Bang to the mouth 4- Leak Seeking Project update

8 Nov: 12 noon. The Rastas are still in the tool shed.

Bang to the mouth 3

They say that timing is everything. On the evening of Thursday 6 November 2008 and the morning of Friday 8 it rained. Jake-n-Sam's crew completed the planting of the 3000 Viognier vines at 5 in the afternoon yesterday and it started raining at 7ish. The vines need 5 litres of water each in the first few days and (yippee) we've just had the equivalent of 10litres in the last 24 hrs - see graph and also http://www.thedawes.net/.


We've been praying for rain for months. The Winter here has been unusually dry, barely 30 litres per square metre per month for the past 4 months. Which is not good. We've spent a smallish fortune putting in a sophisticated irrigation system which depends on the dam at the bottom of the yard being full of - rainwater. This timely downpour is encouraging, as we have still to find where the system is leaking - I buried the pipes some weeks back confidant that there would be no need to ever see them again. Forever an optimist.

Nevertheless, this week has been a success.
Zakrey and I collected the vines on Monday. They slept overnight in some seaweed (Kelp) treated water to condition the roots and at 8 am on Tuesday 4 November Di and I planted the first 10 vines ourselves and then let Sam-n-Jake's planting crew do the remaining 2990. I fretted like a mother hen for an hour or so but could see that everything was under control and that Zakrey and Charles had the post plant watering system sorted and so retired for breakfast with Di, Jake, Al and Val (on their first trip to SA) and later Sam and one of the many Sam-n-Jake offspring and, oh yes Ben the dog.

It took 3 days to plant all the vines - 750 the first day, 1250 the second and the balance yesterday. About 5 of the crew and Zakrey are now tidying the yard and moving some of the bigger stones back in the vine line to act as mulch and storage heaters. It's still raining a little which is frustrating my leak seeking plans.
The next stage is to make sure that 'they' have taken and then cutback and fit grow tubes and then get the cordon wire and anchors fitted. For that I need to get Jamii Hamlin of Ecostake back to show me how to do it. I also need to record how we managed to be using stainless steel posts instead of timber... see later
When I was in paid employment,prior to my retardiment, as my Grandson says, I used to have a worry attack in the early hours - usually when the digital clock said 505; where I would mentally list all the down side things that I had to do on a project or administration of the company. I haven't had any of those moments for a year now.. BUT they've started again with the realisation of the work needed for this wine project.The pre-growing stages - ripping, staking, digging can be extended, delayed, mechanically intervened but once the vines start growing I will have to move at nature's pace. Cornflakes and tea and then leak seeking will begin.
15 mins later:
Zakrey, my Rasta vineyard manager (as he has taken to calling himself!), on seeing me leak seeking in the rain, from the shelter of his tool shed, said
"Hey boss-there's no need to water until Monday, stop worrying, at least the pump in the sky is working, do what I and I are doing - relax." (Rastas use 'I and I' instead of 'We'). I might knit myself one of those red green yellow hat things that Zakrey is so fond of,whilst I wait for the rain to abate.