The Lunar Eclipse

The 28th August was the warmest winter's day in 10 years with the temperature reaching 26C. It was also the day of a full lunar eclipse. So we headed down to Bawley Point just before sunset.

It was a magical evening. Hardly a breath of wind, a smooth sea and a slight swell.

As the sun set in the west, the full moon rose out of the sea to the east.
We watched it for a while then headed home for dinner.

Around 7pm the eclipse started. The earth's shadow gradually crept over the moon's surface.

An hour later it was completely covered

It was difficult to get a good picture with my small digital camera and standard lens as the two pictures above demonstrate. So I have 'borrowed' a picture from the local paper to show how the moon turned a brilliant red at the moment of the full eclipse.
Truly a great sight in the clear country sky.

100th Post!

It's taken a few years but I have made it.

For those that post every day I guess this is not such a milestone.

I have had fun writing about my travels and my work on the farm as well as life and the natural environment on the south coast in general.

I know from statcounter.com that I don't have a lot of readers but at least those who do bother to take the time to log on keep coming back.

Hopefully there will more than a few more hundred posts to come.

There are many more exciting places to visit!

For those demanding a picture I submit the one below.

And that's all you are getting for the time being!

Nasties at the Beach

Due to unprecedented requests, I am continuing with my story on local "nasties", this time at the beach.
We must have our fair share of sharks in the ocean around here. But I have to say I have never seen one. In fact over 40 years of surfing the east coast of Australia I have only seen three up close and personal. That is three too many but they say it’s the one you don’t see that gets you.
From reports of local fishermen and abalone as well as recreational divers we know we have the white pointer, the bronze whaler, the hammerhead, bullshark, and tiger shark as well as the grey nurse in our waters.

Generally sharks stay well off shore but they do come in with the warmer currents and when bait fish are on the run. Common sense tells us not to swim early in the morning or late in the evening. Swimming near or in river mouths and estuaries is also a 'no no' but you see hundreds of people doing this during the holiday season.
In Sydney I have seen sharks 50km up the St.Georges River at the Liverpool weir in what is basically fresh water. So you know it's really never safe to go back in the water!
We do not have saltwater crocodiles, thank goodness. These live in tropical waters up north and are the ones Steve Irwin used to "play" with.
We do have stingrays. Steve played with one too many of these. They can live close to shore and we see them often especially around rocky headlands. Some can be nearly 2m across. They do not attack but it is just as well to keep clear of them as they keep a nasty barb on their tail and this can do some damage. Sometimes smaller ones bury themselves in the sand on the water’s edge and can easily be stepped on.

I have had manta rays swim under me while on my board. These are huge, up to 4m across but are not considered dangerous.
Another nasty to keep clear of is the bluebottle or Portuguese man of war. These get blown into shore usually with strong nor’ easters and can be in plague proportions. Stings from them are
very painful.

Less painful are stings from the jelly blubber, a blue jelly fish, which can suddenly appear in thick swarms if the tides and wind is right.
Luckily we are too far south for the box jelly fish or sea wasp which is a killer.
But we have a killer in the rock pools on the many headlands of the area. This is the blue ringed octopus. This creature is only around 12cm long and weighs less than 90g

When threatened flourescent blue spots appear on its body. The beak can inject enough venom to paralyse 10 adult males and an untreated bite can be fatal. So it's one to keep an eye out for and be especially concerned about when children are exploring rock pools at low tide.
There are supposed to be 20 species of sea snakes in Australian waters. I think we maybe too far south to be concerned with them which is good because I think we have enough to deal with.

The Satin Bower Bird

There is a considerable amount of birdlife in the area. Most are native species such as kookaburras, currawongs, finches, honeyeaters and numerous species of parrots. We do get various migratory birds during the year.
One permanent resident is the satin bowerbird.
Bower birds are the scourge of any gardener and especially grapegrowers as they have a love of green vegetables and fruit and can strip a crop bare in a few days.
But we have overcome this by netting.
A male satin bowerbird has taken up residence under our huge bottlebrush (callistemon sp.) tree in the back yard. He has been there many years now.

He is a striking dark blue color.

The immature males and females look very much alike and are a grey green color.

The male builds a bower from twigs and grass and covers the surrounds in all sorts of blue objects like bottle tops, pegs and pieces of plastic.

Here he courts and mates with the female. During courting the male prances and struts around his bower offering the female items from his collection of blue objects, while making a series of hissing, chattering and scolding noises. Mating takes place in the avenue of the bower and the male may mate with several females in a single season.
Only the female builds a nest. This is a shallow, saucer-shaped construction of twigs and dry leaves above the ground in the upright outer branches of a tree. The nest is lined with fine dry leaves. The female lays one to three eggs, which she incubates.

She then raises the young on her own.

The Wattle

There are nearly 1000 species of wattle (Acacia) in Australia. In fact one, the Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha), is Australia's national flower. They grow in almost all regions of the continent and come in many forms, from ground cover to shrubs to large trees.
In our area, wattles come into bloom during winter and continue throughout spring into summer.
There is a wattle blooming somewhere in Australia every month of the year.
Foliage is varied both in shape and color from long deep green leathery leaves to fine ferny purple fronds.

Individual flowers are arranged in inflorescences that are either globular heads or cylindrical spikes. Each inflorescence may comprise as few as three individual flowers or as many as one hundred and thirty or more.

