Episode 15: The Electric connection

We have been waiting a long time to get the certificate of occupancy from Wilkes County.  When we got it we immediately called Duke Energy to get our electricity connected.  We had temporary service but now we needed to have the permanent lines installed.

The field engineer (who shall remain nameless) came over to discuss how we were going to connect the building.  He already knew we were not a fan of electrical poles and overhead lines since we paid an exhorbitant amount to have one pole moved from where it was (in the middle of our parking lot to a different location up further on the hill out of car traffic). It took six months to get to an agreement as to location, method and price.  We are two miles from Stone Mountain which is a massif granite dome, and we have some of the same terrain which does not make it easy but it is doable if you try hard enough. Emphasis on "try hard enough!".

The Field Engineer (FE) suggested running overhead lines from the electrical pole to the new building.  This was a non-negotiable as it would "ugly-up" our future wedding venue. So we opted running a new underground line from the electrical box, all the way around the back of the building, through the length of the lawn, across the driveway and connect it to an exiting underground line by the cabin that had been installed at the same time the electrical pole was moved in anticipation of installing power to the cabin.  There would be a connection box installed at the corner of the cabin connecting both underground lines.

The next day, Duke Energy came to install power, but they had the wrong work order, the work order was for the cabin which is not yet remodeled.  So we had to create a new work order for The Gathering Place.  This is an interesting process.

First of all, the Duke Energy machines were too large to fit behind our building so we had to manually dig the trench from the electrical box all the way around the building, install the electrical wires and encase them in PVC pipes up to the point where the machines could take over. Furthermore any pipes, water pipes, septic drain pipes, irrigation, or electric lines must be manually dug out and exposed before they dig with the machines.

The work order does not get processed until all the work is completed, then it is processed then you have to wait two weeks for the work to actually begin.  They do not call you to advise you when they are going to show up -- it is anywhere within that timeframe!

One day, I had a dental appointment in town, and whenever I go into town I try to run all my errands since it is an hour round trip.  Wouldn't you know this is the day they decide to show up and of course we run into some issues.

Upon my return, one of my workers informs me that when they dug the line they found one line that was not exposed and under which the power line could not be placed because it was not encased in PVC.  We offered to encase it in PVC but they would not accept this solution.

The FE proposed installing an electrical pole where the wedding tents where supposed to be erected & attached to the dance floor/stage we were planning to build. The FE had established his new proposal with my worker - not myself, and had not even thought of other alternatives.  This occurred on a Wednesday- the FE would not return to our site to discuss work-arounds until the following Monday losing precious time.

This was clearly a "non-negotiable".

The electrician and I started to discuss the specifics of the issue and how we could solve it. I fount a work-around and we walked through how we could do it. It involved moving the connection box down about 25 feet so that we stayed behind the pipe that was not encased, moving the junction box by the foot the the hill. When we moved 25 feet from the cabin all the pipes there were encased -  so it was no longer an issue, and all the wires could be installed underneath the pipes.

Our FE took the path of least resistance, not one that worked for the customer.  Furthermore, he did not want to hear this solution from an intelligent, non-engineer woman, so my husband had to make an appointment to have him revisit our site to go over the new proposal with our electrician. When presented by the electrician the proposal went over well.

We had to, once again, expose all the pipes, water lines, irrigation lines, dig 30" deep, and lay down the electrical wire they had left coiled up on a pole.  They were rerouted in the new ditch under the various pipes.

Of course, we had to process a "new request" not a "continuation" of the original request. You have to have the patience of a saint to get anything done right around here!

One of the things I failed to mention is that I paid a landscaping service to sow my new lawn.  We had waited all summer for the best time to sow which is the month of October, we had a 4 week window of opportunity.  We sowed our grass on September 22nd.

It had been growing fine until I realized Duke Energy would have to trench my new lawn, cut my irrigation lines in the process.  I did not mind that too much since there was no other choice but the germination window is getting pretty small.   They cut my irrigation lines in 3 different places.  I did not install the system so we did not know where some of them where.  So we had to fix 3 lines. Once you sow the grass you have to irrigate to get it to germinate.  I was fighting against the clock.

