#89 This Post Is About...
Posts. Mostly. Why the extra effort to align them? Perfectly. On the line and diagonal.
The video above is about a minute long and offers a chance to see where the newest Cabernet Franc vineyard is located in relation to the rest of our vineyards. It starts with a journey through the vineyard posts.
How many people does it take to pound in a vineyard post?
Four.
Really?
This is not a riddle or a joke.
The assignments are:
Post-Pounder: Kees, Vineyard Manager in the excavator above
Vertical Alignment: Rachel, Intern, placing and stablizing the post.
East-West Alignment: John, outside of the frame, giving guidance to Rachel
North-South Alignment: Jesse, outside the frame giving guidance to Rachel
Once they are in a rhythm, not a word passes among them. They communicate with hand signals. One post after another. Nudge this way. Nudge that.
Until 1200 posts are in and straight. In line. And also in line along the diagonal: Norwest-Southeast; Northeast-Southwest.
Alignment has become a source of pride for this team. These posts will be in place for a very long time. Long after we are gone. It is a way of sending a message to the next vineyard crew. We cared enough. You should, too.
For further interest:
There is a memorable part of a book by J.D. Salinger that helps explain why we make the effort to align our posts this way. The characters in Salinger’s book, Franny and Zooey, are gifted siblings who are stars on a radio quiz show. The oldest sibling, Seymour, tells his younger siblings always to shine their shoes before appearing on the radio.
Seymour’s younger brother, Zooey, thinks that is a stupid idea, since they are on the radio, and no one can see them. Seymour says, in so many words, that you “just do it.”
If you Google “Salinger, Seymour and shining shoes” you get a longer explanation of why this is important to Seymour. For us, getting the posts aligned is like shining our shoes. On one level it doesn’t make that big a difference. On another level, it does.
My dad always said that "...you judge the character of a man by the quality of his shoes..." I now judge the character of a vineyard crew by the quality of their posts!
I loved Franny & Zoey. Great analogy.