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This is a feature of the Willamette Hops expanding. Expanding they are. Actually, today is June 12 2010 as I type this. The hops as they looked tonight, have inched closer to surpassing where they were at harvest time last September 2009. Again, the issue that I am facing now is the bloody slug and whatchamacallit....the earwig. You would imagine they would all be dead by ingesting so many green leaves as they have. The neighbor's vegetables are, in spots, getting no pass at all. He is trying his best to get the slugs drunk on cheap American beer, and many can be found doing the permanent backstroke in the little trays of beer he has set out. But the cousins found out about the feast and they have traveled great distances to come and enjoy all of our crops. The stage is set:

BATTLE ROYALE

Conejo Loco/Garden Apartment Neighbor w/ jumping 65lb. Australian Shepherd puppy

vs.

Slugs/Earwigs!!!!!!


Alright, enough silly commentary. But how about that Willamette Hops root. How does one explain this? I could not come up with any decent answer (a root/vine comes out of the soil, performs an arc, then immediately goes back in to the soil in the process forming a half-circle), nor did I have the time. The date on this photo is May 25 2010. Many days have passed and the vines have nearly grown a 1/4th of what they were in this photo (which only shows something in the soil, er...coming out of the soil). I thought it would be pretty excellent to document.



Everyone needs a little Clematis in their lives, don't they now? As with many of the fauna in the garden I am simply amazed and grateful that it even grows in the area in which I decided to plant it.



With this above photo, one is looking at and viewing the lovely Joe Pye Weed plant. The significance of this particular plant and photo, at this specific moment in time, is that it will help the reading audience to gauge the growth, of all things, the Willamette Hops. Stay tuned to the blog and compare the next few blog posts to compare. Get scientific with it. Measure. Compare. Contrast. Enjoy!

A couple of notes is that this plant is actually growing, I know - I am embarrassed to even admit this - , under a thick blanket of tree canopy (I prefer to call it as it should properly be known 'Shitty Weed Tree That Neighbor Doesn't Realize Is Actually A Weed, Probably Even Non-Native Plant Species AND Invasive AND Most Likely Isn't Even Classified As A Proper Tree for North America'. Therefore, consider the height of this plant at the beginning of the final 30 days of Spring, knowing what you know now. It only receives direct sunlight at sunrise, and ONLY when it is not impeded from receiving the solar gifts on a clear morning, sans cloud activity and cloud presence.

Getting back to Nomenclature. I realize now that there are two specific items of the local fauna that share the distinct characteristic of tenaciousness. One Cabernet Sauvignon vine cutting (from the St. Louis vine, 01-2008) is from henceforth referred to as 'Rocky' (it has been beat up considerably by the temperamental bay window at the west end of the apartment, from what the native friends report). The second that has such distinction is this Joe Pye Weed in the rear garden. I am remiss with any fun names to associate with this particular Joe Pye Weed - I do believe created one tonight - , but do know that it is fully engaged in a death match, so to speak with one of its neighboring plant friends. It could also simply be a lively and vigorous playful competition between the two plants. However it is played out, the gardener is thoroughly entertained by it all.

I know the Bumble Bees will be delighted within the week.


I put this up for the perspective that it provides. Wonderful viewing here. Obviously, it is the Willamette Hops vine.



Just note this photo.

Been a while. The job is finally slowing down for a bit. Had to step away from z blog until other matters were attended to and a bit in the past.

Thanks for reading and being patient with the entries! If you find a winemaker that would take in an apprentice, contact me!!!!!!!!

La Crescent is growing - Bud Break in Grayslake, IL!!!

This, my friends, is a La Crescent grape vine fully engaged in the art of 'Bud Break'.    To be exact, this is 03-2010 La Crescent (Grayslake).  Grabbing as much southern sun as the surrogate parent could give it.

My roommate and I are celebrating the success of the bud break with the following:



A lovely combination, I tell you.  My roommate brought the delicious cheese from the local Strack and Vantil, I brought the Syrah (I actually thought I picked up a bottle of Malbec).  No protests at all with either.  Good conversation, good memories.  The bottle of Syrah was $9.99, from Vas Foremost Liquors (I call it Vas Deferens Liquors).  Bought a Megamillions ticket with the vino.  I'll let you know if I hit the jackpot.

Lots of rain today in Chicago, Illinois.  Lots of slugs and earwigs in my garden.  Trying to figure out the next steps. 

Website for Dona Paula:

http://www.donapaula.com.ar/ingles/index.html

-  Thanks for reading!

Cabernet Sauvignon 01-2008 St. Louis Missouri photo set from Sunday May 30 2010

This one is back.  Life is incredibly busy, I have had to step out for a bit and take care of the primary source of income.  Let me correct that statement.  I had to take care of the ONLY source of income for a little bit. 

In the days since the last entry I have learned a great deal about the many things that have been executed improperly and incorrectly regarding the vines that I have so brazenly labeled as my own.  But I love that component of doing so much so wrong and so often.  Not that I wish to continue to fall into the Sisyphus cycle.  The music informs the other interests.  Music and exposure to larger audiences doesn't make sense to me.  The calculus is not actually Calculus and does not adhere to true Logic.  Writing songs, anymore, is becoming quite difficult.  It is because sloppy lyrics are quite common and they are often rather ubiquitous.    Is this true of vino?  Is it possible that individuals out there are just consumed with the notion of producing large quantities of any varietal to make a fast buck?   Folks, reality check here.  You won't have to worry about watered-down vino at Conejo Loco Vineyards because the student loans have the effect of humbling a person.  I am not out to make a quick buck.  We're going to do these wines in an exceptional way.  Not competition, but we'll give it our best with the soil we have to work with.

