Working in the Vineyard

The LDS Church has a vineyard close by.  Every year, members of our church here locally work in the vineyard to help harvest all the grapes.  Last year was our family's first year in Fresno for the harvest and I was pregnant and tired, so I volunteered to stay home with the kids while Aaron worked in the vineyard.  This year though was my turn (Aaron actually still went too and put in way more hours then me in the end but I was there opening night and felt pretty cool about it :)).  My church assignment recently changed to working with the 12-13 year old girls in our ward and my first mutual activity with them was the vineyard.  Exciting stuff.  I brought my grape knife and working gloves and joined everyone who turned out to work.   We cut down grapes as quickly as we could before the sun went down.  I really enjoyed my time out there and was happy to be able to serve.

There's just something so picturesque about rows and rows of grapes, not to mention the good people in the midst of those rows and rows who give up their weeknights to "labor in the vineyard."

And here's a video of a church vineyard that a friend shared on Facebook.  I don't know if it's of our Madera vineyard or not but it sure is pretty and mesmerizing to watch.