Work Dog, Work!

Our dogs are big moochers (for that matter, so are our cats) – if you have ever had a picnic here, you already know that! But I don’t want you to think that they only single out unsuspecting hungry winery guests.  No, our dogs are equal-opportunity moochers.  They will even mooch the very grapes that we would like to make wine out of too!

It’s a good thing they are cute, I tell ya.

Here’s Pepe, enjoying a few stray grapes that missed the hopper they were intended for:

He’s actually performing a valuable vacuuming service….if we were to step on those stray grapes, we might slip and hurt ourselves.  Thank you Pepe.

But it turns out that he’s a bigger tripping hazard than the grapes; plus I get nervous when he’s around all the moving machinery.  So he was banished from the press pad.

Fortunately there was a another source of grapes available.  A source far enough away from the press pad that it doesn’t bother me to much.  We keep a big, shallow bin to collect the stems, leaves, and other things that are spit out from the destemmer/crusher.  Pepe quickly learned to chow down there:

He has to be careful even in this bin though…..he’s fighting the bees for these grapes!

Hmmmm……Pepe’s contract clearly states that he is allowed to lay down on the job.  He’s had his fill of grapes and is ready for quality time with his mom, Maggie:

It is not our job to discipline him (well, ok, technically it is), it is just our job to scratch his tummy!

Cheers!