Biggest Hurdle - The Bank

We met with the bank last week to talk about... well, how much money we can possibly get from them, honestly.  This was probably the biggest hurdle to our whole Provecho vineyards adventure.  It was an absolute emotional roller-coaster.  (Have I made this analogy before?  Seems like a re-occurring experience with this project.)

Here was Mr. Banker-dude, verbally tossing about hundreds of thousands of dollars like it was nothing. This is our life you are so glibly talking about, man!!  I think I blacked out for a while when we started discussing how deeply in debt we would be... came to briefly when he casually mentioned how that debt would increase exponentially in the years before we got a harvestable crop... and then turned white as a sheet when he calculated our surprisingly miniscule surplus/deficit in 2012!  I remember thinking, "That was NOT anywhere near the return that Greg was telling me I should expect!  What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?!"  Swallowing my panic and keeping my voice calm, I graciously asked Mr. Banker-dude to explain things a bit more... uh... slowly.  He looked up, took note of the cold-sweat I had broken into, and explained that the bank takes the absolute gloomiest view possible.  These were worst-case scenario numbers.  They also were the amount after debt servicing and didn't take into account the tax saving benefits of being a company.  New Zealand has a rather large income tax.

OOOOOH!

That changed everything.  These numbers were... good.  Yes.  We can actually do this.  The clouds have broken back and the sun has re-appeared!  Life is good.  We are clever, successful people!  My heart soared, the angels sang!

Wait.  It only got better.  Then we started talking about housing.  We had been planning on putting up some tractor sheds and what would eventually be an office.  We figured we would make-do and live in the office section until we started getting some money back from the grapes.  Mr. Banker-dude looked at us for a moment and then pulled out the calculator and did some wicked-fast number crunching before telling us to just borrow more money and build a house... or at least part of a house.  

YES!  I love Mr. Banker-dude.

OK.  I was all ready to build this little shoe-box and live in it for an un-godly length of time.  I figured that we had a lot of open space for the boy to run around on.  Heck, I could always lock myself in the car if I needed some quiet.  (You think I'm joking?)  To know that we can build something that will go toward a finished house... that is warm and comfortable and large enough for us all to have some space...  Oh, it's just heaven!  

Mr. Banker-dude explained (in a very Banker-dude way) how many people try to do the shoe-box living route, but find that it just doesn't work.  They end up going into the same amount of debt anyway and wondering why they put themselves through the hell.  He went on to say that it was in the bank's best interest to protect their investment - namely, us... and more specifically, our marriage.  Giving us a bit more room so that we don't end up killing each other is a good financial investment protection... in their opinion.  Whatever.  Works for me!  

It was a really good day.

Two steps forward, One step back

Things are moving along with the land.  Gradually.  We'll think we have everything figured out and then find out some new information that causes us to re-evaluate everything.  We are still making definite progress, it just isn't what we would consider fast progress.  

We want to make sure that everything is done absolutely right at this stage - before the plants go in.  Now is when we set up the basis of everything.  Specifically, we have been looking at re-contouring the land and draining.  How much we can do and what is practical.  We are definitely

 keeping the dam.  (I'm so pleased!  It's just so pretty.)  However, there are some other little ponds and wet areas on the property that we would like to drain away.  We also would like to reshape the hills a bit to make them more tractor friendly/safe.  You really do NOT want to be in a tractor driving down anything like an 15 degree slope.  Sketchy!  

These sort of changes that we make now will determine how much we can plant, what we plant, and even how well the plants will do.  Get the drainage wrong and you could find that your vineyard isn't producing as well 5 years down the line.  It's money well spent... but, as we are finding, it is also a lot of money.  It's hard not to hyper-ventilate when I start looking at how much these various quotes are.

Greg has been spending a lot of time talking with contractors about these various jobs.  What we are finding, though, is that there isn't the level of specificity and expertise here that you find in larger grape growing areas.  In many cases, we have found that we probably know as much as the contractor that we are talking to... so then we start looking into renting the equipment and doing all or at least part of the job ourselves.   It seems I have gotten a job working for a local wastewater engineer that way.  I'm going to start doing soil testing and report writing for him - starting with our property.  

I knew those Geology classes would come in handy some day!

Winter wonderland

We had a serious cold snap the other night which brought with it a heap of snow.  We even got snow down to 500m!  It looks absolutely magical!  

You could be forgiven for thinking that we lived in a ski village.  We don't.  In fact, we are at sea level... with mountains close by.  Theoretically, you could climb a mountain and then hit the beach all in the same day... although, you might be a bit pressed for time. 

Burg is currently on school holidays for the next two weeks.  We are planning on going up to the mountains for some sledding with friends later this week.  I don't think Burg has ever played in the snow.  He certainly doesn't remember it.  Ironic, considering how Greg and I grew up playing in the snow every winter.