My Backyard Vineyard

“Mark? Don’t you want to take a look inside the house?” Hmmm. Check out that land. “Mark? The house?” Yeah … sure. The house. I take one last, inclusive look at the “backyard” of the home in Chicago Park, California. I see one-and-a-half acres of fertile land that faces south and slopes gently away from me. Look at the house? I don’t need to look at the house. After driving 770 miles from our current home in Seattle, and spending a long week looking at potential homesteads that just weren’t right, I had finally found what I was looking for. Did I mention that Chicago Park is in the Sierra foothills, just a little east of Sacramento? At a perfect elevation of 2,300 feet? With average mean temperatures and precipitation averages similar to certain high-rent districts of Napa Valley? Did I mention the Internet article telling of how a well-respected Italian vineyard owner had almost transplanted to this area? And I couldn’t have forgotten to mention how much I love Italian wines! We bought the house in April 2000, and I