The Hillside

Here is a photo of the hillside where the vines will be planted. No way to get a tractor up there. Maybe a rototiller and a jackhammer. To give you an idea of what I'm trying to do, here is a list of the basic tasks prior to planting vines:

1. Survey the site and determine potential drainage/erosion problems.
2. Create leveled terraces with retaining walls of stacked stones and drainage profile.
3. Dig minimum 2 cubic feet soil for each vine (24 vines) to aerate soil. This dirt goes back into the hole. That's right, we're digging big holes and filling them in with the same dirt, and we're doing it thirty times, in rocky soil on a 45 degree slope.
4. Put in a 5 foot high deer fence with posts sunk two feet. Another 50 holes at 2 feet deep in the same rocky soil, no way to get an auger rig up there.
5. Build a trellis system another 30 holes dug and major wire project.
6. Put in drip irrigation with timer so when I'm gone for a month the vines will be watered.

If I'm lucky I'll get all this done by the spring of 2011. The vines need three years to mature. We're talking about making our first wine in 2014.