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Pic of mom when she came out with us to help as we moved here to Cottonwood in the dead of a winter storm. We had no furniture, kitchenware or spare clothes for a week while waiting for the moving truck to show up. Made do with stuff bought from walmart and goodwill and had more fun than would...

2022 Crush Kraffty's Cottonwood Crush #3 is 10 days away, I can't believe we've already been in this home for 3 years. We're getting excited, grapes ordered and scheduled for Sun, Sept. 11 pick-up in Phoenix. Timing is a little sucky, we’re driving down to Phoenix on Thursday the 8th to see...

Why have I never seen this before today. I've always wanted a Santa Maria style grill. Usually large, rectangular and very expensive - all features that make actually having one sort of unrealistic. But this would kill two birds ( and grill them too I'd guess) in a single purchase. Link to the...

I posted a pic or three of the new to me 1997 jeep I picked up mid October. My original plans were to do little to it other than make sure it was mechanically sound. Well after having some time to think it over I've decided to put a little more effort into it and make it a DIY project. Already...

Everything went as planned, Spent Saturday night in Phoenix, Olive Garden for dinner, Pat Benatar Concert with a fun twist, back to the hotel safely, a few drinks, a little sleep and waiting at the warehouse at 7AM when they opened to pick up the grapes. Made it home by 9:00am and had grapes...

Friday morn as we were getting into our truck to go shopping we got the call that Lori’s father had passed away overnight. While we knew it was coming sometime soon it was still a little bit of a jarring moment. We loaded some clothes and made it over to Lave Havasu City in under four hours to...

For anyone who entered last years Covid Delayed competition a reminder. This weekend, June 26th, 27th, the judging should take place!

I'm seriously considering adding solar panels to the house. Until recently I've viewed it as a trade off offering no real monetary advantage to me. Either pay the electric company forever or pay a lease for 20 years, replace the system when it dies and repeat. I'm now considering a system that...

For the last month or so it seems our electronic services and devices have banded together and conspired to come up with interesting ways to add frustration to our lives. Our phones have started dropping calls, breaking up or just showing the message “call failed”. Verizon offered to sell us a...

Sunday will our first crush since leaving California since what seems like a lifetime ago. Over the last 6 months, in prep for this, I’ve built a new winery, checked, cleaned, replaced and upgraded or modified my existing equipment. In the last few weeks I’ve reviewed my notes from previous...

Hey Everyone: Maybe it's time for a spot dedicated to the day to day life under the new rules because of the virus for a while. It seems to be seeping into just about every thread so why not give it a place to "self-quarnitine" for a while. I'm guessing we'll be dealing with this for a while...

I just came across this from Arizona Highways TV and wanted to share. It's pretty much a self promo for arizona wine but the section between 14:30 and 22:00 minutes is about the Verde Valley, Cottonwood and our neighboring towns and is a good representation of the area. Everything seems a little...

So now that we’ve lived here a little while I have to say that our assumption that the small town life would be just fine seems to be pretty accurate. Before moving we reasoned that for the most part we shopped, ate-out, found entertainment or visited friends all in about a 5 mile radius from...

Well 2017 was my last, and best I believe, run of wine in California. I teamed up with a friend on two wines, a 100% Cab and a Zin blend that we're entering separately in this years contest. It's a pretty big competition, last year it looked like well over 100 judges and over 900 entries. I'm...

@1:30 - 117 on both of my gauges, about 24% Humidity. My little AC in the winery is holding it's own and keeping between 75 and 74. My future home site in the center of Arizona is just at 100 degrees right now. Can't wait to get out there.

These first 5 paragraphs of this long story are kind of like looking at too many pictures from someone else’s Vacation, pretty boring. But the last 5 are pretty exciting stuff (at least for me) so skip ahead to the second half if you like. Lori, my mom and I just got back from a 7 day vacation...

So the last few days I’ve spent pretty much every waking hour in various units of several different local hospitals. While I was not the patient(s), and all turned out just fine, it was about as stressful as it gets. After a nice dinner and movie at my Mom’s house with my brother and my wife...

Well I'm pretty tickled about this. I entered 3 labels and got 3 golds. Now if I could get as good at making the wine that goes INSIDE the bottle I'd really be a happy camper. http://cellarmastersla.org/cellarbration-2017/ Mike

I just came across this this morning and really enjoyed a lot of her comments. At the end of the article is a link to additional stories from her. https://grapecollective.com/articles/why-some-wine-writing-today-reminds-me-of-a-woody-allen-movie Mike

My wife called my longtime friend earlier this year and told him he better make some type of plans to take me away this particular October weekend to celebrate my 60th birthday. So last Friday I headed out from the San Gabriel Valley and he headed out from Las Vegas with the plan of meeting up...