It keeps getting better

Hola all,

I came up yesterday (Sunday) and enjoyed a mountain bike ride through some of the neighbor's vineyards. There is no more beautiful place to ride a bike than the Santa Rita Hills. It is spectacular.

Today I got up and worked with the crew at 6:00 AM. We were netting the vines to keep the birds away from the fruit. So far, the berries are almost entirely green, and therefore not susceptible to bird attacks, but as veraison occurs the nets are essential to fruit health. Netting involves un-rolling large rolls of bird nets over the vines. The trusty tractor is an indespensible tool for this operation:

After work I ran over to a couple of the nearby wineries - Foley and Melville. Each is just a mile or so down the road. I learned one thing today that I wish I was aware of earlier - wineries give serious discounts to fellow winemakers/wineries/interns. Without going into too much detail, I'll be able to drink my weight in SRH wines for less $$$ than I ever dreamed.

After some significant wine tasting and a wonderful dinner of Thai food, I walked down to the pond for a bit of bass fishing. I caught a bass on nearly every cast. All were small, but it was still great fun. Here's my trophy:

(I have no idea how these photos will look, bear with me...)

Now I'm enjoying a bit of the local Pinot Noir and writing this blog. Here are a few more pictures, including the sheep, the landscape, Winston the pug, and Rosa, the Border Collie. An amazing dog, to say the very least. Enjoy!

"Actually, it only takes one drink to get me loaded. Trouble is, I can't remember if it's the thirteenth or fourteenth." - George Burns