The Saga

In the interest of brevity, I will postpone the first 8 or so years of The Saga, until another day.

In the beginning, Randy and I were corporate-people, working 5 or more days a week, in office-type jobs.  We had a nice home, but wanted to have “a place to go”.

Grandpa Sassin’s land had been laying fallow for many years, after his retirement to Corpus and his eventual passing.  After working with relatives, we inherited part of our property from Randy’s mom and purchased part from two of his aunts.

The land had been cleared at one time and planted with cotton, corn, and other fruits/vegetables to sustain Grandpa’s family.  After years of laying fallow, however, the property was completely overgrown with cedar.  The lane from 957 was not even detectable.  Many comfort-zone expanding experiences were to follow as we tackled the tasks to retake the property.

Fast-forward to about 3 years ago.  Vast amounts of capital outlay, heavy lifting, help, and prayer yielded:

Road Improved (this is debatable)
Land Cleared
Little Barn Built
Small Farmhouse Built
It’s all good!

Through our neighbor’s love of vineyards and wine, I have “caught the bug” to have my own vineyard and winery, as unbelievable as that sounds.  We helped him a little bit at his place...

 and I was accepted to the Texas Tech Viticulture Certificate Program.

Randy and I started to plan the business.  We began making wine in our office to get a high level understanding. 

I lost my original “name” to the trademark police (Rocky Creek Vineyard).  I am now in the middle of many varied permitting and licensing processes.

I plan that my vines will eventually look like this. 

Today, after planting during Spring Break 2013, they look like this. 

 

We are beginning to see the crazy challenges of Agriculture and we anticipate many other unplanned-for outcomes.

The reason for The Saga is really two-fold.

1.  When owning property, there is sense that something needs to be done with it.   Our “farm” has been such a blessing to us…the beautiful property and the rich heritage that comes with it.  I want to share both the product and the experiences from our blessings….as Grandpa did.
2.  I felt that if I could put a portion of my creative energy that I put into my day job, into a business of my own, we would be successful.

My business will be fun, innovative, diverse, hopefully profitable, and rich in experiences for our patrons, our employees, and ourselves.