Professional Stripping!

Since my last post was short I will go into a bit more detail. On Tuesday Brian and I worked a full day on the vineyard with the covers. We finished the east block, the west block and the top block. It was a lot of crawling across the rows and through the vines, sitting on wet and muddy grass and snipping away. The plants that are covered are plants that were weak last year or were replants from dead vines the year before. We uncovered them, clipped the dead ones so you can tell they are dead, and clipped the live ones so that only 2 buds are left to be the growth for this season. We are excited to see how much they will grow this year!
On Wednesday we were ready to start our next jobs; however, it is necessary for the pruners to work ahead so we have something to do. The pruners make cuts on the vines based on the spacing of shoots and buds and how strong they are. They leave the parts of the vine that are more vertical and tangled in the guide wires. Then strippers come through and tear those now loose vines from the wires and throw them in the middle of the rows to be mulched. Then the trimmers come through and trim the end shoot so that it has buds spaced about 6 inches apart and so that they are competing with other plants for the sun. Then a wrapper comes around to wrap the end shoots around the wire and secure them with twisty ties. So far this pruning season Tadeu and Marj have been pruning, stripping and trimming each row as they go and Mary, another employee--a Kiwi, does the wrapping. Now that we are here we can do some of that. So we had to wait a day for Marj to make some rows that were just pruned.
So instead of working in the vineyard, Brian and I organized our stuff so that it wasn't in the van or all over Tadeu's room. We put some our gear in a big tub and the clothes we are wearing this season in our big suitcase on top of the tub which sits at the end of our mattresses. At night we spread the mattresses on the floor and in the morning we stack them into one single bed sized pile with the sleeping bags and pillows on top. We put our warm weather clothes, laundry bag, extra shoes and other stuff that we don't need now, like a year's worth of contact lenses and some of our books, in the closet in the shower room.
Bob taught me how to use the ATV and made me drive it around for a while to get the hang of it. It reminded me of my dad turning me loose on his grandparents' farm to learn to drive a stick. I rode up a huge hill in first gear, tried really hard not to go too fast coming back down, then Bob made me drive around again and try shifting gears. I got the hang of it... speeding around through the rows for birdbanging still sounds a little scary but that isn't for another 6 months!
After organizing our stuff we went to town! We are country folk now-- a trip to town is something to write home about! We went to The Warehouse and the grocery store. The Warehouse is the Kiwi version of Walmart. We got matching gum boots-- they are tall rubber boots to wear while working so our freezing feet don't get so wet and thus colder. We got some groceries and then headed out to wait for Bob to pick us up after he filled up all the gas tanks (lots of things run on gas--the stoves, the space heaters, the grill, the water heater, and the generator--and probably more that I don't know about). We were hungry and the parking lot of the grocery store is right next to McDonalds. The smell of french fries was breaking us down as it was lunch time... so we cracked open a box of wheat crackers and headed back into the store for a bar of chocolate. YUM.
When we got back to the vineyard Brian went on a little photoshoot, stay tuned to his blog for a top pictures of the week feature. The pictures are amazing. It almost makes you forget that its hard work and cold weather... the scenery is fantastic.
Brian and I made dinner... which brings me to my latest blog feature: The Kiwi Corner Cooking Show! I will try to write some notes about our delicious meals and how we made them... this one was great! We had potatoes, salmon, bread and fancy butter-- all prepared on the bbq.
Potatoes: We made potato discs, spread them on foil and added diced onion and garlic, rosemary, salt/pepper, drizzled some olive oil (EVOO?!), and some small pats of butter. We folded it in a little pocket and put it on the grill. After 10 or 20 minutes we flipped the pocket over, and after another 20 minutes or so we poked the taters, and they were done and delicious.... meanwhile....
Salmon: We rubbed pepper, paprika, crushed garlic (the kind in a jar), and red chiles (also of the jar variety) into the fish with some olive oil. We wrapped it in a foil pocket and threw it on the grill. It took much longer than we anticipated because the gas was running out of the bbq and had to be completely run out before changed out.... delicious when finished though!.... meanwhile...
Bread and Fancy Butter: Marj and Bob discovered half baked bread rolls. They go in the bbq (because we lack an oven) and in 15 minutes or so (if the gas is in full swing and not being switched out) it comes out moist, crusty and hot (and delicious)! The butter came about after we had some extra garlic and chiles from the fish rub. So we added some butter and some basil and put it on the bbq-- stirred once after it was a little melted-- and then spooned it onto the hot bread rolls at the table. Yummy meal!

While Brian was attending the grill, Tadeu and I talked in the kitchen (which was not as toasty since nothing was being cooked there). He has a wife and 3 kids and is from a city near Rio de Janiero. He was here in NZ a few years ago for one year and is back now. He arrived in April and hopes to stay until January 2009, but he misses his family so he will probably go back and visit sometime. I am so excited that he invited us skiing. He is fun to talk to and has a great laugh-- shoulder shrugging/shaking.

Today we learned how to strip and trim. Brian became the trimming expert--it requires more thinking and deciding-- good practice for him--HA! I felt more suited to stripping. Mom should be proud. There were only about eight rows to trim and strip today so we finished at noon. Marj said they would need a day or two to get far enough ahead that we would have work to do. So we are off for a while. This afternoon we made tuna noodle casserole. After I took my hot shower I started lunch. It was done about the time Brian was done with his shower. Then we took our hot lunch to the deluxe heated container and watched a movie. Bob hooked the laptop in the employees' container to his network so we have access to his millions of movies.

Now Brian is serenading me and I am going to get some photos organized to put up on the web... perhaps even linked to this site. Technology is great. I am learning a lot-- about nature, machines, and the internet... go figure.

Cheers!