With Rebecca AND pastry-chef Alyce in the house, the girls got an extra helping of holiday scraps, I mean, treats!
Looks like someone already started the tasting process.
Here's a close-up of the grape skin "cap" resting on top of the juice.
Of course, you can't properly do anything wine related without a glass of Grantham-Turner Pinot Noir in hand.
Owen did the honorary cranking while the wine-makers carefully watched his every move.
After pressing, a beautiful 'cake' of grape skins goes into the compost.
Now that their precious juice has been fully extracted, Ted and Ed tuck the carboys into bed for a long 6-month sleep.
Now we hope the juice does its thing and turns itself into a delicious bottle of vino.
Look at these bursting Pinot grapes. Ray thinks this is his best crop in 30+ years! Of course, he says that just about every year:)
Here stand the three amigos with almost a thousand pounds of hand-picked picked grapes in the back of Ray's truck.
After picking the grapes, the guys drove up the road to Briceland Vineyards where a neighbor-friend owns a winery. Below, Ed is calculating something, not quite sure what.
Finally, all the grapes get dumped into the crusher-destemmer which does exactly what it says it does. Pure must (grape skins and juice) came out of a little tube, 501 pounds of which were transported home to Oakland in three food-grade plastic containers.
It was a long day, and the boys came home exhausted. I'll report on the remainder of the wine-making process (and it is a process) soon.
Introducing Blondie, the Ameruacana! She is the most lovely creature with cute little ear puffs and a gorgeous set of feathers. Our friends were sad to see her go, but they have a flock of seven and the noise / feather production was irritating neighbors. We were happy to help them out!
Aroused from slumber, Frieda, Ruthie and Blanca were shocked and horrified to see the new addition to their flock. Chickens make the most appropriate sounds sometimes - "eerrrrak?!" As if to say, "WTF?"
Sensei's first day at her new home.
Everyone's first trip to the lawn.
You were a great layer and a great bird. We miss you, Sensei! 
Our lovely bird Sensei died last night. It happened so quickly and we still don't know what caused her death. 
Blanca's gone broody on us. Her suspicious behavior - sitting on the nest for many hours a day, puffing up her feathers to promote body heat, aimlessly wandering around the yard making the laying sound, and squaking a fierce squak when nudged off the nest - are classic signs of broodiness.
As you can see below, two seperate but attached yolks came out of the big shell:
I'm sorry, but I have to brag about our chickens again (obviously, I'm going to be a very annoying parent!) 
Flapping dust on her back and carving out a hole with her claws - was Frieda trying to burry herself alive?! Then, Sensei started doing it too, but her style was more twitch and squirm. Blanca seemed embarased about the act because she popped up every time I came close for a photo. What the heck were they doing?
From a bit of internet research, it seems this is a perfectly natural act. "Dustbathing" is what chickens do to protect their feathers from lice and mite infestation. Some owners have to dustbathe their hens in a bucket of ash, but our girls figured it out all on their own. I'm so proud!
The thrill of finding a perfectly-shaped brown egg in the nest each morning has not yet lost it's luster. So far, we've been finding at least one, and sometimes two, eggs / day, which means that at least two of the birds are laying.
Little Lyla looks a little unsure about her egg-meal, but we're pretty sure she loved it. I mean, fresh eggs fried in butter - what's not to like?!
Before arriving in London, a very fashionable Scottish woman told me (disparngly) that Londoners adopt "the fashion of the week", even if the newest trend looks terrible on them or clashes with their personal style. I certainly found this to be true with the white tights. 
Fat and thin, young and old - everyone embraced opaque white leggings. It was incredible - 5 out of 10 people wore white tights and none of them had VPL (visible pantie lines). Sadly, I didn't get a shot of the more ridiculous white-tight-wearers, but you can use your imagination.
White was hot for other parts of the body as well. Pretty much everyone had white shoes, white purses, white polka-dots - you name it - it showed up in white.
White was so prevalent than some people had pushed the fad into the neon realm. Neon pink, yellow, green and blue were often worn to offset the articles of white. Check out these two white and neon twins:
As always, the adorable Lyla was there to do her part.
Cousin Tony came back from Portland just in time to help us power through. And, the lovely Bethany brought all the workers Bake Sale Betty Fried Chicken Sandwiches!
