"When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others." ~ Dalai Lama

Before we receive a barrage of emails, no, this is not our vineyard.  We cannot even get all the lights to work on our Christmas tree yearly.  One cannot even imagine how much bad language might occur attempting to light up an entire vineyard or the size of the tangled ball of lights.

Amidst all the excitement in preparing for Thanksgiving, Hanukah, and Christmas, we are taking a moment to say a big Thank You to everyone who has helped us out at the rancho this year, from neighbors and neighboring vineyards, to Custom Vineyard for their very professional crews who harvested our lavender and our olives; I would also like to thank all my friends who journeyed out for Girls' Trip 2013, only to find out they were really going to be picking figs, debudding lavender, picking table grapes, and destemming and crushing thousands of grapes and learning to make jams and jellies.  Not only did it get the job done quickly, perhaps it passed down some preserving skills to the Next Gen, so that one day, they might make their own. 

There have been losses of family members and friends during this year, as well as health challenges within the family, and there are times that it is not easy to remain positive and focus on all that is good in our lives, but clearly, Thanksgiving is that time.  We are so very grateful for both of our families and extended families and our close friends for their physically pitching in, but also for their constant moral support, which includes being our test audience on everything from our early attempts at wine, to testing soaps (to see if they really are skin safe and ignoring wild colors from chemistry mishaps), helping add argon to our barrels (Z, my eyebrows have almost grown back), everyone who has been sent to town for a Farm Supply run (Could you pick up two 9-ft. deer gates?); for handing us thousands of twist ties in 110 degree heat while we were sitting on the ground tying the nets on the vines; for preparing meals when we're stuck outside pruning, netting vines, picking grapes, generally out "on the property," all the encouragement through ugly math and chemistry moments, and especially to those that have done seriously hard labor, such as helping to build retaining walls, plant the vineyard and the olive trees, and to those who have looked beyond wild and frightening encounters with our flora and fauna -- and still come back to help again. 

We have seen much come together this year.  We got our 2013 EVOO certification (and are awaiting news on the 2014); we won three Silver Medals for our oil; we prepped for and passed the Health Department Inspection; we entered the world of e-commerce and personally designed our website; we've begun marketing our oil and other products; we finally found a box and partition manufacturer; brought the 2014 grape and olive harvests in a bit more smoothly, and we recently won a Bronze Medal for our wine label design from a national magazine.  True, there is much left to do before we raise our glass of champagne to close 2013, but before doing that, we would like to propose a toast to everyone who has helped us this year.  We are eternally grateful for your friendship, love, and support. 

On a personal note, I would also like to thank the other half of my rancho team, who works full-time as a lawyer, yet still has time to run and work a ranch, another full-time job.  He grew amazing grapes and olives this year, in addition to all those big and little things he does, such as wrangle rattlers.  That cannot be fun and I hope never to have to do that -- but yes, yes, I am trained if the need arises.   He would want me to say that. 

We look forward to all the challenges that 2014 brings.  Optimus est etiamnunc futurs!  We'll let you look it up. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all!