Establishing a Vineyard, Part 14: Snapshots from the Top

I’m racing through Zalas, a village near Rybna. The town name sign is smeared with graffiti, the radio station changes from Krakow to Slovakia, and Alphaville’s “Forever Young” blares from the speakers. Day two of planting.

It’s too easy. The vehicle, not an octopus, not an elephant with a tail, wanders through the spaces, leaving behind tiny droppings. But upon closer inspection, it’s not waste, but grape seedlings.

What is terrifying is its size: 3 hectares, 15 thousand seedlings, you walk and there is no end in sight.

I walk like a zombie, from row to row, sometimes uphill, sometimes downhill. Damian, the agronomist and the elephant’s main driver, shouts that this is a “farmer’s walk.” Sometimes I bend down to reveal a seedling buried deep beneath the earth, but sometimes I just push away rocks with my foot. Children, my children. I fall into a trance and walk like this, for miles.

I’m learning about nature’s ruthlessness, its calmness and patience, yet its mercilessness. The sun is scorching, making me thirsty. I want to run as far away as possible, but it’s my own doing.