Life and Rain

It's a stressful week here on the compound. There's rain in the forecast and the Sauvignon Blanc isn't ready to come off the vine yet. We've sampled every imaginable combination to at least get our 3 tons off, but the sugars just aren't there. The winemaker who purchases the other portion of the fruit has assured us that it will come through the weather just fine, but it's still nerve-wracking to deal with. Our harvest is normally early enough that we miss this early fall weather, like we did last year, but not this time. And rain brings a whole host of what-if's: if we get more rain than called for, we could see bursting berries and rot, if we don't get warm weather after the rain, our sugars will take another month or longer to creep back up to where we want them. This year we just have to let it be and see what happens.

The other bane of my existence right now is inventory and accounting. I was a journalism major for a reason, but the whole foundation of a small, family business is that you have to do things outside your comfort zone often. So I'm doing inventory (let me just say, this last time I was WAY off) and my mother and I are keeping the books in Quickbooks. God help us all. I mean, accounting and statistics for liberal arts majors can't really be classified as math, honestly.