 My goal after all is to have weddings next spring.  I really need my lawn to look good. The entire month of october was spent waiting for Duke Energy To install my electrical lines. It has been five weeks and I am still waiting.  I am at least happy to have sown my grass again and hope it will germinate in November.

Update: The site of our future wine-tasting room has an electrical pole and lines going right through the space where the second floor of the building is expected to be.  I know we are going to have fun with the FE on that project as well!

The straw covered area is where the electrical lines were buried, see where it veers to the left and crosses the driveway at the edge of the large rocks way to the right.  All that was dug 30 " deep manually by our workers. 

In this picture, just below the horizontal white pipes resting on the rocks, you see a small wooden stake in the ground, this is where the junction box will be install ( before was at the corner of the cabin)

Episode:14 The Next Projects For Our Events Venue

We are moving right along to make 2014 the year when we launch our wedding events.  It takes a year to book those events and you have to have your site ready with all the required amenities.

We are building several things:

1. the event stage and dance floor: we will be able to connect event tents of any size to this stage and not lose any space in the tent.
2. the restroom building: across from the tent for the outdoor events

We will be able to use the stage for concerts, plays, orchestras and many other things.

We are also undertaking the remodeling of a small cabin we have on site.  This will be a two-person cabin, with kitchenette and bathroom, and a small porch overlooking the river.

This construction and remodeling will start this coming Monday and will take several months for all of these to be completed.  This will be done in time to participate in the 2014 wedding events.  We are also going to have a Wedding/Bridal Expo next May to showcase our vineyard as an excellent site for weddings, rehearsal dinners, engagement parties, engagement and bridal photo sessions.

Of course, our venue is open to business events and private parties as well.  We are open for those events right now as these do not require long term planning like a wedding event does.

We are also starting the design and development phase of our big project "The Wine-TastingRoom".
We are in the process of getting our financing in order and at the same time are looking at the physical site of the Brewer Gristmill as the base of our wine tasting room.  We had an architect and structural engineer look at the existing foundation to see if it could be used to rebuild upon it.  Unfortunately it will not meet code and will need to be reinforced but we can keep the hand-stacked stone wall for aesthetic purposes.  Next we have to hire a consultant for the future septic system to deal with the granite and the river and determine the best system to meet our business objectives.

Then comes the design work, selection of materials to preserve the historical nature of the site, and meet our wine tasting room requirements.

The wine tasting room is critical to driving the other businesses on site such as the events venue, and the lodgings as they are a complementary aspect of our business plan.

We welcome visitors to stop by and visit our site and spread the word about who we are and what we can do.  The outstanding feature of our site versus other vineyards is the beautiful setting by the river for all our buildings.  The river is lovely, makes a great rushing sound as it meanders by our place. Each building, reception lawn, ceremony site is on the river (we mean right over it) and offers a spectacular view.  The view changes with the seasons.  Now we are surrounded by the fall foliage and it does not get any better!

Next year we will be offering picnics amongst the vines.  For a fee and with a reservation you and your special someone will be handed a picnic basket loaded with food, a bottle of wine, dessert and a blanket.  You will be allowed to find a lovely picnic spot of your choosing amongst the grapevines, along the river or anywhere else you please.  We also have fishing, bow hunting, and other lawn games available for our guests.

Think about us for your next event or vacation!

Episode 13: The 2013 Harvest and Winemaking and other events

We have had the most unusual weather in 2013.  It rained almost every day since spring and throughout the summer months. We were not sure what it would do to the grapes.  The sugar level in the grapes were a concern but with a few good days of sun at the end we were able to achieve a respectable level of 19 compared to a desired level of 20.

You may think that you can leave the grapes on the vines a little bit longer but that is not the case; once they reach the optimum level of ripeness if not picked quickly they begin to rot.  All during the season you lose some to deer, birds and disease the last thing you want to do is to lose more due to late picking.  We thought we would pick on the 8th but the grapes were not ready.

