Creating a New Vineyard from Scratch

Friends of ours have purchased an old dairy farm near the historic town of Milton.
Of the 72ha (180acres), 4ha (10acres) will be initially set aside for grapes. There will be four separate blocks in various parts of the property to take advantage of the best aspect, slope, soil and microclimate for grape growing.
The varieties selected include Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Voignier, Verdelho, Arneis, Cabernet Franc and Gamay.
The first step in developing a vineyard, after site selection, is deciding on row length, spacing, and orientation as well as headland dimensions and positioning of access roads and drainage systems. Then it is a matter of marking out the rows, spraying off the grass cover with a herbicide and cultivating by ripping, discing and rotary hoeing.

Cultivated Rows

This is also the time that the soil can be ameliorated (eg. lime) and nutrients (N, P, K etc.) added according to the results of previous soil tests. Generally a pre-emergent herbicide is incorporated in the prepared soil during the last of these operations. This prevents weeds competing with the new vines for nutrients and moisture.  
Then the end assemblies for the trellises are installed along with the intermediate posts. This involves accurate marking then mechanically driving the posts a minimum of a metre (3ft) into the ground.

"Sharpened" End Posts Ready for Driving

The end assemblies have to take quite a deal of strain once the wires are installed and tightened and the grapevines are growing on them. There are many designs of end assemblies that perform successfully. In our case, wooden end posts of a larger diameter than the intermediate posts have been used and are supported by a strut that is chocked by the first intermediate post in the row.  

Driving the Posts

A properly designed and installed end post reduces the instance of breakage and pull out. CCA treated pine posts have been selected for this vineyard. They are strong as well as being rot and termite resistant. 

Completed End Assemblies

We have become involved with planting. At a row spacing of 2.2m and a vine spacing of 1.2m, this involves a total of approximately 15000 vines for the vineyard. 
The new vines are delivered as one-year-old bare rooted rootlings that have been kept in cold storage to prevent them shooting or banded vines which are already growing in degradable pots. The former have to be removed from cold storage and hydrated for 24 hours before planting while the latter is gradually exposed to their new environment on delivery and kept well watered.
In the vineyard, the position of each individual vine has to be marked ie. at the correct spacing directly under where the cordon wire will eventually be. This is done with a line and a spray can of marking paint. Then a hole is dug at a spade’s width and depth.
The rootling or a banded vine is placed in the hole, covered with soil and firmed down.

Planting

The final step in the process is watering. This will settle the earth around the roots and prevent them from drying out. Each new vine should receive 3-5L. 
We have found that a team of one marker (who becomes a planter/waterer after that job is finished), two diggers, one planter and one waterer can get around 600 vines into the ground in a day.
15000 divided by 600 equals……………….. too much work to contemplate.

Watering

It’s hot work under the blazing summer sun but there is a sense of achievement when at the end of the day you look back along the rows at the “sticks” that will eventually burst into leaf and grow into the walls of green. 
And you get to touch up your suntan as well.

Weeds

A weed is a plant growing where you don’t want it. In many cases, somebody’s weed is another’s botanical specimen.
The recent rain has brought a burst of weed growth on the farm. There are two categories, vineyard row weeds and pasture weeds. You cannot leave them uncontrolled. They need to be dealt with before they seed. As the old saying goes “one years seeds is seven years weeds”.
Vineyard row weeds are a diverse collection of plants that grow easily in the rows as these are kept bare soil most of the growing season and wind blown seeds lodge there in autumn to germinate the following spring. They are easily disposed of spraying with a systemic herbicide like glyphosate (Roundup® or a cheaper generic). Care must be taken not to let any over-spray get to the green parts of the growing vines as this chemical is non specific and will kill or severely retard most anything it settles on. I use an upside down plastic bucket slotted over the spray head to stop drift.
Pasture weeds are usually endemic to the region and are spread by seed, rhizomes or by suckering. The very low grass cover at the end of winter aids germination of the first type.
The main problem in this area is the native poa tussock. It grows into huge clumps that the cattle won’t eat, retards grass growth and eventually will take over a pasture if not controlled. It is also a great harbour for rabbits and their burrows and warrens.

Poa Tussock
I spray each individual tussock with glyphosate using a conical nozzle on the sprayer to limit over-spray. This took considerable time initially, over a year, to reduce the huge numbers over the 10.5ha (25acres). However, since these first treatments killed off the vast majority of the plants, seed production and hence new growth have been considerably reduced. Annual follow up before seeding (early summer) is purely a maintenance task.
Another problem weed germinating from wind blown seed is the thistle. It usually grows in the bare soil that results from tussock treatment. Despite its pretty purple flower, it has very prickly foliage and can grow to over a metre in height. It seeds prolifically and will spread quite rapidly making wide tracts of pasture unproductive. It can be controlled by physically removing it by hoeing or by herbicide spray.

Scotch Thistle
Bracken fern is a native plant that grows in open pasture and under light tree cover. It can be toxic to animals and reduces pasture growth by competing for light, nutrients and moisture. It can also take over large tracts of land. It grows from an extensive network of underground rhizomes. While winter frosts kill old annual growth, new ferns appear in great numbers early in spring. To kill this plant it is necessary to use a bracken specific chemical that is systemic and translocates into the rhizomes.

