Rabbits

I noticed, while in the supermarket the other day, they were selling wild rabbits (meat) for around $20.
Neighbour Gail, up the back, breeds rabbits for meat and sells them at a good price too.
As one who grew up learning about the rabbit scourge and then having to deal with them on the farm, I was quite amazed at this development.
From hated pest to gourmet food?
Rabbit was a common food way back when, both in the country where they were plentiful (actually in plague proportions) and in the cities in the less affluent parts. Rabbitos used to hawk around the streets with them.
But we never had them at home when I was a kid.. My mother would disdainfully say "Depression food!"  and that was that.
Rabbits are not native to Australia.
They were introduced to the country in the 18th century by the first settlers as a food source.
Some were even imported from the UK as wild food for another perennial imported pest, the fox, so the gentlemen of the day could pursue their 'sport' of hunting.
Thomas Austin is credited with releasing 24 wild rabbits at his Barwon Park property near Geelong in Victoria in 1859. This small population exploded to cover Victoria and New South Wales by 1886. By 1900, rabbits had reached the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Rabbits cause millions of dollars of damage to agricultural crops, pastureland and the bushland, reducing regeneration of vulnerable native plant species which encourages erosion and changes the landscape forever.
They actively compete with domestic livestock and can alter pasture composition by selectively grazing on more palatable and nutritious plants. Seven to ten rabbits eat the equivalent of one adult sheep.
Their presence has also led to the demise of many native marsupial species such as the bilby and the bandicoot as their feed sources were consumed by marauding rabbits.
They can also cause structural damage to buildings, fences, roads and railway lines by undermining them with their burrows.
Various control methods are available to landholders which includes shooting, trapping, poisoning, fumigation and warren destruction techniques such as ripping and using explosives.
In 1907 a rabbit proof fence was built in Western Australia in an attempt to contain the rabbits.
There are three fences in Western Australia. The original No. 1 Fence crosses the state from north to south, the No. 2 Fence which is smaller and further west, and the smaller east-west running No. 3 fence. The fences took six years to build. When completed all three fences stretched 3,253 km (2,021 miles) across the state.

Biological controls, such as the rabbit calici virus and myxomatosis, have been released into the population to help keep it in check.
We had a rabbit problem when I first moved onto our property. By law the land owner has to keep the population under control by warren and burrow destruction. The Rural Lands Protection Board had the right to inspect properties and fines were imposed for non compliance.
We were limited to the fumigation method where all but one entrance to burrows were blocked up and a gas pellet put down the remaining one which was then sealed. A lot of hard work that never seemed to have much affect.
Every now and then, myxomatosis would come through the area and pretty much decimate the population but resistance to this virus was building and its affect began to diminish.
Then the CSIRO found that the calici virus might be a solution. In Europe this has a lethal affect on the wild and pet rabbit population and animals need to be vaccinated against it.
Long term tests to ascertain the affect of this virus on native wild life were carried out on a remote island off South Australia. Reports were that it had no affect on local animals but having had biological controls "go wrong" before eg. the cane toad, the government was very conservative in their approach.
But some people would not wait. Mysteriously the virus was released onto the mainland.
The affect was immediate. Rabbits began dying in their millions.
It took around 3 years for the virus to reach us and within a year the rabbits were gone.
The countryside began to change. Native plants thought to be extinct began to reappear.
The rabbit shortage became so acute that the famous Australian felt hat maker, Akrubra, had to start importing rabbit fur from overseas.
While we seldom see a rabbit these days it has become apparent in other parts of the country that resistance to the calici virus is now building and rabbit populations are again on the increase.
Research for a permanent solution continues.