In the meantime I had to travel to Atlanta (6 hour journey) to be at my daughter's side for the birth of her second child via C-section. She was born September 10, 2013. Mother and baby are doing fine.

 She was 7 lbs 3 oz. 20". She is a sweet little girl.

The following Saturday I had to leave Amelia and her big brother Greyson, another precious grand-child, to make my way home.

I made it home late that night.

The gator between Chambourcin rows

The very next morning we got up and got dressed to begin the harvest.  The pickers consisted of Luis Perez (who lives on our vineyard) and works for us part-time, his wife Mary Lou, Tom Silvey, Owner and myself Josephine Silvey, Owner.   Tom suggested that someone take a picture of me actually working because nobody will believe that I actually get my hands dirty. Everyone has the misconception that I am a diva. Like the old TV show "Green Acres" where Eva Gabor appears in a Negligee and says "give me 5th Avenue!" and he stands there in overalls holding a pitchfork in his hand! Now back to reality. I work, I get my hands dirty.  Here I am picking grapes without gloves,nipping my fingers with the clippers every once in a while, and yes I did not break a nail! 

The Traminette grapes were much harder picking because the clusters were smaller and the birds and deer had done some damage. The other varietals need several more years before we can harvest them so we did not have to do anything with them. No work was required but no harvest and no wine will come from those vines for another year or so. Now that we have done our homework and know what grows and where it grows well we will need to expand our vineyards to ensure we have enough grapes to create enough to supply our wine-tasting room needs as well as our needs for our events venue.

Tom Silvey and Luis Perez

Luis, Tony and Tom

Episode 12: The flood in the Gathering Room

We were finalizing the checklist we got from Wilkes County to get the certificate of occupancy for The Gathering Place building that we noticed some water on the new hardwood floor. We quickly tried to pick up the water and thought it might be a leak from the newly installed sink and faucet.  Our workers looked for the possible source and checked out all the water connections and tested with some running water.  I was not there for the whole process but after a while they thought they had repaired it.

The next day we found some more water not just in the kitchen but on the other side of the wall in the bathroom. They now had to tear into the walls to find out if there was a pipe in the area.  They found the problem.  When the last wall cabinet was installed a screw punctured the water pipe. Water was originally trickling but then there was a sudden burst and water was flowing pretty freely everywhere. The water was turned off immediately and we began to look at out hardwood floors, only 5 weeks old.
The floor was curling up at the seams the entire length of the building.

I drove immediately to Elkin, NC to get a dehumidifier and two commercial blowers.  These were placed in the building and ran 7 nights and 7 days in an effort to mitigate the damage.  We were hoping we would not have to tear out the floor.  But after a week things did not look much better.  So we finally called the insurance company to report the claim.

After the adjuster came by to review the damage she put us in touch with Premier Restoration  out of N. Wilkesboro came out to quantify the damage.  The humidity meter registered still registered over 50 after our efforts to dry the room out.

Last Monday on July 22, they packed our furniture and moved it into two storage units on wheels that they parked nearby.  Our hardwood contractor came with two workers in tow and tore out the entire floor in one day.

The restoration team took a humidity level reading twice a day from Tuesday evening through Thursday morning when they declared the sub floor to have reached the required humidity reading. Thursday our hardwood contractor was supposed to travel to VA to pick-up the flooring materials from the manufacturer and return Friday morning to replace the water barrier and the flooring.

