Feeling Grateful

This is the view out of my new office window.  How cool is that!  A beautiful view of Lake Minnewaska and our vineyards - I am so lucky!  I have been working out of my car (on my lunch breaks when I had a town job), our kitchen table (when Joe was working out of our basement), and our basement (now that Joe has his own space in the shop) for the last 6 years, and I am very much looking forward to finally having a space of my own. 

Since this summer I have been meeting periodically with my dear friend Karina from Meco7 in Glenwood, to help me put a bow on the winery, but most importantly, my office :)  If you have never visited her store, make it a priority!  (But wait just a couple of weeks - she's moving to a bigger space very soon)   She has everything you ever thought you needed (or didn't need) to make your house feel like a home!  Furniture, rugs, pillows, wall hangings, mirrors, giftables, chocolate,  candles, clothing, baby, kitchen tools, everything! Seriously, you need to go!  

For this phase of the winery project we decided to forego using an interior designer, but instead we benefited from Karina's professional opinion to make calculated decisions regarding the interior and exterior spaces of the winery.  If it were up to Joe and I, it would literally look like a cracker box, and Karina has really helped me walk through each of the spaces and make our choices very intentionally.  I'm so excited for you to see what we have come up with and so grateful for the help she has offered! 

Shane, Dan, and Jake from Gateway installed more of the SIPs walls this week. This fall weather has not been cooperating at all with our construction schedule, but each week we chip away at more. Last week we lost 2 days to rain/snow and 1 day to high winds, so I'm thankful that this week, although chilly, has been good for our crew! The picture above is the interior wall between the production space and the offices, kitchen, and lab areas. We will have storage above where the large cut out is. Below are the trusses, patiently waiting to be installed, Curt from Lundblads working on some compaction work in the production space, and an interior view of the tasting room.

Let's talk about our patio for a minute.  I envision you spending a lot of time there in the near future.  Dennis Lundblad did quite a bit of dirt work over the last couple of weeks leveling that area out.  Today he was working on the retaining wall on the east side of the building.  The best part is, all of the rock he's using came from our property somewhere.  We are calling them "estate grown" rock.  :)  They are massive boulders and will make quite the statement when he's finished.  It feels really great to finally give these rock a home, rather than having them sit in a pile the remainder of their lives (hahaha). 

And Thein Well was able to come out today to finish pulling pipe to the building and placing the pumps below ground.  And our 3-phase power from REA and internet from Starbuck Telephone should be pulled in this week too!  Slowly we are checking things off the list and it feels pretty good!

And we FINALLY were able to start our soybean harvest.  Early last week there were a couple of days before it snowed that Joe was able to combine about 80% of our soybeans.  Then the snow came and we've been sitting since.  But I think we were one of the fortunate ones in the area that were able to get into the field.  The boys each took a ride with Joe in the combine after school on Tuesday.  Usually during harvest they don't get to see much of their dad, so I try to get them out to the field to do that each year. 

Lastly, I've been working with Alisha Zavadil from American Diversity here in Glenwood on putting together some new products for our holiday order.  And I'm SO EXCITED about what she has come up with!  Here's a sneak peek of what will be available - Look for more information beginning in November and start making your list!