Horse Chores

Neighbour Norma, the valley matriarch, owns a lot of horses.
She is into harness racing ie. trotters/pacers*.
When they are in training they go up north but come home to spell and recuperate on a rotational basis.
They have very special diets and need to be fed twice a day.
Neighbour Bob usually does this job but he has gone to Wellington, New Zealand for a week to take part in pre wedding plans for his youngest daughter's upcoming nuptials. He was there just in time to experience some strong earthquakes that are so common in that country.
We have taken over the responsibility of feeding Norma's and Bob's horses plus Ranni, the farm cat and mouser extraordinaire .
So we up early (for me) for the first feed of the day. A specific mixture of oaten chaff, lucerne (alfalfa) chaff, oats, black sunflower seeds, soya meal plus a mystery powder ingredient is bagged up and then distributed around the horses.
Being thoroughbreds on hard feed they are pretty fired up so you have to watch them a little carefully. And the paddocks are separated by electric fences so you need to be also aware of not getting zapped.
The co driver is a little apprehensive about horses but after a week or so I think she is a little more comfortable dealing with them.

The late afternoon feed is complemented with a leaf of lucerne and cut up apples and carrots (as treats prepared by their owner).
It's funny to watch the horses pick the latter out of the chaff and grain to eat first.
Bob's horses get a similar but not the same mix (his mystery powder is different) but only in the afternoon.
All in all we have eleven equine and one feline mouth to feed.
Norma gives us the race times so more often than not we are able to watch them 'go around' on the racing channel on TV. She has had some good results mixed in with not so good ones.

*A trotter moves its legs forward in diagonal pairs (right front and left hind, then left front and right hind striking the ground simultaneously).
A pacer moves its legs laterally (right front and right hind together, then left front and left hind.
But that doesn't really matter you can still lose your money betting on either gait.

Banksias

I know I probably post about this every winter but Banksias are one of my favorite Australian native flowers and the ones that bloom this time of year are pretty spectacular.
While they obviously grow wild in the bush, they have also been cultivated (and hybridized) for the nursery trade.
This one is in a private garden near 'our' beach and is used as a screening/boundary plant.
This particular variety naturally grows in the sandstone coastal heath environment and is very salt and wind hardy.

The 76 species of Banksias are named after Sir Joseph Banks an English botanist who accompanied Captain James Cook on what turned out a voyage of discovery of the east coast of Australia in 1770.
The voyage of HMS Endeavour from 1768 to 1771 went to South America, Tahiti (for the transit of Venus), New Zealand and Australia.
They made landfall at Botany Bay (just south of where Sydney is today) and at the Endeavour River (now Cooktown) in North Queensland where they spent seven weeks repairing their ship after it was holed when running aground on the Great Barrier Reef.

While they were in Australia, Banks, the Swedish botanist Daniel Solander and the Finnish botanist Dr. Herman Spoering made the first major collection of Australian flora, describing many species new to science.
According to the State Library of South Australia's web site:
"Banks' Florilegium is a monumental work which records the botanical collections made by Sir Joseph Banks and his team of naturalists aboard James Cook's Endeavour , 1768-1770. It includes drawings of plant specimens from South America, the Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia.
The drawings were prepared by Sydney Parkinson during the voyage from specimens collected and preserved. In England, following Parkinson's death, Banks then had the drawings engraved on copper plates for printing. This did not proceed because of the enormous cost involved. The plates were subsequently transferred to the British Museum after Banks' death, and remained unpublished until the early twentieth century, when James Britten arranged to publish a selection. In the Alecto edition, the method used for the colour printing is known as la poupée (rag-doll style). It is meticulous and slow, but produces very distinct colours. Only 100 copies of this edition were published.

It was not until the 1980s that the Museum, in association with the publisher Editions Alecto, decided to renovate the copper printing plates which were still in safe storage and then to print from them, for the first time in colour, the complete set of images. A limited edition of 100 sets, under the title of Banks' Florilegium, would be produced. Over ten years the project came to completion, which is an interesting comparison with the eleven years it took Banks to arrange for the engravings to be completed in the 18th century. This brought to a close what must be one of the most lengthy printing projects ever and was a fitting tribute to the daring and foresight of Banks, Cook and their brave crews"

A Civil War Quilt

As regular readers would know, I am a bit of an American Civil War 'nut'.
So when the co driver asked whether I would like my very own Civil War quilt I had no hesitation in accepting the offer.
Leading up to the Civil War, quilts were made as fund raisers in support of the abolitionist movement. During the war, quilts were made on both sides to raise funds for the war effort and for the comfort of the soldiers.
Due to heavy use and the fact many soldiers were buried in them, very few of this era's quilts have survived to this day.

