all kinds of farmy things going on around here!!

We did our very first hay cutting on the 4th of July!! yippee - with any luck we'll be bucking hay by the end of the week -

We have two WOOFERS here on the farm this week they have been super - in fact as I type this they are doing the dinner dishes!! thanks ladies... they have stacked wood, put up fence, worked in the garden, helped me clean up the barn, helped with chores and bunches of other projects. Cecilie even tried her hand at driving the boys!





Speaking of projects My FABULOUS husband has been making huge progress on the barn 3 of the 6 posts are in and all the footing poured!! nice work hubs!





Have done some new paintings and one more today that I'll have to post tomorrow as I havent' taken a photo of it yet...





July 5th was Edith's last day thanks Edith it was a very peaceful end for her.






WARNING GRAPHIC PHOTOS BELOW!!















and last but not least we went over to Duane's house on the 4th and got to see some 'explosions' happy 4th of July!

Big California Weekend!!!

Two great wine events to catch Big Table Farm Wines in Ca !!!
Brian and I will be pouring at both these events and we'd love to see you!

Saturday

ACME fine wines in St Helena will host ---

Big Table Farm : Brian Marcy and Clare Carver, quite the adorably and talented husband and wife team, will join us at ACME on Saturday, June 26th for a special, complimentary in-store tasting of their knockout wine: Big Table Farm, White Hawk Vineyard, Syrah, Santa Barbara 2007
Winemaker Brian Marcy (formerly of Turley & Marcassin) made only a very small amount of Syrah from the White Hawk Vineyard in Santa Barbara. Yes, the same White Hawk Vineyard which has been a mainstay in the famous Sine Qua Non wines. This miraculous little Santa Barbara enclave produces our favorite kind of Syrah: rich and teeming with winsome, dark peppery fruit, but cool enough climatically to proffer high-toned floral aromatics and balancing acidity.
Can you attend? Please let us know, we’d love to have you.
If you haven’t met Brian and Clare, you really haven’t lived. Just saying.
For orders and questions, please call
888.963.0440


Sunday

Big Table Farm will pour their sold out Pinot and newly released Rose!!

6th Annual Pinot Days San Francisco
June 27th, 2010, Fort Mason

http://www.pinotdays.com/

young farmer

My nephew Bobby - has a terrific seance of humor - some say that's what it takes to be successful in small business.. perhaps he'll chose to be a farmer... or by the looks of his drawing a professional artist!!!



This is Bobby in his garden... looks like his parents are farmers too!! and this is his rendition of the big table farm chicken bus that he collected eggs from last summer...




Come on back for a visit when you can bobby we'd love to see you... Thank you for the beautiful drawing!


Big hugs - Aunt Clare and Uncle Brian

todays painting

Today's painting looking off my porch as it's was raining (again!) so I got to paint 'outside' but under cover : )



and the line up boots I've burned through since moving to the farm... with the ones closest is the brand spankin' new ones my hubs surprised me with yesterday .. thanks hubs... smooches my now dry feet thank you too

Poor Ronnie - and a VERY full weekend!!

It's kind of amazing how much happens around here when the sun comes out!!



Ronnie lost his manhood this weekend thanks to these tools and Duane - who roped him and then he and Brian held him while I banded him and have him a shot... I'm not sure he's gonna let me near him for quite a while...

In other news Duane and I picked up the new to me cart I got a few weeks back for my boys I need one more piece of harness and we are all set to roll!!! this should be a tom of fun to have around the farm.



Duane and I hung out a bit at his place too - we took some water to a lower pasture and I got to drive his super c - VERY fun tractor to drive : )





This is Duane driving back perusing his 'piece' it's was a spectacular weekend!

Oh also on Friday afternoon we had (HAD being the operative word) some honey bee's (not the ones from our garden) trying to move into a wall - So our friend Davey helped us re-locate them .. this is Brian pulling boards in the wall and then he vacated (as he's alergic to bees!) while Davey and I got the bee's into a box... - no running down the gravel road with a bee in my hair this time.. : )



We got a ton more things into the garden it's finally drying out a bit around here ... yippie!




These are just some gratuitous - shots of the sunshine!!

this tuesday's painting

I'm still enamored with the bee hives down the road - I think I may be doing a few more of this series..

post wine weekend on the farm

After the Big Holiday weekend we ALL got to enjoy a VERY sunny day Saturday ... my friend Laura (aka bee queen) came out and we spent the day in the garden and then played with the horses as our reward and Brian worked in his shop doing some spring cleaning and enjoyed some wine and jazz that drifted over to the garden where Laura and I worked in the sunshine --- ahh now that's summer... too bad the rain came back in full force.. the good news is it's looking like we are about to get two solid weeks of clear dry weather!! yippee!!






50 new chicks to replace the ones that jsut went to slaughter on Thursday.









We enjoyed super fancy grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch with some of the beautiful raw milk cheese my folks sent us!! Thanks guys what a super nice gift!...

a sweet post : )

Thanks Indra...

http://inspireyourlifestyle.wordpress.com/

Bees!!!

So the bee fairy aka Laura has been out swarm hunting on my behest and sent me a note last night saying she was on the hunt again! This was the second swarm she had gotten into her car in hunt for for the big table hives ... so the plan was to head out early and with any success would be at my house mid day .. I sent Laura a late night note which should have been a call - saying give me ring if you get 'em sadly that message did not get through so as I was out painting this morning as Laura was busily collecting bees and bringing them to the big table hives so I didn't get to witness the event... but I will say I went out painting knowing she was bee hunting and must have been channeling her as I came up on this site...



about 5 miles from my farm .. some beautiful crimson clover fields with honey bees busily pollinating.. so as I painted away Laura was depositing this beautiful swarm in my hive --



a very large and healthy swarm according to Laura - I was in luck this one looked great to her expert eye and she also reported that the queen marched right up the little ramp into the hive and all seemed well!!! WOW is all I can say!!!....



on a side note I will say I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to be a beekeeper so some gentle coaching will I'm afraid be necessary based on my interaction with a bee as I was out painting today...

it goes like this while Laura was collecting 8,000 + bees into a box I was interacting with just ONE!!.. all was good till this particular one decided he liked my hair!! which I will admit sent my literally RUNNING about a 1/4 mile down a gravel road shaking my head violently most likely scaring the bee to death! -- hum DON'T PANIC... ok ok then would you believe it he came back round two .. yup I ran down the road AGAIN!! and this time the bee didn't leave so readily .. so I curled up in a ball and then hid in my car for about 10 min... hummm I guss I'm kind of aprehensive about bees!!! yikes I didn't relaize..... well here goes nothing... I'm going to wear a hat when I'm near the bees from now on and the gloves and bee vail are on order!!

I better learn to BEE CALM!!! more on the bee adventure as we go... BTW this is why Laura is also so good with my horses she's just MELLOW -- sigh I'll get there somday...

Thank you!!

Thanks to all that came out to big table to taste and take home Big Table Wines literally hundred's of bottles left our hands to be enjoyed at your tables - We are immensely grateful for the vote of confidence in, and enjoyment of our wines! with gratitude - Clare and Brian

ps - the Willamette Valley Pinot '08 is sold out and the resonance close on it's heals so if you want any of the '08 Pinots I'd say contact us soon other wise you'll have to wait till the '09 release...



ps - thanks to all our friends that came bearing gifts this weekend your support means the world to us... preserves, rhubarb bread, charcutieri, snacks, semifreddo, flowers ... umm the list is long my heart swells!