Bracken Fern
Brushoff® is such a product and has worked well on the farm. It took months of spraying the mature bracken to get control and now annual maintenance is all that is needed.
Blackberries are an imported curse. They spread from seed dropped by birds and from horizontal roots as well as from roots formed on the growing tip of the plant that makes contact with the ground. It really needs to be controlled. Apart from being a legal requirement, it can reduce pasture use and harbour rabbits.

Young Blackberry Bush
Brushoff® is the best product for use against blackberries. But no matter how much you spray, every year new growth appears somewhere on the property. It’s an ongoing battle to control this brute of a plant.
Another problem here is the snake vine, a native ground cover with attractive foliage and large yellow flowers.

Snake Vine
It grows in large clumps, is very prolific and reduces pasture growth. Spraying with glyphosate together with a wetting agent to penetrate the waxy leaves works well. The other alternative is to dig it up and sell it to nurseries. They get $15 a pot for these plants to be used in domestic gardens !!!!!!!!

Snake Vine Infestation
As I said, somebody’s weed…………….

A Trip North

Last week we headed for Sydney to catch up with family to celebrate my birthday.
My daughter had organised a few games of ten-pin bowling at a retro alley where you stepped back in time at least 30 years. Lots of memorabilia and great music.
We had a fun time. It was a laugh a minute. It had been at least 20 years since I had bowled and I managed to score over 100 both games. The others? Well………
We then drove to Norton St. Leichhardt, which is the Italian part of Sydney for a cheap and cheerful meal which turned out to be excellent.
Next morning we headed into the Sydney CBD and did a few bookshops as well as the Dupane photographic exhibition at the Museum of Sydney.
We also caught a movie, “The Anchorman”. Don’t bother, it’s really awful.
After dinner at Wagamammas, a Japanese noodle bar, the ladies headed off for a Dido concert while I settled for another movie. It was an Australian production “A Man’s Got to Know” which turned out to be very funny in a quirky sort of way.
Next morning we set off for the Hunter Valley, about 160km (100mi) north of Sydney to visit some wineries, to do some tasting and to buy some wine to replenish the stock that had greatly diminished over the last few months. The region grows most grape varieties but because of its maritime climate, the most successful are Semillon and Shiraz. It also appears that Verdelho will be a variety that will perform well in this difficult climate.
It was a warm sunny day and surprisingly there were very few people in the area. This allowed the winery staff more time to talk about their wines as well as offer a few specials not normally available.
At Margan Family Wines we bought some of their ’04 Semillon and Verdelho as well as their Saignee Shiraz Rose’. This winery continually produces high quality wines at reasonable prices and the 2004 vintage is no exception.
At Oakvale Wines we bought some older Semillon which had developed nicely in the bottle as well as their most recent Verdelho which in fact may be better than the Margan.
Then it was time for lunch at the Enzo Café at the Pepper Tree Winery complex where I had a great smoked salmon salad and shared a couple of nice glasses of wine. The chicken Caesar salad across the table looked good too. It was a very pleasant hour sitting outside in the sun listening to a “best of” Dixie Chicks album and relaxing before the wine buying frenzy continued.
At Tullochs we bought 3 bottles of their top of the range Hector 1999 Shiraz for special occasions.
Then finally, we ended up at a new winery, Iron Gate Wines. There we bought some of their Semillon as well as a range of their Shiraz. The Reserve Shiraz comes in at a whopping 15.6% alcohol. That will definitely be a non-driving dinner when we open that one.
So all in all it was a successful day. It’s always nice to visit a few new places as well as the tested and true in the Hunter Valley. The fact that I got a call on my mobile phone from the security department of my credit card company while on the way home asking whether I still had possession of my card because the abnormal number of purchases in a day is neither here nor there.
We stayed overnight with a friend in the Gosford area just north of Sydney and tried some of our purchases with a great meal of bar b q’d whole fillet steak, baked potato and salad.
But now it is back to the grind!

Spring Still Dominates, Summer Struggles

The weather is still typical Spring, warm one day, cold the next. And the rain persists. We have had another 50mm (2in) since the last report. It looks as though the area to the south of us which has been in drought for three years is finally getting some relief. They do not get the same high falls as we do being in the shadow of the Snowy Mountains but they have had sufficient to revive the pasture and give some hope to the farmers there who have in most cases sold off all their stock to survive.
Our garden looks good. All the exotic trees are in leaf and the orchard is full of developing apples, plums, peaches, pears, nectarines and nashis. Whether all will survive the usual bird life enslaught, mainly parrots, is another question. We have netted the early ripening peaches in the vain hope we will be allowed to share.
All the native trees are in bloom, especially the bottle brush, grevilleas and the black wattles.

The Biggest Bottlebrush Tree in the World?
The bottlebrush in the backyard is a huge tree. It is a "weeping" variety that continues to get bigger every year. The tree is covered in red brushes and is a haven to parrots, honeyeaters and other birdlife.

Bottlebrush Flower
Most of the grapes continue to do well. I have started a fertilizer program for the new plantings now that the roots have started to grow. Will be giving them a feed of nitogren via urea applications of 2 x 3g each a month until well into next year. Hopefully this will push along the slower varieties.
The infloresences in the cabernet have separated and flowering cannot be too far away. This is the first time you really see evidence of the upcoming grape crop.