Flowers can vary in colour through cream, pale yellow to gold. One species has purple flowers whilst another has red. The flowers of many species are delicately perfumed and they are said to cause all sorts of hay fever symptoms during the flowering season.
Acacias are also found in Africa, Madagascar, throughout the Asia - Pacific region and in the Americas.

Pruning Grapevines

The most important job in the vineyard during winter is pruning. This is done after leaf fall but before budburst when the vines are dormant and there is virtually no sugar transfer from shoots to roots.
One of the reasons for pruning is that grape bunches only grow on new shoots and it is necessary to get rid of most of the old growth from the previous season. But there is more to it than that. The vine has to be maintained in a workable shape that will facilitate vineyard management practices such as spraying and harvesting. Pruning also achieves a balance between vegetative and fruit growth which basically means there should be enough leaves to ripen the fruit produced in a canopy that provides an ultimate microclimate ie. not too much shade, not too much sunshine.
This is done by regulating the number of buds left on the mature one year old shoots (now called canes) during the pruning process and the spacing of those canes. The new shoots and their bunches, usually two, come from these buds.
There are three basic categories of pruning: hand, mechanical and minimal.
We will concentrate on the first one here.
The two most common forms of hand pruning are spur and cane.
We spur prune on cordons in our vineyard.

Cordon with Last Season's Canes
A cordon is a permanent vine arm either bi or unilaterally formed off the trunk during the original training process early in the vineyard’s development. On this arm, spaced about a hand’s span apart, are short permanent fruiting units that have been built up over the years by cutting back the canes that form on them, usually two.

Close up of Last Season's Canes
During the pruning process the highest cane of the two is completely removed and the lowest one reduced to two buds or a spur. All other extraneous canes shooting from the arms and trunk are also removed although in some cases the former are used to start new spurs when old ones are not positioned correctly, are too high on the cordon or have become damaged.

Highest Cane Removed
Spur pruning is easy, quick and economical and caters to the growth characteristics of most varieties except those whose basal buds exhibit low fruitfulness.

Lowest Cane Spurred to Two Buds


Completed Spur Pruned Vine
My friend’s vineyard just up the road is cane pruned.
This is a traditional pruning method of Old World vineyards.

Cane Trained Vine Before Pruning
The vines have no permanent cordons, only one (unilateral) or two (bilateral) one year old canes laid along the fruiting wire from the head of the vine which forms on top of the trunk. From these canes, new shoots with fruit emerge during the growing season.

Last Season's Fruiting Cane Removed
At pruning these now two year old canes and its canes are completely removed. A new cane formed from a two bud replacement spur left on the head during the previous year’s pruning is laid down on the wire and cut back to the required number of buds, usually 8-15, depending on the vigour of the vine. The lower cane on this spur is reduced to two buds ready to form a cane and another spur for the following year. All others canes that have formed around the head and trunk are removed.

Next Season's Fruiting Canes Laid
Down with Two Replacement Spurs
Sounds complicated and it can be. Certainly it takes much longer to prune grapevines in this way.
Again most varieties respond well to this form of pruning although those will strong apical dominance (where buds low on the cane tend not to shoot as well as those on the end) can cause problems. This can be overcome by arching the cane when laying it down or spraying with hydrogen cyanamide to promote even budburst.
All the cuttings are collected and piled up for burning later on in the year once they have dried out a little.
I am doing a few thousand cane pruned vines in the other vineyard as well as my own this year and expect to be finished sometime in August.
With climate change well and truly with us, bud burst for the early varieties could expected later that month.
For some updated pruning information (August 2014) click here.

Wollemi Pine

In 1994, a NSW National Parks and Wildlife ranger walking in a remote region of the 500,000ha Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney came across an unusual stand of trees deep in a sandstone gorge.
Previously only known as a fossil some 90 million years old, he had discovered around 100 mature trees that were to become known as the Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis). One of the world's oldest and rarest trees, the Wollemi pine belongs to the 200 million year old Araucariaceae family which contains the Kauri, Norfolk Island, Hoop, Bunya and Monkey Puzzle pines.

Norfolk Island Pine in our back garden
The Wollemi Pine can grow up to 40 m in the wild with a trunk diameter reaching up to one meter. The bark of the tree is bubbly in appearance and chocolate brown in colour. Each plant has both male and female sexual reproductive cones. These cones appear at the end of branches, the female cone always growing above a male. The Wollemi Pine has two types of branches, one that grows upright looking like a trunk arising in most cases from the base of the tree, and another that grows laterally and bears sessile leaves. One amazing characteristic of the Wollemi Pine is that of every plant growing in the wild has the exact same DNA, making the species even more special.

Our Wollemi pine
The Wollemi pine has been propagated commercially and is now available for general garden and landscaping use.
I was lucky enough to receive one as a present last weekend.
We will keep it as a potted plant for the time being until we decide what pride of place it will take in our garden.

Even More Wild Weather

A third low pressure system developed over the Tasman Sea between us and New Zealand and the weather bureau was warning that this could be the worst winter storm yet. It is highly unusual to have three of these systems form within 2 weeks of our winter and although we are not in a cyclone zone this storm had the intensity of a category 2.

People all along the coast from Naroooma to Newcastle were battening down.

We waited.....and waited

Lots of rain and a little wind but nothing much else.

Apparently a band of cold air came over the Great Dividing Range and the high winds were pushed upwards.

A classical example of inversion.

The cold layer dumped snow on the mountains and there were blizzards in the Snowys so they are going to have a great ski season in the resorts there.

Today it is bright and sunny.

