Sunday, September 29, 2013

Grapes Be Gone




Now I've been giving this a lot of thought.
Are these boys playing with toys?
or
Seriously hard working guys on tractors?
Hard to say.


We are scrapping the grapes.
While the foliage is beautiful and we get huge bunches
at the start of the season,
the black rot is just out of control
and we don't want to constantly spray. 
So, out they go.
But wait- there's a  problem.
 The T-posts are embedded in our rocky soil, 
and in there pretty good too.
We don't have have a T-post puller so
after my husband pulled out the grapes
the guys got working on removing them.


After much thought and a few beers,
they formulated a plan and the T-post are gone.
He's building a shed for the tractor, lawn tractor
and whatever else will fit in there.
The area the grapes were gets lots of water runoff
so he may rock that portion in.
That will be more fun on tractors.

Blame it on Tonka! 

12 comments:

Sunnybrook Farm said...

Those posts must have really been stuck. I have had to use an old bumper jack and chain to pull some. The 8N is looking good!

Gorges Smythe said...

Maybe the black rot was caused by too much water.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

Gorges- I was wondering about that too. It's prevalent here and you need to spray with a couple of different things, one being difficult to find in home use quantities. I'm sure there are varieties that are less prone to it as well.

LindaG said...

My husband always says the only difference between men and boys is the size of their toys.

And he's moving around the same dirt he did as a kid!

We helped the neighbor pull up t-posts that had been set in concrete. After digging around them, he just wrapped chain around them and pulled them with the tractor.
He's figured out how to do lots of things with his 'bigger toys'.

Have a wonderful day. :-)

Catawissa Gazetteer said...

Guess I need a bigger tractor! What you say, Kath?

I drove these posts into solid sandstone and limestone with a sledge hammer a few years back. We ended up breaking them off at the base as often as we got either of the tractors to pull them loose.

Powell River Books said...

Boys with toys. I do love grapes, but don't have room for them. - Margy

Manny said...

What a horrible year for grapes this year for both me and my mother. I lost it all to black rot. Is that what you call it? I don't know what happened. We had a wet spring and an extremely hot July. I just hope it wasn't a disease that will keep coming back. I'll have to see next year.

Yahoobuckaroo's Blog said...

That's what I would love to plant. Grapes and peaches are my favorite fruits. One of these days....

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

Manny, it does and it's hard to keep under control. Look at your local extension office to see how to treat it in your area, we went through the Univ of MO. You have to spray with copper spray and two or three other sprays that have to be done at specific times. Some is over the counter and others you have to special order. I hope it wasn't really black rot. It will stay in the soil and you should not mulch under your grapes because it will hide in the mulch.

Harry Flashman said...

You have a nice looking place. I admire the tractor, too.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

Harry, thanks. It's rocky and steep but we like it. Grapes are gone now and he's started on the retaining wall where the tractor shed will be some day.

Manny said...

Yikes. I looked it up. I hope it isn't. I've resisted artificial sprays but if that is the case I may have to.The only thing in my favor is that I haven't noticed the leaves to have spots like some of the websites indicated. But the grapes did all turn black.