Cabernet Sauvignon Inflorescences
There was some excitement in the backyard the other afternoon when quite a large red bellied black snake decided to visit.
While I leave them alone in the bottom paddocks, and it is illegal to kill them, they are not welcome around the house. So a chase with my weapon of choice, a hoe, ensued. But he was quite quick to move and stayed close to the house so it was hard to get a good shot. After some abortive swipes, he managed to hide in some thick bush in the garden....minus a few cm of his tail. Hopefully this encounter will send him looking for greener pastures. The sharpened hoe is now at the ready by the back door for the summer season just in case he or any of his mates return.

A Vineyard Update

All has quietened down weather wise.
There was not a lot of wind damage to the Cabernet Sauvignon and all looks well in that block. We have finally picked up all the cuttings and they are ready for burning. Am waiting for a windless day to spray off the vine rows with herbicide. The recent rain has produced a spate of weed growth.

New Shoots on Cabernet Sauvignon
Most of the Semillon has reached the top of the vineguards. A few are lagging but it’s still early in the season. String has been attached from the fruiting wire to a foliage wire to help guide the growing shoot. It is important at this stage to make sure that this shoot, which will eventually be the trunk of the vine, is straight.

A Semillon Shoot Emerging from a Vineguard
The Tempranillo is not doing so well. Growth is particularly slow. There may need to be replacements made from the spares in the “greentop” nursery where the same variety is doing much better. But maybe I am being impatient and not taking into consideration the transplant shock factor.
So far it appears that the wallaby fence is doing its job as far as that pest is concerned. Finger crossed!

The Wallaby Fence
However the rabbits are not being hindered. Some vines left unprotected after the wind took away the vineguards were eaten overnight. Will eventually have to go hunting for the burrows (they cannot be far away) and apply the necessary gassing treatment.
The Pinot Noir is also slow which is typical. Growing this variety requires a lot of patience.

Flood, Tempest and Fire

It’s been a very eventful week. During the “big wet” we received 137mm (5.5 ins) of drenching rain. The dams filled and so did the creek for the first time in three years. In fact late afternoon Thursday, it broke its banks and flooded across the lower paddock. We had a brief respite on Saturday when the sun shone and the sky was deep blue. But on Saturday night back came the rain until early Monday morning. We received another 25mm (1.0ins). I think we can safely say that the drought has broken on the South Coast. The grass has turned a bright green and is growing furiously. I will not need any more hay this season. So now all the animals are on their own.

Tayah
Although the ground is quite soggy it will only take a week or so for the surface to dry out. I think we have sufficient sub soil moisture now for the growing season.

Murray Grey and Calf
Then today, we experienced extremely high winds from the west, gale force at times.
We lost power at one stage and then, to our horror, we saw smoke billowing from our lower paddock. The wind had brought down power lines and started a bush fire. I called the RFS but someone had already notified them (a passing motorist?) and the bush fire brigade was soon there and had everything under control. It burnt out about 0.5ha. in my and my neighbour’s land and had made its way into the trees by the side of the road. Luckily the wind was blowing away from us and the undergrowth was still quite damp. However if it had jumped the road and gone into the National Park there could have been some serious consequences.
There is quite some damage to the power lines and although the power company was quickly on site I think it will be some time until electricity is restored. This means no water (pump!), no light and no cooking. Guess we will have to go to town for dinner and find some candles to read by.
In the meantime, we have completed the electric fence around the Semillon and Tempranillo vineyard to deter the wallabies. A search of the web found some interesting designs for that type of fencing. Contrary to my thoughts, a fence does not have to be high to keep out wallabies. Research has shown it needs to be multi-stranded with a number of closely spaced low wires complimented with a few wider spaced higher ones. Apparently they graze up to a fence and when confronted with a few thousand volts turn away. No attempt is made then to jump the fence, they prefer to try to get under it. DUH! You learn something every day!
So we constructed a fence with electric tape at 12cm, 18cm, 24cm, 32cm, and 55cm spacings, attached to the trellis end assemblies and some supplementary stakes by over 100 insulators. That’s a lot of hammering! We then connected the energiser and battery and turned the whole thing on. When we attached the tester we were pleased to find 4500-5000 volts flowing through the whole structure. The lower wire may even keep the rabbits out!
Needless to say the strong winds caused havoc with the vine guards. I think once the wind drops it will be an evening of retrieving them from the extremities of the property and reattaching them to the wires.
In the meantime we just have to hope that damage to the new vines as well as to the new shoots on the Cabernet will be minimal.
Work on redecorating the bedroom continues. The ceiling is finished and the woodwork is waiting for a second coat. Then it will be crunch time to see if the selected colour for the walls is what we envisaged!

RAIN and MORE RAIN!

What a great start to the growing season. Another 25mm overnight and it is still raining. Good steady soaking rain, not the damaging torrential downpours.
Luckily I had been able to spray the grapes a few days ago so hopefully they are well enough protected. This type of weather is extremely conducive to fungus development, particularly downy mildew.
With some of the grapevines already to the top of the vineguards, it is time to think about the wallaby proof electrical fence.
Have bought a new energiser and battery which will serve up around 6000 volts. I think it will need a four strand high "hot tape" about 45-60cm apart to keep the little fellas out. As soon as the rain stops this will be a a major project.
Have planted herbs (basil, thyme, parsley, sage) as well as a selection of lettuce in the vege garden. Also planted some rocket seeds.
The redecoration of the main bedroom has begun. The walls have been demoulded. Painting is on hold due to the wet weather so this will allow more time for a thorough preparation.
As I type, the wind has increased in velocity an the rain in intensity.
It looks like a really wet day ahead. The BOM radar indicates a lot more to come. There is already water lying in the bottom paddocks and the dams are filling!!!!!
GREAT!