At 8am on Friday I was expecting my contractor.  No show. By 10 am I am trying to get a hold of him and finally got him on the phone.  I asked him where he was.  He stated he was on another job.  So I asked him why he was not here doing my job.  His excuse was that no one had called him to tell him the sub-floor was ready.  We did not need to do so because we were told it would be ready Friday morning and I myself made the arrangements with him. So I was pretty upset we had lost 5 weeks already.  Finally I got through to him, and he agreed to pick up the wood on Friday, deliver it the same day.  He had told me earlier that he had a job on Monday, so I was wondering when he would get to my job. He could tell from the way that I was asking the questions that I was not pleased at all with the state of affairs.  So I asked all the tough questions to get to the bottom of the situation. Questions such as:

1. Why  was he was starting another job when mine was 1/2 completed and scheduled.
2. He tried repeating the excuse that no one had called him to tell him the floor was dry
3. I reiterated that there was no need for that since we had agreed between us he would bring the would on Thursday, and start installation on Friday. 
4. Nothing had changed since that agreement, and I called him out on it, and told him he had better finish my job before starting that other one.
5. He whined for a while then agreed to deliver the wood on Friday and do the job on Saturday.

On Saturday they started installing the hardwood floor.  At about 1 pm he informed us that his nail gun had broken down and that he needed a replacement part. If he was able to get it, he would be back on Sunday.  I had little hope he would keep his word but, lo and behold, he actually showed up Sunday morning to finish the job.  I think the fact that he had already sold me three hardwood floors before and the promise of six more in the future must have caused an attitude adjustment. It is standard practice for contractors to start multiple jobs and go from one job to another, string everyone along, so they do not lose a job.  I detest that practice and if I find someone doing that they will never be hired again!

I am out $1,000 for the insurance deductible.  I have a saying when there is nothing I can do anymore. I say: "It is what it is!".  To me it means accept the facts and move on.  So that is just what I did.

This coming Monday my cleaning lady is coming to clean the building. I have already contacted premier Restoration to move my furniture back in the building and return us to normal. Our appliances have to be reconnected as well.  Then final tidy-up and we are done!

Episode 11: The bobcat acquisition

Tom and I love to decorate with vignettes of nature.  Once while we were i Waynesville, we saw a fox, raccoon, a bobcat and some other animal shown in a canoe with one another.  It was so pretty - but they wanted a lot of money for it so we could not afford it.

Some time ago, Tom came home from work and said that he had traded a stuffed bobcat for 5 mason jars of moonshine that can be bought "in these here parts!" as they say down here. Seems like everyone knows somebody that makes it. Myself, I don't care for it. Well that was until I was introduced to Apple Pie moonshine.  Well, that's going to require an episode of its own!

A while had passed and I inquired about when we would get the bobcat and Tom said it would not be long.  Some time passed and I soon forgot about it.

One day, a few of the ladies invited me to join them for some "retail therapy" there was a sale in Talbots, Charlotte, NC so we decided to make the drive to get some good bargains.  We had an amazing time and a cart full of clothes.  We hit the mother lode! Thank you Olive and Mary for inviting me!

It was getting late, and Olive and her husband were going to meet another couple for dinner but there was not enough time to drop us off in Traphill, and back track back to Jonesville where they were suppose to eat.  So Olive asked us if we wanted to join them for dinner and call our husbands to join us, that would solve the problem. Arrangements were made and we found ourselves in Theo's restaurant in Jonesville.

When Tom arrived, he told me that he had a surprise for me.  I was pleasantly surprised and asked if I could have it right then.  He said: "No, let's wait after dinner!".  After dinner the ladies decided to go inside a couple of really nice boutiques that sells interesting stuff for the house and take a look around. After a little while we rejoined our husbands in the parking lot by our cars.

We were near our Toyota Avalon, Tom was opening the trunk of the car and while doing so asked me if I would hand him his raincoat from the backseat of our car. I assumed he was getting my surprise out of the trunk.  So I opened the car door and leaned into the back seat to reach fir his raincoat.  When I pulled it to me, I came face to face with a thing glaring at me.  I screamed and got out of there fast,  But my eyes and my brain were not in synch so I went back inside to take another look and screamed again realizing I had been face to face with a bobcat.  I screamed again than started laughing when I realized he had just pulled a trick on me! 

Tom is renowned for playing tricks on me.  He must have told the men beforehand because they were all looking at me to see my reaction would be. Well, I did not disappoint.  After the ladies inquired about what had happened I told them to look inside my car as well.  They took turns doing so, and more laughter ensued. 

