January
We began planning the winery portion to go along with the vineyard.
February
We plowed some snow and got ourselves in the mindset to get underway with the newest addition to the vineyard to plant additional Itasca and replace our dead Cab Fran with Traminette.
March
A quiet month spent working on additional plans and planting details.
April
Gearing up to moving from Missoula to Dixon, the vineyard.
May
A cleaning of the cabin, replacing and fixing up a few odds and ends and we moved into our new home! Delivery of the winery building!! Three tons of steel into a pile in the pasture.
June
A new addition to the cabin began to take shape to allow for a little bit larger living area to make life a little easier. Also the addition of new vines, trellising and irrigation to support the planting and expansion of the vineyard.
July
A visit from my brother put the addition on a faster track with walls, a heating system, and a jump start on a lot of other portions.
August
Progress on the winery with the digging of the foundation!
September
We added an additional member to the team! Welcome baby Eleanor, happy and healthy and right on time for our first harvest… then on to HARVEST TIME!! We had our hands forced to harvest with an early snow storm. We received about 3 inches of snow and wicked cold weather as the month ended, but we were able to harvest nearly 1500 pounds of grapes.
October
Figuring out what to do with about 100 gallons of grape juice. We purchased four small tanks to allow us to proceed with making some test wines from the first harvest.
November
The addition is coming along and nearing completion, and the concrete has been laid for the foundation of the winery! Now to await some warmer weather to start the construction process.
December
Cold weather and threats of snow but no appreciable accumulation. On to the NEW YEAR! Hello 2020!!
