Christmas Letter Dec. 24, 2020

To our friends near and far,

To address the elephant in all our lives, COVID: Pam & Fred, and all our kids and grand kids, have avoided any COVID entanglements—both with our health and our jobs.  Some non-COVID related job changes for some, but everyone remains gainfully employed.  And us, being ‘part time’ grape farmers … well, farming is essential. Plants still grow and need care. So that part of our lives was unaffected, including easily selling all our grapes. Other highlights for 2020:

JANUARY: Winter is the slow time for a small vineyard. Equipment repairs, planning for the coming year and verifying sales contracts get attention from Nov. thru March.  Plus some of those other things in life that get pushed aside during the busier months. Fred joined the East Hill Flying Club to get ‘re-certified’ to fly after gap of 37 years (but COVID cancelled all lessons until late June). Pam and I continued attending and facilitating Community Bible Study (CBS) groups in Canandaigua and Romulus (near us). Fred continues ~ 1 weekend/month as a hospital chaplain in Ithaca.

FEBRUARY: Approval finalized to start the ‘Between the Lakes Community Bible Study’ class in September 2020. Pam started building the team and doing lots of prep work. She again went to Honduras with a church group of 26, doing portable medical ‘clinics’ into remote areas and some nutritional training.   

MARCH: We celebrated Dan’s 42nd birthday (3/1) – virtually.  Dan continues living in Honeoye Falls, steadily expanding his client base for computer services, while serving as Town of Mendon Zoning Board of Appeals chair. COVID started turning us all into hermits, with in person CBS classes and church services as all enter this new land called ‘Zoom’, ‘YouTube’, and ‘live streaming’. Preparations to plant 5 more acres of vines got serious with hiring contractor with big excavator to rip out about 150 trees, and a bulldozer to level the land where they were. Fred then started his ~6 weeks as a lumberjack, cutting up all those trees and moving the logs. The annual vineyard cycle gets rolling, as seasonal workers pruned the existing 10 acres.

From this: 

To this:   

And by the end of summer, this:

APRIL: Seasonal workers finish annual pruning and ‘tying down’ (attaching vines to trellis wires). Contractor installs ~12,000 feet of buried 4” drain lines in the new 5 acres (“grapes don’t like wet feet”). Celebrated Adele’s birthday virtually. She, Nate and family still live in NJ. Nate changed jobs in February, returning to Johnson & Johnson, at a new facility a short commute away. Shortly after starting, he was working mostly from home, going to the plant about one day/week. Adele continues homeschooling Peter, Lydia and George.

MAY: The training of Pam’s CBS ‘Servant Team’ is done (you guessed it) virtually. Planning for class startup in September continues. In the vineyard, the new 5.2 acres get planted. Contract plants 4,200 baby vines in about 10 hours over two days! The every 10-14 day schedule of spraying the established 10 acres starts (‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’).

JUNE: We celebrated Joshua’s 30th (June 16), this time in person, with Dan and Noah joining us (if you’re counting, that’s only 5 people, so there). Grandson Peter (turned 13 on Aug. 10) comes to ’Grandparent Camp’ for a few days. Joshua, since his work in Residence Life at St. John Fisher College in Rochester yields summers off, decides to stay at our cottage on Cayuga Lake for the summer, and offers to work part-time in the vineyard. Huge help!  Also, our church restarts in person services (25% max, social distancing, masks, etc). In the vineyard, spraying continues, weeding becomes important, always grass to mow, amongst other work. Too much work to get those flying lessons in.

JULY: Grandson George (turned 9 on June 10) comes to Grandparent Camp. Had to water the new vines a few times, due to a very dry summer. Fred’s birthday July 14 (66). Celebrated Pam’s brother Brian’s and Rondee’s 50th wedding anniversary. Pam starts preparing her weekly CBS teachings that will start in September.

AUGUST: Finally Lydia’s (turned 11 on Aug. 18) turn at Grandparent Camp! Some of Pam’s 7 Lockwood cousins join us for beautiful summer evening dinner on our porch (8 total; no worries). Nate helps Fred put in the 1,180 trellis posts in the new 5 acres.

SEPTEMBER: 1st of 6 vineyard harvests. Sunny, warm, dry summer has winemakers excited about the 2020 vintage!. Saw Noah in the flesh on his birthday (Sep. 13). CBS classes start, with 59 people in 5 groups Tues. AM and PM. 30 week study in John. All via Zoom (we’d love you to join us—email Pam, address below). Fred installs ~52,000 ft. of trellis wire in the new 5 acres; another 104,000 ft. to do spring 2021.

OCTOBER: Last 2020 harvest was on Oct. 22, with help from friends and family, including Nate & Adele & their 3 kids (plus a friend).  And two of Pam’s cousins and their spouses! The culmination of a good vineyard year. Celebrated Pam’s birthday over lunch with Joshua & Dan, during that all too brief time restaurants were open for indoor seating! Son Noah, still living in Geneva, starts working for Artisan Meats in Canandaigua, expanding his meat processing skills learned at Schrader Meat Markets earlier in 2020. And getting ready to put our toe into the winery waters, we’re having ~60 cases of wine made from our Riesling & Cab Francs, for Noah to sell in 2021.

NOVEMBER: Dan & Joshua joined us for Thanksgiving. Fred’s brother, John, moved to The Falls Home assisted living facility in Montour Falls. COVID means they haven’t seen each other face to face since March, except for that move day.

DECEMBER: Christmas is coming! Glorious preparations. All family will be here (10 total; still ‘safe’ ). For those of you for whom Christmas means celebrating all that the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ means, may 2021 be year that you grow even more in your Christian walk and faith.

As Jesus said to Nicodemus: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:14-18)

We continue enjoying the beautiful Finger Lakes.  We’d love to have you visit us. Wherever you live, be safe, enjoy every day, and cherish the people you love!

Stay safe, and blessings on your 2021,
Fred (585.727.3328, fred@bassettes.com) & Pam Bassette (585.301.1812, pam@bassettes.com)

If you enjoy looking at pictures you can see a slideshow of the pictures in this letter, plus those that didn’t make the cut, at https://bassettefamilypictures.shutterfly.com/pictures/2094

And if that’s not enough … there’s gadzooks of vineyard pictures and videos at https://airyacresvineyard.shutterfly.com/pictures and https://www.instagram.com/airyacresvines/