Instruments of Torture - Evil! Evil! Evil!

Even as you read this, these evil little bastards are multiplying.

We're told that everything in nature has its place and purpose, even mosquitoes, rattlesnakes and poison oak. I have a hard time accepting that, especially when it comes to these *!#&! stickers!

Oh sure , with their tiny little yellow flowers, they were kind of pretty and innocent looking about a month ago. But then the pretty little flowers went away and left the Trojan Horse to release the fruits of the plant in an effort to control the earth.

Sorry it’s slightly out of focus, but above is a picture of one of those fruits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulus_terrestris
From the Wikipedia link above:
“…A week after each flower blooms, it is followed by a fruit that easily falls apart into four or five single-seeded nutlets. The nutlets or "seeds" are hard and bear two to three sharp spines, 10 mm long and 4–6 mm broad point-to-point. These nutlets strikingly resemble goats' or bulls' heads; the "horns" are sharp enough to puncture bicycle tires and to cause painful injury to bare feet.”
Those are the nutlets in the top picture. I took the other pictures along the shoulder of the Silverado Trail, maybe a half mile North of our winery. If you are interested enough to want to see them for yourself, they are right across the road from the Rutherford Fire Department sub-station. I spent maybe 15 minutes there after work one day this week, taking pictures for this post. When I went to leave, I noticed that my shoes felt different, and this is why:

When I was young and growing up on the Mt. Eden Ranch (Current Rudd & Plumpjack vineyards), there was a county program to eradicate these weeds. I remember the truck driving through the vineyards, but I honestly can’t remember if the plants were physically removed, or just sprayed, but seems I remember a spray tank on the truck (Maybe one of my readers can clarify this). At that time, there was a Western Auto store right on Main Street in St. Helena. We were regular customers there for .22 shells and bicycle tube patches.
The Latin name for this evil plant is Tribulus Terrestri. Cleverly hidden in those letters is the word “Terrible”.

http://www.naturesongs.com/vvplants/puncturevine.html
Gleaning some information from the above site:

Family: Zygophyllaceae, Caltrop Family

Annual Plant Size: Prostrate vine - generally less than 1" (2.5 cm) high, spreading to 5' (1.5 M) long in our area.

Habitat Preferred: Disturbed earth, weedy fields, roadsides Bloom

Color: Yellow tiny flowers

Other Common Names: Goat's head, Bullhead, *!#&! stickers!

Origin: Mediterranean

Comments: This is that obnoxious weed whose seeds are incredibly painful to step on, get tracked into your carpet, puncture your bicycle tires, and have to be pulled out of your pets' paws. The seed pod grows 4 "bullheads" in a circle … when mature it breaks up into 4 separate instruments of torture.

* = * = * = * = *

Yes, I think that descriptor they use: “Instruments of Torture” about sums it up.
Almost daily I hike through the vineyards in that area. On two occasions, I noticed that our Lab mix Yogi had stopped hunting and chasing rabbits, and was following me closely and limping. Both times he had one of these Goat’s Heads stuck in a paw, but being the great dog that he is, he never verbalized or vocalized his discomfort (Do those terms apply to dogs?).

Yogi Bear

Grapes Gone Wild!

This is what a typical Pina Vineyard Management Farmed vine looks like this time of year. The canes have been hand tucked to be inside the trellis wires and the clusters are developing nicely within the fruit zone. The fruit zone is a horizontal band about a foot tall. And as the name implies, it is where the fruit grows. The reason the grapes only grow in this area is because the fruit only forms on buds that arise from the previous season’s growth. And each of the vertical canes (branches) was pruned back to 2 buds during the dormant season. In fact, the clusters above were formed during the 2008 growing season. Before pruning for the next year’s crop, some folks will study the buds on some pruned “sample” canes to forecast the number of clusters that can be expected, and prune accordingly. This is done by opening up the buds and studying them under a microscope. You can actually see the beginning formations of the clusters. I was amazed the first time I had the opportunity to see this.

Later in the year, the grapes will look something like this:

So what happens to a vine that does not get pruned back at the end of the growing season?

Here’s a good example: The picture above is a enlarged section of the picture below:

When a vine goes un-pruned, clusters form all over the vine. The above vine was not pruned because this block of vines is scheduled for removal. There are too many clusters for the vine to carry them all uniformly to full maturity during a regular growing season. The resulting crop is out of control and would not produce the quality of fruit used in most high end wines.

