The Straight Dirt, Our Story

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The 10 Essentials I/III

August 3, 2010 in And Then Some, Farming, Starting the vineyard | No comments

A list of 10 things a person should have at their disposal when venturing out into the Wilds of Wine.

One of the great things about where we live in the Pacific Northwest is all the hiking that surrounds us. The Cascade Mountains are essentially at our doorstep, Mt. Hood the closest to us in Portland, as well as the vineyard (30 miles or so, as the crow flies), Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams near by to the north, and then all the peaks in central Oregon: Mt. Jefferson, Three Sisters, Broken Top…. Not to mention all the opportunities in the Columbia Gorge – Dog Mountain, Table Mountain, Ruckle Ridge, Mt. Defiance, to name a few. Before the vineyard and wine, when times seemed much simpler, and we had the time and car and energy to head out into nature, I was a rather avid hiker, even enrolling in and completing the Mazama’s Basic Climbing Education Program (BCEP) in Scott’s and my salad dating days. The Mazamas are the second oldest climbing group in the West, founded on the pinnacle of Mt. Hood in 1894, and their BCEP a primer for physical conditioning and basic climbing—rock and snow/ice—techniques to get you to the top of some peaks—along with a seasoned Mazama climb leader, of course—at the end of the course.

One of the key things that gets hammered into you in the Mazamas Basic Climbing Education Program is what’s called the 10 Essentials. They are what every climber should carry with them, no matter what the duration of your hike, day or overnight, car-camping or wilderness rambling, to help you in a pinch, and keep you prepared for outdoor’s unexpected twists and turns. They are:

  1. Map of where you are hiking
  2. Compass (I carried one, but still really don’t know how to use one, no fault of the Mazamas, I would even skip lukio in Finland whenever we had our Orienteering gym class. I don’t know why I have such an aversion to the compass. Odd.)
  3. Whistle
  4. Waterproof matches and a fire-starter
  5. Knife
  6. Extra food/water
  7. Extra clothing
  8. Sun protection (extra glasses, lip and skin balm/cream, and hat)
  9. Flashlight with working and extra batteries
  10. First-aid kit

Based on this, I’ve assembled my own list of 10 Essentials that everyone should have at their disposal when starting a vineyard, for going whole hog into the wine business, for even, like in hiking, as much as you think you know where you’re going, there are a ton of unknown variables that can cause you to alter course, or terminate the mission altogether. Here they are, in no real order:

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The Straight Dirt, In Video, Part 3/3

June 15, 2010 in Farming the Vineyard, Secret Office Video Files, The Straight Dirt, Our Story | No comments

The rest of the story.

The Straight Dirt, In Video, Part 2/3

June 15, 2010 in Farming the Vineyard, Secret Office Video Files, The Straight Dirt, Our Story | No comments

From how we got Leroy to come on board in 2004, up to our 2006 meet-and-greet with our disgruntled neighbors AFTER we established our farm site.

Enjoy.

The Straight Dirt, In Video; part 1/3

June 15, 2010 in Secret Office Video Files, The Straight Dirt, Our Story | No comments

So I found out that trying to talk through five years while looking at a camera in my car is no easy task. Yes, I look different in places, since I had to fill in what I forgot and film on another day. I need a stylist.

This excerpt takes you through the “how did they even start on such crazyness” to finding a real treasure down in Roseburg, our vineyard consultant, Leroy.

Enjoy.

The Face that Launches

May 12, 2010 in Secret Office Video Files, Starting the vineyard, The Straight Dirt, Our Story | No comments

1000 ships? I doubt it. Although at times I do feel this wine thing has NOT been of my own accord…[cue nervous laughter].

Let’s see, however, what this face of mine DOES launch. It’s something I quietly started a couple of weeks ago, but what the hell. There’s no better time than the present to send ‘er out to sea.

Enjoy.

