Amalie Robert Estate: 2021 Ice Storm and The Kite Eating Trees

Hello and Welcome, 

 

Unfortunate, but not uncommon. This is an agrarian phrase. It is often used to describe current events by a farmer, or a rancher or anyone else who has a direct reporting relationship to Mother Nature. 

 

If you happen to be one of those people who regularly ignore the “LOW FUEL” indicator, you know what we are talking about.

 

 

A FLOG communication (Farming bLOG) by Dena & Ernie from Amalie Robert Estate. Oregon Willamette Valley Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Have a look and see what we see on Instagram @AmalieRobert Estate. We are ramping up on FaceBook! (If you don’t like us, we don’t wanna know…)

 

Freezing rain. This phenomenon occurs when raindrops encounter a layer of subfreezing air just above the surface and then cool to a temperature below 32 °F. The supercooled raindrops then land on whatever they can find in the layer of subfreezing air, such as tree branches that are overhanging vineyards or power lines. You see where we are headed here.

 

When these supercooled drops make contact with the trellis, power lines, tree branches, vehicles, or anything else below 32 °F, a portion of the drops instantly freeze, forming a thin film of ice, hence the term freezing rain. The physical process by which this occurs is called nucleation.

This is what it would look like if Dale Chihuly made a glass vineyard.

 

Dale Chihuly Glass Sculpture "Sol D'oro"

Now if allowed to continue, this behavior becomes an ice storm and will form an increasingly thicker and thicker film of ice known as a casing. In our idyllic vineyard setting, we ended up with a little over an inch thickness of ice encasing anything exposed to the freezing rain.

 

The demise of the Kite Eating Trees. These are oak and maple trees in particular, but it is not uncommon for a fir tree to take a kite from time to time. Hardwood species seem to very susceptible to freezing rain. And they let you know it with debris scattered from hell to breakfast.

 

 

And ice is heavy. A cubic foot of ice weighs about 57 pounds. Compare that to a cubic foot of heavy Montana Rocky Mountain snow at about 11 pounds. These trees can only take so much before they start losing limbs. Or if their root system cannot handle the increased, or off-centered, weight then the entire tree comes down. Usually across a road, someone’s fence line, or their preferred target, a power line. A telephone line will do in a pinch. Unfortunate, but…

 

Pacific Power Outage Map Showing Amalie Robert Estate, Outage of 1 and the last to have power restored.

Electricity is like cash money, it does you no good if you don’t have it “on” you. But as a farmer, you have to know how to make your own electricity. To run small appliances like laptop computers and cell phones, Ernie has his handy dandy 12 volt inverter. This plugs into the power outlet in the Big Dodge Diesel Dually and charges these small appliances. We then we have access to our digital world via Wi-Fi, assuming the Wi-Fi networks know how to make their own power.

 

Heat (and food preparation) comes in the form of the downed limbs from past ice storms and our cookstove. The cookstove is a modern implementation of an age-old appliance. Some rules are timeless, such as the 7 second rule. That is the amount of time between just a little char and burnt to a crisp. Ours also has a side water box which conveniently heats water, and melts ice. This is helpful when it comes to flushing the toilets, as we don’t generate the 240 volts required to run the water pump.

 

Ernie Harvesting Ice.

Ice packs from the freezer make it into to the refrigerator. Gallons of drinking water come up from the back room. Candles and flashlights are gathered during the daylight hours. Extra firewood is brought in. Standard Farming Procedure – we have seen this movie before. But after 5 days of hamping (house camping), it was time for a hotel night, and a hot shower.

 

 

The Kite Eating Trees Strike Back. We were making good progress on getting the vineyard pruned and tuned for vintage 2021. Then thanks to the ice storm, we had a week of “pick up sticks”. There was a fair bit of chainsaw work involved first. Kite eating trees make good firewood.

 

Some of these downed branches were quite substantial, measuring over 20 inches in diameter. How many kites does it take to grow a branch that big?

 

The good news is that we only lost about 50 vines and a dozen posts to falling branches. The bad news is that the birds are going to have a tough time of it this year. There will be far fewer places for them to perch and pick off our Pinot Noir wine berries. But more good news is that Ernie’s nursery man was able to send up replacement vines within a week. You see, two out of three - not so bad. We have time to clean up and finish pruning. Will be ready for budbreak.

 

 

National Procrastination Week occurs during the first two weeks of March, more or less. Procrastinators fall into three main types: Delayers, Perfectionists and the easily Distractible. Anything sound familiar here? Maybe it’s time to actually stop and fill up the tank.

 

Year’s Best US Syrah from Wine and Spirits Magazine. Unfortunately, there is not a subsection for cool climate Syrah, so we are grouped in with the warmer growing regions of Southern Oregon, Eastern Washington and California. But no matter, “Year’s Best” is a good moniker to share.

 

Bonus: Peanuts from April 11, 1965. Click on the image to see more kite eating comics.

 

Kindest Regards,

Dena & Ernie