Brisbane

It was good to get away for the weekend. Brisbane is my home town. Well, sort of. I was born in Melbourne but "escaped" to Queensland at the age of ten.
We caught up with old friends, ate a lot, drank a lot and had a lot of laughs.
I toured around my old haunts of Ascot/Hamilton/Clayfield. A lot of the graceful old Queenslander homes still exist. Sadly some have sold off some of their original huge blocks of land and have been built out by what is now considered to be acceptable modern architecture. Some of these edifices are appalling in their bad taste and demonstration of wealth. The "pile" that has replaced "Mayfield" in Windermere Road is a prime example of how bad things can be. Even Walt Disney could not have designed something so horrific.
The Breakfast Creek Hotel still cooks the best steak in town. The Rivercat into the city along the Brisbane River is one of the great ferry rides in Australia and you can buy some of the freshest and most varied seafood in the world.

The Brisbane River Cat
We will be returning for some house sitting duties in January 2005 so am looking forward to that.
It was raining we we returned to Sydney and has continued for the next 24 hours.
GREAT!

Is Summer Here Already?

Yesterday was the hottest October day on record. It reached 37C (99F) and was accompanied by gusty dry westerly winds.
Needless to say evaporation rates were high and the benefits of the rain a week or so ago would have been somewhat negated if this weather pattern had continued.
Lucklily around 6pm the predicted southerly change came in and the temperature dropped to 19C in an hour. Humidity increased by 200%.
I watered the most susceptible young vines by hand well into the evening.
This morning I checked all the newly planted vines. There was some evidence of scorch but it was minimal. There were no fatalities despite some vineguard damage.
Decided to hand water the entire vineyard which took some hours.
Also reduced some of the stronger Semillon vines to one shoot as growth in the last two weeks had been quite substantial.
These shoots will eventually form the main trunk of the established vine.
None of the Tempranillo are advanced enough yet for this procedure.
Rain was predicted for the following few days so sprayed a combination of sulphur (against powdery mildew) and copper (against downy mildew) on all vines. Both are "preventative" sprays.
Unfortunately some rain has come earlier than expected and it may be that due to the lack of rain fastness of the two chemicals applied (min. 6 hours) efficacy may have been reduced.
As we are travelling to Brisbane tomorrow for the weekend, reapplication may be necessary next week in combination with a "curative" spray.
The established Cabernet continues to demonstrate quite dynamic shoot growth.

Spring Is Here

Our daily routine has been interrupted for 2 or so weeks by overseas visitors.
We did the tour guide and entertainment director thing.
The weather was kind except for 4 days of beautiful soaking rain. They may not have enjoyed it but we certainly did. 125mm built up the sub soil moisture, almost filled the dams and certainly filled the water tanks.
It was amazing to see the country turn green almost over night. Not exactly drought breaking but a positive step forward.
The grapevines, both old and new, responded well with accelerated bud burst and shoot growth.
We took the visitors to many of our beaches and although the water is still quite cool enjoyed a swim and a lie in the Spring sun. Despite the school holidays many of the beaches were basically deserted. This will certainly change as the Christmas holidays approach. It was also great that plenty of wild life showed up to keep the visitors entertained. Lots of parrots and kangaroos. We even came across a red bellied black snake sunning itself by one of the dams.

A Visitor
We fished in the surf off the beach a lot but were not too successful. A few salmon and a couple of small flathead were the only prizes. We also took a deep sea fishing trip about two miles off shore from Batemans Bay. It was a great sunny day with not too big a swell running. Again not a lot of fish were caught. The highlight of the morning was the arrival of a whale and calf, both of which came right up to the side of the boat to have a look at us. They stayed quite a while before continuing their journey south.
We also visited Canberra to see the War Memorial and the Australian National Museum.

Canberra
On their last weekend we visited Sydney where we spent time in the Rocks at the weekend markets as well as few of the old pubs.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge from The Rocks
We then took the ferry to Manly for lunch out of Circular Quay past the famous Opera House.

The Sydney Opera House
So now it's time to get back to work.
The Cabernet needs shoot thinning. The new plantings need to be monitored for shoot growth and eventually the weakest thinned out leaving one to form the trunk.
The cattle are beginning to look better now that there is some grass growth. Their feed continues to be supplemented by hay.

Pinot Noir: The King of Winegrapes

We have started planting the Pinot Noir. There is some budswell and even budburst on some of rootlings so we have to be careful not to knock the emerging shoots off while planting. The soil in this block is quite moist and not as sandy as in the Semillon block. The down side was the number of rock floaters. We came across them in nearly every hole dug so was quite an effort to get them out. Elbow grease and a crow bar do wonders.
Spacing within the row is 1m. This is very close on a high potential site. But I am experimenting with close planting to see if competition between vines will reduce any potentially unwanted vigor.

