Thanksgiving

I know, I know, I've been slack.  Still some days doing something creative takes the back seat to practicalities.

Abu the Roo's girls have taken to sleeping on top of the nesting box roof, which is NOT a good thing. Every day the plywood roof is covered with chook poo - great for the compost heap but hell on the plywood.  I've tried wedging the roof up on a steeper angle but that hasn't stopped them camping out there at night.  No idea what to try next so I may have to try the old Google solution, unless anyone has any bright ideas?

Anyway, now that's off my chest, back to last weekend's highlight - Thanksgiving.  I've heard of long lunches where heaps of people gather around an extra long table, but Saturday's long Thanksgiving lunch started at 2pm and ended about 1.30am Sunday.

It was an international gathering of Americans, a Canadian, an Australian and heaps of kiwis.  We ate sweet potato pie with marshmallow topping, a gi-normous turkey, divine stuffing and all the rest of the traditional Thanksgiving treats, including two types of pumpkin pie.  My contribution was a lemon meringue pie for dessert, featuring lemons from our lemon tree and meringue topping compliments of Apple's freshly laid eggs. It was an all together superbly wonderful feast.  The problem was the wine.

You see we were at The Winemaker's place.  And three of the guests were also winemakers. And when these people pull out the wine, it's never one bottle at a time. At one stage I counted eight opened bottles, and that was relatively early in the proceedings. Unusually for me, things got to a point where I actually asked for water to drink.  That was a bit of a conversation stopper.

Looking back, it was the conversation that made the meal so special.  Amazing stories of being stopped at international borders, wicked tales of vintages past, and lots of those teasing comments you only get when people have known each other for years.  By the wee small hours of Sunday morning, we'd made plans to change the world.

Hell, here I am by the light of day and I can't figure out how to stop the chicks pooping on the nesting box. And did I mention that Figgy the flighty bantam has gone AWOL?  Haven't seen her for two days.  Finding her will be tomorrow's mission.
 
What I've learnt today:
1. I learnt how to change the jets on the Greentech vineyard sprayer this afternoon. Not nearly as exciting as getting to grips with the fence strainer, but another skill for my CV maybe??
2. Due to the astonishingly hot weather we've been experiencing, the grape vines in The Vineyard are approximately two weeks ahead of where they normally are at this time of year. Fingers crossed the resulting wines will be equally as astonishing.