The past week has been action packed and with a lot of progress for our fledgling businesses. The Bed and Breakfast continues to get more and more bookings. More importantly, we are meeting the loveliest people.

We had three different guests this past weekend. On Friday Ernesto and Sommer arrived from the Fresno area. They were here to celebrate Sommer's birthday and take some well deserved time away from their hectic lives. Both are young physicians and during their stay learned that Ernesto passed his Boards. It was fun to be able to toast his accomplishments.

We also had the chance to get better acquainted with some folks we met from the wine tasting party we had in Orange County at the home of our friend Pame. Tim and Mary Cromwell were wandering around the central coast for a few days and called. They joined us for a fun feast patio side before retiring to the Creekside room. They were having a hard time sleeping so took advantage of the problem and sat out under the stars in the wee hours marveling at the amazing night sky. We are blessed to have no ambient light and are treated to a celestial canvas not commonly found anymore.

They left early Saturday to continue their way back south and I did not anticipate turning the room around but Lori called mid-afternoon looking for lodging for the night so I did a quick clean up. They were in town for the horse show taking place at the fairgrounds. They are charming folks from Carmel who were so easy going and friendly. I hope they come back again soon.

We tried to entice all our guests to stop by the open house we were hosting on Saturday but they opted to pass. The party was a blast and nearly forty friends and acquaintances spent the evening pool side sipping Per Cazo. Dave and I had been hoping to do this ever since we moved in. Thank God for our friend Kris who was in town visiting. She volunteered to be unofficial caterer and we pulled off a really nice party.

Wine news ....we are getting ever closer to the new tasting room. ABC justs needs two more documents and all should be a go. Signs are ready, and so are we. Per Cazo was well received at two local wine bars and should be flowing there soon. All in all a good couple of days.

Off to Minnesota for a wine tasting benefit. We will be taking some video so watch for that next week!

You Tube or Bust

We are getting closer to actually being in a full-fledge tasting room. The last drawings are submitted and hopefully the powers-that-be will be satisfied. If you haven't seen our YouTube video yet, check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLFEMhvuc_g.

I am getting more comfortable with our new Flip Camera. Watch out You Tube......

Finalmente! We are counting on getting a good night sleep tonight as we have FINALLY captured our phantom cat, Tux. Kelley and I went to the local farm supply store and purchased a "Havaheart" animal trap. We baited the trap with tuna and waited. To all of our surprise, it did not take long.

We were eating dinner and heard her in the distance. We checked, the cage was empty. As we escorted our dinner guest Laurel to her car, we heard her again. Kelley ran to the barn and jumped up and down when she saw the captured cat. Success! It only took a couple hours. I quickly ran to retrieve the camera to document the episode.

So say hello and good riddance to Tux. Tomorrow she goes back to the Cat Man in Templeton. The mice are probably jumping up and down too!

That Darn Cat

Remember the old Disney classic with Dean Jones and Hayley Mills about a cat that prowled at night. Well, if they ever make a remake, I nominate our cat for the starring role.

The battle to capture the elusive feline is not an easy war to wage. Tux is the ultimate nocturnal warrior. Every night this week, she has been out crying, meowing, screeching to the point that it is disrupting our sleep and more importantly, the B & B guests. Our latest plan was to stay in the downstairs Creekside room and try to entice her in with tuna. Once confined to a small space we would put her in the crate and return her to the Cat Man before our trial period expired. We almost succeeded.

Friday night Dave lured her in to the room, picked her up and was actually petting her. The flaw in the plan was not having the crate in the room. By the time he walked the 50 yards to the house, she had clawed and bit him to the extent that he was bleeding in several places. Needless to say, he dropped the cat and she wandered off again into the darkness.
Bandaged and tired he returned to our bed while I took the 3am watch in the Creekside room. Not long, the cat began her guttural growl but I could not convince her to come anywhere near me.

The next morning Dave spent a couple of hours at the local Urgent Care facility where he got the obligatory Tetanus shot, prescription for antibiotics as infection had already set in and the sage advice to wear gloves the next time he goes cat hunting.

We tried again last night, better prepared with gloves, cage and tuna in place without success. We are tired, cranky, wounded and going to go pick up a "Have a Heart" trap. She may be winning for now but her days are definitely numbered at the Teckman B&B.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Three weeks ago we adopted a really cute cat from the Cat Man at the Templeton Farmer's Market. We were looking for a mouser for the Bed and Breakfast. Our B&B is a converted barn with a red tin roof and is very charming. It also is in the country, along side a creek so mice are often unpaying and unwelcome guests.

The Cat Man suggested a mature cat named Patience. We immediately changed her name to Tux because she is Black and White and looks like she is donned in formal wear. He recommended we confine her for the first 4-5 days and feed her so she knows this is now home. We kept her in the barn as instructed and only could catch a glimpse of her as she would hide. In fact, if it wasn't for the litter box and empty food bowl, you would not have any clue a cat had moved in. We started leaving the door ajar so she could roam and again the only evidence was left in the litter box. One night, Dave found her on the balcony of the upstairs room. She startled, jumped on the tin roof, slide down and vanished in the night. That was the last we saw her.

Then the phantom cat started haunting us. Late one night we heard the unmistakened guttural growl. Ever since, the only time Tux shows up is at night. She'll meow and cry but remains too illusive to capture. Our good friend Peter is staying in the Creekside room and has offered to open the door and entice her in since she was meowing outside his window. He almost convinced her last night but she just could not cross the threshold. Maybe tonight we will have a can of tuna at the ready.

As soon as we catch her, we are going to trade her in on kittens that hopefully will be more approachable.

Legitimacy...or something close

Sometime last night our Per Cazo Cellars web site was launched into the cyber universe. What a sense of progress this is for our fledgling wine operation. I hope you go visit it and give us feedback. Sometimes when you work on something for so long, you get so close to it that it is difficult to maintain objectivity. www.percazocellars.com.

What amazes me about building a web site is how powerful technology can be even for little guys like us. The ability to reach almost anyone in the world about our passion puts us on the same playing field as the big boys. While it's true we don't have our shopping cart up yet and there is room for growth as we become a better financed operation, there is little holding us back from sharing our wine with people we don't know. We have been very fortunate to have had support from our friends and family as we have launched Per Cazo, but now we can cast our net out to a much larger network. Before, I was almost embarrassed by our little holding page on the web.

I think our site portrays the elegance and sophistication that are present in our wines. When you start a new wine label in these challenging times, you better have the goods in the bottle. So far we have delivered a great value wine and it isn't just proud wine parents making that claim. We are starting to have a following which is the best affirmation a winery could ask for. Soon we will be in our tasting room which really will validate what we are trying to accomplish. More on that later.....

Charlotte's Web in real life!

Today is the last day of the California Mid-state fair.  Dave and I are going for one last corn dog and a glimpse of the animals who were not auctioned off.  You can imagine how disheartening it is for the young 4-H'ers to not have a bid for the animal they painstakingly raised just for just this moment. 

Jamie Perry is one of the young woman helping me at the B&B who explained to me how all this works. Her son Clayton raised his piglet and was one of the fortunate ones to successfully auction off his for $1,100. That's a lot of $$$ for a 12 year old.  She did not say how much money went to getting it to market, only to say he did well. She couldn't bring herself to attend the auction.  She considered that pig a member of the family. 

If the B&B and wine biz don't work out, I guess there is always livestock.