The surf is huge with waves up to and sometimes over 10m. People living on the foreshores are in danger of having their houses washed away.

At home, the paddocks are saturated, the creek is in flood and the road in is a bog.

But we are not complaining. I think the drought on the south east coastal region of New South Wales is officially over.

Wild Winter Weather

The drought has lasted more than 5 years now with most of Australia affected. At one stage New South Wales was 98% drought declared. This means a lot of agricultural businesses are doing it tough. Lots of cattle and sheep, good breeding stock, have had to be sold and broad acre crops have either failed or not been planted for some years. Farmers are trying to sell up or just walking off their properties. Clearance sale advertisements fill up rural newspapers.
Rivers are drying up with our main irrigation area, the Murray-Darling basin, having water allocations withdrawn. But it’s not only a problem in the country. Capital city dams are the lowest on record. Sydney’s dam for instance is at about 30% capacity. Everyone is under very strict water usage restrictions ie. no watering the garden, no washing the car etc. A desalination plant is planned for the city as an emergency measure. The rainfall on the farm is running at about 50% average for the last 6 years. I have dry dams that have never been that way since I moved in 16 years ago and I can’t remember the last time my creek ran. Last week, a severe low pressure system developed off the coast around the Sydney/Newcastle area and we had our first winter storm considered to be the worst in 30 years. They had torrential rain, up to 250mm in 24 hours, and high winds 80-120km/hr. Flooding and wind damage has been widespread and nine people lost their lives. We got the tail end of the storm with some good falls but no damage.

A 40,000 tonne bulk carrier has been driven ashore in 18m seas onto a city beach in Newcastle which is a major coal loading port. It is still stuck there with a huge salvage operation in progress. But another low has formed off the south coast and is heading north so they are expecting more bad weather with big seas. They will need to get the ship refloated as soon as possible if they don't want it in the car park.

The second low has dumped a large amount of rain on us and it has snowed only a few kilometers away. So winter has well and truly arrived. All my new tanks are full, the dams are filling and the creek is starting to flow again. It was so great to see the weather radar looking like this.

Wildlife

Australia has many species of venomous critters, both on land and in the sea.
These include 38 land snakes and 23 sea snakes, 22 spiders, 4 ants, the honey bee, 3 wasps, 2 beetles, 6 scorpions, 2 caterpillars, centipedes, millipedes, mosquitoes, sandflies, thrips and other insects.
The platypus and echidna also have a venomous defence system.
Coastal waters are frequented by 2 blue-ringed octopuses, 7 jellyfish, cone shells, 2 stonefish, 21 other fishes including the flathead, the Port Jackson shark, 11 rays, starfish including the crown of thorns, corals, anemones, urchins, stinging sponges, marine worms, leeches, frogs and toads.
Australia is home to the ten most lethal snakes in the world. Of the world's top 25 venomous snakes, Australia has 21. After considering venom toxicity, average yield, and aggressiveness, the North American diamond-backed rattlesnake is ranked number 25 in the world, with the Indian cobra and African black mamba 12th and 13th respectively!
And we haven’t even mentioned the animals and fish that want to eat you eg. crocodiles and sharks
Much is made of this on nature programs seen overseas and I have often been asked how we manage to live in such a dangerous environment.
I don’t think Australia is any more dangerous than a lot of other places around the globe. It is all a matter of what you are used too. At least we don’t have any land animals that want to do you harm like bears. And rabies is a disease that has been kept out of the country by very strict quarantine laws.
We have a range of ‘nasties’ that live around the farm that we can come across on a regular basis depending on the season.
The red bellied black snake is the most predominant snake in this area. The upper surface of this snake is glossy black while the belly is light pink to brilliant red.

We see them from late August to March. They eat mainly frogs so you mostly see them around the dams, creeks and wetlands. They will also eat lizards, mammals, birds and occasionally fish.
During mating season they are on the move and that’s when you can see them around the house. These reptiles are a protected species so we generally leave them alone. They are quite timid unless cornered and make every attempt to get away when disturbed. However any found around the house are ‘dispatched’. A sharpened hoe is kept in a strategic place for this purpose. Most snakebites occur when people are trying to kill one so you need to be careful.
It grows to 1.5 to 2m and its bite is very dangerous and requires immediate medical attention.
Funnel-web spiders are some of the world’s most deadly spiders and are found in coastal and mountain regions of eastern and southern Australia. They are large black spiders with a shiny head/thorax. The body may range from 1.5 cm to more than 5 cm long depending on the species. Funnel-web spiders live in burrows in sheltered positions in the ground, in stumps, tree trunks or ferns above the ground. Their burrows are lined with a sock of opaque white silk and several strong strands of silk radiating from the entrance. Funnel-web spider venom is highly toxic, and all species are considered potentially dangerous.

Female funnel-web spiders are long-lived, possibly up to 20 years, but are rarely seen except during tree felling, excavation or landscaping work. They spend their entire lives inside the burrow, only venturing out momentarily to snatch passing prey, which consists of insects and small vertebrates such as lizards and frogs.
Males wander at night, especially during or after rain, and may enter houses. In the northern suburbs of Sydney it was always advisable to check in the bed before climbing in.
Bites by males of two large species, the Sydney funnel-web and northern tree funnel-web, have resulted in death. I have seen a few over the years working in the vineyard and maybe an occasional one in the vege garden. We should wear gloves but we don’t. But we always shake out our boots, if we have left them outside overnight, before putting them on.
The Redback Spider is very common in the area. The females are black with an obvious orange to red longitudinal stripe on the upper abdomen and an "hourglass" shaped red/orange spot on the underside of the abdomen. They have a body about the size of a large pea and slender legs.
The male is only about 3-4 mm long and its red markings are often less distinct. The body is light brown with white markings on the upper side of the abdomen, and a pale hourglass marking on the underside.
The notorious Black Widow Spider of the United States is a close relative of the Redback Spider, and only differs in appearance by the absence of a red dorsal stripe.

