Grape Time of Year

There are always times when it is highly enjoyable, but also bittersweet to do something.

This time of year is one of my favorites. I have a lot of favorites, when I think about it, but I also think that's a wonderful thing. I've got a LOT of things to look forward to that's for sure!

The end of the summer brings some bittersweet realities for me, most importantly less daylight hours. I love sunlight, and always have! I know it's important that we appreciate these things and I don't think it would be good for me to live in a place where it is constant and crazy sunlight, as much as I would like it, I would eventually get bored of it lol.

That also means it's GRAPE PICKING SEASON!

Grape picking is one of the activities we've looked forward to for the last 4 years or so, except for the one year we had a horrible frost and it killed all the local crops which sucked. Other than that though, we've been committed to picking grapes!

We've made good friends with one of the vineyards and they bring people in to pick the grapes with them. It's a lot of fun because it's a highly social event but it's also one where you are doing work! It's as difficult as you'd like it to be. You can pick slowly or quickly, the owner doesn't complain. He likes having the people around to help, because it's some old fashioned Italian work, really. Families and friends all help in the harvest which is wonderful.

We've been going for so long that we are known by all of the regulars which is nice. We get to see the friends we've made over the years all come back. Some of them are quite old, so it's nice to get to spend time with them and get to hear some of their stories and wisdom. Importantly for me, it's also a great environment to have my son around.

Not that kids aren't the best company for him to be around, but I think it's important that he is spending good time with adults and also sees the hard work that people put in for things. Around the house, he may not notice things get cleaned up by me on a regular basis, but when we are working in the grape fields, he is there tackling the job just as much if not more than the people that are decades older than him. It's a great way to show him work ethic!

There will be a little challenge this year because it just rained a LOT the 2 days before the damn picking event hahaha. It didn't really rain much at all the last 6 weeks, but of course it ends up dumping a bunch of rain on us. We need the rain, indeed but when it rains like this it makes the field a muddy mess. We've got plenty of gear for it, but not everybody comes prepared for that which is comical. You know you're going out in a field to pick things, yet you go in sneakers? Come on bro!

I wonder how many pounds we will pick this year!