What birth mark?!

this is after washing my hands :/ oh dear!

Tomato city!

We have a shit load of tomatoes in the back yard!! They are delicious! 

(shout out to the Mexicans who planted and tended to them over the summer)

 This is Okanagan Falls... It is about 5 minutes drive down a steep and windy hill from home... 

 there's not a whole lot there but it is a very sweet little town.

Deer have big ears!! Who knew it?! Not me! 

 They just cruise on by and say hello in the evening.

 I'm yet to see a Bear, although we were warned to keep our doors shut at 

night. (people think Australia is gnarly!)

This week we were thrown right into deep end of work... 

So far, so good... although not surprisingly my body is already hating me- where's a massage therapist when you need one?!

  

After a weeks worth of safety training we are in the cellar. I spent half my day today in the barrel room, which I quite like.

 And the view from the top is also pretty cool :)

This winery is quite a bit bigger than the one in Nagambie. 

They have around a hundred tanks to get lost in...

All in all, a pretty cool introduction to work. Yes, my body hurts already, the pay is shit and its about to get fucking cold (-10 in the cellar deserves a swear word!)

But I am a happy chappy :)

A bit of calm before the crazy...

 Can't believe I've been in Canada for two weeks already... 

After leaving Whistler I ended up in the middle of no where just outside of Lumby. In this 'no where' lives Mark... he and his brother in law work on the property cutting/shaping bits of wood that are then sent off to be made into guitars.

They also have a crazy big collection of old cars... just sitting around rusting!

 This is the view from my new home :) (for the next four months any way!) 

I am in a house across the road from a winery called See Ya Later Ranch, which is also owned by the company I will be working for. I am at a winery about 10 mins drive down the road. 

Still waiting for the bears and cougars in the area to pop out of the forest...

I have heard Ice Hokey is pretty good night out so went to check out a local game in Penticton. I never realised Ice-hokey is so brutal!

Fun fact.... Purple Popcorn :)

First week down...

 The first week of my Canada adventures has flown by! 

Managed to get a car... and named her Roxanne :) She is a Chevy Blaser and runs like a dream

I stopped in Chilliwack for a night and visited some of Al's mates who had a Harley :D 

We took a ride and I have to say, it was even better than I imagined....

 

 some rode a much less cool bike... 

 The next day I met up with Summerly, Marcus and the kids who were holidaying in Vancouver from London. It was very random, but SO nice to see them :) I can't believe how big the kids are now

 Then went for a stiff drink :p (yes, thats bacon!)

 Stopped to check out a lake... can't remember the name! 

 Happy days :)

Canada eh!

Off on another adventure... leaving home sweet home in Moe

 for the colder climate of Canada! 

After finding a car I will be doing a bit of exploring and then shooting over to Oliver to work on another winery. Updates to follow :)

A wee bit of room renovations...

After attempting to get a job, getting very disheartened and pretty much giving up, I decided that stressing about it wasn't worth my worry. So I decided to throw myself into other things. 

Like finally getting rid of the orange walls in my bedroom at Dad's house. It has been this way for many many years... it was definitely time for a change! 

            I started with the wardrobes, painting them white and then took a bit of a risk and painted the walls dark brown. I'm pretty happy with the result.

                                           Dad even popped in to lend a hand

TA-DA!

Still here!

I have been waiting on some photos off a mate who also did vintage at Tahbilk but he is being lazy and hasn’t had a chance to send them so I might have to post them later. 

The last few weeks of work slowed down a bit and we went from 12 hour days to 10 hour days, which doesn’t sound like much but boy does it make a difference!

More time for drinking… 

which always leads to someone passing out in the boat?!

  and funny moustaches

 I have to say, although the work was so new for me I really enjoyed myself and was very lucky to able to work at such an amazing winery.

Here are a few snaps I took in the last week of work…. 

Guilia got the chance to make her own wine… although just a small amount, she was very happy

 

-->and when it came time to pressing it out Laura and I were happy to lend a hand

After a few days of begging Steven (our superviser) to let me dig, I finally got involved and a group of us dug out four vats of grapes... two woods and two in ground concrete ones. By the end of the day I was absolutely exhausted, but went home with a nice helping of wine 

otherwise, there was lots of cleaning to do!If the pump doesn’t work… get in there yourself! 

(I’m sure my butt doesn’t normally look that big?!) 

 and plenty of antics to finish up a hectic 10 weeks... 

all in all.... certainly an experience!