These are obviously “Grapes Gone Wild”

Gimme Five - John C. & Rickie L. Piña Family

Gimme Five by John C. Piña

Rickie and I live in the Alexander Valley of Sonoma County, not far from Healdsburg. We appreciate our two acres of country. It is almost the perfect setting. On three sides we are bordered by vineyards owned by Silver Oak. On the west side we have State Hwy 128, which isn’t a problem. I tell everyone that it reminds me of the Silverado Trail in Napa during my childhood. There is commute and vineyard related traffic and a few trucks in the morning and evening and then quiet. You can count on bicycles and motorcycles on the weekend. Everyone likes to travel the country road through a curvy canyon and finally more wine country. The neighbor across the hwy is the only drawback. You need the reality check or you would think you were in heaven.

In 2001 I committed half of my vegetable garden area to grapevines. There were two reasons for this move. I always tried to plant the whole vegetable garden area; you know, why waste the ground? I was planting 60 tomato plants and 25 peppers, and so on; it needed attention every day and became another job. The second reason was to have a little “home made wine” to share with family and friends. Both of our children and their spouses are into wine, so it seemed like a good idea. I made the mistake of trying to make the wine from the first crop in my barn. It should have been fun, but it was more like work and it wasn’t drinkable. It was time to change the plan. Why not take the fruit to the winery and let the winemaker whip up something special. I had a good idea of what to expect as I knew the fruit would be perfect. So the 2006 fruit was delivered to the winery and the process began.

I believe the year was 1988 or thereabouts when we had the last family hand bottling get together that I was involved in. The occasion was some unsold mixed red fruit, mostly Petite Sirah and Zinfandel that we made into wine for family use. It was called “Bare Butts” in honor of brother Ranndy’s two boys that were born in 1986. Everyone had lots of fun working together using the time tested tools of hand bottling. Everyone participates and all have a good feeling as they are connected to the end product. There is a certain amount of pride and accomplishment. It’s all good.

So in 2008 when the 2006 vintage was ready for bottling, our winemaker Anna said “I’ll just run it through the bottling line at the end of our regular bottling run.” I told her no, I have other plans. I’m sure she was thinking, “Just what I need is someone else making a mess in my winery.” Anna and Macario realized there are just some things you have to live with when dealing with a family member. They were a great help with every detail of the bottling plan. They got the wine ready, ordered the glass, corks (with Piña and Donoho imprinted) and foils. All I needed was the label and the labor.

I put the question to the family, “what are we going to call it?” There were several good ideas and some may think I made the wrong decision but I was making the decision. As my father-in-law enjoyed saying, “I’ve got the gold, so I’ll make the rules.” In this case I was just spending the gold. To me “Gimme Five” was the perfect name for the wine from our little backyard vineyard for several reasons. First, the vineyard is planted to five of the Bordeaux varieties; Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec. Second, we have five grandchildren and third, who hasn’t heard the Gimme Five greeting. So the name was picked and now we needed a label. Rickie, Trish and Tracy put a plan together and some how they got the kids to hold still long enough to “give us five.” I think they all did a grand job. Below is a picture of the “Fab Five” that make up our “Gimme Five.”

From left to right we have Mays, Dallas, Emma, Cooper and Grace.

The "Fab Five" are the 8th generation to be involved in the wine industry in the Napa Valley. The 2007 Gimme Five Red Wine was bottled at Piña Napa Valley on May 23rd, 2009. All 22 members of the bottling crew were related to the Gimme Five by blood or marriage.

Gimme Five & Their Grandparents

Dallas, Rickie, Emma, Cooper, Grace, John C. and Mays

Tracy and Mays

Hayden Benjamin came to the "afterparty"

Trying to get the wine to syphon from the barrel

Gracie and Grammie putting the bottling date and vintage on the labels

Emma Jo creating suction on the filler

Mays foiling the bottles (with help from Mommy and Daddy)

Is the Piña the right direction? Mays making sure the cork is "just right".

Grace's favorite job of the day.

Putting the labels on the bottles with her special flair.

Tough guy Justin using the hand foiler.

Mays' turn with the foiler. We tried to have every team member do each job.

Six bottles of wine being filled at once.

Tracy taking a break to feed her nephew, baby Conner.

