More Wine Less Whine

Yesterday we bottled the Vidal Blanc wine from last seasons grapes.

The wine has been working in its little glass barrels for almost a year now.

And the little taste I was allowed before it flowed through the pipes and into the bottles led me to believe that this will be a definite improvement on the 2011. No more cleaning fluid notes. Though the wine is in shock from the bottling for a wee while yet. A proper taste will not be had for a month or so yet. This is why Our John hates to bottle it as I keep having to taste it. And it would benefit from a good sit in the bottles.

Vidal Blanc is meant to be a sweeter wine. So, last year we picked late, after the first of the frosts. This year the peahens are locked up  in their Peahen Palace, they ate a good third of my crop last year, so there is a chance we will get more grapes and I am tempted to try for an ice wine, leaving the grapes on the vine right through to the first hard freeze.

This means less wine, but we may get as far as producing a real sticky dessert wine which is my objective.

 Sheila. I love Sheila. She is trying to talk me into leaving Charlotte in the rat house paddock.  Though I think that Charlotte is over the fighting now and wants to be friends. They are divided by this gate and it is still in good shape, so in a few days I will put them together and see how they get on. My first attempt resulted in a ferocious pig fight. Both came away with scrapes and bites.  The Lady Vet came out yesterday and took blood from Queenie and Daisy for their pregnancy tests. I brought Daisy into a stall, she saw the Lady Vet and quick as a whip she jack-knifed like a truck in a canyon, and jammed her rear into a corner. She was not having any of it. She does not like the Lady Vet one tiny bit.  And as I have said before she is a huge cow, being IN a pen with a huge ton of furious cow, showing the whites of her eyes is a little unnerving but with some trickery  and soothing words I got her tied up and it only takes seconds to draw blood. The vein is underneath the base of their tail so it is fairly easy to draw.  We should have the results within the week. That bad storm the other day leveled much of the sweetcorn and dumped the rest of the cooking apples on the ground. That’s OK, the pigs and I are happy to share the windfalls. My stash of apple sauce is growing nicely.  This cool weather is not helping my tomatoes ripen but the aubergine is loving it.

Good morning. It is dawning fine and clear again.  Another excellent day to work in. The man is coming today to scrounge about the sheds for materials and start to build the mobile chicken run. I am very much looking forward to this taking shape. Nothing pleases me more than having animals and birds out on the grass. And the thought of a mobile field fertiliser is deeply pleasing. Chicken poop is very high in nitrogen, one of the best fertilisers you can get,  so I will be watching the regrowth carefully.  The chicken tractor will be moved daily, maybe even twice a day and when they are bigger there will be a little door so they can come out and free range in the day time and be tucked up in their house for the nights.

Now, I had better get my own tractor out and go into the field to cut more sweetcorn and their stalks for the animals. They love them.

Have a lovely day won’t you. Find loveliness in your day if you can. Each day is so precious.

Your friend, celi