Vineyard Night Life
Jogging down the vineyard row at 11 at night I keep hoping I don’t catch my toe on some dirt clod hidden in the dark and I wish that I spent a little more time at the gym so I wouldn’t feel like this light jog was about to kill me. The closer I get to the beast rolling along over the top of the vineyard rows the easier it gets to see. When I reach the ladder I grab onto to steps, swing up and enjoy the rush of warm air that blows from the tractor into my face.
I climbed to the top of the tractor and enjoy the contrast of the tractor’s warm air flowing up my legs and the Paso cold night air on my face; this would be relaxing if it didn’t feel like I was riding a jack-hammer. I look out across the vineyard and its fellow grape planted neighbors at the eerie harvester lights floating across the dark.
Post-Harvest Grapes
Machine harvesting grapes actually takes two tractors. The most notable is the massive harvester, it carefully crawls through the vineyard, perfectly straddling the rows. This beast has a high center where the tall vine rows to pass through the middle; reaching into the middle, are large paddles that beat the trunks of the vines causing the whole row to shake and the jack-hammer sensation from above. As the vine quivers just the grapes, naked stems left behind, drop down to the conveyor belt. The belt then whisks the grapes up the machine, out the long arm and drops into the massive harvester’s partner. The partner is a bin called a gondola (slightly different from the romantic boat rides of Venice), it travels alongside the harvester two rows over, pulled along in unison by the kind of tractor we most often see.
I ride the harvester and enjoy the vineyard’s new night life. After a few rows of dancing a forced boogie, thanks to the shaking of the harvester, I climb back down and will my now jello-legs to walk back to the car. The harvest party has just begun for the vineyard but I’m afraid it is bedtime for me.
Arm
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