Webs consist of a tangled, funnel-like upper retreat area from which vertical, sticky catching threads run to ground attachments. The spider favours proximity to human habitation, with webs being built in dry, sheltered sites, such as among rocks, in logs, shrubs, junk-piles, sheds, or toilets. Redback bites occur frequently, particularly over the summer months but are less common in winter.
Only the female bite is dangerous. They can cause serious illness and have caused deaths. However, since Redback Spiders rarely leave their webs, humans are not likely to be bitten unless a body part such as a hand is put directly into the web, and because of their small jaws many bites are ineffective.
The main rule is never to stick your hand into or under anything outside unless you have checked first.
We have two types of ticks, the bush tick and the paralysis tick. Both are a nuisance if they attached themselves to you leaving a large itchy red lump and have the potential to pass on Lyme disease. The Australian paralysis tick is widely distributed in south eastern coastal temperate regions and secretes a neurotoxin in its saliva that causes a progressive, and occasionally fatal, paralysis.

Sometimes a severe hypersensitivity reaction can occur.
This tick is particularly severe on dogs and cats causing hundreds of deaths every year and this keeps the vets in our area particularly busy administering antivenom and supplying preventative collars, tablets and pour ons. My neighbour nearly lost a very expensive foal from a paralysis tick last year.
There are many theories on how to remove a tick safely without it injecting more toxin into you. Personally I just pull them out but prevention is better than cure and a spray on insecticide is the best protectant.
Leeches are found in damp cool areas. They live in the grass and on the leaves of bushes and shrubs and are always waiting for a host to come along to attach to. Finding a thick blood engorged slug on your person (and they get in the most awkward places!) is always not pleasant. Removal is easy by just pulling them off. This is considered dangerous because they disgorge bacteria laden liquids from their stomachs which can cause infection.

Other methods include sprinkling them with salt, applying tea tree oil or menthol or a lighted match. The latter always seems more dangerous to me. The wound can bleed for quite a long time due to the anticoagulants they have injected and the lump left can be itchy for weeks and become infected.
We usually apply a spray on insecticide before working in the bush to combat them.

Murray Grey Cattle

Our small herd of cattle are Murray Greys.
The Murray Grey breed was developed in the upper Murray River region of Australia in the early part of the 20th century. The first grey cattle resulted from the mating of an Angus bull and a roan Shorthorn cow with 13 calves of the same colour being born at the Sutherland family's Thologolong property and kept originally as curiosities. In fact this chance breeding was a bit of an embarrassment appearing in a herd of black Angus cattle.
It was found that two or three crosses of the greys produced a very high percentage of grey cattle, combining features of the Beef Shorthorn and Angus breeds. They were kept separate from the other herd and a distinct breed was gradually established. Commercial cattlemen became interested in the breed’s rapid growth and high carcase yield, and several developed grey herds.

In recent years, the development and popularity of the breed has increased. A breed society was formed in 1962 and now over 1000 studs are to be found throughout Australia.
The Murray Grey is found in most good rainfall areas in Australia, particularly in Victoria and southern New South Wales.
They are natural polls and range in colour from silver to dark grey, with dark skin pigmentation, which makes them less susceptible to skin or eye problems in severe climates. They have proved adaptable to most climatic conditions.

Murray Greys are ‘easy care’ cattle. The breed is medium in size, early to mid-maturing and is recognised for its good temperament. Cows calve easily and milk well to rear quick-growing calves. Possibly the breed is best known for its high-yielding carcases with excellent eye muscle and optimum fat cover.
Furthermore, the Murray Grey is an excellent cross with Bos Indicus, British or European breeds. The breed’s attributes of easy calving, docility, marbling, fertility and carcase quality are all evident in the crossbred progeny.
The permanent herd on this property consists of six breeders. They usually produce 4-5 calves every 18 months or so. At least one of those is a bull so we have the basis for the next generation. Bulls and heifers are generally sold within that 18 month period although a good heifer will be kept and a poorly performing cow sold in her place.
This is by no means a profitable business. The cost of Rural Land Protection Board fees, winter feed and veterinary supplies is just covered by the sale price.
But they are nice to have around and are great lawn mowers!

The Hunter Valley

The Hunter Valley lies about 160km north of Sydney.
It is the oldest wine growing area of Australia with the first vines being planted there by James Busby in 1826.
Today there are over 140 wineries and cellar doors in the area.
The climate is designated as warm maritime which means the growing season is warm to very hot, moderately sunny and moderately to extremely humid. The fruit produced is usually of high natural sugar levels which translates into full flavored wines. The area is most famous for Semillon and Shiraz but grows most other varietals except some that specifically need a cool climate eg. Riesling.
My wine drinking experience started with Hunter wines back in the 1960's so it's always a pleasure to go back and visit some of the old haunts as well as explore new establishments.

