There is a wildfire burning within sight of our southern property line. Apparently it started this afternoon along Highway 128 and Pleasants Valley Road southwest of Winters, and has been moving northward in the Coast Range Mountains. Our foothill property is in the foreground, and you can see the Cal Fire airplane dropping fire retardant on the northern edge of the fire. As of 7:30 p.m. (about the time this photo was taken) the fire had burned 1,000 acres and was 15 percent contained.

Here I am, next to the Malbec wine grapes in our Chapman Hill vineyard. These grapes are green right now, but they’ll eventually turn purple, and be used to make red wine. This particular variety will be hand-harvested in September. Cheers!

I’m going to begin blogging about my life as an American farmer’s wife. I intend to describe what it’s like to live on a working farm and ranch. Farmers represent only 1 percent of the U.S. population, but we feed people around the world. It’s a rewarding lifestyle and during the next 12 months, I hope to offer a glimpse of what our farm family deals with day in and day out, from my perspective.