Das Vine-Hoff
Today was the epic creation and planting of the Krughoff Vineyard here in Boulder, CO. You could call it the “Krug-yard” (redundant however, as “hof” is german for “yard,” so really you’d be calling it the “yard-yard,” and that would be boring) or, the “Krug Vineyard” (but then we’d be infringing on these guys–>
Krug Grande Cuvee
Some cellar of Krug Champagne
Charles Krug Winery Napa Valley California
Or you could call it the Vine-Hoff (”vine+yard”). So it’s been decided, it will be referred to as the Vine-Hoff! And here’s how it happened…
The plan:
Plant grapevines that will 1. look nice, 2. produce enough grapes to one day make a bottle of edible red wine, and 3. grow tall enough to one day hang on the cable rail of the deck over the carport.
The challenge:
Colorado has a few grape growing challenges. 1. Heavy, clay-like soil around my house. Therefore, deep ripping via gas-powered auger seemed necessary in order to provide both adequate drainage of the soil through the “hardpan” (super hard soil layer) as well as to loosen soil beneath the vines to allow the roots to penetrate deeply, and the second challenge of climate – Hot hot summers and cold cold winters, so a hardy grape variety is essential. Lots of time on the Google, and awesome recommendations from Rist Canyon Vineyards led me to pick these…
Two vines of each:
- Frontenac
- Leon Millot
- St. Croix
All mail-ordered from Vermont @ Northeastern Vine Supply. They’re bare root stock, meaning they look like dead sticks with some roots hanging out! Already budding as they soaked in water today and slowly warming up over the last few days – I think they’re gonna come through in a big way. Fingers crossed. It wasn’t a simple process…
Step 1:
Weed it and rake it clean!
Step 2:
Rent a massive post-hole auger from Home Depot (Auger bit modeled by Kevin Suhr)
Step 3:
Put it together and dig some holes!! Yeehaw
Step 4:
Pull it out of the ground, throw out your back, etc.
Step 5:
St. Croix #1 goes in the Boulder soil...
I'm pretty excited, needless to say
Step 6:
All 6 vines in the ground!
Step 7:
Voila! Das Vine-Hoff!! Mulch and weed barrier will hopefully keep maintenance low, stakes and trellis to come soon.
The main pieces left are a deer-net to prevent the local wildlife from snacking on our vines, a seperate zone for drip irrigation of the vines on the automatic sprinkler system of the house, and the permanent trellis system to get those vines nice and high near the deck. Deer netting tomorrow, irrigation upon return from the 5 day long bike race in Hood River, OR and trellis after I come up with the final design. Until then, make it go and let it grow.
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Out of town racing…
I’ve been on the road for almost 10 days racing in Bisbee, AZ and Silver City, NM at the Vuelta de Bisbee and The Tour of The Gila, respectively. About 2 hours away from riding out of the house to the criterium course for Stage 4 of the Gila before our big 105 mile day tomorrow on the “Gila Monster” road race course. Lots of climbing and an expected 5+ hour day of racing. Looking forward to the criterium, expecting a field sprint at the end and hopefully netting a resume-worthy result. Time will tell!
More photo posts upon my return…
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E Bella Designs, Vic’s Espresso
Vic's Espresso Track Cycling Team
Necklace by E Bella Designs
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Restructure!
I just finished entirely restructuring the organization of KrughPhoto.com. Back when I set it up, I thought I’d be doing a lot of event photography and selling prints online. Turns out I actually do much more catalog and portrait work in addition to the action and event stuff. Sooo, 3 hours later everything is moved around! If you had links to display photos on other sites, they’re probably all broken – apologies. However, moving down the road, this will be a much more streamlined setup!
In addition to that, I’ve been adding to my photoshop knowledge and working on some images I already have from some of the Chelsea shoots, etc. Checkout some recent portfolio additions below…
Desaturated Treatment, model: Bri Cooper
Lighting Experiment, model: Bri Cooper
Holiday Portraits
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So I’m trying to get a few different projects going focused on mixing ambient with flash light. This, combined with my irritation at synch cords while doing work for Chelsea resulted in the semi-impulse purchase of a pair of pocket wizard plus II’s. These are wireless flash transmitters that make the whole operation neat and tidy instead of cables running everywhere – cables which make great trip lines for errant toddlers and dogs. Regardless, I thought they’d be invaluable/essential working with flashes at greater distances. I’m going for a few different setups which might encompass the following ideas…
- Late afternoon ambient light w/flash fill in cycling/mtb/cyclocross.
- Sand volleyball at night, super vivid/saturated, commercial look
- Architectural photos at dusk/night with household+flash lighting
So I finally got the flash issue I was having figured out. I needed a different cable than what comes packaged in those transmitters, so I headed to radioshack. Couldn’t get the signal to go through from the transmitter to the flash unit, and after 2 of the same “defective” cables – I realized I was defective. I was using an attenuating cable, which I just thought was some fancy word that wasn’t important. Wrong. Quick look on dictionary.com and turns out that “attenuating” decreases the signal running through the cable – obviously, right? So nothing was getting through this cord. Well, the guy at Radioshack was much friendlier when I came in and some idea of what I was talking about. Small victory of the day, now time to get some projects going…picture posts to come
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Commitment
- As cycling news put it, -Halloween wasn’t over for some riders today- Photo by Jonathan Devich
A nice photo of Logan Garey here. If you can’t have fun in a cross race the day after Halloween, when can you? Logan had a great time racing, I had a great time racing and I think most everyone had a good time watching. I think I’m still getting the sand out of my ears though…
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Wed morning cross ride
Early this morning was the 8am boulder cyclocross ride! Awesome weather. Had a flat to start the day so I was late and chased the rise around the city a bit before meeting up but after that, it was all smooth. Spent a solid chunk of the rest of the day working on finishing putting together a new mtn bike! Here’s what the morning looked like…
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Cyclocross at The Res’
Yesterday was the Boulder Racing Cyclocross Series’ 3rd event out at the Boulder Reservoir. Good fun in the sun after it warmed up just a touch. This year I was not behind a camera but rather on top of a bike for the hour of suffering. My dad and our family friend John Stevens and son Andrew made it out to cheer and hand up water bottles. I think Andrew (age 6?) got a real kick out of trying to catch the bottle each time through the pit area after I took a swig and tossed it his way. Curious if these are the kind of things that make kids want to race, or if they’re still more interested in digging in the sand volleyball courts at that age. Either way, it was a fun race and great seeing a lot of friends out there – Patrick, Jeff, Tom, Missy, Jim, Whitey, Eric, Kaegan, Ainslie, Carrie, Patty, Lauren, Dad, John, Andrew, and more as well as all the usual suspects.
This shot below is from last year – and fortunately we didn’t have to get in the water quite that much this time around. People always joke about needing a new bike after this race because of how trashed your components are from riding ‘the beach.’ Not too bad this year, not too bad…
Racing at the Reservoir 2 years ago
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Welcome to the KrughPhoto blog. Updates on the photography and creative end of the life of Allen Krughoff and an occasionally posting on everything else. For now, here’s the ski movie Nick Demarest, Victor Laurion, myself and others made in high school in places like Jackson Hole, Keystone, Vail, Breckenridge, and more. Shown below in 3 parts…
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Enjoy!
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