Then some of the people that were leaving the restaurant overheard the commotion and came over to ask us what was going on since we were laughing so hard.  We had no choice but to invite them to look as well with another round of laughter as they reacted to the bobcat.  This happened a couple more times with one round of laughter after another! Finally the laughter died down and we left for home.

 

Disclaimer:

For you animal lovers - no bobcat was killed in the making of this prank! 

The bobcat was found by the side of the road as "road kill" and someone picked it up and had it stuffed.  He then gave it away to someone who happened to work with Tom. Somehow or other they got on the subject of the bobcat and an agreement was made. Apparentluy the guy's wife did not want it in her house anymore so she made him get rid of it.  

The following is a picture of the bobcat -- remember it was dark in the parking lot

Here is a picture of the stuffed bobcat.

Here it is in our new building, where it has found a new home.

Episode 9: Construction Of The Rental House

After we bought the adjoining vineyard property we had to get some heavy equipment to develop a road that would allow us to come in from the main entrance and drive over to the house.  We wanted the entrance to make an impression by being the first thing a visitor sees when arriving at the vineyard.  We achieved this by installing a guardrail that essentially closed off the original entrance to the driveway leading to the house.  Once completed all traffic must go through the main vineyard entrance.

This is the vineyards main entrance.

This is the new access road to the house.

This is how the house looked in November 2010 when we bought it.  Since then a lot of work has taken place to bring the house up its current status. 

House At Time Of Purchase

As you can see there was not much to the house when we bought it.  After adding quite a bit of detailing the house slowly began to acquire a personality.  The concrete wrap-around patio and paths were poured, a stone facade and wood beam and shutters were added to the first floor. A covered entrance was added to the front of the house.to protect our guests from inclement weather.  The landscaping was another major improvement. We installed irrigation, sod, planting areas,  and a fence. The bulldozer dug into the mountain side to enlarge the parking area.  We ran into granite and had to select an overflow parking area. We also brought in 54 tons of gravel to improve the road surface. 

View of House On Approach as it looks today.  View from the other side of the house We had a major problem the corner of the back of the house was very close to the river bank.  When it rained, the rainfall would come off the roof and fall down like a sheet of water with such force that it created deep ruts into the soil. Over time the the soil would simply slide down the bank into the river.  We had to stabilize the soil.  First we installed gutters to divert the water.  Then we started to build the retaining wall behind the house to support the riverbank.   This was a huge endeavor but was very worthwhile as we reclaimed some of the lost land, and as such we were able to mow the lawn all around the house on our riding lawnmower. We were also able to remove the corner beams that helped support the right corner of the house (still seen in the picture above, on right corner.). French Bistro set on back patio. Front of house, on 1st floor. We also covered the cement exterior with stone and wood  on the first floor and added "red" as the punch color for the doors and other accents.

The transformation is nearly completed.  We added a red english bench where the metal settee is in the picture and soon we will have a lovely metal plaque above it announcing "The Lodgings". There are two full apartments downstairs with full-in suite kitchen, 1 bedroom, 1 bath. The back patio overlooks the Raoring River. 

This is the view from the back patio.

  It has taken a lot of time and effort to bring out the beauty of the house. We knew we had a beautiful spot on the river and the house needed to match its splendor.

Episode 8: The Entrance

Tom wanted the vineyard to have a beautiful entrance.  He had seen one in a development in Charlotte he really liked so he decided to build it.  I am more practical, I wanted to prioritize the projects that will bring in revenue.  We talked about it for quite a while and I could tell he really wanted this, and since this vineyard was "his baby" I agreed to go forward with it. Even though it does not always make sense, sometimes you just have to be flexible.  It is Tom's dream and I want to be supportive. I can always prioritize the other revenue producing projects and create balance!

So here are a few pictures showing you the progression of the construction for the front entrance.

I am standing at the future location of the entrance gate (2001)

This is the entrance right after the forest cleaning.

The entrance is nearly done at this point (2011)

This is the entrance as it stands today (May 2013)