The co driver used Civil War reproduction fabrics and followed a pattern by Barbara Brackman. While the blocks commemorate the suffragette movement of the early twentieth century there is little doubt many of them would have had Civil War roots.
Having spent many hours waiting inside or sitting outside quilt shops all around the world (not to mention having the house invaded by quilters a number of times a year), I have become au fait with the mechanics of quilting. Talk to me about bolts (never rolls) of fabric, fat quarters, piecing, tops, batting, backs, long arm machines, FMQing or binding any time and you will get an almost informed discussion going.

So when I was asked what sort of backing I wanted I suggested one with Union and Confederate flags would be perfect. The co driver gave me that look which usually means "in your dreams" and referred me to some web sites to look through.
And what do you know? There it was!
So out it came all the way from Kentucky.
So now I am now waiting for the quilt to be pinned basted and then FMQ'd.
I am sure looking forward to wrapping myself up in it to watch a five match Test Cricket series (MCC v Australia) on TV from England late into the night over the next couple of months.

Anzac Biscuits

The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was formed in 1915 during the First World War and operated during the ill fated Battle of Gallipoli in Turkey.
An Anzac biscuit is a sweet biscuit made from rolled oats, flour, desiccated coconut, sugar, butter, baking soda and water. It is claimed that the biscuits were sent  by the families of soldiers serving overseas during the Great War as the ingredients don't spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during the long sea voyages.

The commercial production of the biscuits is strictly controlled by law and must be made according to the original recipe.
Home made are of course the best and the co driver has perfected a recipe she found in the decades old Women's Weekly Cook Book. 
It's hard not to scoff them all down in one sitting.

Ingredients:
1 cup (90g) rolled oats
1 cup (150g) plain (all-purpose) flour
1 cup (220g) firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup (40g) desiccated coconut
125g (4 ounces) butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 tablespoon water
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of (baking) soda

Method:

• Preheat oven to 160°C/325°F. Grease oven trays; line with baking paper.
• Combine oats, sifted flour, sugar and coconut in large bowl. Combine butter, syrup and the water in small saucepan, stir over low heat until smooth; stir in soda. Stir into dry ingredients.
• Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls; place about 5cm (2 inches) apart on trays, flatten slightly. Bake about 20 minutes; cool on trays.

Post 400

Wow, who would have ever 'thunk' it?
This little project started back in May of 2004 mainly as a record of my and the co driver's life on 'the farm' as a way to keep family and friends up to date with our doings.
It seems to have developed a bit of a life of its own.
I have nothing profound for #400 so will use it as a general update.
We have had some pretty awful weather in the last few weeks.
Lots of rain and a few nasty storms.
Our bottom paddocks were flooded when our creek broke its banks.
It is pretty soggy down there at the moment and limits our winter work.
Despite this, Stirls came down for a few days and we managed to fix some fencing and burn off a few tonnes of fallen timber.
Luckily we now have some quite strong drying westerly winds so hopefully it will soon be time to continue the weed spraying program. We are on top of it but it would be nice to get 100% done this year.

We have started pruning the vines to get them ready for next season.
The 2013 wine in the tank is looking good so far. We have done one racking and it is spending it's time on some old French oak.
All the necessary acid adjustments have been made and we are protecting it with minimum additions of sulphur (30ppm) at the appropriate times.
The co-driver is recovering from surgery and is doing well albeit taking things quietly.
I spent a night in Sydney with the daughter at her new abode while the co driver was in hospital up there.
We had a great Indonesian meal at Ubud in Kingsford. The chicken satay and beef rendang were to die for.
This area used to be my stomping ground when I first moved to Sydney from Brisbane in 1968. Things have certainly changed since then.
So now we are enjoying some winter sunshine and getting prepared for our upcoming holiday.

