Walks #88 and #89: Napa Valley Bud Break...

Walk Duration: 30 minutes each...

I'm on an extended run at work. Ten days. Filling in as Social Worker (one of my colleagues calls me a "socialist social worker") and as a Utilization Review Nurse while vacations are had by those who do a much better job at this than I do. But the work is fun and I get to talk on the phone, attend meetings and generally stay away from the mayhem which psychiatric units can be.

When the nine to five part of my day is done, I head down to the library in the snobby, trusterfunder town of St. Helena. After answering my personal e-mails and reviewing this and that--I then walk around a vineyard.

It is "bud break" here in the Napa Valley. A time when the vines are shooting out new growth. It also is the most vulnerable time for these young shoots. All the vineyards have massive fans (like the one pictured above) and frost protection systems. For good reason: only cannabis gets more dollars per ton of harvest than wine grapes. The vineyard folks go to great and elaborate lengths to protect the grapes that will, within one to three years, be the 2009 vintage of some of the most expensive wine in the world.

These fans are loud. When the temperatures start to dip to the mid part of the 30 degree Fahrenheit range, they all start up. It sounds like thousands of helicopters are descending on the Napa Valley. The only time I remember it being louder here was when George Bush stayed overnight at one of the Napa Valley Resorts and they had Jet Fighters circling the Napa Valley all night.

The fans keep the air moving so that the shoots and later this spring, the flowers--won't freeze.

Such is life in the world's first "agricultural preserve".