A full vineyard again

We've had a very busy weekend! Having taken delivery of 250+ Chardonnay Vines during the week, it was time to dig all the holes, position the plants, tie in the canes and slip over the protective "socks" to keep the rabbits from destroying the lot! One plant might only take three or four minutes, but multiplied by 250 and you can see that it took the whole weekend and understand that our backs, arms, wrists and hands are a little sore this morning!

Still, the end result looks good. The rows are pretty straight and all we have to do now is hope for a little rain (not too much, though) and wait to see whether they grow! With any luck, 2013/14 might be a good year for Mad Dog Chardonnay!

Garage - Pretty much done

After some slightly odd experiences with concrete pourers and friendly home-invasions from electricians, the garage is up, wired, plumbed and ready to be used, give or take the need for a neater driveway. It will be great to have somewhere to store our bikes, golf clubs, boxes of CDs and the general clutter we seem to amass along with all the equipment, tools, nets, chemicals and fertilisers for the vineyard.

Referring to this building as a shed is probably a little more accurate a description of its usage, certainly as far as we're concerned, but we've equipped it with things like a remote door opener for future owners as much as for my laziness of not wanting to get off the ride-on to open the door!

Below: a timeline of pictures from re-bar to finished building:

Milly's Torment

Our garden is home to all sorts of wildlife from rabbits and parrots to kingfishers, tui's and... California quail. These pretty little birds run around the garden in a flock of up to around a dozen-or-so birds and, because they only really fly when startled, Milly and (to a lesser extent, Ned) get rather excited whenever they go by!

California Quail

RWC2011 England vs Scotland

Far more exciting than vineyards and garages - I went to the Rugby World Cup match between England and Scotland on Saturday. While England's performance maybe didn't grow confidence in their chances of taking home the trophy, if they keep grinding out the wins, a final against the All Blacks could be on the cards! My loyalties will still be with England, but given how passionate this whole country is about the sport, there's a part of me that can't help but hope the All Blacks win!

Ready for the National Anthems

This is a video I took at half-time of a packed (just under 60,000) Eden Park. At this point there were a few more smiles on Scottish faces and a few more scowls on the faces of the English! Worked out well enough in the end, though...

First signs of life

An exciting and somewhat relieving sight this morning: the buds on some of the Syrah vines are starting to burst (so I didn't kill them when I pruned them!). The whole vineyard was sprayed last week and early next week we're off to collect the first load of fertiliser as part of our programme to improve the overall soil quality of the vineyard.

Quite often while working (or just walking) in the vineyard, we'll be accompanied by one (or sometimes a handful) of New Zealand Fantail birds. They're constantly flitting about, in and around the vines and are not the least intimidated by people, often sitting, chirping or hovering just a few feet away and following our every move.

Ned's New Favourite Place

I don't think we're going to have much luck with flowers this year:

Garage - Work Begins

The work on our new garage has begun in the last few days, now that the council has agreed to let us build it (only 5m from our boundary, not 10m as the stated minimum). So, the driveway is being reshaped a little and the ground flattened and made ready for the concrete pad.

If you are of a nervous disposition or your doctor has advised against you witnessing the sight of unfinished building works or exposed rebar, look away now:

From the house

Down the driveway

The garage site