Pictured: Claudio Ponte

  • 1 lb. Coffee Beans French Roast
  • 1/2 Gal. 2% Milk
  • 1 Bag organic salad
  • 1/2 lb. bag of almonds
  • 4 large trees, preferably California Peppers (90″ to 108″ bases)
  • 240 5-gallon privet (Ligustrum Japonicus) plants
  • 4 very tall palms (Queens)
  • 8 Italian Sausages
  • 1 Cantaloupe

Pictured: Steve Converse, Architect for the Vineyard Inn

As you can see in the photos, the coffee and milk were the easy part…

Kidding aside, choosing trees is a very tough task. Because these specimens are so big, and because our landscape plan called for them to be matched, it was very hard to choose 4 that “went together”. After an hour walking around we flagged three and will have to return to the nursery on another occasion. On my next shopping list are fountains, arbors, water filters, marble for the bar counter, and so on.

On the job site we are almost done with the framing (just one more week to go) and we’ll start with wiring, sprinklers and air conditioning next. The windmill is due next week and shortly thereafter we’ll start filling the pond, now that we no longer need irrigation water for the vineyards.

Keep tuned for more updates.

Claudio Ponte