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

Tamal Party causes Earthquake!

Ok, so its been a good 6 months since I've posted. But I've had good reason.  I swore off all extracurricular activity so I could focus on studying for my level 2 sommelier test which I finally took last month.  Now that the exam is over it's time for me to play catch up!

At the end of June some of the men folk got together for a weekend of fun in Albuquerque while some of the ladies stayed behind in Tucson.  Yunuen, Betsy and I spent a fun evening together making corn tamales, which turned out fantastic!  We used Marcela Valladolid's recipe

Later that night as Yunuen and I were sitting on the couch watching some Friends we felt a flutter go through the house.  Yunuen asked me if I felt anything and I said it felt like a heavy truck had gone by and rattled the house.  About a half an hour later Ryan text Yunuen to see if we had felt the earthquake.  We looked it up on the news and sure enough Tucson had experienced a little earthquake at about 10 PM. Thankfully this is an extremely rare occurrence in Arizona and we can laugh about it with pictures like this:

A Long Overdue "Happy New Year!"

We rang in the New Year with a bunch of friends over for a "thrift store party" where everyone had to come garbed in thrift store attire.  We partook  in snacks, drinks and hookah before letting off some Chinese lanterns at midnight.  They were so beautiful but very nerve racking as some of them crashed into neighboring yards while still on fire- yikes!  Thankfully no fires were started!  Here are some pics from the evening...

We then enjoyed a delicious steak dinner and a bottle of La Papaterie (St. Emilion) with the Janks on New Year's Day.

Together Again

We are so happy to be back in Tucson however, it is quite sad for us that most of our friends have moved away in the last few years.  Recently we had an opportunity to be together again in Tucson do to a funeral for a great man of God from our church.  Here are a few pictures from the evening we spent together having a lamb dinner and enjoying some hookah afterwards.

Pics from Tres Parejas de Patio, Mt. Lemmon 2013

Parking at bottom of cabin driveway

Hike up cabin driveway

Dinner first evening

Lunch in Summerhaven



After lunch hike



Ryan needs a beer at Summerhave general store for hike back



After lunch hike

Deep talks after lunch

Hookah time Saturday night

Tres Parejas de Patio 2013