I know most of you expect me to discuss wine matters on this site, but today it is very hard for me to exclude my experiences in Santa Rosa. I have recently met Neils Johansen here at our winery and in the last couple of weeks I have gotten to know him very well as he has helped me out through his profession, which is periodontics. Today, he prepared my tooth for the application of a crown by my dentist. Without going into too much detail, he had to move my gum around to make it easier to apply the crown. The main reason for stating this is to let you know that I had to go onto the Coffaro Diet again so I drank one bottle of Coffaro wine tonight and had a small "soft food" salad. I know this may be difficult for most of you to understand, but I actually admired and even enjoyed the professional expertise exhibited by Neils during this surgical procedure. 

After the surgery, I met up with Michall Pendleton - also known as "Mitch," who helped me do some research on our imminent purchase of a new Golden Retriever pup. Susie, our 11-year-old daughter, has been very persistent in the last couple of years and we have finally decided to let her have a puppy to raise. As I've said to many of my friends recently, I've always wanted to have three children. I already have two daughters - an 11 year old and a 14 year old. Now we will have a third child! As most of you will undoubtedly agree, a Golden Retriever will be quite a challenge but a wonderful addition to our family life on the farm. 

I have been having great fun the last few days using the new labeling machine. I actually spent about an hour yesterday and labeled and tinned over 20 cases of late harvest Sauvignon Blanc. I am hoping to start on the dry Sauvignon Blanc within the next day or two. And I know I must call AWS, the company which sold me the equipment, to find out where the filler and corker is. As I've said before, I still would like to start bottling the first week in July. 

Caterino and three other workers have started preparing for the planting of our 2000+ vines, and I will expound on that in the next couple of days. In the meantime, I must go take another three Ibuprofen and rest up for tomorrow. 

June 9, 1999

Ted Jones, my electrician, came by today and we started replacing most of my fluorescent lights within the winery building. Now you must understand Ted told me two years ago that fluorescent lights were the best to use and even though I know they are very efficient and put out a lot of light, from what I've learned over the years, the more you turn them on and off, the faster the bulbs burn out. Since the ceiling in the winery is over 15 feet high, it is very difficult to change the burnt-out bulbs. It seems like every week, I have a bulb or two go out on me. And since these special bulbs cost $8 apiece, they are quite expensive to maintain. As a matter of fact in contrast, at least half the incandescent bulbs in our home which were installed when we remodeled ten years ago, are still working. I've asked Ted to use his expertise and give me a lighting system that may be expensive to install but requires little bulb replacement. Since I can't remember exactly which bulbs he is installing, I will find out tomorrow and hopefully post another note for any of you who may find this of interest or of some help. 
 

Home | Read | Diary | Public Forum | Tell Us What You Think of Our Diary! | Last Week | Next Week