Glorious Spring rain is marching into the wee hours of tomorrow even as I type. Its wonderful to have non-freezing precipitation early in the growing season—especially as the rain brings cooler temperatures than the unseasonable upper 70s & 80s from earlier this week. If the rains continue into the weekend, there will be a wet slog in the vineyard.

The Vineman and I were talking about the likelihood of a stinkbug rally this year, since as we remember it, we had one good snow this winter. Tim Wheeler’s article: Fruit growers fret over early spring discussed Maryland wine grape grower’s take on the wearisomely warm start of the MidAtlantic growing season. In the article, Ed Boyce echos our bug concern.

Until we get to that stage, we’ll attend to the tasks before us: shoot thinning. Vineyards in Virginia, especially nestled around the Piedmont of the Blue Ridge mountains, are debudding right now—a step before shoot thining. Dave McIntyre’s post: An early spring buds hope, and uncertainty, covers Virgina vineyards’ efforts well.

The kick-off to the 2012 growing season is fierce—but that is what growing on Maryland’s Coastal Plain will get you! Typically, we are two weeks ahead of Maryland’s Piedmont Plateau and westward. Its a challenge, all right, but the love of the land and what is wrought from his hands keeps the Vineman and his family’s feet firmly planted.

New Year’s Eve and Day found us in the vineyard working on stabilizing end posts throughout our vineyard lots. The posts were weakened from Tropical Storm Lee’s rain train during the beginning of September. The vineman and crew have been making steady progress on righting and pounding the posts; setting a level horizontal bar brace; and then tensioning the cordon wires. We’re happy to see Samuel in the vineyard again, as this work needs to finish soon so that we may begin to prune. We have 150 rows to prune 8 weeks. That means the Vineman and Jesse need to kick out 8 rows a week each, roughly, leaving ECPete and me 16 rows each to complete before pruning season ends. Since I divide my free time between vineyard and visiting my momma, I need to be clippity quick with the shears this year!

New Year’s Eve was quite cheery with family and friends. Randy brought down his smoker and set to providing us this delicious boneless rib roast:

encrusted with herbs, bound with twine and set a smoking for a couple of hours. He then grilled some mighty asparagus and we all tucked into eating the meal complete with whipped potatoes that Kathleen made. The Vineman’s 5:3 Mourvedre and Touriga blend had decanted well and was delicious with this steakhaus meal. At the end of the evening, we wrote our three wishes for 2012, stuffed them into our new unicorn pinata, “Brawling Briana,” and then the Vineman ceremoniously officiated the New Year by lowering Brawling Briana unicorn to our count-down:

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1

Happy New Year!

Best wishes to you and yours from me and mine all throughout 2012! Happy New Year, everyone!

Meet my new set of living room side tables. No. Really. Well, perhaps as much as really as 365 Crochet or 365 Birds—but, I’m convincing myself that is particular project will see the light of day.

First off, let me say: Pinterest is dangerous. People do all manner of really cool things which makes me feel that I can do the same. When I saw a tutorial of how to make a tree stump table, I immediately remembered:

The downed Osage Orange tree from tropical storm, Lee, at the start of harvest! All I need is for the Vineman to cut the log straight in half (for two tables), trim the edges and haul it home for me so it can sit in the townie and dry. Then, I’ll hack off all the bark, sand it down, buy & install some adjustable legs, and put a protective sealer on it. Simple, right? Completely do-able. And, its going to look awesome up against a couch, since its partly flat on one side, anyway. This particular part of the trunk is a bright yellow, but the wood in other parts of the tree is a wonderful orange color. Its hard to choose what part of the tree to use, but we picked out the easiest portion of the log to roll away. I think I can make this happen. And I’ll also finish that huge mirror made of the oyster shells and white pebbles from the vineyard, too.

The Vineman is skeptical but willing, as usual, to indulge me in my quest.

To see beautiful examples of what I’m trying to do, check out:

http://nickadoo.ca/tree-trunk-tables/

For a tutorial, so you can try the same, see:

http://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/stumped-how-to-make-a-tree-stump-table/

Snow at the townie, but its raining at the farmhaus. The Vineman and I are yet again splitting our weekends up to accommodate our family needs: me with the boys and he with the harvest. So while I’m attending to the domestic frontier, he’s pressing out the Tinta Cao:

At the winery, we use the bladder press. Here at the farmhaus, for our “estate” bottling, we use either foot or wine press. The stomp happened a couple of weeks ago (thanks Lyrel & Co!—I will post those pics!), the Tinta Cao has been marcerating with the skins and seeds. Its time to press them out. Here is the pomace cake result:

Pretty, no? We use the Tinta Cao to blend with a few other reds. This fruity, aromatic winegrape blends well with our other Portuguese wine, Touriga Nactional. Its a featured grape in the Vineman’s Port—completely delish!