The Usual Winter Storm

Every June, almost without fail, a winter low pressure weather system forms off the coast from us and produces a lot of rain and wind. It’s a kind of winter cyclone (hurricane) that lasts for a few days and usually causes some flooding, minor building damage and electricity outages.
I first experienced this the weekend I moved into the house a few decades ago.
That time we had 500mm (20 inches) of rain in the three days which produced a 50 year flood.
At the time I wondered if I had bought a ‘lemon’. But the house will always be safe on the hill and while our creek, breaking its banks, floods the lower paddocks, it soon drains away. This happens even quicker when the coastal lake our creek runs into is opened to the ocean by the raging surf that always accompanies these storms.

This time we had lots of rain, some wild thunderstorms and plenty of wind.
We woke to the inevitable power outage, which the power company said would be fixed in a few hours.
As time went on we realised we had a continuing ‘brown out’ despite the power being back on. Some of our valley residents were experiencing the same problem. Neighbour Bob and I walked the power line that runs through our property from the main one on the highway to us and our neighbours. We found that it had become tangled in trees. The power company was advised, came quickly and made repairs.
On a sad note, the thunderstorms caused one of Bob’s horses to panic and get caught in a fence.
It was so badly injured he had to put her down. For a man who loves his horses this was very distressing.
We all felt for him.
The downside, for us, out of all this? Our house water pump did not like running on reduced power and threw in the towel after 25+ years of life.
Neighbour Steph is a plumber and will have a new one installed in the morning.

The Welcoming Committee

We went to visit some friends just down the road today.
This was the welcoming committee in their front yard.
They were obviously enjoying the warm sunshine out of the wind on what was, for us, a relatively cold winter's day (10deg C/50 deg F with wind chill)
My stopping to take a picture disturbed them a little and they all stood up.
When driving out, however, the just looked up from their prone positions and didn't move.

There are thousands of kangaroos in the area and they virtually go where they please.
Fences have to be pretty high to keep them out.
Growing vegetables and fruit (and grapes) need special protection. Our all over netting works out quite well.
But you have to be really careful driving the roads at dawn and dusk when they are active. They have no road sense and hitting one can make a mess of your car, not to mention the 'roo.
I know to most, especially visitors, they have the 'aaaawwwww' factor, but for many locals the general reaction is 'gggggrrrrrrrr'.

Making Traditionalists Cringe...Again.

Australia has led the way in replacing cork with screw caps as wine bottle closures.
There was plenty of eye rolling, sneering and outright derision particularly from the 'old world' wine making countries about this development.
But I think it has become clear this may be the way of the future.
Now for the next step.
Crown seals replacing wired corks for sparkling wines (Champagne).
Quelle horreur!
The winery at my old wine school, Charles Sturt University, is producing such a wine.

When you think about it there is no reason not to proceed down this path.
The traditional Champagne production method, méthode champenoise, (or méthode traditionnelle everywhere else but the Champagne Region) involves fermenting the base wine in a bottle under a crown seal.
Only when the bottle has had the sediment removed and the contents topped up is the wired cork inserted.
Why not then just replace the old crown seal with a new one?
The problems of cost and poor quality cork still exists with sparkling wines as it does with still table wines.

The argument that the 'ceremony' of opening of a sparkling wine bottle (always should be a hiss, not a pop) is what is expected and is part of the pleasure is a strong one.
But we had a similar traditionalist argument with the opening of a still wine bottle ie. the pop of the cork when extracted by a corkscrew. You hardly ever hear that around here any more.
Some of Australia's most expensive wine is now under screw cap.
It will be interesting to see how the Charles Sturt experiment progresses.
Pass me the bottle opener!

"Our" Beach in Winter

Dam Tractor!

