NOTE -- I moved this photo here so you can see how it compares to the next shot of the vineyard toward the end of the growing season. A before and after shot.

OK, here is the culmination of all my work. Six new rows and 126 vines have been planted. I did virtually all the work by myself because I was on Spring Break for the university where I work, and everybody else was either at their jobs or school.

Here is my schedule. Saturday, buy posts and wire - about $850.00 (U.S.), in the after noon, move persimmon trees. Sunday, start building wire holder device. Monday morning, finish wire holder and in the afternoon move the last of the persimmon trees. Tuesday, put in all the end post and cross bracing for the six rows. Wednesday morning, dig up irrigation connections because the need to be fixed and new runs added. Wednesday afternoon, start putting in the posts that will hold up the wire by each vine. Thursday, put in the more of the posts, which took all day in a drizzling rain. Friday morning, put in the last row and a half of posts and in the afternoon put on the #9 wire to brace the end posts. Also do more work on the irrigation. Saturday morning was a church work day but in the after noon I moved the black irrigation lines into the rows, made splices, and got the sprayers located by each post and finished making the splices and repairs to the PVC connections. Sunday (skipped church in the morning, I'm a bad boy, but did go that evening) moved the electric wire to keep the cows out, finished the irrigation including cleaning out spay heads so each vine will get water and attached the wire ratches. Monday went to work and recovered. Wednesday took a day off from work to plant the vines - finally they are in the ground. Following Saturday, trimmed the vines back to a single stalk, installed the Blue-X shields and held them in place with bambo stakes. Finally put the wire on top of the posts, attached to each end and pulled it thight.

And that's how I spent my Spring Break! I look at the photo and it just doesn't look like it should have taken as long as it did, but there are 126 new vines. Even only spending one minute to do something for each vine will take a bit over two hours. Next year, I'm starting earlier!