“Every day has been so short, every hour so fleeting, every minute so filled with the life I love that time for me has fled on too swift a wing.” ~ Aga Khan

The constant question posed by one rancher to the other has recently been, "Why are we so tired?  Where has summer gone?  With harvest and the end of the year facing us, why have we taken no vacation?" 

Finally, after a recent critical review of the schedule and how it could have been planned better, it was determined that the possibility exists that said ranchers have tried to fit too much living into the space of four months and that while it was planned in an exemplary fashion, down to the minute, the error is that no time was left to sleep (or even rest or sit down.

In addition to a more-than full time profession held by one of the ranchers, some of the highlights of the weekends over the last few months include emergency driveway repair performed by the ranchers, a 40th birthday celebration being held at the ranch with 70 guests, and thankfully, time spent searching for and finding a new cleaning person for the ranch (unfortunately, after the party), back to L.A., more guests arrive, back to Paso, back to LA, a great deal of ranch work over Memorial Day, including petiole samples being submitted, back to LA, a work trip to Switzerland, back to LA, more guests, back to Paso, ranch work and cleanup, back to LA, several-day harvest of the lavender, quick turnover of guests, a family weekend over the 4th of July -- including a visit to the Ravine -- clean up, back to LA, catch-up in LA, back to the ranch, family weekend -- with a visit to the Ravine -- portion of family departs, building of treehouse, more work on the lavender, barrel room is drywalled, 1200-mile roundtrip to Sacramento and the California State Fair, back to Menlo Park to drop the youngins' and enjoy the new backyard and pool, back to the ranch, ranch work and cleanup, back to LA, pack up the master bathroom, construction started on master bath lasting three weeks, a business trip to San Diego for one, an emergency room visit for the other, with the last two visits to the ranch entirely filled with netting of the vines and substantial ranch work.  The next few weeks include a family visit starting this weekend through September 8th, two full weeks of business travel for one of the ranchers and the other possibly handling harvest.

So, that explains why we are exhausted.  It would surprise most who are vintners to hear that we are eagerly awaiting harvest so that we can rest.  We would probably do it all again (possibly skipping the ER visit and a few other minor things), but as we both have begun to experience health issues from the above schedule, the realization has finally hit us that we will have to schedule less, say "No" more often, and slow down or we will not be able to go the distance. 

Hanging out the "Gone Fishin'" sign is long overdue, but necessary to recharge our batteries and spirits in order to alleviate chronic grumpiness and restore our joie de vivre.  We plan to spend time over the next year (or for the rest of our lives) sleeping, traveling, resting, enjoying our ranch, watching sunsets, golfing, antique-ing, sitting on a beach -- and not necessarily in that order.  We plan to surface for harvest celebration and over the holidays, but then the "Gone Fishin'" sign is quickly going back out and we plan to enjoy our traditional New Year celebration, walking the beach at sunrise, alone, and plan a seriously pared down, but healthy and restful schedule in 2012. 

Happy Trails, until we meet again . . .

The Rest-Seeking Ranchers

Popular posts from this blog

Central Coast Olive Oil Competition Results and Update

Image
We got word late last week that we received four awards from the Central Coast Olive Oil Competition.  We were awarded a Silver Medal for our Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a Silver Medal for our Lemon-Infused Olive Oil, a Bronze Medal for our Orange-Infused Olive Oil, and a Bronze Medal for our Smoked Olive Oil. We are attempting, ourselves, to make sense out of the inconsistencies between the different judging panels.  The O/C member of our team reviews results with the plan of doing things better each year, and scrutinizes every fact provided but just cannot reconcile the results.  Some might suggest we ought to just celebrate the 12 awards we've received this year, with an additional two Best of Class Awards, but yet, we are left SOH (shaking our heads), as they say.  There are producers who submitted and did not win awards, so we are thrilled that, on the whole, all of our oils are award-winning. So, what mountain is left to scale this year?  One of the...
Read more

“The true harvest of my life is intangible - a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched” Henry David Thoreau

It seems like it was a year spent waiting. Spring and bud break seemed like it would never come. Summer seemed to come in starts and stops. We waited all year for a heat that really only materialized on occasions when we wished not to have to deal with wilting heat; the rest of the summer was 26% below our normal temperatures. We waited for ripening of the grapes. We waited and waited. Finally, with the olive harvest upon us, we could not wait any longer. The Zinfandel was harvested October 4. The brix sneaked up on us and came in at an astounding 28.5, a whopping 17.8% alcohol. It is destined to accompany chocolate as a late harvest wine. It stormed most of that week of primary fermentation, but it provided a perfect backdrop to decorate for our Harvest Celebration with the family, which we celebrated our traditional third weekend of October and which will be covered in a separate post, but one of the highlights of the weekend was that the barn was officially renamed The Win...
Read more

"The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart." Robert Green Ingersoll

Image
Last week, it seemed that we could barely contain all the happy, good news coming in to the Rancho, but Mother Nature has never been a lady who likes to take the back seat, so we were given a rather cruel reminder yesterday who is really in charge, and it is not the one writing this blog. With all olive trees in full blossom, warnings as to a storm began to trickle in at the beginning of the week.  We took notice, since April has not smiled down kindly upon us in the past.  All weather casts said there would be rain, but in the Bay area, they said wouldn't get this far south.  The predicted winds were checked, all below advisory level. Shouldn't worry, right? Needless to say, the weather people were again wrong again as winds over 50 mph ripped through the olive trees in full blossom and then rain pummeled our hill, just in case there were any blossoms left.  We could only stand and watch.  It was April of 2014 all over again.   There isn't anything...
Read more