One of our neighbours. no names/no pack drill, has been a farmer all his life.
He keeps his place immaculate and all his farm work is very precise.
His fences are straight, the posts are all the same height, the wires evenly spaced to the millimeter.
The strainers are a work of art.
Not that he says much, but when he 'inspects' my (and my helper, Stirls) work you can tell by the look on his face he is a little bemused about the 'near enough is good enough' approach.
When he says "is that finished?", when it is, you sort of get the message.
I have learnt a lot of farming things from 'the master' over the years.
This is the latest.
NEVER leave your tractor on a hill unattended with the motor running and the brake not engaged.

The other thing learnt is that screaming "NNNNOOOOOO !!!!" from a distance does not stop a runaway tractor.
No one was hurt in this incident apart from a little bit of pride.
Luckily help was almost immediately on hand for the rescue and it was retrieved with a minimum of fuss.
The local mechanic has been at work and the engine has been stripped down and rebuilt and other moving parts refurbished.
In fact I heard it roar into life yesterday.

Apparently, despite all efforts to keep things quiet, the whole town was soon aware of what had happened.
I think it took over a week before tractor jokes could be openly told.

Dental Implants

My mother always said I didn't look after my teeth well enough and that I would have trouble in my later years.
A series of dentist encounters during my youth put me off the profession for life.
As a result I only ever went when pain was an issue.
This meant, as time went on, lots of fillings, numerous root canals and finally broken teeth and extractions.
It came to a point last year when my dentist said, after the last of my bottom molars was extracted, "you will need a denture or implants to protect what teeth you have left".
He suggested implants; two of them.
Not the cheapest option by far but we did a deal based on my getting them both done at the same time.
So for the last five months we have been going through what is a pretty long and drawn out process.

This is not always the most comfortable experience especially getting the holes drilled into the jaw bone.
But we survived that bit thanks to my dentist's skill, lots of novacaine and 20mg of diazepam.
One of the worst things was being on soft food for almost half a year. I missed my steak, apples, raw carrots, fresh crusty bread and nuts. However the co driver thought up all sorts of new recipes to get us through. Some will even stay on our list.
So last Thursday the crowns were attached to the 'pegs' during another marathon session.
Then it was all over.
We celebrated that evening with a big thick filet mignon and a better than usual bottle of red wine.
The moral of the story?
Always listen to your mother!

Music I Grew Up With

I think I first became aware of music in the early 1950s, probably around the age of six. My mother was a amateur musician (she played the piano by ear) and a great fan of American musicals.
I was taken most Friday nights (and sometimes Saturdays as well) to the cinema and indoctrinated with musical films of the 1940s and 50s and even 30s. They must have been the first feature (remember when cinemas showed a newsreel, a short, previews, some cartoons and a B movie followed by interval and then the main feature?), as I was always asleep during the second.
It is a constant source of amusement for the co driver (and the daughter) that when watching old musicals on TCM or Fox Classics and the like, I know the words of most every song and the order in which they come. Gotta love Jerome Kern, the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, Rogers and Hammerstein (or Hart) and Cole Porter.

The Bee Gees (Click to watch)

In Australia, Hit Parades in the early 1950s were dominated by American artists and the music was generally in the gentler style.
Perry Como, Dina Shore, Bing Crosby, Debbie Reynolds, Nat ‘King” Cole, Patti Page and Tony Bennet, to mention just a few, were household names. Even bands like Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians and Percy Faith had hits.
Then in mid 1955 came a song called ‘Rock Around the Clock’.
And the music scene began to slowly change.
The Australian Hit Parade was still predominantly American artists but the style of music was different. The Platters, Johnnie Ray, Paul Anka and the Everly Brothers were making inroads with more upbeat tunes.
And then along came Elvis Presley.

Olivia Newton John (Click to watch)

In the mid 50s American entrepreneur Lee Gordon started bringing out major acts from the USA like Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley, Little Richard and Chuck Berry as well as the more established traditional stars.
Meanwhile on the ‘home front’ young local musicians became inspired to try their hand at this new form of music.
“Bandstand” (a copy of the American version) started on TV in 1958 only two years after this medium was introduced to the country and was aimed directly at the teenage market. Regulars included Col Joye, Judy Stone, Little Pattie and the soon to be internationally famous Bee Gees and Peter Allen (one half of the Allen Brothers) and a little later Olivia Newton John.