We left our overnight accommodation in Umina early so we would have plenty of time to go via the Old Northern Road route rather than the freeway. This scenic trip follows parts of the old 240km long convict road built originally between 1826 and 1836 to link Sydney and the expanding colonial outposts in the Hunter Valley. Unfortunatedly the whole of the Sydney basin was covered in thick fog which slowed us down considerably and shut out the view completely. But we still managed to see some evidence of the hand hewn cuttings and sandstone block retaining walls that the convict labour had built.
After a late breakfast in Wollombi we headed for Draytons. The Drayton family have been growing wine in the Hunter since the 1850's and produce traditional Semillon and Shiraz. It is still family owned and it's always a pleasure to stop here, sample the latest vintage, have a chat and maybe get to taste a few wines not generally made available for public tasting. The 10 year old Shiraz that fell into the latter category was too good to pass up.
Next it was onto Margan Vineyard. They have about 120ha of vines in both the upper and lower Hunter. Most of their vineyards have been purchased from well known valley entities eg. Elliots and Lindemans, so they have access to old well established vines producing high quality fruit. I have been a fan of their Semillon and Verdelho for many years and the new vintages did not disappoint. Being a cellar door member I also had access to their new range of white lable wines. The 2005 Semillon was outstanding and hard to resist taking a dozen out to the car.
Our Umina host works in the liquor industry and had arranged through contacts for the three of us to visit the Wyndham Estate for lunch and a private tasting of their wines.
Wyndham is part of the Orlando Wyndham Group, makers of the famous Jacobs Creek wine range and owned by a French company Pernod Ricard. They also have substantial interest in major New Zealand vineyards eg. Montana.

The Dalwood Estate was established in 1828 on the banks of the Hunter River by George Wyndham. It was here that the first commercial planting of Shiraz in Australia took place in 1830.
From a handful of these original cuttings, the Estate now boasts total annual international sales of over 12 million bottles with its wine available in 40 countries.
On the 100th anniversary of George’s death in 1970 the Estate was renamed in his honour.
The current cellar door/winery is a grand old building built in 1904 in a lovely setting.
We were met by Scott, the PR man, and went for a walk through the vine blocks to the banks of the river which, sadly with the current drought, was just a series of waterholes. He was a wealth of knowledge, a great talker and a graduate of Australia’s number one wine school, Roseworthy. But I think the graduate from the number two wine school, Charles Sturt University, managed to hold his own. Not that is was a competition of course.

We were soon in the tasting room and settled down to enjoy some of the wines available not only for the general public but also for export. We were interested to concentrate on Semillon and Shiraz but we were persuaded to try their top Chardonnay, a Rose’ and some Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc blends.
Outstanding were the Show Reserve Semillons of 1997 and 2000, the Show Reserve Hunter Valley Shiraz 1999 and the 2003 Black Cluster Shiraz.
HV Semillon is usually picked early with lower than normal sugar which produces a wine with an alcohol content of around 10-11% and a higher than normal content of malic acid. They are generally not allowed to go through malolactic fermentation and are not subjected to oak barrel storage. This gives the young wine a herbaceous flavour with just a hint of apples and good acid balance. But as the wine ages (up to 20 years plus), it develops a toasty/honey character that is still offset by good acidity. This is unique for Semillon in the world and is what is known as "the Hunter style".
HV Shiraz is usually medium bodied with a spicy berry and plum flavour. With age the wines develop a rustic, earthy, even leathery character with a soft mouth feel. YUMMO!
So armed with some of these great wines we headed into lunch for a wonderful meal of prawn wontons, salmon, venison and fillet steak followed by a great baked lemon tart.
It was after 4pm when we finished lunch so any thought of visiting more wineries was out of the question.
K was our DD (breathalyser tests proved this to be a sensible plan) and we headed off down the freeway with an additional few bottles of the good stuff presented to us by Scott on departure.
What a great day!!!!!!!

Mighty Mouse

When the weather starts to cool off in autumn a few members of our wild life population like to take up residence in the warmth of the home, the shed and stables. To combat this I have a large range of poison baits of varying chemical composition (to reduce the chance of the build up of resistance) in various forms eg. granules, pastes, wax blocks and throwable packets for those hard to get to places.
There was distinct evidence a few weeks ago that a mouse had made its home in the kitchen so we spread the bait around.
He touched nothing!
Then we set up mouse traps with peanut butter.
Now here I have to say that the only Australian manufacturer of mouse traps, wooden ones, was put out of business by cheap imported plastic ones made in China some years ago.
Talk about the plastic ones being useless. Our mouse just ate the peanut butter off them without springing them. You just can't get the trigger sensitive enough. They must have bigger mice in China.

Then we got very expensive super duper rotary traps that were said to be irresistible.
The rodent was not interested.
Becoming increasingly frustrated by mighty mouse two scientific minds got together and we crushed up an ambien tablet and mixed it with peanut butter.
Again....no interest.
Finally I cut open one of the throwable packets and exposed the contents and guess what?
SUCCESS!
He was into it like no tomorrow. Why all of a sudden I will never know.
And I noticed some of the ambien cocktail had also been taken.
Now he is either gone to God or is fast asleep somewhere.
Will keep you up to date with our progress in this matter.

UPDATE 18/05/07: ding dong, the mouse is dead.

Melbourne

It was an early morning departure as we headed across country, by-passing Canberra, and onto the Hume Highway at Yass for our trip to Melbourne for a photographic convention. With a few stops on the way to eat/drink/refuel and change drivers it took us around 10 hours. The Hume is four lanes nearly all the way now, has a 110km/hr speed limit and with virtually no traffic was a dream run. The new Albury/Wodonga by-pass has just been opened and this saves at least 30 minutes.
We arrived in town at peak hour and had to deal with not only heavy traffic but trams and the eccentric Melbournean "hook turn" where, to make a right hand turn, you pull over to the left and wait for those lights to turn green. There is a method in the madness. The trams behind you don't get held up.

