THE wine grape harvest is now in full swing, with the earlier ripening white varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio coming off first.
Although the other whites and reds won’t be too far away.
And I’m delighted to report the quality and yields so far have been very pleasing.
The rough weather a couple of weeks ago created a mountain of work, with the strong winds causing trellises to go down.
After new posts were spread out and hit in, the job of carefully raising the fruit laden trellis to the vertical again was a battle – but the forklift tractor and chain slowly got the job done.
The patches which had gone down were booked in to be harvested only a few days after the damage was done, so some very long days had to be put in to get it all done.
Unfortunately, we have again been seeing 24D spray drift damage to young vines.
This chemical works well to kill weeds – in cereal crops. But it is a chemical which has no place at all in horticultural blocks yet is becoming an annual challenge.
On a topical note, this week’s cut in the interest rate will be handy – and another thing which has suffered a reduction was a Brown Snake, which had been observed looking in the window of the house.
Once he was pinned down with Stanley the shovel, Sam the snake decided to climb up the shovel handle to see what was causing him the duress.
We came to a compromise, following some Ninja-type moves from Sam the snake, and some marginally stronger counter moves from the Stanley the shovel, Sam the snake was successfully relocated!
The pesky starlings were absent in January, but many squadrons have flown in recently, requiring some more – but only partially successful – moving on tactics.
The fruit flies are also high in numbers, so I have a few traps set up which attract the male flies, and numbers are such that they are lined up in a queue to enter the traps.
When the attractant killer in the trap runs out, a small picture of a hot looking female fruit fly and two rocks can be placed in the trap.
Obviously, the male walks in the trap, is dazzled at the sight of the hot fruit fly in the picture, trips over the first rock and hits his head hard on the second one.
Talk to your mates.
