It's Wine Time
@PainsOnSlate (21854)
Canada
October 21, 2017 10:18am CST
It's getting to be late October and we still have green leaves and browns ones too, no fall colors for us because its too warm outside. I miss the colors and the colors make me go hiking to take photos...not this year.
I just spent a few hours here on myLot to catch up with my comments and responding to others who responded to me. I have missed being here and am glad that things are slowing down and I can play more.
The wineries are busy picking the grapes and the Propane-Fired Cannons are at full boom! They sound like gunshots but its made with air but its very loud.
I delivered my slate to the big winery that sell my wine art and noticed an Asian couple looking scared and they asked about the gunshots outside. They were happy to hear its fake guns to keep the birds off the grapes until they are all picked.
I also delivered some wine signs to a smaller winery that sells my wine art and there were clouds of birds swarming over and landing on the many acres of wine grapes all around. The smaller wineries don't use the Propane-Fired Cannons but I have to wonder how many tons of grapes are eaten by the birds.
The photo above I got off the internet of the type of machine is now being used to pick the grapes, I've ran into this machine on the highway with a parade behind them, gladly I was going the other way...
It actually drives over the plants and picks all the grapes in one run. It must be expensive but a lot faster than hand picked.
Also above is one of my wine sign in the photo with the picker.
Are you enjoying the season you are experiencing now?
20 people like this
14 responses
@PainsOnSlate (21854)
• Canada
22 Oct 17
Its been a good fall for temperatures, so far on two or three cold days. And yes, the birds are a nuisance for the winery owners.
@rebelann (111290)
• El Paso, Texas
21 Oct 17
Mom always had to protect her peaches which she'd do by covering some of the limbs with chicken wire, it worked pretty good given she only had 2 peach trees.
I like your slate, no wonder it sells so well.
Won't the leaves turn when it gets cooler?
2 people like this
@rebelann (111290)
• El Paso, Texas
22 Oct 17
So you might not get the wonderful fall colored leaves this year @PainsOnSlate ?
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21854)
• Canada
23 Oct 17
@rebelann it’s crazy here, we had all green this fall, the leaves on the trees are turning brown and falling off, to warm for bright colours this year.
1 person likes this
@rebelann (111290)
• El Paso, Texas
23 Oct 17
That seems odd to me @PainsOnSlate but then as you know we don't have forests in this part of the country so I have no way to see what you get to see.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21854)
• Canada
23 Oct 17
@amadeo just a few yellows, but normally we are bright reds and oranges, it’s a very strange fall
@andriaperry (116860)
• Anniston, Alabama
21 Oct 17
We are flooded with squashes and pumpkins. I love your art.
3 people like this
@PainsOnSlate (21854)
• Canada
22 Oct 17
I see a lot of pumpkins and squash being sold on the highway, Its been a good harvest year.
@dgobucks226 (34440)
•
22 Oct 17
The colors will arrive soon enough! Like snow in wintertime 
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21854)
• Canada
25 Oct 17
I'm seeing some yellows and orange now but usually in the past it starts with bright red, and this fall, there was none of that. Most of the leaves turned brown and dropped off...
1 person likes this
@dgobucks226 (34440)
•
25 Oct 17
@PainsOnSlate Yes we are seeing the same in New Jersey, US. I like that photo you took! 
@PainsOnSlate (21854)
• Canada
26 Oct 17
@dgobucks226 Thanks, I love my backyard because there is a green space behind me, government owned and wild forever. I think its Global Warming that is making the world a bit crazy with the weather.
1 person likes this
@shaggin (71671)
• United States
23 Oct 17
I would love to tour this winery. I am glad you were there to tell the scared people it was not gunshots! What a unique was to keep the birds from eating the grapes. I wonder if it costs them more to lose grapes to the crows or to use the cannons with the cost of propane etc!
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21854)
• Canada
26 Oct 17
I have no idea but the amount of vineyards the big Wineries goes on for ever so I'm thinking the noise must save a lot of grapes.
1 person likes this
@TiarasOceanView (70035)
• United States
22 Oct 17
Yes I am entirely, if nothing else is going right, the fall is beautiful here Paints.
1 person likes this
@TiarasOceanView (70035)
• United States
22 Oct 17
@PainsOnSlate Oh I bet you did Paints
It is a nice state I must say.
It is a nice state I must say.1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21854)
• Canada
22 Oct 17
I loved Colorado when we lived in Kansas, we visited often, loved the mountains.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21854)
• Canada
25 Oct 17
I noticed that some of the smaller wineries have pickers of the human variety. As I drove into the small winery that sells my art there were a dozen cars parked next to the vineyard and looking down the rows the people were picking.
1 person likes this
@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
22 Oct 17
love your sign... the ingenuity of harvesting differnt crops is amazing...
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (73777)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
21 Oct 17
Interesting machine. Love that sign. Our autumn is finally turning colors. Where is this in Canada? Hope you have a great day.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21854)
• Canada
22 Oct 17
I just added a video of a similar machine picking the grapes called Pellenc Optimum Grape Harvester. I live in Ontario, I live just across the border from the US Western New York, with lake Ontario north next to my town, about 45 minutes from the border of NY and Ontario.
1 person likes this
@Marilynda1225 (79998)
• United States
24 Oct 17
I really love your sign!! I never realized that grapes could be picked by machine and thought they were all still hand-picked
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21854)
• Canada
26 Oct 17
By hand is the way it used to be, although a lot of wineries use people and not machines.
)@PainsOnSlate (21854)
• Canada
22 Oct 17
It literally drives over the row and the grapes are shaken off the vines and blown into a bin on wheels next to the machine. I did that design years ago and have been selling them for about 15 to 20 years, amazing how fast they sell in the wineries the dots on the grapes are actually if you look a grapes in the sun, its a sun mark, that shows up on all grapes still on the vine. you can see it all in this video... This machine has a bin attached, the ones I've seen had a bin next to them...
www.vinetechequipment.com 509-788-0900 Pellenc's New Grape harvester! 99.82% clean grapes. Touch screen controls. Up to 43% percent fuel savings with new eng...
1 person likes this
