"It made a loud popping sound and then...."

The day started at 7:30 a.m., it wasn't too bitter cold yet, but it was overcast and the clouds were rolling in for the first real rain of the season.

By noon, Paul and I had transferred 2 tons of pinot, bucket by bucket, into the press. We got one short break and then Gerry showed up with the first of two truckloads of cabernet.

The three of us processed that first ton, manually into the crusher. We were about 3/4 done when the guy we sold used barrels to showed up with his truck. No break before loading up a dozen barrels...but wait! Just as Paul was getting ready to pull down the first rack of empties, Big Joe died.

Paul came out from inside and said, did you hear that loud POP? (we didn't, the press was running) that was Big Joe, it's dead. So, for the rest of the barrel moving, no forklift...Super.

Gerry, Paul, and I ran relays with the hand truck and hoisted barrels and racks, up and over hoses and around various obstacles.

Next day we had the repair guy come out...his van.


The new batteries in Big Joe...

The deceased batteries...



And then, because I think I figured out how to take video and get it uploaded...a shot of the fog rolling in the other night (a couple days back) as we were wrapping up and leaving for the day.