Rich checking the fill levels of the bottles.

John R. and his father-in-law, Gene, working through the technical difficulties.

Grammie with Cooper, the youngest of the Gimme Five.

The boys playing in the water when the bottling was done.

Nana Sue trying to keep them out of trouble.

Emma's turn to cork the bottles.

The twins were waiting patiently for their turn.

Grammie Rickie and Dallas sharing a secret.

The three Urquhart grandchildren, Conner, Dallas and Mays.

Urquhart-Piña Family

John, Mays, Gene, Tracy, Dallas, Sue, Cindy, Conner, Troy

Grandpa with the Boys driving the forklift.

Donoho Family: Emma, Cooper, Trish, Jason, Grace

John R. Piña family: John, Mays (with his cheesy grin), Tracy, Dallas

Urquhart-Piña Family

Troy, Cindy, Gene, Mays, John, Sue, Conner, Tracy, Dallas

Donoho-Ramirez Family

Riley,Emma, Stacy, Trish, Cooper, Jason, Grace, Juancho, Justin

John and Rickie's family

Tracy, Mays, John C., John R., Dallas, Emma, Rickie, Grace, Cooper, Trish, Jason

Back Row: Gene Urquhart, Sue Urquhart, Susie Wong, Rich Bietz, John R. Piña, Dallas Piña, Tracy Piña, Juancho Ramirez

Middle Row: Troy Schalk, Cindy Schalk, John C. Piña, Rickie Piña, Cooper Donoho, Trish Donoho, Jason Donoho, Stacy Ramirez

Front Row: Conner Schalk, Mays Piña, Emma Donoho, Grace Donoho, Riley Ramirez, Justin Ramirez

Bottle Shock

We bottled our 2007 Ames, Firehouse, Stone Corral and Wolff vineyard Cabernets in April. Having had barrel samples of these wines, some folks are anxious to pop the cork on these "finished" products. They don't understand that these wines may not be fully recovered from the trauma of bottling, better known as "Bottle Shock". So what is bottle shock? Some wines are so big & powerful, that the flow of wine from the barrel to the bottle generates electrical charges that get confined to the bottle. The wine wants to break free of these confines much like a young high spirited colt wants to get out of the pen. Think of it as a bottled lightning bolt. Over time, this powerful force gets absorbed into the character of the wine and will reward those who wait. But to those who release the "lightning bolt" too soon, they can experience bottle shock that leaves their hair standing on end and smoke coming out of their ears.

Our winemaker, Anna Monticelli, offers a slightly different explanation:

BOTTLE SHOCK
When a wine is bottled, it goes through a temporary phase called bottle shock, also known as wine sickness. The aromatics may be muted, the flavor components disjuncted and the alcohol and tannins can taste sharper and overwhelming. This is thought to be due to the agitation of the wine and it's exposure to excess levels of oxygen during the bottling process. And if a wine is filtered, it needs even more time to come back together. It can take a wine anywhere from a few weeks to several months to recover from bottle shock. Thankfully, wines are generally not released during this period so most people don't taste them in this disjuncted state.

Anna continues:

PINA BOTTLING
The 2007 Ames, Firehouse, Stone Corral and Wolff vineyard designate Cabernets were bottled in April. We will bottle the 2007 D’Adamo and Buckeye Cabernets at the beginning of July. At this time, we will also be bottling our new Mimbre and Cahoots wines. The Mimbre is our new reserve wine. Just as the Piña’s great-grandfather weaved cane into beautiful art, we’ve made the best blend from our single vineyards to make this stunning wine. The Cahoots is a secret collaboration of wine. And don’t ask cause we won’t tell!

Memorial Day Weekend 2009 at the Vet's Home - Yountville, California - Joe Bauer Photo Essay

Pete Olson

The Watch Fire

The Hills Angels

Master of Ceremonies

OR

Chair Person?

Barton Buechner, CAPT,USNR, Deputy Administrator

and

Cindy Saucerman, Yountville Mayor

Scottish-American Military Society

Taking Aim...

