Hello all! This will be my first ever Bonsai blog-type post. I was just going to post pretty… eh, sorta pretty… pictures on Imgur and post a link, but I figured if I have a website, I might as well use it, right? So here we are. I will be heavily drawing my format and tone from Adam Lavigne’s amazing blog at http://adamaskwhy.com/. Ignore the rest of my site, that’s not what you came here for, and it’s undergoing a massive overhaul.

On to the post! I was invited, through the Dallas Bonsai Club, to go on a dig in an old vineyard that was wanting to change out some of its older stock. Originally I was meant to go back in November, buuuut I had a client set a deadline for a good gig (Back to the Future merchandise) on the Monday after the dig, so due to sculpting non-stop that weekend, I had no time for diggin’ trees. Thankfully, Ryan from the San Antonio Club set up another dig date in March, which is what you’ll be seeing here.

Victoria, Texas is a five hour drive from my home. My original plan was to leave Satuday morning, bring my girlfriend, get drunk in Austin, find a cheap hotel, and dig trees in the morning. Silly Patrick… you know the universe always makes a mockery of your plans, why even bother? I do not know…I do not know…

Turns out a prop “party” was scheduled for that Saturday filled with potential clients, so of course I had to go to that. This lead to my girlfriend canceling as well, she decided that a 10-hour round trip was not worth watching me dig up trees int the rain… who can blame her? My new Saturday plan became, wake at 8 am, go to Dallas Bonsai Club meeting, pick up girlfriend, go to prop party, drop off girlfriend, drive to Victoria. Long day…

Off we go!

It’s a long empty, boring stretch from Dallas to Victoria. If I was ever to get abducted by aliens it would be on those back roads. We all know what those Greys are into, and I’m just not that interested in being probed… there…

So tired…

Is that a bus!?

What is a school bus doing on the highway at 11:30 at night on a Saturday!? We will never know…

After 6 long hours I finally made it to Victoria at 1 am. I looked up hotels, and, well there just aren’t many viable options for a lowly Bonsai Hobbiest in Victoria. So I found a Walmart, parked in view of a camera, folded down the seats in my Prius, rolled out a sleeping bag, and got comfy.

My girlfriend might not be here, but at least I have the sweet lips of whiskey to kiss me good night.

I actually slept… or stayed passed out fairly well.

Morning came and it was finally time to meet the other diggers.

Follow the leader.

We met the owners, and they were wonderfully nice and happy to see us. They did ‘nerd out’ on us on grapevine varieties, which was interesting, but we came for the trees.

And so did you! So, finally, here they are!

The Vineyard:

It was raining, and there were only 5 of us there, so there was no need for buying the trees dinner and getting to know them. We each found ones we liked and plowed our shovels and reciprocating saws right in… that’s what she said?

Here’s Marvin:

Ryan, our lead on this dig, was essentially bare rooting the vines, and potting them up with soil from the vineyard. Being fairly inexperienced, I decided I better follow his example.

Marvin potted:

And Gaye (see a trend?):

Gladys:

Some how I didn’t get a picture of her potted… I think my SD Card got a little corrupted.

Knight:

And finally, The Pips:

You catch the trend…? No? Oh well, maybe you’ll hear it through the grapevine… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hajBdDM2qdg

Prius for scale:

Uuuhhhhh, how’re they all gonna fit… I did not think this through…

Like this!

Yay spacial abilities!

Well, that concludes my adventure into the great unknown of Victoria Texas. I will post follow up pictures on each of these, should they live…

See you on the flip side!