Pinot Noir Block
Pinot Noir is very sensitive to crop load and any overcropping reduces flavor intensity. So hopefully the vines will be balanced (vegetative growth /fruit load ratio) under this system and the resultant wine will have some typical varietal properties.
This is NOT the climate for Pinot Noir ( too warm!) but it is a challenge to try to grow some of reasonable quality. OK, it's a whim!
Opened a bottle of my 2004 rose' made from Cabernet Sauvignon last night. I was pleasantly surprised. The wine was a vibrant pink with no indication of oxidization and dry, in the Rioja style it was made, but still fruity and with some residual spritz. Will be great with lunch (prawns!) during those upcoming hot summer days.
Pity there is not much of it.
With the pending growth of Tempranillo as well Pinot Noir in 2006 there is some potential to increase rose' production. It's a much maligned and forgotten wine style in Australia which is a shame.

The Vineyard Work Continues

All the Tempranillo is now planted.

The Semillon/Tempranillo Block
But today we have extremely strong westerly winds which are causing some damage to the block.
Vineguards are being ripped from the wires and young shoots are being knocked off the vines. There is absolutely nothing that can be done to prevent this. Luckily I have retained some spare rootlings of both Semillon and Tempranillo in case of such an event. This would mean planting the replacements as "green tops" when the time comes ie. after the threat of strong Spring winds is over. There is some risk of vine mortality using this method but it can generally be done safely with a little care.
Now attention will turn to planting the Pinot Noir. As soon as the winds abate this will get done.
Almost all the Cabernet Sauvignon has been pruned. One row to go.

Pruned Cabernet Sauvignon Block
Have been able to begin to replace some of the cordons that succumbed to the last years of drought. Have also been a little ruthless cutting out old spurs, mainly those that are too high on the cordon and those that cause shoot crowding during the growing season. Hopefully this reduction in bud numbers won't cause a a lot of watershoot production during the season. I also hope that the fruit gets better exposure with resultant better colour and sugar levels. The vines are planted on a high potential site at a 1.5m spacing. Experience has shown that maybe 2.0m would have been better to allow the vines to be better balanced. A radical move would be to grub out every second vine but this is a little too traumatic for me to do after nursing this vineyard along for the last 10 years.

Spur Pruned Cabernet Sauvignon
The 2004 wine needs to be racked one last time and sulphur level adjusted. Then it will be ready for bottling.

In the Vineyard

I pruned a few rows of Cabernet Sauvignon. There is some evidence of "bleeding" so the sap is running but there is no sign of budswell as yet. This allows me to concentrate on the new vineyard block where the Semillon is showing some sign of budswell and the Tempranillo in the seed bed is already in bud burst.
The first job was to eliminate the poor Semillon performers from the previous season and replace them with good "spares" grown in the same block. This poor performance can be blamed almost exlusively on the soil environment where there is inadequate moisture retention. This is due to the soil structure (sandy), the lack of organic matter and the proximity of some large trees which take all available soil water.
Current drought conditions have exacerbated this problem.
The row positions of the bad performers were noted and the poor soil environment will either be ameliorated with the addition of organic compost (1:1) and/or the application of additional water during the growing season.
This transfer of vines took two days to complete but we should now have four good rows of Semillon ready for growing season. The first crop is expected in 2006, albeit a small one.
Despite the hard work it was nice to be in the warm sun under a bright blue sky, sans shirt, for a few hours of the day. Spring is well and truly here. A number of species of wattle trees (acacia sp.) are in full bloom and looking good.
BUT WE NEED RAIN URGENTLY! IT IS SO DRY!
My attention has now turned to planting four rows of Tempranillo. This has to be done urgently before bud burst progresses much further. One down, three to go! A row a day seems to be the limit.
Of concern is evidence of rabbit activity as well as that of wallabies in the vineyard area. We have been free of rabbits for quite some time now due to the calici virus but obviously resistance is building and new warrens are being established. Vineguards will protect the new vine growth from the rabbits but it will soon be time to seek out their habitats and apply the usual poison to keep numbers down. The wallabies are more of a problem. The vineyard will need to be protected by a sophisticated electric fence system. But as they will only be a nuisance once vine growth emerges from the guards, I have time to think about how the fence needs to be configured.
In the meantime, the cattle have started to improve in condition due to the additional hay ration. All have obviously begun to put on some weight and produce additional milk for their calves. Milton continues to be hand fed once a day and is looking fine.

Home

The first thing I noticed as I drove south was how dry the country was.
Drought is still with us on the coast. This is the third year in a row.
The bad situation was confirmed as I drove in through the front gate of the property.
Apart from the brown grass, my top dam was bone dry and both bottom dams were less than half full.
Luckily my house tanks are almost full from the little bit of rain that has fallen in the last 3 months. My visitors did a good job of water conservation during their house sitting duties.
I have had an increase in my cattle population while I was away.
Four new calves, two bulls and two heifers.
Unfortunately one of the cows had died shortly afer giving birth. It is a bit sad as she was one of my orginal breeders but guess she was getting on and may have been in bad condition due to the poor weather conditions and a lack of good feed. This is the first fatality I have had in 12 years of breeding so guess that is not too bad a record.
Her calf is fine but has to be hand fed. Thankfully my neighbor was a dairy farmer in a past life and knew exactly how to handle the situation.
I have now taken over the feeding with 4L of warm (he doesn't like it cold) milk formula a day. He is also eating hay so is loooking quite healthy. He goes by the name of Milton.
The cows are being "dragged down" by their calves and were looking a bit poor. My neighbor had been rationing the hay due to a shortage of feed in the district generally but increasing the portion as winter went on. I ordered another 10 bales despite the high price and have decided to feed them twice a day in order to get them in better condition so they can look after their offsprings better. Hopefully with a bit of rain the pasture will start to grow again and reduce the dependance on "imported" feed. But the weather forecast is not encouraging. Dry and warm is the prognosis.
The grapevines all looked fine. Of course they have been dormant during winter.
I need to prune the Cabernet Sauvignon soon as well as replant some Semillon. I also have to plant out the Tempranillo from the seed bed. Then there is the Pinot Noir!
The weather is warm and this with bring on bud burst prematurely so need to do these tasks urgently. In fact this has been the second warmest winter on record.
So I am fighting jet lag and trying to get chores done.
Life wasn't meant to be easy!