Today we got out the pipe cleaners and worked on bird outlines. Here is Boy2′s penguin outline. His brother, Boy1 was so inspired, he created an emperor penguin to go with his brother’s:

On the way home, I hit the craft store looking for some playdough for tonight’s birding. I wanted to make it an easy session because Boy2 ran a fever last night and spent the day sleeping and recovering. Boy2&I have a long history of playdough. When he was small, he would be so psyched when I’d bring home some fresh stuff to replenish the old air-dried multicolored mess of fun from before. We’d get out the pretzel barrel of playdough molds and presses and go to town. Tonight we went old school and worked quickly with our fingers while Daddy made us grilled cheese and cream of tomato soup, with chunks of tomatoes—like Momma likes.

It was a pleasant evening talking about what type of bird we were going to make and then talking about the day we had as we made them. Boy2 made the Angry Birds, which I thought was a wonderfully minimalist approach!

Today was Taco Night and another late night inspiration where Boy2&I use the materials at hand. Enter, Clucky the Chicken. Boy2 says he’s cool because his beak is open.

Boy2 and I hastily cobble together Day2's bird

Day2 of 365Birds is a quickly constructed Lego Bird, complete with a little stack of bird seed. We started out with Boy2 taking the lead and me acting as triage nurse: “I need six more squares!” Boy2 would cry and I would dig thru the Big Vat of Legos for the proper piece. Upon presentation, Dad identified the construct as a bird and we quickly raised our hands as if we had just roped a calf. A quick photo shoot and Boy2 slid into bed, only a half hour late on a school night.

We had fun, but I need to remember to allow us much more time tomorrow!

Boy2's Bird in the Dirt, drawn with his feet.

I know some of you all remember me blogging my initial project: 365 Crochet—which was great fun for 14 days and then the car broke down. Getting the car back up on its wheels stalled the daily crochet project indefinitely. 365 Crochet was a fun project, but a little lonely, since I was working by myself.

As fate would have it, I met up with Noah Scalin. At a recent workshop, he offered 365 Nerd Merit Badges to the first five who wanted them bad enough. I’m hyper-competitive and really coveted that badge. After nearly mowing Noah down and muttering his name over and over—still embarrassed about my behavior—Noah handed me a badge. All 5 of us pledged to live up to the 365 badge by creating something, everyday. As I promised, I had this decision flash to make this a joint project with Boy2. It would be great fun! Boy2 and I would make something together everyday for a year!

Boy2 was initially skeptical and not really a fan of the idea. “I only do crafts when I’m really, really bored, Mom.” Before we went to the vineyard this morning to gather & test the grapes, I showed him Noah’s book, Skulls, and talked about how we would choose a motif or theme and make one thing a day. As we picked grapes, we brainstormed motif options—the letter “B,” snakes, diamonds, peace signs and birds. We were stymied: diamonds or birds. Boy2 wanted diamonds. I wanted birds. I suggested we write our brainstorming on slips of paper and then randomly draw our theme for the year. Boy2 finished his row and disappeared for a bit. Ger finished up his rows and we made our way to the truck. Boy2 was in front of the tool shed and said, “I made our bird for today!” and pointed at the ground.

It was awesome. I especially like the bird’s wing, which Boy2 made with 3 footprints. 365Birds is launched!

Beach Chicken recipe was born out of necessity one beach vacation, long ago, when Boy1 was so small that now he assumes beach chicken always existed. Beach Chicken was so successful, the dish was considered an essential part of the family beach experience and until recently, was only served during beach week. The recipe was so easy to make, however, that we recently pressed beach chicken into service during vineyard weekends, when a quick, tasty meal are always appreciated.

The original Beach Chicken recipe was always grilled, however, our recent beach vacation rental didn’t have an easy access grill. Ger worked out a stove top method that boy2 really loved. During Hurricane Irene, I made Beach Chicken for the boyz ala Topsail method. It was an easy way to distract us from the approaching storm and celebrated the last weekend of summer before school. Here is the stove top method, but you could easily grill the Beach Chicken—but you will have to make the sauce separately. Enjoy!

Beach Chicken ala Topsail

• Chicken Thighs, enough for your family
• Salsa, enough to cover the chicken thighs, plus a bit more for the sauce
• Alcohol: Rum, Tequila, Vodka—whatever you have on hand—about a half cup to cup, depending upon the size of your crowd.
• 3 cloves smashed garlic

Toss the chicken, salsa, and alcohol of choice into a gallon storage bag or bowl with plastic wrap covering. Stuff into the refrigerator. Go out and enjoy the beach. Or, work hard in the vineyard.

Come back and grill the chicken. Offer salsa on the side with whatever else you are offering.

Or! Dredge chicken in some flour, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and garlic powder. Brown chicken in olive oil in a big, deep fry pan. Then pour more the marinade & more salsa (if needed) over the chicken, turn the heat down to medium/low and cover. Simmer the chicken while you make the couscous and flash cook the green beans. The marinade will make a nice thick sauce with the flour from the chicken. Easy! Enjoy!