The Allen Brothers (Click to watch)

A year later the national broadcaster, The ABC, began “Six O’Clock Rock” hosted by the ‘wild one’ Johnny O’Keefe. He was a bit of a loose cannon in what turned out to be a sadly short life. While he generally behaved himself  on TV there were no holds barred on stage.
Boy! Those live shows were wild.
Our parents despaired at the behaviour of both performers and audience.
Our generation was going the hell in a handcart.
But we survived.

J. O'K (Click to watch)

Other popular acts of the time included Lonnie Lee and the Leemen, Dig Richards and the R'Jays, Digger Revell and the Denvermen and New Zealand's Johnny Devlin and the Devils.
Lee Gordon used these local acts as supports for his international celebrity concerts and their popularity started to skyrocket.
Soon the locals were more popular than most of the imports.
The first wave of Australian Rock had begun.

Weed Control

Autumn is weed spraying time.
The growth cycle is coming to an end and the leaves are in full flush. This and still active growth are important when using systemic herbicides.
Plants absorb this type of herbicide through their leaves and translocate it through their system to growing points.
When they have stopped growing due to colder temperatures in winter or are stressed by drought or water logging translocation happens at a very slow rate and spraying will most likely be ineffective.
Our two problem pasture weeds here are native tussock and bracken. A distant third is snake vine but it is nowhere near the problem of the other two.
For tussock we spot spray with glyphosate, more commonly known as Roundup. Since Monsanto's patent ran out on their product in 2000, there are a myriad of equivalents on the market, many from China. As a result the price has fallen through the floor.

Glyphosate inhibits an enzyme used by the plant in the synthesis of essential growth components.
It takes around a week for the evidence of  'a kill' to become obvious so it is easy enough to do a second sweep to take care of tussock missed during the first.
For bracken we use metsulfuron-methyl more commonly known as Brush-Off made by DuPont. Again their patent has run out and what used to be a hellishly expensive chemical is readily available from many other suppliers at a quarter of the price it used to be. I guess when I say expensive it's worth noting the application rate is only 10g/100L so a little bit goes a long way.
It is a systemic compound with foliar and soil activity, and it works rapidly after it is taken up by the plant. Its mode of action is by inhibiting cell division in the shoots and roots of the plant.
It is very effective on weeds that include bulbs or tubers. Bracken grows from rhizomes.

The major problem is it takes a long time for 'a kill' to become obvious. The first symptom is the upward curling of leaves about two weeks after application but many weeks before browning off occurs. As a result you have to concentrate on getting good overall coverage the first time around which is not always easy when in a big patch. I have tried dye markers in the spray to show me where I have been but always ended a lovely shade of pink on the face which takes a long time to wear off.

Date Day / Mogo

About forty minutes drive to the south of us is Mogo. It's just past Batemans Bay.
The town was established with the discovery of gold in the 1850s in the Cabbage Tree Creek area and, at its peak in the gold rush days, had several hotels and churches, many shops and a public school.

The boom, however,was short lived and Mogo gradually declined to become a sleepy backwater.
In the 1980s the town became home to a small group of artists and craftspeople, some of whom still operate in town today.
Mogo’s architectural heritage has been maintained with shops and dwellings being built to compliment the surviving miners cottages.

These buildings are now galleries and specialty shops offering traditional and modern art, exotic and unusual artifacts, jewellery, home decor, books, ceramics, collectibles and antiques.
And there are also a few cafes.

The surrounding area is home to the Mogo Zoo, the Eurobodalla Botanic Gardens and the Original Gold Rush Colony
The quality of the shops there have tended to wax and wane over the years so we don't visit very often.
This time however we found a great variety including a kitchenware shop that would compare with any in Sydney or Canberra.
The co driver had had a hankering for some hokey pokey ice cream for some time. She believes the best is available at the Mogo Icecreamery.