The Trip Home

The night before departure I found out that my early morning flight had been delayed by over 2 hours. This would make local connections very tight and I didn't want to miss my flight home out of Los Angeles (LAX). If I did, it would mean a 24 hour wait for another.
So United Airlines changed some bookings and I felt confident that if I could get my baggage checked through to Sydney I would have a good chance of maintaining my schedule.
I turned up to Minneapolis Airport early next morning to check in and make sure the baggage situation could be settled. Sure enough my bags were booked through to Sydney, one of the advantages of flying with Star Alliance members. The reason for the delay was that the plane had arrived late the previous evening due to bad weather in the Chicago area. As the same crew was rostered for the next morning, rest period regulations prevented an on time departure. We boarded the plane on time but then just sat there. The captain had decided we hadn't enough fuel and was topping up. This delay caused us to miss our "spot" so we sat in a queue of planes waiting for take off. Another hour's delay!!!!!!!!
As a result, our arrival in Denver was very late and, yes, I had missed my revised connection. In fact "my" plane was pulling out as we were pulling in. A quick trip to a service agent got me another boarding pass for the next LAX flight which was leaving in 10 minutes. So it was quite a rush from one end of Denver's terminal 2 to the other but I made it. Once in LAX, I had an hour to make my international flight. It was another rush from United's terminal 7 to Tom Bradley International, over a mile. Luckily I got there in time and fought through the scrum that is the TBI to get checked in. Eventually I settled into my seat for the 12 hour flight to Seoul, hot, sweaty, stressed and thinking I was too old for all this. But I quickly fell asleep and later enjoyed a few good movies and some nice food.
I spent a few quiet hours at the wonderful Seoul airport relaxing in the Asiana lounge before another 12 hours to Sydney. Asiana Airlines is great to fly with. They have excellent service both on the ground and in the air and despite the extra time it takes to get to/from the USA via Seoul it is worth it. And you rack up extra flyer points as well.
In Sydney I was surprised to see my bags come out of the shute as soon as the belt started. Considering the very short transit times I had experienced en route, I was amazed my baggage even arrived in Sydney on the same flight.
So that was that!
HOME!
Well, almost. I still had a 3 hour drive to get to the farm.

The Last Few Days in the USA

The last week was quieter than normal. I guess the Olympic Games took up a fair bit of time. We have had good coverage here via seven tv channels of which we get four via cable. A lot of the minor sports are shown live but the vast majority is packaged and shown delayed at prime time from 7-11pm. As expected they concentrate on American performances but if an Aussie is in the same heat you obviously get to see them. They show all finals whether Americans are in them or not.
On Saturday we went to a Vietnamese wedding. The father of the bride was a boat person all those years ago. He was interesting to talk to. There were about 180 people there. It was a combination of western and Vietnamese traditions and was a very pleasant evening. The food was great, basically Chinese, with a lot of seafood. The curried lobster was terrific. I will never know how you get the meat out of the shell with chopsticks so reverted to a fork. American wedding cakes are never
fruit cakes. This one was a strawberry and cream sponge even though it looked like "the real thing".
On Sunday we went on our Mississippi River cruise. Unfortunately we didn't get to go through the upper locks to St. Anthony Falls due to traffic restrictions but instead headed down river. There was not a lot to see except a few bridges, tree lined banks and the odd sandy "beach" with a few sunbakers. No one was swimming. I think the coliform count would be quite high. But the boat was really luxurious, it was a great sunny day and they served an ok brunch buffet.
So now it's time to think about coming home. All my flights have been confirmed and it will be an early 4 am start
for me on Thursday. Then it's 33 hours of travel with four connecting flights home via Seoul.
With all the cooking utensils packed up it's great excuse to eat out for the rest of the week. So we are going back to "THE" steak restaurant as well as some other favorites.
It's been an interesting 3 months living like a resident rather than a tourist. Life here is not too much different to that at home. Sure, some attitudes and cultural things differ but in the end Australians and Americans are very much alike, in the mid west, anyway.
There will be things I will miss and those I won't.
To close this adventure, here is a list of those things in no particular order.
MISS: decent roads
            lots of clean toilets
            great medium priced restaurants
            Caribou coffee
            great customer service
            obscene desserts*
            the city grid system
            decent public transport
            being allowed to turn right after stopping at red traffic lights
            cheap gas....ooooops, petrol
            pancake sandwiches
             Byerlies supermarket
             cheap cherries
             Culvers frozen custard (chocolate)
             wild salmon
             great mex

WON"T MISS: upside down light switches
                      power plugs with no switches
                      driving on the right hand side
                      being allowed to do u turns at traffic lights
                      the search for the closest parking place.
                      obscene desserts*
                      Fox News
                      reality tv
                      the arby glove (little turd!)
                      not being understood
                       "hanging on" to your knives and forks in some restaurants
                       24 hour parking meters
                       the indeterminate number of salad dressing choices
                       tipping
                       Bush and Kerry television advertisements

Talk to you next from home!

