Planting

Well it is finally done, well except for 29 plants. We planted on Saturday and Monday and all 2000 Sangiovese vines are planted. As we were finished we figured out that there were 29 plants missing and the nursery in Washington State is sending them as fast as possible. A special thanks should go out to all who helped, it was quite an experience. Here are a few pictures.

This is Joe planting the first vine..



MJ got a little dirty too, we were both sore.


The boys post hole diggin'



The crew that helped on Saturday. They are from Left to right: Curtis and Nancy Simpson, Quade Brewer, Taylor Morgan, Chance Cozart, Sawyer Bocanegra, Joe and MJ Waldron, Seth Simpson, and Parker Morgan.

Something Great

Well this weekend MJ and I were a part of something great.

First we spent the night at the Kirkpatricks, enjoying company and new friends. That was fantastic. We all laughed a lot.

Saturday morning I was invited to golf with my brother in law Britain. It was a little more sunny than expected and I got burnt to a crisp. Shot a good round of golf for the first of the year, and actually witnessed a snake killing on the 16th hole. That was the highlight of the day, good job Ray.

Immediately following the round of golf MJ and drove to Oklahoma City to participate in the OKC Memorial Marathon. Nine runners from Childress participated and they all did awesome. Three ran a half marathon, Randy Allen ran a full marathon (amazing), and MJ and I participated in a marathon relay. We each ran a leg of the relay. Each leg was of various lengths and in the end, the five of us completed a marathon together. Our Team included Joe and MJ Waldron, Haley Allen, Lindsey Keys, and Lee Ann Dean. Our time was somewhere in the neighborhood of four and a half hours. But that is not what we ended up talking about.

During the race we all just could not help but be touched by the spirit of the event. The wheelchair participants, the runners running for a cause or to tribute someone lost, were all so inspiring. As hard as it is to explain, it is a feeling I will never forget.

Lastly, my hat goes off to Randy for doing what so few in the world would even consider. He completed a 26.2 mile marathon in a little over 5 and a half hours with the last 13 or so miles into a 20 mile an hour head wind which in his words "ate my lunch" and was "ridiculous." Pushing him through the last half was a relay member. Lee Ann Dean ran her leg of the relay then waited for Randy to get to her station and ran the remainder of the race with him. That means she ended up running nearly 17 miles or so to help a friend who could have used a little company.

This is the whole group

This is our relay team

And this is the relay crossing the finish line, minus Lee Ann who was still running with Randy Allen.


It was awesome and now we have state testing at school and the vines are being delivered on Wed. the 29th. So the vineyard will be in full swing this weekend. Planting 2000 vines as quickly as possible. anyone want to help?????

Carpet

Well we have made some progress on both the vineyard and the house. In the vineyard the long process of getting all the structure in is about done. What was going to take about 10 days has taken over a month. Don't get me started. I do not have a picture to show, but the irrigation is hooked up and running, and all that remains is the fence that goes around the whole vineyard. That should be started today.

The house has changed dramatically. The carpet was installed on Thursday. Two guys from Carpet world in Lubbock came Thursday morning at 9:00 am and left Friday morning at 6:00 am. That's right they stayed all night until it was done. I guess they finished at one in the morning and slept a bit before they drove back to Lubbock. Anyway it looks amazing. Val Podea and his brother Chris started the stair railing, and Joe Stalcup finished the stain and lacquer on the cabinets.

So here are a few pictures, one is an up close of the carpet so you can have an idea what it really looks like.

More to come....

p.s. Anyone want to help plant vines on April 25th? We need around 15 people to really make it work fast and effective. Let me know.

Spring Break

Here is how my Spring Break went. A little paint, a little sanding, a little covering of wallpaper, a little plowing in the vineyard.

Here are some pictures with some before and after shots of a few rooms.

Before the kitchen looked like this,


Today it looks like this.



The master bedroom once looked like this...



And now looks like this....

Our orange room which once was covered in this orange velvet wallpaper and looked like this....


Now is a smooth textured room with a slight green paint job and looks like this.....


And here is one picture of how the vineyard is coming along. The people installing the framework for the vineyard are amazing. The posts are so straight it just blows me away. Today the vineyard looks like this....

Cabinets

I know they are bear wood, but here are the kitchen cabinets, made of Red Oak by Joe Salcup from Lubbock Texas. We are going to stain them dark with no pull knobs.

This side of the kitchen will have no appliances, just the small peninsula as an eating area.


This is the other side. You are looking at where the sink will be under the window and to the left the Microwave above the range oven.

This is a good view of the doors with the crown molding on top to create a castle top look.

And that is it for now, lights, paint, carpet, and a staircase are left. Some people say we will be in by Easter.

We shall see....

A little Progress

Just a few pics of the progress of the vineyard at Tell. These are all as of 3/10/09. More work to be done this week with fence, wires and drip irrigation.

This is a pic of the water lines for all 16 rows coming out of the ground at the north end of each row. It was rough but this is connected to our new well in that small white house in the background. Thanks Chad Detwiler and WP Drilling out of Quannah, Texas.

This is the view looking south from the driveway that goes to the house. The rows are 500 feet long and have a T-Post every 16 feet. The accuracy of the placement of each post is astounding. Thanks Mendoza Fencing.

The view from the south end of the vineyard looking north at the house.

A close up of the row so you can get an idea of how straight the Mendozas set the posts.


It is all too exciting.

Tile and a Fan

I just wanted to post some pictures of the tile in our new bathrooms and the new ceiling fan we got for a steal at Home Depot in Amarillo. It never ceases to amaze me that small changes can make a huge difference.




On all our upstairs windows there are gaps behind the window casing. These gaps are so big you can see outside so they have now been filled with Good Stuff expandable foam. That stuff rocks. Of course I had to scrape out all the wasp nests that were in there before the foam, but that is the fun part.


I am not a pro, but it looks pretty good for a slacker like me.


We like this fan so much there will be four of them in the house.