Our hotel was near the convention centre and the Crown Casino which has forty restaurants, cafes and snack bars.
The first night we ate at Neil Perry's Rockpool Bar and Grill. Neil has the Rockpool, a famous Asian restaurant, in Sydney but I have never been there due to its prohibitive pricing. So it was nice to experience the Perry touch with a more reasonable bill.
The place was hard to fault. The room itself was beautifully set out, the service seamless and the food wonderful. We had sushi and grilled prawns as starter, roasted grass fed dry aged rib eye beef on the bone as a main and I endulged in a caramelised apple tart with vanilla bean ice cream to finish. This was all washed down with a Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley and a Chianti to die for.
Sorry Dr. Brett! Will start that diet next week.

Next morning we walked into the CBD and had a coffee and sambo breakfast. Then we explored some shops at the "Paris End" of Collins Street and some of the old Victorian shopping arcades that have been beautifully restored. After that we hopped a tram to the National Gallery of Victoria and spent some time viewing the many treasures in there.

Lunch was a lottery but we chose well, a Japanese Restuarant in Federation Square.
Then it was back to the casino for some gambling. As usual there were no winnings.
Later that night we went back to the Jasmine Thai Restaurant for dinner.
This had to be the worst Thai meal I have ever been served. Completely inedible!
Their web site states: With expert preparation, perfect cooking and serving of the finest quality Thai Cuisine; you can expect superior freshness, exciting taste and a dining experience that will guarantee you will bring your friends back with you next time!
Grounds for suing for false advertising I think.
Next morning, K went of to the photographic convention and I went looking for some wine making equipment at my favourite store. Talk about toys for wine boys! Ended up with two additional tanks that just fitted in the back of the car and had the potential to rattle for the entire 1000km trip home.
I was born in Melbourne and spent the first 10 years of my life there so it was interesting to revisit some of my old childhood haunts. On the way to have dinner with relatives, we passed my old house. It still looked exactly the same although the neighborhood streets seem a lot narrower and distances a lot shorter than from a kid's perspective.
Next morning we headed up into the Dandenong Ranges. This line of 600m high hills is an hour's drive out of Melbourne and is a combination of touristy villages, National Park and rural residences. There is a great view from the top overlooking the city and surrounding districts. When I was 6, my parents went to Europe (it was a 6 week ship voyage each way in those days)and I was at a boarding school in this area for around 9 months. I found the old one teacher school I went to which brought back memories of walking to class in the snow and not being able to eat lumpy porridge.
Part of the area has been maintained as mountain ash forest.

These gum trees (eucalypts) are the largest flowering plants in the world and can grow to 100m (330ft) high. It's a wonderful area with deep gullies full of giant tree ferns and tumbling waterfalls. It is home to the lyrebird and other Australian forest wildlife.

Back in the city we headed to Lygon Street, Carlton which is the Italian part of town. Here is an amazing choice of restaurants, coffee bars and shops. We picked a cafe at random and had a great meal al fresco while watching the passing parade.

That night we went to K's first Australian rules football game at the Telstra Dome. The Sydney Swans were playing the North Melbourne Kangaroos. The Swans were originally South Melbourne but got transferred to Sydney in the 1980's after the club fell on hard times.

I have been a Swan's supporter all my life so it was great to see them play again. Unfortunately they let the Kangaroos get too far ahead and despite a stirring fightback in the last quarter, they failed to overhaul them.
But I think K is hooked on the game and there may be a few trips to Sydney in store to see the Swannies play again. And we do get live telecasts of their games via satellite.
Next morning it was back on the Hume heading north. We took a small detour to Brown Brothers winery at Milawa for lunch at their great restaurant and took time out for a tasting of their experimental wines which consist of small plantings of less well known grapes from Spain, Italy and Portugal among others.

We especially liked their Tempranillo and Barbera as well as Viognier.
Needless to say the rattling tanks were joined by rattling bottles for the rest of the trip home.