More Doings in Minnesota

Last weekend we went downriver to Red Wing for a bit of a family gathering. It turned out not to be the cutsie village we first thought. Red Wing is quite a big town with a lot of industrialisation along the river bank. We stayed in an old Victorian house in a nice "burb". Downtown was was ok too with lots of shops and places to eat. They were having a river festival so there were lots of things going on and the place was full of people.
The "girls" went shopping on Saturday while the "boys" did a bit of a bar crawl around the small towns surrounding the area. It was great to finally see some hills being in the Mississippi Valley. The rest of southern Minnesota is SO flat. This meant the corn and bean fields were in a minority while cattle and horses predominated. I saw some really nice wooded areas and small farms on the backroads. We also went to a car show on the river bank. There were nice old cars from 60's and 70's in addition to the really old ones. Rain set in for the day so we went to the movies, Tom Cruise in "Collateral". DON'T BOTHER! It started ok but got really silly and lots of violence too.
We went to a store (it's a chain) that sells uncooked pizzas. Just like Pizza Hut you get to order what combination you want but they give it to you "raw" so you can cook it at home. I have never seen these at home but it is a good idea. Then we played poker until 1am! There were not a lot of hands played. It was more drinking and laughing. Needless to say I only brought home 4 of the dozen bottles of wine I took.
The next morning, after pancakes, bacon and eggs we crossed over into Wisconsin and came home up the Mississippi Valley to MSP via Hudson where we stopped for Caribou coffee....the best in the world!!! This chain puts Starbucks to shame. Pity they are so localised but I am bringing some of their beans home. They make great blueberry muffins too.
During the week we went to see a surf movie. "Riding Giants" was great. Awesome tow in waves at the end. There was a history of surfing as well with some great grainy old film which brought back the good ol' days together with some funny stuff.
We followed up this with dinner at an Italian restaurant, Campiello, which we had come across during our last visit to uptown. It was great too. I had roasted mussels for appetiser, not entree, and spit roasted chicken and spinach rissoto as entree, not main (you gotta get these expressions right or else) washed down with a very expensive bottle of chianti which was really wonderful. No room for sweets, even though the Coldstone Icecreamery is virtually next door.
Later that week I went back to the science museum in St.Paul specifically to see the Lewis and Clark movie on the surround screen.
It was a great day, sunny and cool, just like our winter. In fact this has been the coldest August on record in Minnesota! It was great to walk around this nice city. The outside cafes were doing a roaring trade at lunch time.
I got to the museum early so decided to "do" the exhibits. Am glad I did. The upper Mississippi exhibit was interesting as were the dinosauers. They had a heap of hands on things in the biology and weather rooms but it's school holidays and the place was packed with kids.
In biology they had a complete slice of a man and a women, the real thing incased in huge glass or plastic slides, head to foot, mid region. After you got over the initial shock they were fascinating to look at.
The movie was great with spectacular scenery from a helicopter which fitted the medium so well. I had read their actual diaries last year so it was nice to see an abridged pictorial version. They sure did it tough for the two and half years they were on the move up the Missouri, over the Rockies to the Pacific and back again. At one stage they were down to eating tree bark and candles. They only lost one expedition member (ruptured appendix) and 2 native Americans (self defence) were killed. They did so much good scientific work and surveying as well as building relations with the Indians. It is a pity it turned out to be the beginning of the end for native Americans, not that that was any fault of Lewis or Clark. It's a great story, like Charles Sturt or Bourke and Wills et al. The adventure is well worth reading about. I think SBS ran a doco a few years ago. It was made by Ken Burns who made the Civil War series. Ihave tried to buy the dvd but it's not available for our region.
I caught the express bus home. It runs down the interstate using the breakdown lane to avoid the slow traffic that always exists between the twin cities. The driver was a black female michael schumacher clone. Formula 1 in a rattly old bus was an experience.
This Saturday we went shopping and then headed for Hudson and a night out.We went to a new wine bar in town. It was very trendy with a good selection! Then to a Carribean influenced restaurant where I again had spicy fish. After dinner it was out into the sticks to the Willow Creek saloon, a country bar where everyone knew one another or maybe they were all related. The band played the theme from "Deliverance" which I thought was appropriate. We drank beer and people watched and didn't get to bed until well after 1am. We got up early next morning and we went out onto our host's boat from a trip down the St. Croix River after grabbing take out coffee at Caribou. It's a tributary of the Mississsippi and joins up with her 10 miles down stream. The river is very wide at Hudson, at least 500m, but can be shallow in some spots, 1m, due to shifting sand bars.The scenery is lovely with very green forests coming right down to the banks where there are lots of sandy beaches. There are also amazing houses but they are well hidden among the trees. We saw deer and eagles and where in the hell did the seagulls come from????????
While we were out there, Steve got a call on his cell from his son in Baghdad. Talk about the wonderful world of communications. Here we were sitting in peace and quiet on a cool summer morning while he was in a 130 deg F hell hole with the possibility of getting shot at. I think the river would get very busy later on in the day as there were hundreds of boats moored everywhere. The river freezes over in winter and all those boats have to be lifted at the beginning of October. Then it was back to our hosts' home for brunch. I sat on the deck and watched the squirrels and chipmunks feeding on seed they had left. We had biscuits (scones) and gravy which is not at all as bad as it sounds, bacon, pancakes and juice. All great!
Then home to watch the Olympics and to start some cleaning up and organization for our imminent departure in just under two weeks.

