that has made me think more than I ever thought it would. It is called "Blue Like Jazz." Besides making me think and clarifying many issues I have always struggled with, it has sparked conversations with my wife on our spirituality. This is a gift since we have not shared much about this since our dating days.

#3 My move. Moving to Childress has allowed MJ and I to invest in something that could truly change our lives, a vineyard. We have jumped in with both feet starting in March and continuing on to planting the week of May 2nd. Now twenty or so days later we are looking at something that inspires me, growth. Growth of a plant, 2000 of them. It is so hard for me to explain the impact this has made on my life, but to produce something simple but profound, makes me feel like a man. I know we have a long road to go with this endeavor, but the growth is invigorating.

Here are a few pictures.....of the growth in the vineyard.....