Floor finished

The new floor in the bottle cellar is now complete, and my father is back home working on his own projects. Next time he visits we’ll be installing air-conditioning before filling the cellar with bottles.

Freed from DIY I am back to the vineyard. Digging out dead vines. I do it the traditional way, with a spade. It’s much easier with a tarière (a tractor mounted soil auger), but my tractor is banished from the vineyards in winter. A heavy tractor on damp soil just causes too much compaction, at a period of the year when the soil’s wildlife is at its most active. Of course the fact that I can’t afford the €5000 for a tarière might be a factor too!