Sunday, August 14, 2005

Home!

All is well on the farm. We have obviously had a lot of rain as the ground is quite soggy and the dams are overflowing.
The remaining cows look well but are a bit wild after being on their own for three months. I am now hand feeding them to calm them down a bit. A week of this has produced good results. The cows that went to the sale yard just before my departure produced a good return.
I have started working on the new hail affected vines. Damage is quite considerable with new cordons broken, shoots snapped off and buds missing. Most will need cutting back to two basal buds and the training process started all over again. This is very frustrating but necessary to develope a good frame work for future production.
The weather has been quite cold. Zero in the mornings, getting up to 18-20C during the day. There has been a heap of snow fall on the mountains and as a result the wind coming off them is very cool and make the days feel colder than they are. Spring must be around the corner however as my early peach tree is in flower.
So that means I need to get all the winter vineyard work done in the next few weeks.
No rest for the wicked or the world traveller.

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