Battling Bloody-minded Bureaucrats

Dealing with bureaucrats at any time is difficult. Dealing with public service bureaucrats is a nightmare.
Here is a typical example.
The highway that runs past our property is Route 1 that basically links the entire coastal region of Australia, a distance of over 14,500km.
Our section runs between Sydney with Melbourne, a trip of around a 1000km and is the second busiest route for that sector.
The road's condition however is abysmal.
It is in most cases a narrow winding two lane highway with sections of passing lanes of varying length at varying distances. It has also numerous old and narrow bridges.
Improvements are slow with the major Sydney to Melbourne route, the inland Hume Highway (Route 31) attracting the most funding with most of its length now a four lane freeway.
As a result many people are killed or injured on the Princes Highway and its northern continuation to Brisbane, the Pacific Highway.
The state government is slowly trying to improve the highway as funding becomes available.
One project set down is the replacement of the old bridge across the creek that runs through our property and the elimination of dangerous bends directly to its north.
A neighbour of ours and his young son were lucky not to be killed there when a truck shunted them at 100km/hr while they were waiting to cross oncoming traffic into their property on New Years Eve 2005.
The highway is bounded by private property on the western side and a National Park on the eastern.
The National Park was, up unto a few years ago, State Forest but was "gifted" to the people under certain conditions. One of those conditions was that a 20m corridor for future road improvements be maintained.
There is another 20m right of way on the private land.
Despite the fact that the route through the National Park will produce a straighter road, the government instrumentality concerned, the RTA, had decided to resume 2ha. of my neighbour's land (10% of his property) and build the new bridge and road there because it is a few meters shorter and therefore cheaper. But it will still have a bend.
They are using the old environmental impact excuse not to use the eastern option.
This is plainly a joke.
The National Park is home to the endangered swamp oak flood plain and a remnant is situated near the bridge. But there are 15000ha of swamp oak flood plain left in NSW. The area lost to the road would be at the most a few hundred square metres. Not only that, the land involved is currently home to a rest stop and picnic area and is severely degraded.
The community is up in arms about this and letters of protest have been flying, meetings have been held and the media is giving it great coverage.
The RTA and National Parks initially ran for cover and hoped the whole situation would go away.
But it didn't.
They then tried bullying tactics saying the law was on their side and they would do what they considered best. No discussion would be entered into.
This only made the protest louder and more aggressive.
The three levels of government came on board in support with members of the local council, the state seat member and the federal seat member demanding a sensible resolution to this situation.
The RTA and National Parks were finally flushed out of hiding and forced to hold a public meeting to explain their decision.
The local hall was overflowing with people from the community interested to hear their reasoning.
And what a group of stereotypical government workers these public servants were!
To think out tax money could go in wages to such incompetents!
They spoke a language of legalise, legislationise and environementalise and really were not of this world. They had no concept of how their decision impacted on the community. Theirs was a world of black and white, no grey and doing things "by the book".
This attitude only increased the resolve of those present at the meeting which at times became extremely heated.
The RTA and National Parks were left in no doubt that there was a need to revisit this decision and revise it.
They agreed to the former.
Whether we will have decision in our favour is still up in the air.
This fight is not over.....not by a long shot.

Better Safe than Sorry

One of the hazards associated with being in the wine industry is the potential for drink driving.
Apart from wine dinners and tastings there are always the impromptu tank and barrel samplings in the various wineries visited.
Normally we run a designated driver system for social events with the DD limited to 1-2 glasses and a ‘swirling and spitting’ system for the tastings to be able to keep under the legal 0.05g/100mL BAC limit.
In our part of the world it is very difficult miss the random breath testing (RBT) stations that the police set up as there is only one major road running through our area. This crosses a number of bridges which are the perfect places for RBT.
They are there on a regular basis at any time of the day or night and one would have to be pretty stupid to think they will be lucky enough to avoid them all the time.
A great number of people get caught in the morning after particular heavy nights despite the fact it has been many hours after the last drink. It is this situation that concerns us the most.
One solution to the problem would be to have your own breathalyser testing unit. In the past these have been quite expensive and unreliable.
Recently however, our state driving association, the NRMA, got together with a producer of breathalysers who also supply the police department and have released a hand held unit suitable for general use at a reasonable price and which complies with Australian standards.
We bought one.

It is simple to use and only needs to be sent back to the manufacturer every 6 months (or after 300 tests) for recalibration at a reasonable cost.
We have been running some tests at home after drinking our dinner wine and results have been (excuse the pun) a little sobering. It is obvious that reaching the legal limit of 0.05 without feeling at all impaired is quite easy. Half a bottle of 13.5% alcohol wine drunk over an hour will do it for me even with food. Obviously it would be less for a female.
It is also interesting to note that a test sooner than 10 minutes after the last drink can produce a false reading, BAC can rise for up to 2 hours after the last drink and it can take 10 hours or more for a high BAC reading to return to zero ie. the morning after problem!
It was also mentioned that the unit will not respond to a BAC greater than 0.30!!!!!!

As if!
While not relying on the results 100% it will be an added level of security to have this unit in the glove box of the car.

Vintage 2007

Refractometer readings of a vineyard sampling showed the Cabernet sauvignon to be at a sugar level of around 12° Baume. The older vine leaves were starting to turn red which is suspected to be a result of a phosphorus deficiency in the soil (low pH) rather than the onset of autumn. Also a few bunches were beginning to shrivel which was more evidence that the vines had run out of "puff". So it was time to pick.

Easter Monday seemed a good time to start so under sunny blue skies, after the morning dew had dried off, we started hand harvesting. It is always fun battling the spiders, bees and ants as well as other creepy crawlies that have taken up residence in the vineyard over the last six months. And all the time you are concentrating on not cutting one of your fingers off.

Buckets were soon filled without incident and transferred to the "winery" otherwise known at other times of the year as the garage.
Hence our unofficial wine appellation classification of Vin de Garage.

Crusher / Destemmer and Fermenter
Here we have all the necessary basic equipment to make wine. But there is none of the high technology and sophistication of a modern winery. Therefore we rely on quick processing, good equipment hygiene and a detailed technical knowledge of winemaking techniques to protect the product from possible spoilage during the vinification phase.

The bunches were tipped into the crusher/destemmer where they are run through rollers to gently break the berry skins. The berries are then "beaten" off the stalks by rotating paddles and the crushed destemmed grapes fall through a stainless steel screen into the open fermenter.
Must in Open Fermenter
The stalks are ejected through the end of the machine and are eventually returned to the vineyard as mulch. Too many stalks in the ferment produce off flavours in the finished wine.