The Hardest Part

February 8, 2010 in Farming, Farming the Vineyard, The Straight Dirt, Our Story | 1 comment

You’d think it’d be the waiting. All this waiting. At first it was to find the right land. Then it was to do the dance so the wheat farmer (Old Wise All) would sell us it. Which did turn out shorter than expected, but a dance and wait game nonetheless. The wait to find water. How deep would we have to drill? How much would there be? Would we even find any? Then the waiting for the deer fence to be dug, the mainline to be set in, the 3-phase to be brought in, the plants to arrive.

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Week Four: The Little House On the Hilltop Project

February 1, 2010 in The Little House on the Hilltop Project, The Straight Dirt, Our Story | 3 comments

HIGHLIGHTS: Rural Living in Wasco County: Who to Call. Time to Get Serious: To Do List.

COUNTDOWN: 39 WEEKS

Almost back on a Sunday posting schedule and now into Week Four of The Little House On the Hilltop (TLHOTH) project, let me share what’s happened.

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2009 Top Ten

December 31, 2009 in The Straight Dirt, Our Story | No comments

Hip hip, hooray! It’s December’s last day! And wouldn’t you know – the sky is grey.

The drizzle may fall and the snow’s almost gone, but how the juncos flit along,

Through branches bare that drip with rain, like jewels (or bubbles of champagne).

A full year it’s been, with twists and turns, but that’s what makes each moment firm,

The memories and the days so clear — we welcome most the changing years.

Our Top 10 Highlights of 2009

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Going Our Own Way (S) | part 3 of 3

December 19, 2009 in The Straight Dirt, Our Story | No comments

You know how when you meet someone and you immediately bristle with dislike? The very next morning after our Ireland return, greatly jetlagged yet fresh-faced, we would drive out to meet the person potentially interested in selling us some land, Old Wise All. At that time, he would be our only chance because from all the ground Scott had identified as prime for our venture, he was the only landowner who would show any interest in letting some go. Scott would have the vineyard fever in him, and somehow it would feel like we had crossed a now-or-never threshold. Whatever it took.

Of course our budget would determine just how far we could go. And Old Wise All would be privy to the numbers; his interest in our budget and Scott’s willingness to hand it over land (physically) unseen, man unmet, would put me on high alert towards the whole deal from the get go: why would someone just interested in selling land want to know our entire budget for the endeavor? And why would Scott hand that over to a stranger?

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Going Our Own Way (S) | part 2 of 3

December 14, 2009 in The Straight Dirt, Our Story | No comments

If ever you loved someone enough to see in their eyes the hopes and dreams they carry with them, and you know for a fact they aren’t clinically crazy, you’d know there is no other way to think: we would find a way. And how lucky, we thought, to be undertaking such a venture in a land of opportunity and community, our home country, the USA. Where the entrepreneur would be welcomed and embraced (Small Business, the backbone of America!)! Where the agricultural community would be glad to have (fairly) young people like us who wanted to keep the family farm alive and well! Where the wine world would greet a newcomer with—at the minimum—well, civility, wine being after all, in the words of Ernest Hemingway, “the most civilized thing in the world.”

Didn’t we have it wrong. Please don’t misunderstand, we never expected to show up at the party and have everyone love and support us from day one, but we would be greatly ill-prepared for how we and our endeavor would be treated: with veiled skepticism, if not outright negativity, and a little goodwill thrown in, but not very much. And from almost everyone we’d meet or speak to about our endeavor: realtors, family, friends, banks, potential investors, neighboring farmers, wine industry members, public relations people. You name it.

We weren’t famous, rich, or connected and any one or the combination of the three would’ve brought us, Scott suspects, immediate approval; established people always get the benefit of the doubt—new people do not. But we were new people, with not necessarily new, but different ideas of doing things, in a new—and, in the wine world, even though the ground is in the Columbia Valley AVA, unproven—location. And people would not let us forget any of it. Read the rest of this entry »

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