… I thought last week that it’ll be done very quickly today. It hasn’t rained all week, it should be drier, so we wouldn’t even need rubber boots, even though we had packed them to be on the safe side.

(The devil is a squirrel and who doesn’t know that better than me when it comes to vine work.)

Sunshine and icy wind blew against us as we got out of the car, but nothing could dampen our spirits.

Down to the terrace, chatted briefly about how and where we would best stack the vines and off we went.

The first vine, half stuck in the ground, was immediately sighted and courageous – according to the same principle from last week: One collects, one transports – I threw myself on it.

However, the desired effect was not achieved when the roots of the vine were pulled. Instead of the vine in hand, nothing more than a hard blow went through the whole body.

Nothing moved there.

Then a light went on for me. A clay-loess mixture that is wet is velvety, supple and heavy.

Anyone who remembers manual work at school has certainly had the opportunity to take part in pottery.

And that was exactly how I felt.

A week had passed after leaving the last pottery lesson and back you got a bizarre landscape sculpture that was virtually indestructible if you didn’t drop it.

Luckily we had left a shovel on site from one of our actions in December. She came on cue. With levers and pressures we managed to pry the vines out of the ground.

But I don’t just want to whine. Whereas the vines had previously been extremely heavy because they were covered with wet earth, the earth trickled off lightly here and even broke up at times in the strong wind and away.

This of course made it easier to transport the vines. It was even possible for us to save most of the distances by using skillful throwing techniques. But that was also sorely needed, as we had to muster so much energy to clear the field.

In the end, after about an hour and a half of hard work, the time had come. We could say: WE DID IT! The field is ready for the next step, spading the field. This means a loosening of the soil at a depth of 60 cm.

Up to -10 degrees and snow are forecast for the next few days, which shouldn’t be a cakewalk for the machine either.