Floors, tanks, and...read on

There's a very good reason for my absence over the last couple of weeks and I will share that below, but let's get into what has been going on as far as construction and progress on the winery over the last couple of weeks!

Last time I wrote, Creative Coatings out of Cyrus was here working on the floor coating.  They finished it up early that next week which meant we could move the tanks out of our yard and into the winery.   Here is a time-lapse of them working on the floor that I promised last time:

Cool!  Joe is always thinking ahead!  Next up was moving day!  This was something we all were looking forward to because we wanted get the tanks out of the snow and out of the yard so we didn't have to risk them getting damaged any longer. 

They. Look. Awesome!  If you follow us on Facebook you may have seen a few pictures and videos of this taking place. 

We called in a few people to help with move in day and it was actually pretty uneventful. Exciting, but uneventful. My dad spent a few nights with us, Joe and Darrien of course were there, as well as the Erickson cousins from Starbuck. Lots of muscle, a couple of machines, and they were done! Other than a little ice and the snow melting off everything, it went really smoothly.

Here's a time-lapse of the guys setting the tanks:

All while that was going on, Mike Lundebrek was busy roughing in more electrical, installing lights in my office, and putting the lights in the production area. 

And the lights are so cool!  The production lights, as well as much of the rest of the building, are on what's called the Light Cloud by RAB.  It's a system that is just what it sounds like - the lights can be controlled via anywhere in the world.  Our neighbors might have been wondering what was going on at the building after these were installed because Joe was playing with his new toy and turning the lights on and off in the winery, from the couch in the house.  We can set different programs to the lights and dim each of the fixtures individually.  For example, we can set all of the lights to 100% brightness during the daytime hours when the guys will be working in there, and then set them to dim to 20% in the evening hours when that part of the facility will be shut down.  Joe and Mike were really happy to partner with RAB on this project  and make this happen! 

And while all of that was going on, the HVAC guys and Plumbers were out doing their thing as well. The duct-work was installed, a lot of pipe was put in, and the furnaces were delivered.  The state inspector was out this past Monday to do a partial approval so we could continue moving forward on the production room.  Thein Well returned to turn the water on this week.  It will be SO NICE to finally have water out there and not have to haul buckets from the farm out to the site to get things done. 

And let's not forget about Shane and his crew.  They got 1/2 of the sheet steel put on the roof, worked on getting most of the battens up in the production space, put the vestibule on, installed the steel doors, and had the insulation and sheet rock installed this week as well. 

Everything is really coming together now and we are itching to move in, but there's still a lot left to do.  So we will be patient a little longer.  I think everyone working on this project will be so happy when its all wrapped up! 

I also took a class a couple of nights this month to get my ServSafe certification.  So you can all rest at ease knowing we have a certified food inspection manager on site when you are sipping your wine on the patio this summer.  You're welcome :)

Our family celebrated Vinny's 6th birthday on January 29th, enjoyed a special wedding for my cousin, and had the honors of welcoming Diana from the Internal Revenue Service (yes, the IRS) to our home this week to conduct an audit all while construction continued at the winery.  It has been a whirlwind to say the least, but I think we are almost out of the woods thanks to my super awesome organization skills, and ability to never throw anything away.  We will definitely be celebrating when that is all wrapped up!

And finally a shout out to the Pope County Tribune and the great Minnewaska Visitors Guide they put together for 2020 that will be coming out soon!  It highlights so many great businesses and places that make this area so awesome!  We were thrilled when they approached us about doing an article about the winery!  Here's a sneak peek!