Hers, of course, is the smaller one. We enjoyed these sitting in the late autumn sunshine and then looked through some of the shops before heading back to 'the Bay' for some groceries and sewing supplies.
This is a great time of year on the south coast of New South Wales. Warm sunny, virtually windless, days after a cold start in the morning followed by cool evenings.
We have started to have a fire at night.
Winter is just around the corner.

Vintage 2013

What started as a promising year turned out to be a bit of a disappointment.
Without going into a lot of detail, the Pinot Noir never really recovered from the 'battering' it took during the number of extreme high temperature/strong wind days we had during summer.
The resultant raisining of the fruit made it not worthwhile picking.
Despite continuous spraying against botrytis during the entire season, not just at the recommended growth stages, the Semillon succumbed to this fungal disease very quickly after a week of rain just before the potential harvest date.
We decided against picking and sorting through the limited remaining crop.
Makes you wonder what you have to do to keep botrytis out of this variety in this climate.

                  The Tempranillo was light on crop from the start and despite the good quality of fruit on the vines there simply was not enough to make it worth while picking and it had ripened too early to include it into the Cabernet Sauvignon harvest.
The Cabernet Sauvignon was also a little light on crop but of excellent quality.
Surprisingly we had a bush rat 'attack' towards the end of the season which reduced the crop even further but we managed to bait them quickly enough to prevent any major damage.
This is a first for us but other local vineyards have reported similar incidents over the years.
So the Cabernet has been picked and fermented.
Baume was 12.5 deg and pH 3.8.
We are letting it macerate on the skins for a week or so before pressing to extract as much colour and tannins as possible.
Acid adjustment (to pH 3.6), malolactic fermentation, settling, racking, fining and maturation will follow.
It will be a lighter style with just a hint of French oak.

The Trees Think It's Autumn

Living in a country where there are no native deciduous trees the only real indication of autumn is a drop in temperature and humidity......and visually, where people have planted exotics.
So far we have not experienced the typical climatic conditions with it still being shorts and t-shirt weather.
But the exotic trees (and grape vines) obviously know better.
These are a few of the 'indicators' growing around us.

The 'Average' Australian

Results of the 2011 Census have been published and both the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the press have done the usual analysis.
So here is a summary (thanks to the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABS).
• Just over half of the population is female. There have been slightly more women than men in Australia since 1979; the ratio has been pretty constant at around 99 men for every 100 women for several years.
• The average Aussie is 37 years old.
• The average citizen was born in Australia. In fact, 74 per cent of the population was born in Australia, and more than 54 per cent had both their parents born here, too.
• The average citizen only speaks English at home, compared to the one in five who speak another language. The most common languages other than English are Mandarin (1.6 per cent), Italian (1.5 per cent), Arabic (1.4 per cent), Cantonese (1.3 per cent), Greek (1.2 per cent) and Vietnamese (1.1 per cent).
• The average citizen identifies with a Christian religion, most probably Catholic. This has changed a lot over the past 100 years – in 1911, 96 per cent of people considered themselves Christian, but that number has now fallen to 61 per cent.
• Both the average man and woman are in paid employment. Across the sexes, the most common occupation is sales assistant, reflecting the number of casual or part-time staff in the workforce. Other common occupations for men were truck driver, electrician, and retail manager; for women, the list included general clerk, primary school teacher, and office manager.
• Of those who worked in the week before Census night, men worked an average of 41 hours, compared with 32 hours for women. But this was switched when it came to domestic work; the average woman did five hours or more of housework a week, while the average man did less than five hours.
• The average citizen travels by car to work, usually as the driver – and the average family now has two or more cars.
• Just over half of the adult population (54 per cent) is married.
• The average married couple lives in a home with their son and daughter – and the children’s median ages are nine and six. It's most common for families to have two children; in those, 52 per cent have a girl and a boy, 25 per cent have two boys, and 23 per cent have two girls.
• The average family lives in a suburb of a state or territory capital, in a free-standing, three-bedroom home.
• The average family is paying $1800 a month to pay off their mortgage (35 per cent). Just over a third of families (33 per cent) own their homes outright, and 29 per cent are renting.
More details here.