The weather has been quite nice this month, it looks like spring has finally come. I was in the vineyard last week to check the progress of bud development and thankfully they were still hard and firm.This week I checked the vineyard and there has been some 'movement,' the buds are still firm but they are beginning to soften, I will still keep to my schedule of beginning pruning the last week of March in the hopes of slowing down bud break ( hope in vain I think, but such is farming, always hoping for a better year)

This past winter was mild so I think it won't take much to get the vines moving (whether that has any effect on the deacclimation process of vines waking up after a 'long winter' I don't know but it sure sounds reasonable) 

Hopefully the old adage rings true "Early to bed, early to rise"  because the vines stayed up late last fall, so i'm hoping they'll be a little slow out of the gate. We can (not always) get a late frost about the first week of May so i'll leave lots of spare parts just in case.   

This photo was taken about 3 weeks ago. The circular thermometer
isn't part of the Stevenson Screen

This is a Stevenson Screen (above) that is in my vineyard. The 3 gauges (that are hanging)are in Fahrenheit. One records the minimum temperature, one the maximum temperature, and one records the current temperature. Now everything is Celsius and digital, but, until I go digital, this will do nicely, the recordings are very accurate.