Our story beautifully told!!!

Big thanks to Jeremy, Elaine, Joe and Jamin and Outstanding in the field - we are deeply grateful for your part in our story!

BEES = HONEY!!!

Today the lovely Laura came out and we collected the honey from the top box of our first hive!! it was so exciting!! - I got to help out holding the knife, brushing off bees, handing her stuff and finally getting to wear the bee netting my sister gave me.. : ) --- I took LOTS of photos for you all and thought I'd give you a step by step of the whole process...

Laura gave me a very specific supply list and I got all the stuff together we needed.



She arrived with bee suit and smoker and all the knowledge!

First step was to visit a bit then we headed out and Laura suited up and lit the smoker...





We headed for the hives... she smoked the bees just a little bit as they seemed pretty calm...
first she took off the top roof part and then the 'insulating' box that is full of straw ..then she preyed open the hives and took off the box we were gathering...











then there was some clean up of the comb on the hive we left so she could put the hive back together.





then Laura started the process of pulling out each bar and comb and scraping off the comb into the pail all while trying to not crush or piss off bees in the process I helped by brushing off bees and opening and closing the lid to keep the bees out of the comb we collected.














After we were all done we put the empty box where the bees could go back over the next 24 hours and collect any left over honey and take it back to the hive... then after that Laura re-assembled the hive and the bees seemed to settle right back down...

The next step was to take the comb back to the kitchen where we crushed it up with a potato masher and then started the straining with this clever home made honey strainer system using tape screen and two mason jars with lids : )







we also saved a bit of the comb with honey still in it ...










total is a little over a gallon of honey!! pretty exciting!! BIG HUGE THANKS to Laura!!

who's the bigger pig

Every once in a while I like to do a little Blog contest just for fun to draw out all the lurkers.. : )

This time the winner get's a bottle of the about to be released 2010 Willamette Valley Pinot as it features Don and Roger our current pigs.


Brian named these pigs after Don Draper and Roger Sterling .. so the question is who is the bigger pig... Don or Roger...


courtesy of AMC - Mad Men

My opinion of the TV version is that while Don Does seem to get more women in the sack Roger seems to be a bit more misogynistic about it.. all that being said your guess is to tell me the live weights of these pigs pictured below.. I slaughter on September 6th and will measure them for final weight then... hint I slaughter usually between 275# - to 300# but these boys are both bigger pigs than anticipated...

so type your weight guess in the comments section below one for don and one for roger... I'll announce the winner after the slaughter. Happy guessing...

yesterday evenings painting

This one is a little bigger at 11 x 14" ... I will never tire of this lower field - which is good since I live here : )

sneak peek

We are gearing up to bottle in a few short weeks I thought I'd give you a sneak peek at the new line up of label art I've been working on that you will be seeing on the 2010 wines. The wines are just gorgeous we are very excited to get them out to everyone!!! Also as you can see there are a lot more new vineyards in 2010 that you haven't seen before! ... We'll be doing the release in September (and some in April) and you'll get the full scoop then! ...

reducing my dependence on foreign oils ...

yesterday was 'gamblin day'... nope not on the 'rez' ; ) -- gamblin is a local portland company that makes beautiful hi quality oil paints a world that I still have a lot to learn about.. but I'm expanding my knowledge and going local thanks to my new friendship with robert gamblin and his crew - many of whom are painters as well as paint and color masters!! ... we had a paint out yesterday at the farm .. and it was dreamy!! Here's the photo version of the day! (thanks to Pete for many of the photos)


























8" x 11"


8" x 11"


6" x 7.5"


6" x 9"

ps - all these recent paintings are for sale send me an e-mail if you are interested.

Robert gave me this beautiful painting he did at the farm I was honored.



and to top it all off I finished up the day by doing some harrowing with the boys! what a day...