CDR Marcella McCormack, USN, Ret.,

Vet's Home Administrator & family

Through a child's eyes

The Missing Man Fly Over

* * * * *

Please send comments or questions to:

Joe@FiveWindowGraphics.com

There are no words

I’ve always thought my son was a special kid. At a young age, he was gentle, kind, considerate and loving. He had a youthful innocence about him that he has to this day. I wanted to see him through to adulthood, so that I would have the peace of mind in knowing that he would be okay in this complex and dangerous world we live in. I wanted to know that if need be, he could get by without me. My son, Tyler, is 22 years old - The same age as Jake Robert Velloza, whose pictures are above - Jake was also described as having a youthful innocence about him.

* * *

I went into the kitchen at work for another cup of coffee. The May 5th Press Democrat was laying on the table and Jakes picture on the front page caught my eye.

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The following is taken from one of my first posts:

The movie Saving Private Ryan, was about a family with 4 sons serving in the military during World War II. One scene shows the Ryan home with a 4 star service banner in the window. I’m sure the significance of the banner was lost on many viewers. The banners were common during the war, with the number of blue stars indicating how many family members were serving in the military. A gold star would indicate that the member had been killed serving their country. For obvious reasons, very few families had a 4 star banner.There is lots of action & drama in this movie. But for me, the most dramatic part was when Mrs. Ryan was washing dishes at the kitchen sink and looked out her window to see a dark car approaching up the quiet country road. She dries her hands and goes out to the front porch. The car stops in front of her house and a clergyman gets out. At that point, she realizes that he is bringing bad news and slumps to the floor.
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From the Press Democrat report: http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090504/ARTICLES/905049886
Inverness soldier killed in Iraq - By LAURA NORTON

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT - Published: Monday, May 4, 2009

Jake Robert Velloza, an Army soldier from Inverness, asked his friends last Monday for their home addresses so he could send out wedding announcements.
“If you want a wedding announcement, either send me or Danielle your information in a message. Thanks,” the 22-year-old infantry man wrote on his Facebook page.
Five days later, he was dead. Velloza was killed Saturday in Mosul, Iraq, relatives said.
The soldier’s parents, Bob and Susan Velloza, received notification of their son’s death early Sunday from an Army major from Travis Air Force Base who came to their Inverness home, said the grandfather, Richard Velloza.
A Tomales High School football and baseball star, Velloza was popular on and off the sports field, Tomales High football coach Leon Feliciano said.
…
“I’ll always remember on a bridge near Nicasio, there was a sign ‘Welcome Home Jake’ after his first tour in Iraq. Then he re-upped,” Tucker said.
Velloza wrote about the Army when he described himself on his Facebook page: “I’m currently in Iraq for my 2nd tour; I’ll be home sometime in Dec. I have the most amazing fiancee anyone could ask for. She gets me through my days and I can’t wait to come home to her,” Velloza said.
Friend Jeffrey Hickey said preparing for marriage had transformed Velloza, a guy’s guy who raided the fridge, played video games and loved being outdoors.
“He shared with me his hope and desire to one day fall in love. I realized this hope was at the very core of what made Jake so sweet and fun,” Hickey wrote in a letter to the local press Monday.
Of Velloza’s fiancee, who he named on Facebook as Danielle Erwin of Evansville, Ind., “it was obvious that Jake had found what he was looking for,” Hickey said. “It was also obvious how much he wanted to get home and be with her.”

======================
An ABC News report showed the following image as the reporter described the “All American house with a Blue Star in the window”

The Press Democrat reported on the funeral: http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090513/ARTICLES/905139909#

A military honor guard lifts the casket as the body of Jake Robert Velloza, a 22-year-old Army infantryman from Inverness arrives at Parent-Sorenson Mortuary in Petaluma. Velloza was killed May 2 on Mosul, Iraq.

KENT PORTER / The Press Democrat -

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090513/COMMUNITY/905139900
Marin soldier's remains escorted to Petaluma
…
“His mother and father, Bob and Susan Velloza, and his fiancee, Danielle Erwin of Evansville, Ind., held one another and cried outside Parent-Sorensen Mortuary as an Army color guard lifted the flag-draped coffin from a hearse to the strains of bagpipe music and carried it away.”

=======================

And now, the Blue Star Banner will be replaced with a Gold Star Banner.

I read the news reports online and read the comments & sentiments posted by other readers. I was going to leave a message to Jakes fiance, his folks & his grandparents. As a total stranger, I searched for words that would have meaning and offer comfort to all of them. But they never came. There are no words that I could offer that would make the pain less.

