Well, it’s Rosewood Rodeo day! We are pretty excited to check out the local rodeo tonight. Unfortunately we only have a couple more days at Jingellic, on Monday we will leave to make the trek down to Genoa.
We have spent three days this week working at Tumbarumba Wines Estate. Our job has been to lift the wires that the vines grow along to the next hooks up and to trim all of the dead and unwanted branches and leaves off the hard woody stems of the vines. Ben did most of the lifting of the wires, I attempted to do this on the first day but some of them were too high and tough for me to do and so after that I stuck to pruning.
Working in the vineyards isn’t mentally stimulating but it is physical work and the first two days we worked were sunny and hot so this made it harder. Being a bricky, Ben coped with the winery work really well and actually showed the vineyard owner, Garry, up with his speed. I actually didn’t mind working outdoors but it was tiring and my legs are pretty sore from all of the bending and walking. When you’re working in a row of vines, they seem endless until you look up and see only a few more sections in front of you. At the end of each row, you feel satisfied. I have to admit that looking down the row once you have finished does put a little smile on your face. We never thought we’d know or even care about what the difference between an un-pruned and pruned grape vine was but you know what they say… you learn something new everyday.
Garry is a lovely man and working in his vineyards was a good experience. The $800 cash we earned will certainly help us on our way, he also gave us two free cases of wine, which was a nice gesture and a really good reference to help us find more work. We have made friends with a few people here at Jingellic Reserve. There is Alan, the local mechanic, he is camping here with his daughter Abigail at the moment and as Alan enjoys a beer and a chat Ben has been getting along with him well. They have been fishing on the bank with us of an evening and Abi happened to catch a really nice cod the night before last (about 64cm). Ben has caught two nice cod (about 30 – 35cm) in the last few of nights as well. We have also been chatting to Nick, who is the chef in the hotel here. He is a nice guy who also loves a beer, four wheel driving and camping. Country people are different to the ones in the city and the surburbs, they are interested chatting to new people and always say hello or give a friendly nod as you go by. We are getting to know a few locals here and we both like the ‘vibe’ of this place.
We had a day off from the vineyards and went to Bluff Falls. We did a few kilometers of walking there and they were amazing. The falls are wide and lighter than the Paddy’s River Falls that we saw last week. There are a few rock pools you can paddle in and the water is clean and very cold. We took the four wheel drive track to get to Bluff Falls, it was narrow but we bumped our way through the bush fairly well until we ran over a decent sized branch and it punched a hole through the sidestep on the Prado. We heard the noise but didn’t realise that the branch had damaged the car until we attempted to get out and examine a part of the track. When Ben couldn’t open his driver side door, that’s when we realised something was wrong. The side step was pushed far enough up to stop the door from opening. A 50mm hole in the side step, a tyre iron, a bit of DIY panel beating and some tech screws later… and the Prado is ready to go again. Ahhh, the perks of four wheel driving. Sorry, only one photo at the moment, internet reception is not so good here, will upload more soon.
Food & Fiction 
Sounds like things are going well. Working hard and making a living and new friends. .Take care…and lots of love xx
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