As soon as the resident bobcat strolled by our newly ripped vineyard-to-be again this evening, our winery cat Lira started asking to go outdoors to play.  She's not very bright.  She does catch the occasional gopher and plenty of mice, and she purrs loudly, so we keep feeding/petting her anyway.  Fortunately for Lira, the bobcat prefers the multitudinous jackrabbits in the vineyard at Villa Ragazzi or she would have been toast already.  Do you think we could get him interested in gophers, too?

There he goes into the vineyard at twilight, offering a fine sight of his bob tail as he zeros in his rabbity prey.  He's one strong-looking dude, and I'm grateful he's not any larger since I have to go outside to cover up the Meyer lemons - we're expecting another cold night.  I need to get a new iPhone - the photo opportunities around here are just too good to waste.

Note the orange bar on the back of this tractor.  Attached to its ends are curved shanks that are ripping this virgin corner of our vineyard in Oakville for a small, dense Sangiovese planting.  Loosening the soil will allow young vines to spread strong root systems. This experienced operator effortlessly avoided my cherished baby Dawn Redwood (yellow flag, left center).  The whole job took less than half an hour.