Vintage 2023: The First of May

It's already May! When I wrote my previous blogpost, Vintage 2023: April Budbreak, on April 23rd, we had budbreak in the vineyard from the various grape varieties that we grow. At that time, my husband had pruned almost half of our vineyard, but there were still more things to do such as prune the tops of the other half of the vineyard, pick up the pruning cuttings, lay down the fruiting canes, and raise the netting.
Our friends used an expletive to describe the amount of work that we had to do, so they came to help us in the vineyard. From April 18 to April 28, they helped us to prune the tops of the canes, raise the netting and remove the cuttings from the vineyard so now, we have less than a third of the vineyard which needs to have the final pruning and cuttings removed. We can't thank our friends enough for coming to our aid!
Here is what 2/3rds of the vineyard looks like now.

One observation that our friend made was that although budbreak occurred in mid-April, the buds appeared to remain dormant. Typically, in May when budbreak usually occurs there is a time where the shoots are growing and it is called the grand growth period. It appears that the buds are dormant. So unusual!
Today, the first of May is windy, possibly the remnants of the storm that came through our area overnight bringing thunder and lightning and about 0.7 inches of rain.
It's time for us to get out there and tackle the remaining 1/3rd of the vineyard.