Mechanical Pruning

We are going to mechanical prune some of the vines. Chop them roughly, then go through and clean it all up by hand. But unlike when Xanthe and I prune, the blades don't care which canes should kept to be wrapped down to extend the vine along the wire. Does that make sense, probably not. Let me put it another way, as the vineyards is still relatively young, some of the vines don't meet each other along the wire, so each year a strong cane is wrapped down to further extend the vine. The mechanical pruner indiscriminately cuts all the canes. So my current job is to wrap down the canes we want to keep and extend.

The weather has been miserable (why am I not in Sydney?) and I don't think I ate enough (I got a little impatient). Not a good start. And it didn't get better. My hands were continually pinched between the cane and the wire (and it was cold so it hurt so much more), my face was whipped by stubborn canes and was scared I was going to lose an eye, the canes were trimmed in spring and a few have strong sharp points ( I really should wear safety glass, not for acid splashes as I have previously used them, but could you imagine - "how'd you lose the eye?" "well that was a stubborn Cabernet back in 08").

Unfortunately a few canes preferred to leave the vine rather than be wrapped down as I wanted them to. A whole arm of a young vine came off at one point. It was a young vine and a weak arm, but I felt bad none the less. It's not a nice feeling to rip the arm of a living plant. I could hear it scream. No actually I couldn't, but I still felt bad.

So yes life is boring, hence the lack of interesting blog posts. I take my camera with me next time I go outside.