I have been busy lately, now that the trellis is put in, and just haven't done hardly anything except walk around among the vines. The things I have been working on are projects that have been put on hold for the spring. I finished building my powder horn for black powder hunting, and I am teaching myself to paint with oils.

I never thought that I could paint with oils, I just wrote it off that I would have to wait until Heaven to learn, kind of learning how to speak Hebrew. Well, I have started learning Hebrew, and now I have started learning how to paint. I have made 2 paintings so far and it is a lot of fun. My whole purpose in painting is to be able to paint my wine bottle label so I do not have to buy someone else's artwork. But along the way, I am finding all kinds of beautiful things that I can paint, so I am very excited about what the future holds.

My biggest news in the vineyard is my one grape cluster that has been growing this year. It has grown well, and started to turn color going from green to purple in about 1 week. But then, one morning I came out to see it, and it was gone. The birds had eaten all the purple grapes and left the 2 green ones. It was so much of a bummer. But I am glad that I learned this lesson this year instead of having my first crop get eaten next year. Now I will be prepared.

The vines are growing thick and starting to drape over the wires, and some are hanging half way down to the ground. My wife even said that it is starting to look like a vineyard. It is going to be exciting next year to see how it grows even more vigorously than this year.