I officially don't know what happened to the month of April. I didn't accomplish much and I'm very thankful that it has come and gone. I don't have very much to show of April. It may seem like lost time, considering March's road trip was so active, but either way, I'm back on track. It's good to see that others come by and check here- I never really have an idea of how many people read this, so I'm always shocked when someone like Rob says "so when is your next blog coming?"
Well, there was that one week where I drove up to Nova to see my brother and go to work on the vineyard. Tiago and I helped Steve install some grow tubes on the vineyard (here's his coverage of that event) It snowed on us a few times, but we still got some work done- probably half-a-dozen rows or so, maybe. (here's a shot of the finished project when Mackey completed the job)The grow tubes are placed over the vines (and supported by bamboo) to protect the grapevines from bugs, herbacides, deer, rabbits, and frost.
The more I read about the process of starting a vineyard, the more I'm completely amazed at all that needs to be figured out ahead of time. Those "randomly circular orange" tubes are intentionally orange, designed with special sun-ray blocking materials, are circular to allow for full access to all hours of the sun (as opposed to older triangular shaped tubes)-- just one of the dozen reasons why he's doing it the way he's doing it. I was very impressed. I haven't looked at a farmer's field the same way since then.
Also not to be taken lightly is the complexity of whacking a golf ball. I played my first game of golf up at Queensfield Plantation last week. I had been practicing quite a bit with my driver, and got a few really solid hits, but most of the time was carried by my team members' better shots. We played "best ball," meaning that when someone hit a ball closest to the flag, we all played from that point. It was terrific to not have a competitive game the first time around. My teammates were awesome, and it was great to just be out there, enjoying nature. Sure beats working.
I had a few interviews that week, and did quite a bit of hunting/applying for full-time gigs. My odd jobs consulting have kept me busy this month, but it would be nice to have something more steady. I can always do housecalls at night when I'm home from the office.
Then, this past friday, I went with Tom and his father to their beach house up in the Northern Neck. Their place, right on the Patomac, was a perfect home-base for our fishing trip. We went Rockfishing early saturday morning.
Around 6:45, we were out the door and boarding a 43' fishing boat. The water was very choppy, and the wind & rain were not making for a pleasant morning. The boat tossed and turned for quite a while, and we couldn't walk around without hanging on to something. Our moods improved when the first of the trolling poles was bent over from a hungry Rockfish a hundred feet away from the boat. Craig was the first to reel one in, and it was a beauty.
We all caught a fish, and they were enormous. I got a 16-pounder that was 32 inches long and wore me out. Our legal limit was one per person, so we got those and then just released any that we caught from that point. No fish was lighter than 10 pounds or shorter than 30 inches. These were huge fish, and they were biters! We made out like bandits!
When we made it back to shore, our cap'n graciously gutted them into fillets and Craig cleaned them out in the sink so we could take them home. I had five Ziploc bags full of filets when I arrived home, two went to the fridge for this week's meals and the others went to the freezer. I look forward to frying them up!
Also this week, drywallers finally came to start on Mike and Lauren's attic. We got the whole attic drywall ready and they'd been dealing with no-show vendors who had just made the whole experience miserable. Finally, Johnny-on-the-Spot came through as a broker and subcontracted guys to come in. They got the ceiling up and will be back next week to finish the gig.
...and then we paint. :-)
