top of the world ranch

Alright. Now I can update. Without a lot of crazy distractions going on.

Adam and I had a really nice fourth. We spent the morning bottling olive oil for Eric and Holly who had to make a rush delivery to some restaurants on the coast. After that, Adam and I headed out to Sugarloaf State Park and did a beautiful hike up to Bald Mountain, which had a beautiful 360 degree view of Sonoma county. We ended the day with a delicious mexican dinner (margarita included) in Sonoma. We made it home in the evening to hang out with Becky and Abbey (the other WWOOFers) before we called it an early night and went to bed.

We woke up thinking we might have to do some work, only to hear from Eric that we could "chill" until we went to a ranch up in the hills to jam. Seriously. So we spent the morning reading, and then took off to a ranch up on the hill about an hour away. There we met Slim, a 70 something blues guitar player from outside San Francisco; Bob, 92, who owned the Top of the World Ranch who didn't move the entire 3 hours we were there, hanging out on the back porch with his dog. And Martin, who took a beer run and enjoyed sitting in the corner, keeping tempo to the music.

Adam had a great time playing his guitar with these guys for a few hours while Becky, Abbey, Holly and I took a hike around the massive property with the amazing view coming back to keep tempo to the music with our feet. It was a good way to spend the day. Adam and I are planning on looking Bob up and seeing if we can "look after" his ranch when he isn't there. We will see how that goes.

We came back to find two more WWOOFers, Alex and Zach, who have been here for about a month. They know the ropes of this place, and we all sat around the kitchen table consuming $50 bottles of organic red wine, discussing food, politics and what needed to get done the next day. Adam and I got to move into the Inn, which is where the guests stay for $200 a night... it is a pretty sweet set up. We get to drink expensive wine and stay at a vacation home.. and have yet to do any work. hrm.

It is rumored that tomorrow is when the real work starts. We are getting up early to spend 4-5 hours in the vineyards trimming vines, and we are going to be bottling tomorrow. However, I'm never sure what we are actually going to do because Eric is so scattered and forgetful that it is a mystery how anything gets done. It was kind of refreshing to meet Zach, their intern, because he knows his shit and is going to teach us the ropes. That way I feel like I will actually walk away feeling like I have learned something.

More later!!