Measuring Brix

Measuring Sugar Content

As I said before we measure the sugar content in Brix. This is done with a sample of grapes taken from various rows and various places in the vineyard. The samples are collected into a clean beaker.

 After the sample is collected the grapes are crushed and mixed together. By doing this we get an average sugar content representative of what the winemaker will see when he/she takes the harvest and turns it into grape juice.

 Some of the juice is taken out of the sample and placed on the refractometer. The Refractometer is an optical device that uses the refraction of light in the juice to compute a sugar content (Brix)

 Here you can see what I see when looking through the refractometer. In this case we are averaging 18 Brix. We will do an initial harvest of grapes around 20-21Brix for Rose. Then the main harvest at 24-25 for the Syrah.

Fixing the Trailer

Preparing for Harvest

As Harvest gets closer I needed to fix our Trailer. During Harvest we use our flatbed trailed to haul the grapes to the winery. The trailer is in good shape I replaced the deck boards last year. But unfortunately the last time I used it the lights on one side did not work. 

The first thing that I did was look at the connector that plugs into the truck. I was planning on replacing this anyway because we needed an adapter to go from this older style connector to the newer style in the truck. When I pulled the connector I found this. I thought that this may be my problem. But I was to find out that it was much worse than than I thought.

After cutting back the wires to get some fresh wire I decided to tin the wires with Solder to give them a little protection and make it easier to insert them into the new connector. 

Once the wires were tinned I used a car battery to test all the connections. This is when I realized that things were worse off than I thought. Most of the lights still did not work. 

So I proceeded to install the connector before I tracked down the rest of the wiring problems. 

Once I got the new connector on I climbed under the trailer and started to chase the wires. What I found surprised me. The wires were not broken they were gone! A rat had decided to eat large chunks of the wire, copper and all. Here is a picture of three of the connections that plug into the running lights in the back before (eaten to nothing) and the new wires that I bought and started soldering in place. 

Almost all of the lights at the back of the trailer looked like this, so after several hours of rewiring I finally have the trailer ready to deliver grapes. Sorry  I did not take any pictures under the trailer, I was too busy cussing the rats! 

Vineyard Update

Veraison and Nets

The Grapes are maturing, and they have gone through Veraison, that is a fancy way of saying that they have changed color. Now the grapes are a nice dark purple color. But more importantly the sugar content is rising. Sugar content is the main indicator of when to harvest. Sugar is measured in Brix and I will start measuring the Sugar content regularly over the next few weeks. 

Now that the sugar content is starting to rise we need to net the Vineyard to protect from bird damage. You would be surprised how much damage to the crops birds can do. The nets will stay on until Harvest. Right before Harvest we will lift the nets so that the pickers can get free access to the grapes. 

Favorite Rifle

My Favorite Rifle

Deer season has opened and it got me thinking about rifles, specifically my favorite rifle. 

My favorite rifle is a 25-06 that I built on a commercial FN Mauser action. This rifle was one of the first rifles that I ever built. I spent a lot of time researching calibers, barrel lengths, stock configurations, wood types before I built it. I put all this research into practice and built what I considered to be a perfect rifle.  It had been my go to large game rifle ever since. 

But that is not why it is my favorite.  The story starts a little earlier than that. 

I was a young man in my 20s and was reading every book I could to teach myself how to build rifles. I spent many hours practicing on old worn out Mauser actions in the shop and had decided that I was ready to build "the ultimate rifle" I wanted a commercial Mauser action as the base of this rifle. Whenever I could I looked at the used rifles in gun shops to find my perfect action. 

I was in a gun shop with my girlfriend and noticed an old JC Higgins 30-06 in the used gun rack. I inspected it and found that it had a near new FN Commercial Mauser action on it. The barrel had some light rust and the stock was beat up. But the action was perfect! This was my perfect action for my project because I was not going to use the barrel or stock. 

The problem was at the time I was broke and did not have the money to buy it. So I had to put it back on the rack. I went back several months later when I had saved up the money to buy it, but it had been sold. 

Six months later on Christmas morning my girlfriend gave me a present, it was a long rectangular box and for the life of me I could not figure out what she would give me in a box that shape. When I opened it I found that JC Higgins, FN Mauser Rifle in it! She has gone back the next day and bought the rifle for me, then she kept it under her bed for six months! 

I built my 25-06 on that action and it will be the last firearm that I would ever part with. Saying it is my favorite is an understatement. 

My 25-06 getting ready to go on a deer hunt

As for the girlfriend, I married her and she is now my wife. 

Vineyard Update

The Vineyard is doing well. Lots of leaves and growth. It is a world of difference form a few months ago when the vines were dormant and we cut them back. The leaves are a nice deep green and look very healthy. 

 The grape clusters are looking really good, nice big clusters with very uniform fruit.

Pretty soon the grapes sugar content will start to increase, they will turn red and start to mature. At that point we will net the vineyard to protect them from birds. In the mean time we just keep watering them and watching them grow. 

Beretta Stock Update

 Upgrading my Beretta 

After letting the new finish cure for several months, I finally got around to fitting my Beretta stock and fore end. I bought Beretta factory wood thinking that I would just bolt them on. Boy was I wrong. You would think that a mass produced shotgun like the Beretta 686 would have a stock that bolts right on; but it required much more hand fitting than I expected.

After realizing that the stock would not just bolt on I got out the soot lamp and started fitting the wood. I use a home-made soot lamp to coat the metal in a thin layer of soot, then bring the wood and metal together. The soot transfers to the wood where it comes in contact. I then remove the wood where the soot is and start the process all over until there is the necessary clearance or the parts are mating firmly (whatever is needed).

Here you can see the black marks left by the soot lamp, you can also see some of the areas that I have removed with a scraper. This is a tedious process and one that should not be rushed. Little bits of material are removed and then the fit is checked. This process is repeated several times. 

 After the buttstock was fitted the lamp was turned on the barrels to fit the fore end.

 Again, I was surprised how much material needed to be removed.

A scraper and sandpaper (with a block backing) were used to do most of the work on the fore end. 

Here I have the pieces together and am using a piece of paper to confirm that there is clearance between the barrel and the fore end. 

Here is the final job, it looks much nicer than the plain factory wood. 

Fire...

Summer in California

Growing up in California you get used to Fires. Especially in summer and fall. In the past few years we have had several large fires within 20 miles of our home/vineyard and many small fires that the fire department put out before they got too big. 

Last Saturday I was sitting in my home office enjoying the air conditioning and I heard a loud rumble of a jet engine. I am like a little kid and when I hear a jet engine or rotor blades that are out of the normal; I usually go running out to see what it is. This time it was an MD80 firefighting plane making a low pass over our house. 

Then I noticed the billowing smoke cloud. I was not sure where it was so I climbed up the hill and found that it was on the other side of a major road so we were pretty safe. Turns out it was on a friends ranch. Fortunately they were all fine. 

 The firefighting helicopters were using the pond on the vineyard across the canyon for water so it made for a pretty exciting afternoon. 

I have to say that the firefighters are getting really good at putting out these fires. In the last few months there have been several brush fires in my area and with the help of the fixed wing aircraft and helicopters the fire department has gotten things under control very quickly. This one was contained by the next morning.

So a big thank you to all the Firefighters out there, I sleep much better knowing that you are there when we need you.