Whacky Weed?

Well, unfortunately there is no whacky weed involved only weed whacking. I spent two earlier days on the tractor with the mower on its back end, trying to mow as close as possible to the vine WITHOUT mowing down the vine. Luckily, I succeeded.

But the mower won't get rid of those pesky weeds in between the vines. That's where the manual labor kicks in. Manual me. So I get on my jeans, sturdy shoes, protective cap, long sleeved shirt, leather gloves, safety googles and head out to the vineyard with the commercial grade weed whacker.

Initially, we had just a "normal house with a yard" grade machine. Ate it the first year. Now we have a his and hers set of commercial machines. At the moment it's just hers. The rate is an hour a row. There's 29 rows.

I like doing that work.....sort of. I like getting out in the vines and seeing vine by vine how they're doing. Bringing up their canopy into the new wires, pruning back the wild branches. Communing with organized nature.

The part I don't like is....I don't like having to reset the weed whacker wire and filling up with gas every row of vines. And the strap that initially looks pretty comfortable, becomes a torture device after a couple of hours. And the machine vibrates and after awhile so do you. My hands vibrate for at least 3 hours after a couple of hour stint. Finally, I'm covered in weed debris so any hygenic actions I took earlier in the day are lost. Sometimes the weeds are even on my teeth.

Oh well, I'm gonna quit my whining and pour myself a glass from the liter of the Barefoot Zin. $10.99 a bottle. This is the type of wine you want if you don't need memorable, you just need "God, I've been weedwhacking all day.....give me a drink." Everybody has day's like that....well, maybe not exactly like that but you know what I mean.

Remember Imbibe and Enjoy!