Happy St Brigid's Day

 

Pruning in the orchard and clean-up in the vineyard

 

Unlike today, yesterday was a stunningly beautiful day for the most part. Alex convinced me not to do my usual shopping trip on Tuesday (Mayo News Day) and instead, we pruned in the orchard. I pruned the pear and he took on the big apple tree. We did a fine job. 

Alex then took on the cleanup of the vine segments we pruned in the vineyard. We had massive piles of vine sections about 203 feet long. We got it all done just before a big shower came through. But it got sunny again and I went out to prune the small apple and start on the Cox's orange apple, but it was too cold after the squall went through to continue. 

We managed to straighten and secure the oak tree that got blown over in the last gale, but the big Scots pine is too far gone. It's too big to secure against the wind we've been getting. 

Today, we have another gale and torrential rain coming through during a 2-3 hour window. Not much solar generation today. Yesterday was very rewarding to track in the solar PV app.  

A day for wining

 

This morning we finally got around to bottling the remaining wine and cider. After Storm Isha, when we were without power for 18 hours, we had to contend with Storm Jocelyn, which wasn't nearly as bad as Isha but still the second named storm in 72 hours. That sort of put a crimp on matters. 

The cleanup after the storms involved saving the Scots pine that was leaning perilously close to toppling over completely. That would have been sad. Alex managed to straighten the tree using the RTV plus pulleys and ratchets, he then staked it. 

He also had many stakes to replace in the vineyard that had toppled in the wind. I've been picking up sticks and have already filled two fish boxes and stacked at least the equivalent of two more. 

The storm also tripped the fuses on both the shed and house, which caused the solar array to stop functioning. The electrician came by and replaced the fuse switch at the house but things are not entirely right so we have to call in Joe Gavin. 

We bottled 16 Solaris bottles in total and 11 more cider bottles. It took us much of the morning. We're glad that is done now and we can shut down the heat and water to the winery. 

In the afternoon we took to the vineyard and got back to the pruning. It's colder and grey today, but we got a good portion of one row of Solaris done. No whining, just wining. 

The aftermath of Isha

My favourite tree leaning heavily and heaving with each gust.

We made it through #StormIsha relatively intact. Frankly, it had been quite frightening at some stages. We kept expecting windows to break and for all hell to break loose, but thankfully it did not. In the morning, Alex loaded up the car with chainsaw and pitchforks and went to clear the road into Ross House, where several trees were down and seaweed covered the road, while I surveyed our land. 

The polytunnel is still there and no damage. Thank you D-Plant! Many people lost their polytunnels and glass houses. The heartbreak for those with businesses wiped away was palpable. 

The shed and solar panels seem to have held on OK, and I couldn't see any damage to the roofs although there may be a missing slate on the garage. 

My favourite tree, a perfect self-seeded Scots spine, is leaning perilously, roots pulling up out of the earth with every gust. We are going to try to save it by staking it. There is carnage in the vineyard with about 20 stakes broken near the base. Some of the vines were severed near the graft, while others survived fine.  

The power was back on after 18 hours of darkness. I wonder how all the kids did without the internet for so long. It would have been the first time many would have experienced such a long time without power. We haven't had a prolonged power failure since our first year here. 

We had a prolonged period of 50+-knot (92 km/h) sustained winds and 80+-knot (150 km/h) gusts. 

Happy St Vincent's Day, patron saint of winemakers. Maybe he was looking after us as it could have been much worse. The clean-up after #StormIsha began. 

Our first priority was to save the vines that were knocked down by the fierce winds. As it was only gusting to ~50 knots today, we managed okay in between the hail showers and thunderstorms. The worst affected were the first three rows and the youngest vines: the Albarino, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Fortunately, Alex had just bought stakes for shoring up some of the dodgy-looking stakes. 

Our second priority after #StormIsha was to save the bees whose hive had tumbled down off a temporary support table. Alex couldn't move the hive alone so I had to suit up to assist. He was afraid the bees were gone but they were just disoriented at having their house turned sideways. 

We lifted the boxes and put them on the strong support he had built earlier this year. The bees were annoyed but the new spot is much better sheltered. 

Inspection of the rest of the land did not reveal any major issues only two broken fence posts. Lots of pots to right and even a cast iron chair turned over. 

Tomorrow I begin the cleanup of the lawn and gardens. We'll have enough kindling for generations. Of course, #StormJocelyn is already on the way. 😧🙄😲🤞

Red Alert for wind on west coast

Break in the sky near sunset

Cocktails by candlelight with polite conversation

A mix of light sources

Sourdough bread baked in the solid fuel stove

The gas hob works if lit by external means

Broken Albarino vine

Lots of broken sticks with vines attached

Wire down instead of up

Some damage but overall not much

Repairs begun

Pounding stakes into the ground

A break in the weather

The shed looking good

The bee hive overturned

Nephin in the distance

Breaking surf on the Bay

Read the news update here. 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1749434727193260136

https://twitter.com/i/status/1749040937538310621

Storm Isha is raging!

 

Met Eireann has just upgraded our storm warning for wind to red from the previous orange. The wind started in the wee hours of the morning and, with a brief break, has been going ever since. We've had gusts of 71.8 knots (133 kph, 83 mph) so far. That's category 1 hurricane strength. 

Alex woke up at 2 am to a crash of lightning and thunder which tripped our circuit breakers. It must have hit very close by. He said the hail was so big and pounding so hard on the windows that he was afraid it was going to break them.

I slept through it all as I had hardly slept at all the previous night in a hotel in Dublin. When I fell asleep I had vivid nightmares followed by leg cramps, followed by dreams of flying high over our land in an attempt to avoid arrest by Nazis and intrusion by vigilantes. I haven't had flying dreams in many years. I wonder what this means? I loved seeing the woods we planted and the vineyard and shed from overhead. The feeling of freedom was almost overwhelming.

Storm Isha is supposed to continue through tomorrow morning. I'm concerned about damage in the vineyard but I am glad we had started pruning and I had cut off most of the long unsecured branches. We won't know the result until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.

4 pm update

We are now experiencing gusts of 150 km/h. It's quite scary. They say the worst will come after 5 pm and that it could go to 170 km/h. That's Cat2 hurricane strength. 

MSC WindGuru weather station anemometer

Going solar

 

Every year since the pandemic we've had a major project:

• 2020 - the pond
• 2021 - the polytunnel and the RTV
• 2022 - a new engine for Moytura
• 2023 - the shed and winery, new kitchen and laundry appliances
• 2024 - the solar panels

WestQuay installed the solar panels today. They were brilliant. It will help control the costs of wine production. The panels are on the shed. 

Paradoxical results

 

A new article in Science magazine has proposed that cleaner air is causing the acceleration of the climate mess we are in. 

I had heard that satellites could see the change when sulfur was removed from shipping fuel. The sulfur had been making clouds that shaded the earth from the sun's rays. 

But this proposes something different. It proposes that as we switch away from fossil fuels, we reduce the pollutants in the air which makes it cleaner and lets more sunlight in. 

One scientist has also discounted the contribution of the Hunga Tonga volcano eruption in 2022 as insignificant; it cannot account for the massive difference in the rate of heating we saw in 2023. 

But another scientist has proposed that the experiment with sulfur in the air has identified a way to cool the earth temporarily. He is proposing the seeding of the clouds over the oceans. What is that going to do to places like Ireland that are specks in the middle of an ocean? 

https://www.science.org/content/article/even-warmer-expected-2023-was-hottest-year-record