Travel Plans

I have trawled through all the internet travel agent sites and found a relatively cheap fare to the USA. Internal flights in the USA were more of a problem. They generally only accepted credit cards issued by American banks. Guess that is a security measure.
Luckily United Airlines has an international site and flights were booked through them.
So now I am in the process of "mothballing" the house in preparation for a 3 month absence. My neighbors are more than happy to keep an eye on things as well as feed the animals as winter progresses. Also some friends will be coming down from Sydney on a few weekends.
I had a huge load of hay and horse feed delivered. God! hay is expensive. $17.50 a bale! used to be $5-$7 before the drought! I guess it will never return to those days.
The other main project is to repair a fence on the cattle yards. I will need to sell a few young bulls before I leave and they need to be drenched and tagged.
So it will be all "go" over the next week.
6th June is departure date!

Days of Winter

Winter is a time of relative rest for a grapegrower.
The vines are in the process of shutting down. Green leaves are turning into their Autumn tonings and the vineyard is awash with color.
Once leaf drop is complete and the sap has stopped running it will be time to prune.
But that is some months off.
Wine from this year's vintage is in the tanks.
Malolactic fermentation is complete and the acid level has been finally adjusted.
It's just a matter of time now to let the oak staves do their work and for the wine to clarify.
Bottling is a long way off.....September maybe.
So it's time for me to plan my USA holiday.