Conejo Loco Vineyards will prosper.  Hell or high water.  This is a stubborn movement in my soul.    Having said all of this I just wonder if the 'Terroir' of my 'Southeast Logan Square' vines will produce grapes arising from soils saturated with rat shit, rat piss, rat hair, rat carcass, et al.  Rats are everywhere in the Second City.    Any takers on developing a wine bottle label for a varietal that the winemaker wishes to market in concert with the 'Terroir'?  Send me a draft of your design for Cabernet Franc Conejo Loco Vineyards with a terroir consisting in poor drainage, poor sunlight, rat piss, rat shit, rat hair, rat ash, rat carcass, black squirrel shit, black suirrel urine (pronounce the long 'I') et al.  Send it to:  lifessecondact@gmail.com      It is all referred to in a sterile manner by suggesting that such things create 'Humus' or 'Peat', when one goes to the local nursery or greenhouse or big box hardware store.  Rat Humus.  Rat Peat.  Vermin Humus.  Vermin Peat. 

Crazy Story of the Week:

       It is pretty obvious that I am a little too excited about 17 inch tall 2nd-Year Syrah grape vines that are not going to get their required number of 'Heat Days'.  Anyway, I had the rare pleasure of actually sleeping in my own quarters, as it were, on this past Sunday May 30, 2010.  I had programmed my body prior to slumber to awaken at 08:00.  My body, miraculously, did just that.  I was able to jump out of bed and take some snaps of my garden (with the Sony Cyber Shot DSC-T900) at the residence in Southeast Logan Square, before darting back up north to the job that consumes my life.   In the process of taking the photo, I had to lean over my bldg's front step wrought-iron railing to grab the best photo of Syrah 02-2009, as it is growing quite impressively.  Well, as I just clicked my first photo or three, one of the new neighbors to the north walked up to the front to check out what in the devil was going on with this strange cat taking photos (potentially of his property), the fella being me, of course.  Strange experience, to say the least, especially at that early hour of day, and on a Sunday of all days.  And he seems quite the weathered individual (even seemed to have somehow recovered from a night of heavy drinking, actually).  I think he might've been ready for a rumble - that is common in my neighborhood.  Another funny story, in my opinion.  Either way, such is life.  All for the Conejo Loco Vineyards.   I won't complain as he and his buddies have really turned that neighboring foreclosure home entirely around for the better.  They recently even went with new landscaping.  Not sure if they are hoping to flip or actually to settle there.  It seems like a flip project to me, but I am not real estate savvy enough to know better.  

By the way, czech out St. Francis Winery in Sonoma County, CA.  Their website is excellent and they have a You Tube page with wonderful snippets of material.  Hellshit, folks, reading the bios of some of these established vineyards seems a bit daunting.  It all is deposit material for what is occurring in the now.   

And what about the following photos?  Glad you asked in your brain, to be honest.  This is THE first vine.  Two were planted back in March 2008, only one took.  This one perdured and now it has a 2nd generation in Chicago IL.  The vine is in a sloped setting, which I didn't realize is the way to go with vines, at the time.  It also receives a lion's share of sunlight, and thank the deities for that.  Conejo Loco Vineyards Southeast Logan Square is probably going to have to buy artificial sun stars to get the vines growing.   Just joking, of course, in that Craig Ferguson kind of voice. 

I am damned proud of this Cabernet Sauvignon vine.  In a few weeks the Japanese Beetle will ravage the thing, undoubtedly, but all things in due time.  I guess the beetles need to eat, too.

I recently was re-reading a document produced from the University of Tennessee on the topic of growing grapes in Tennessee, an excellent document.  At one point, the authors reported that typically less than ideal soils are often great soils for vines.  That kind of statement just simply douses the lighter fluid on this Conejo Loco Vineyards Southeast Logan Square endeavor.  I'll go with it and take what I can get.

Find the document in question here:  http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/pbfiles/PB1475.pdf

How about some photos?  Enjoy!










http://www.stfranciswinery.com/

Great website.  Look at some of their photos on the Facebook.  My goodness, talk about a testament to the notion that lifestyle is both end and means. 

http://twitter.com/stfranciswinery

The Twitter page for St. Francis Winery, which is a behavior that I do not personally strive toward, is actually pretty information rendering.  They just need a Copy/Editor, but who doesn't, right?

And, why not end on music.  I love our current crop of styles within music because we need them to shake up and rattle our notions of who creates beautiful music, and who is allowed to.  The gift is bestowed on many and available to many.

LINK  (This is only one song among many [part of a whole concert performance] that I listened to while creating this post):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8dgsb0Dn_s

I'll do alot of music on this blog because it is part of the very fiber of my being.  Stone Sour is the band.  Two of the members are in another band that just lost their bass player nearly 2 weeks ago.  Life happens and that weirdest of times.  I am a bass player, as well.  The issue was pretty significant for a heavy metal fan like myself. 

Soon we'll try to explore what Les Claypool is trying to do with his vineyard in Northern California.   Claypool Cellars is the name.   Claypool started the band Primus.   Here is a video to their song called 'Too Many Puppies':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2zQKqgNAeE

Claypool and his band members are musical savants.  Enjoy!

Bonus Track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNOiZogdqsE&feature=related