Blessing of the Vines

Our very good friend Phil happens to be the pastor of our church so we asked him if he and his family would come to dinner this week in the vineyard and do the blessing of the vines for us. Now we are not Roman Catholic or superstitious or even real wine growers for that matter so this may sound kind of hokey and you're probably wondering what is this all about.  Well, we have designed our backyard to be a beautiful and inviting place for fellowship and ministry.  This is the area we use for gathering over food, books, wine, cigars, discussion and whatever else God may give us to gather over in the future.  So Phil did pray a blessing on the vineyard but mostly for the fruit of all that goes on in this special place. It was actually one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard Phil pray and it filled my heart with great joy.   And then we had a very nice meal together of garlic flat bread, prime rib, baked potatoes and asparagus, all made in the brick oven. We also shared our very favorite wine (Souverain Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2007) with the Kruis family since it was such a special occasion with special friends.  May God continue to bless the vineyard and our lives!

Evolution of the Backyard

The past few months Matt has been working on the backyard.  He took out our three raised garden beds and reshaped the area to put in a small vineyard (we did keep one raised bed that we placed below next to the grave of the Sharptooth).  He dug 8 holes and laid drip for the 8 vitus vinifera vines he ordered us from California.  We know the climate here is too  hot for wine grapes but we thought we would grow some anyway for fun, for their beauty and maybe one day try our hand at some wine.  We decided to choose the grape varietals we like best regardless of our climate and made sure to get the appropriate rootstock.  We have planted Cabernet Franc, Carignane, Petite Sirah, Zinfadel, Touriga Nacional, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese and Merlot. 

  

Desert Museum

Matt's Class

 

Matt is teaching his first adult education class at church right now on one of the greatest classics of all time, Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.  The class is 13 weeks long. He has spent hours and hours preparing for the class and is doing such an amazing job teaching it.  It is clear to see that God has gifted him in this area.  I am very proud of him.  Sandi and Arianna have been coming every week.  I wish I was able to record the classes and share them with my family in Minnesota.

Visiting Janks and Kino Bay

At the end of February we headed down to Mexico again to see the Janks.  Of course we had our normal tradtions of eating tacos, having our steak dinner, wine shopping and playing spades and we also  went to the beach for the afternoon.  The four of us plus their 2 dogs crammed into Ryan's Jeep Wrangler and drove about an hour or so west to Kino Bay where we laid on the beach, played in the waves, and had a friendly tournament of bocce ball.   It was really windy that day but still lovely to be at the sea.  Kino Bay is not really for tourists so we shared the beach with a only a few locals.   Here are some pics...

Christmas Surprise!

As usual I am way behind on blogging but I have to post a few pictures from this past Christmas when my sister Regan and her family (minus Jax) made a surprise visit to Arizona for the holidays.  It was one of the most surprising moments in my life when I came home from work one night around 7, entering through my garage into the house and I heard loud Christmas singing.  At first I thought Matt had the TV on really loud and there was a Christmas movie on but when I looked into the living room the TV was off and Matt was not even in there.  Then I thought I must have Christmas carolers at my door- how strange because I live out of town a bit.  I slowly peeped around the corner to look at the front door and to my GREAT SURPRISE I saw my sister, her husband and their kids with Matt singing "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" at my front door.  I was utterly shocked and confused!!  It took me a minute to realize what was going on.  They had a great laugh as they came in and we had welcome hugs.  Apparently Matt knew the whole time of their plan to come stay with us over Christmas and New Years and never let on a thing about it!  It was very nice to have them here and share our Tucson life with them.  It was also heart melting to have my two nieces playing together.