The Eatathon Continues

This report is going to sound like a restaurant review. Seems we did a lot of eating out over the last few weeks.
We went to another Fuddruckers hamburger "palace" but unfortunately this franchisee didn't have his act together or was just having a bad day. Nothing was good about this visit. We wont be going back, to this branch of Fuddruckers anyway.
We had found a part of town during one of our "where the hell are we" excursions when we tried to take a short cut home. Called Uptown it is near the city centre and has heaps of restaurants and bars. So we went back to do mex and indulge in another Coldstone Icecreamery experience. Walking around we found a Carribean restaurant so mex got the chop for that night. What a great place! Chilli crab cakes followed up by fish with herbs, ginger and some sort of curry rice all baked in a banana leaf in a wood fired oven and washed down with, dare i say it, chardonnay!
I just managed to fit in the ice cream later ie. a medium serve of dark chocolate mixed in with chocolate brownies, chocolate chips and chocolate fudge!!!!! Wonder why i had trouble sleeping that night?
The next night we went to a German restaurant. The Gasthof zur Gemuetlichkeit has quite a reputation in Minneapolis. It is the centre of Oktoberfest celebrations in Minnesota. The place is large but was nice, just like a proper German pub. The beer was great. Warsteiner was so fresh! We shared a 2L boot.The atmosphere was Disneyland Deutschland with a lot of pseudo Bavarian bravado. I could have killed the accordian player by the end of the evening. You can hear "Roll Out the Barrel" just so many times. The food bore little resemblance to the real thing but was passable. The main thing was we had a lot of fun.
The culinary highlight of the week and maybe the trip, so far, had to be dinner at a well known Minneapolis steakhouse.
It was fantastic.
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse is part of a huge chain of American steakhouses. Great steak! No, absolutely wonderful steak with all the fixin's and not too bad a Cabernet to go with it. The cheesecake was to die for, not to mention the chocolate cake that I managed to have a few bites of. Servings as usual were huge. They have 40oz t bone! I had the large filet which was 12 oz and 3 inches thick and cooked to perfection.
We think we might go there again for our "farewell" dinner.
This weekend we left for Sioux Falls on Saturday morning but not too early this time. We had a good run or maybe the trip seems shorter now after doing it a few times.
We did butter burgers and frozen chocolate custard at Culvers for lunch and then headed for Trent. From there we went out to dinner with some friends to a Chinese BBQ. You select all sorts of self serve meats, seafood, noodles, vegetables and sauces which they cook on a huge hot plate. It was really nice although I overdid the chilli a bit. My use of chopsticks seemed to be a novelty for the table. Then we went back to their place for more of a chat while we watched the storms roll on by. It was really loud and lightning was everywhere. There were tornado warnings but nothing happened, so we made a run for it inbetween the downpours.
I have mentioned before going into decision crises brought on by the list of specials and salad dressings at restaurants etc., not to mention the vast selection of goods at supermarkets. You would have thought you would be safe at a car wash.
Not so!
We got confronted by the attendant with a long list of wash options not to mention an equally long list of the car deodorants available, from cinnamon to vanilla. The latter broke me up.
That night around 2am more storms hit Trent. It was like being in a war. Great claps of thunder and continuous lightning with lots of wind. Hardly any rain though. We had to get up and turn on the TV to check out the tornado alerts but there was nothing. There were a heap of branches down next morning.
On Monday we drove back to Minneapolis, stopping at a huge sporting goods and clothes store, Cabelas, on the way. I bought some new pants and a few shirts. For some reason my current wardrobe doesn't seem to fit as well as it did in Australia. Must be the laundry detergent here.
Other than the above, the main action here has been the Democratic Party Convention and the nomination of John Kerry as presidential candidate. The event was given wall to wall media coverage. Hopefully our election campaigns never get to this level of hoopla but I have a feeling we are already heading that way. However I did like delegates' orchestrated hysteria not to mention the balloon and confetti finale. There seems to be an unhealthy concentration on the personality and background of the candidates and their wives rather than on the policies but guess we are into that as well these days. No one is willing to call the result in November with it split right down the middle. I noticed there was no heckling at the public meetings of either Bush or Kerry. Apparently it is not the done thing, being a manners' issue. You can degrade, defame and humiliate politicians in the media, impeach them on trumped up charges and even assassinate them, just don't yell at them at public meetings.
We went to the local wine shop's wine sale. The place was a madhouse. Cart, sorry, trolley rage was just bubbling below the surface. Who says wine is not popular in the USA? Lots of bargains.....but not enough time to drink them all. I bought Australian Rieslings (CHEAP!), Kiwi Sauvignon Blancs, some generic Bordeaux and some Loire Valley wines, Pouilly Fume and Sancerre. The latter are completely different to the New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs and not to my taste. I must be a French wine philistine!
Another thing I have found to be different here is the postal service. Post office shops are in supermarkets and are open 8am - 9pm every day. There are even mail deliveries on Saturday!!!! You can leave your stamped mail in your mail box to be picked up rather than making a trip to the post office (so that's what that little flag on the post boxes is for).
I also found out that health insurance can cost up to $US9000 a year, so no more whinges about Medibank or MBF!!!!!