Why is it that every year, despite how unseasonably mild the weather has been, when I pick up my bare-root vines it is raining? Then the next day when I plan to plant, a cold front blows in. It never fails. So this past Friday I picked up 130 bare-root vines. Yes, it rained on me as I drove through Tyler to visit True Vine Vineyards, my vine supplier. It was a good visit and I always appreciate the information Chris has to share.

 Then, I drove south past Rusk to Maydelle where I stopped at Maydelle Winery. The winery and tasting room is a quaint little place out in the woods. I picked up the two cases of wine from our 2012 Black Spanish harvest that the owner had saved for me. They named the wine Lenore’s Texas Table Wine. I loved the play on words they used with Lenoir and Lenore – from The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. And some pretty good wine too.

 On Saturday morning, it was just above freezing and crazy windy. I wore my long underwear under baggy pants, three shirts, thick socks, hiking boots and a warm jacket. Once my sons, Dereck and Ben, and I started working we mostly forgot about the cold. We planted over 100 vines. I couldn’t have finished without their help.

The next day, Sunday, I skipped church so I could finish filling the holes and packing in the dirt around the new vines. Then I started replacing about 30 vines that didn’t make it in last year’s planting. That took me all day!

 Needless to say, this old body is tired. However, I’m happy to have the planting completed. Now…time to prune.