Hopyard Update...

Well, we are definitely surrounded. There will be hops across the road from us from the corner to the south almost to the one to the north, with allowances for the two houses on the block. That is a mile and the hopyards go a mile on to the west.

On our side there are hopyards behind us, and to the south of us beyond the neighbor's as well as some to the north of us between the neighbors in that direction. We have neighbors on each side of us and for a little bit behind us so there are none directly adjacent to our property.

As they set up the yards they connect the poles with strong wire. Here the wires are laid out ready to be put up.
Unique equipment is used in order to reach the tops of the poles to fasten the wires.
Do you see the poles that are at an angle? Those are the anchor rows. The hopyard is laid out in sections of forty rows, according to my friend M whose family grew hops when she was growing up. Each section must have an anchor row on each side. The anchor row is very important. The wires are attached to the anchors. Below is an anchor waiting to be buried so that only the ring is above ground. The rows are secured to an anchor in each direction and those wires are stretched tight.
M says she learned how important the anchor row is when she was playing on the tractor and bumped one and the whole yard went down.

There is still nothing planted in these new yards, and the established yard down the road has plants up at least six inches and the strings that they climb strung from the ground to the wires. I don't know what the window is on the planting of the hops. I imagine we will see that activity soon.
This is how our sunsets look now--though this was taken before the wires were up. It will be interesting to see the plants grow. But I am not looking forward to the dust and traffic at harvest time. And the allergies.

I'll keep you posted on the progress.