My classes begin Feruary 2nd. Course 111, I think, Introduction to Vineyard Establishment.
Way ahead of you, though. You see, we don't just run into things blindly. I, and my family, have been discussing and pondering this for about 3 years. We have, or will be purchasing, everything we need. We have small and large tractors for the vineyard, and will probably get an old IH O6 or O9 for the orchard, because we like using vintage equipment. We have 2 seperate sprayers. A small plow and disc for the vine rows. We'll rent a post driver for the trellis construction, which we will do ourselves, as well as the irrigation system. We have all the money and engineering knowledge required to do it right. The main reason I wanted to do this is to bring the family back to the farm more and keep everyone close, physically and otherwise. It's been my idea, but everyone has certain talents they will be adding to the team. As far as labor goes, once construction is compete, it will be mostly me and my sister, as 2 people can easily handle 10 acres. At harvest time, the entire family and some friends will descend upon the farm and have a big week-long harvest party/festival. We have a very large family, more than enough hands.
As the grape growing industry is still in it's infancy and very small in KS, our 10 acres will make us a fairly large player in the state. If all goes well, we want to double that in the next 5 years.
We haven't decided on the cultivars we will be growing yet. I've been talking to the head of the KS Wine and Grape Growers Association, and some of the other vineyard owners in the area, some have offered to donate vines if we will agree to sell the grapes back to them for X number of years. A common practice I've heard, since most of the wineries have demand for wine that they cannot grow enough grapes to meet. So it's very likely that we will take them up on their offer to help keep start-up costs down. But we already know we will be very near the 6 figure range to get started and make it to first harvest. Most of that cost is in trellis and irrigation construction.
I and my sister are in leading the way in the vineyard, an aunt and uncle in the orchard. Although there will be many days when all are needed in one or the other.
I envision this moving toward a complete winery in the future, but you never know. That requires a substantially higher investment. Our farm is in the rolling Flint Hills area of KS with a large creek running through it and lots of tress, (for KS), and has a nice setting to it, so it could be a place people would enjoy visiting. But first things first. Growing grapes isn't easy, and many say it takes 6 years, not just 3, to get commercial quality grapes. But if we make it to a full on winery, I will send you a bottle, that is if you can stop the Bush bashing, conservative bashing, and Christian bashing. I disagree with the positions on the lesf, but I don't call them evil, or crooks, or any of the other names that get thrown our way. I disliked and disagreed with Clinton on just about every issue, but I didn't hate him, not call him an evil person. Serious, sober, and responsible people can disagree with the issue without descending into name calling. Now I know that I have retaliated when I've had stuff thrown at me, but I never start that stuff. It seems to me that those on the Left take personal offense when others disagree with their viewpoints. I'm not that way.
And to that point, I'm including a link to a completely impartial website that has a list of 650 well known and respected scientists who are voicing doubt about man-made global warming. Many of them tell stories of how they are threatened and ostricized for havng done so, which seems very unscientific to me. After all, isn't science about be able to prove facts, and so shouldn't challenges that help to prove the theory be welcome? Take a look and tell me what you think. And if you can, show me a list of scientists that have signed on to the GW theory. I'm starting to hear a lot from scientists who actually think we are heading into another Ice Age.
Senate Commitee on Environment and Public Works