On this Memorial Day, please take just a minute to honor Jake during the playing of Taps by clicking here:
Click here to listen to a sound file of Taps performed by SGM Woody English, U.S. Army Band, playing on a B flat Bach Stradivarius Field Trumpet (bugle)

Jake Robert Velloza
Rest in Peace

Nighttime Operations in the Vineyard/Earthquake!

This time of year, nighttime operations in the vineyards are common. Most of the vineyard spraying and sulfuring occurs in the dark of night when there is less likely to be wind to hamper the process. I used to do a lot of sulfuring at night. It seems a bit odd, but I enjoyed the peace and solitude of working the “graveyard shift”. I could work a full shift, traveling from ranch to ranch and never speak to a single person. Only occasionally would my route would take me close enough to a 7-11, that I could stop in to get a cup of coffee. At 3:00 in the morning, those clerks weren’t great conversationalists, either. One dark morning, while sulfuring a vineyard on Hwy 29 south of Yountville, I encountered a bird with a broken wing scurrying down the row next to the row I was sulfuring. Later, on the far side of the vineyard, I encountered the same thing with what I was sure was a different bird. What are the odds of seeing 2 birds with broken wings?, I thought to myself. And then I realized that neither of them was really injured – They were just pretending, to get my attention and lead me away from their nests in a grapevine. Pretty clever for bird brains!
Years later (after my sulfuring years) we moved to a house that backed up to the Biale vineyard on El Centro Avenue in Napa. The house was of decent size, but the front & back yards were small. So our bedroom was less than 50 feet from the edge of the vineyard. This was a zero lot line plot, so our garage was on the property line. Our garage gathered a few scars over the years from the tractor drivers trying to turn in the narrow avenues. The master bedroom shower window faced the vineyard. I was tall enough to be able to shower and look out over the vineyard, with little more than my head showing from the vineyard side. I remember one early morning shower when there was a tractor sulfuring in the still dark vineyard. There were bright lights on the tractor pointing backwards so the operator could monitor the quantity of sulfur being applied. As he came down the row approaching our house, his silhouette was very pronounced by the lights behind him. I was in the process of shampooing my hair and wondered if he could see me in the shower. I raised one soapy hand and waved… And I saw the silhouette of a hand wave back.

But in spite of all of this, we loved having this vineyard in our back yard. We didn’t understand why several of our neighbors would complain about the vineyard operations in a conversation that would start with the desirability of having a vineyard in the back yard. They go hand-in-hand folks – Accept it!
We got used to hearing the hum of a tractor traveling through the vineyard at night. Since we were not at either end of the vineyard, we could always hear the tractors making their loops through the vineyard well in advance of them being in our “back yard”. It gave us time to get up and shut the windows so the scent of sulfur wouldn’t permeate the house.
On Sept 3rd, 2000 at 1:36 AM, I was in my “deep sleep” mode. Through my mind’s sleepy fog, I slowly became aware of a low level rumble that kept building. At some level of consciousness, I was thinking that a tractor was getting closer & closer to the house. And then the house started shaking. My not-yet-fully-functional brain surmised that the tractor had hit our house. Things started falling. The house kept shaking. After an eternity of maybe 6 or 8 seconds, I realized we were having an earthquake.
http://www.asce.org/pdf/tclee_napaq90300.pdf
The above file charts the earthquake for 20 seconds, with the active shaking appearing to last somewhere between 10 & 14 seconds. I would have guessed longer. We had four TV’s in the house and they all hit the floor. The dresser in our daughter’s bedroom fell, spreading the drawers across the floor as it fell and simultaneously blocking the doorway into her bedroom. She had pulled the blankets up over her head and was screaming. Within a few minutes, people were filing out of their houses and into the street, checking on the well-being of their neighbors. Our neighbor across the street had converted a large closet into a wine cellar. He had lots of broken bottles and wine stains that traveled well beyond the wine cellar. When it appeared that everybody in our neighborhood had survived, I headed to the winery where I anticipated fallen stacks of wine barrels with wine flowing everywhere. I just knew that my brothers Larry & Davie would already be there dealing with the mess. And that was only if the building that I had designed & constructed with my dad and brothers, was still standing. Turns out, it WAS still standing. Nobody there. No signs of any damage.
Although quite violent in our neighborhood, the earthquake wasn’t too bad outside of a fairly narrow fault line.

We sure miss our backyard vineyard.