Life Goes On

The bad news is my digital camera, a Canon G3, has major problems and Canon want to charge more to fix it than a reasonable new camera would cost. This is very disappointing as it is less than two years old. I am now pondering a new purchase. Although I am disillusioned a little with Canon, they still seem to be at the cutting edge of digital photography technology. Meanwhile it's back to my trusty Pentax A3 and film. I have used this again at two weddings in the last few weeks and the results have been reasonably good. There are of course disadvantages to using film and, once bitten by the digital bug, these seem to be amplified. Another result will be the reduced number of pics on this site for the time being. Scanning and pasting is a tedious business.
The grapes are doing well although the weather has been variable. We have a few inches of rain this month which is good for the new vines but not so good for the fruit trying to ripen on the older ones. Taste testing of the Cabernet Sauvignon has shown we have a long way to go until we can pick. The grapes are still quite acidic. I won't be sugar testing until mid March. At this rate, I think we will be harvesting in late March or early April.
I am also weaning the calves. Separation was easy but there has been continual mooing from both sides of the fence. This will go on for a few days until they realise that they are not getting back together. I will be keeping the younger cattle and selling the older ones, probably in May. Weaning will allow the cows to "dry up" and put on some weight for the sale yard.
The Milton show is on during the first week of March. I have entered a couple of bottles of my wine as well as a few photographs.
Meanwhile I am considering my winter break. A month in Europe (Italy and Germany) followed by 2 months in the USA is planned. I have already organised an around the world ticket. My itinerary was 128 miles over the fare limit. They wanted another $500 but got around that by organising to leave from Adelaide. This meant finding a cheap fare to that city. Luckily Qantas were having a seat sale on the net so was able to take advantage of that. The fare was a little less than the bus (a 24 hour trip!)and half that of the train. Most of the accomodation has also been arranged. All that is left is the car hire.