21. Platform Progress

Three weeks ago my Dad joined me out at the vineyard site and helped me mix and pour over 1,600 lbs of concrete to finish creating the footings that will be the foundation for my wooden tent platform. It was a huge amount of work, and I am definitely glad that part is over. Thanks dad!

This past weekend I returned and started erecting the posts for the platform. Because the platform is perched on the side of a hill, each post has to be cut to a different length to make sure the platform comes out level. 

In a few weeks George and Eilis will trek out to the Davis Mountains with me and hopefully finish building the platform!

This was the first of the 15 posts that will support the platform for the big tent.

This looks like some of the art in Marfa! That really tall post on the left still needs to be cut down to size.

A 995 acre ranch is for sale a few miles away from Alta Marfa and is the site of the first ever vineyard in the Davis Mountains, Blue Mountain Vineyard. The realtor was nice enough to take me on a tour of the property. The vineyard has been dead and abandoned for about ten years and I have been hoping to get a chance to check in out up close ever since I started my project almost two years ago. If anyone has a spare $1.6 million lying around let me know...

Old vine skeleton at what was once Blue Mountain Vineyard. Planted in the 1970's, this was the first vineyard in the Texas Davis Mountains AVA.

Time Traveling... this was really cool to see. 

During a trip to the hardware store in Alpine (about 30 minutes east of Marfa) I spotted another old abandoned vineyard. I believe it belongs to Sul Ross State University, but is no longer in use. I knew of its existence because of past research, but I never knew where it was located until now. This trip was full of time traveling...

I'm fairly sure this was a research vineyard planted by Sul Ross State University in Alpine. It's just at the south end of town and seems almost all dead except for some of the root stocks.