Tests on the resultant juice by refractometer and hydrometer confirmed a Baume reading of 12.0° . This means the wine will have an alcohol content of around 12%.
pH or acidity activity was 3.7. Acid levels are important as this determines the taste balance of the wine as well as how well certain additives eg. sulphur do their job. Acid levels can be increased (and pH reduced) by the addition of tartaric acid which is one of the naturally occurring acids in grape juice. The other main one is malic acid. Warm climate grapes are usually low in acidity and we keep the pH of our red wine between 3.5 and 3.6 by acid addition. Red wines usually have lower acidity than whites.
Another important measurement of acidity is titratable acid (TA) measured in g/L tartaric acid and sometimes called, wrongly, total acid.

Essential Winemaking Tools:
pH meter, hydrometer, refractometer
In Europe, sugar can be added at specified levels to grape juice to increase the final level of alcohol of wine. This is necessary as climatic conditions do not always allow grapes to ripen enough and wines of low alcohol are thin and insipid.
In the New World eg. Australia and the USA, the addition of sugar is prohibited. However in Australia the addition of grape juice concentrate (made by freezing the juice and removing the water as ice) is allowed but our warm climate most years guarantees grapes ripening to the required level. It should be pointed out that not all varieties are allowed to ripen to the maximum possible sugar level. New thinking has developed the flavour ripe theory where some grapes are picked at a lower sugar content according to the wine style being made eg. Semillon in the Hunter Valley of NSW is picked at between 10.0° and 11.0° Baume to produce a typical Hunter style. The same grape in Western Australia is allowed to ripen to 13.0° + Baume producing a bigger fruitier wine with less varietal characteristics. Some viticulturists even look at seed ripeness to determine when grapes should be picked.

Yeast and LAB Cultures
Back in the winery, sulphur was added to protect the must (grape skins, seeds and juice) from oxidation and wild yeasts before a controlled fermentation begins. This is done by adding a calculated amount of potassium metabisulphite at very low ppm rates.
A calculated amount of a commercial dried wine yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is then rehydrated in warm water. There are many wine style specific strains of that species available and this year I am trying a Bordeaux strain. Wild yeasts are present in all vineyards and they too can ferment the wine. But wild yeast fermentation is fraught with danger eg. slow or stuck fermentation and off flavours. Some say wild fermentation gives a wine special character. Maybe one day I will be brave enough to try it.
A lactic acid bacteria (LAB) culture was also rehydrated. This is added to the wine to initiate malolactic fermentation (MLF) where the bacteria convert the rather harsh malic acid in the grapes to the softer lactic acid. This also stabilizes the finished product. MLF can occur at any time but usually after the wine is made and is in storage.
It is essential that MLF occurs before bottling as a by-product of the reaction is carbon dioxide. This can make the bottled wine ‘fizzy’ and a bit musty tasting and can even blow the corks out of the bottle.

Disassembled Crusher Destemmer
The yeast and the LAB were then added to the must. The yeast metabolises the sugar in the grape juice turning it into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This takes some time to begin especially since the added sulphur initially inhibits the yeast.
But after a while the sulphur is "bound" to the red pigments in the grape skins and fermentation starts in earnest with increased temperature and obvious foaming. The crushed grapes release their juice as the alcohol level rises and the skins start to float to the surface. This layer is called the cap.
The carbon dioxide produced is now what protects the wine from oxidation. Another result of increased alcohol is the extraction of the red colour and tannins from the skins. Almost all grape juice whether from white or red grapes is clear with only the skins giving it colour. It is therefore necessary to keep pushing the cap down into the fermenting juice to extract as much colour and tannin as possible. This is done 4-6 times a day. Purple hands and arms result.
But there is nothing like the smell of fermenting wine up close.
Red wine is usually stored in oak barrels which, during controlled ageing, impart an oaky flavour to the wine. Wine barrels are very expensive, around $1000 for a hogshead (300L), so a cheaper way to get oak character is to add mini staves to the ferment. The two main types of oak are American and French. Like the barrels the staves are available in varying degrees of charring or toasting. This time I used medium toasted French oak in keeping with the Bordeaux style.

Oak Staves
After 7 days enough colour and tannins have been extracted from skins and it was time to drain the still fermenting wine off them.

Basket Press

We use the winepress for this, bucketing the must into the press basket and transferring the free running wine into a variable capacity stainless steel tank. The lids of these tanks float on the wine surface and seal by an inflatable tube.

Then the skins remaining in the basket are pressed slowly and thoroughly extracting more wine which has increasing levels of tannins and colour as the pressure increases. These pressings are also added to the tank along with the oak staves already removed from the ferment.
The skins that are left in the press (the marc) are almost dry and form a solid "cake" which is dumped back onto the vine rows as a fertiliser/mulch.

The wine is now left to finish fermentation and begin the settling process where solids begin to "fall out" and wine starts to clarify. We know when fermentation has finished when the Baume reading is below zero ie. no sugar is left.
The wine will then go through a number of racking processes where the clarifying liquid is separated from the settled solid residue. There are a number of settling aids eg. bentonite, but I prefer to let things happen naturally, albeit much slower, as any additions tend to strip the flavour. During this time oxidation can be a real problem so we will keep the wine under a blanket of carbon dioxide in the sealed tank. Any addition of sulphur, the normal antioxidant, at this stage would inhibit MLF.

VC Stainless Steel Storage Tank
So that’s the story so far. More on the progress of our 2007 vintage later.
White wines are made a little differently but that will be a blog topic for next year’s vintage.