pretty much not pretty handy

craggy range's te muna vineyards in martinborough
our neighboring cows seen one foggy morning on the work to craggy range's sh50 facility or "shfifty" as we like to call it now.
craggy range's gimblett gravels vineyards robed in fall colors as seen from the top of the 80000L tanks.

yeah! the last of the fruit has arrived at craggy range! i'm actually going to be starting at 8am from now instead of 7:30am. i know it's only 30 minutes difference, but it makes a big difference when you work long days. i'm feeling pretty good in my cellaring techniques too now...so much so that i definitely feel ready to work my 1st vintage in california!

as for the title of this blog entry...our beloved french intern/roommate, marine, made a comment to the assistant winemaker (matt stafford...aka staf...aka dodgy) about the lids on the 8000L wooden cuves as being "not pretty handy". i know it's not correct english, but it's stuck in my head and we at the kopanga house have started using it ALL the time especially in conjunction with "pretty much" which we've taken from napoleon dynamite. we've also taken to bits from dane cook's retaliation cd. it's great to yell "where's the !@#$ van?!?" and "the van was supposed to be here" when you're really frustrated. "monkey?!?" and "i'm in the closet" has also become our call signs when we're trying to find each other at the winery.

in other news, one day, i woke up and it was fall in new zealand. the greatest thing about it (especially since autumn is my favorite season) is that the fall colors are quite beautiful and totally reminiscent of new england. makes me a little homesick until i read about all the shootings that are occuring back home...tragic and unforgiveable is all i can come up with.

on a more upbeat note, i did find a tiny karcher (i.e. pressure washer) that i think will go wonderfully with the tiny filter i found in germany in 2005. wouldn't it be great to have a tiny winery run by oompa-loompa cellar hands.