W A T E R

I know it had been a while, but then what is the point of repeating bad news or wishing Merry Christmas when we are flooded with those automatic corporate Happy New Year wishes so automatically sincere like the "personalized" letters starting with: Dear Dr. O.Middlemost P.T.Y.

Well; here is the news: We finally struck water.It took 5 boreholes to find it and it is not a hell of a lot either but tell that a thirsty person in the dry desert. We were trucking water in and asking the guests to please take as little as possible.
I went through 4 diviners and all methods of divining from twigs to wire - falling bottle to magnetic profiling. What can I say the borehole finally producing the water so urgently needed was the combination of twigs and falling bottle. I appreciate all the efforts made by all concerned and especially the patience of Piet the driller who let us have his truck to bring water when we most needed it. Now we can all take a bath as soon as the pump is connected.

water

Second attempt to find water on Oude Wellington. The first borehole was dry, my present borehole is dry and that already in December. All water saving mechanism in place including showering very quickly only. Last option is to drink brandy instead of coffee.
What's new? Sydney, the wine maker left Oude Wellington for greener pastures. He did a good job and helped in very difficult times to keep the production afloat. Meanwhile we beautify the farm and grow more flowers. I keep you posted about our water problem. This morning 6 O'Clock I already drove an old Bedford tanker truck (still have muscle ache from turning the steering wheel) to truck 4500 Litre of water in from my friendly neighbour David Bell. At 2 I will do the next load. Hopefully I can do 3 loads a day to create a bit of a buffer for the next days to come. It is quite scary with that load on the steep uneven roads with gravel that slides and a brake that takes its time to slow down the vehicle.

Borehole

D-day like in Drilling-day. Today the drilling rig arrived to drill for urgently needed water. I can't afford it really, but it is the most crucial task to be tackled. We already have to save water to an extend that we schedule showers and turn off the restaurant water at times and even have the laundry done in town to save water.
So today is the day.

Balu a sad day

Balu my faithful boerbul is no more. -- He like myself have a shared problem being a hip disarticulation which at times can be fine or painful. It was this shared history that made me prolonge his life beyond the moment that others would have have put him down. But as long as he was eating with pleasure I just could not put an end to his life. He is now burried next to Juliet his mother and will remain in mine and many others memory. Fairwell Balu - I hope you will find dog heaven

water

the single most worry on a farm is to run out of water. Well it happened on Wednesday. First we thought the electric surge had destroyed the pump's controlling electric board, then the mechanic declared the pump to be worn out and needed replacement. Fair enough it lasted 13 years in daily use. For all of you who don't know: the main electric 100 KVA transformer had melted down and a power surge of over 900Volt had destroyed 8 air-conditioners, 1 fridge, 1 microwave, 2 computers incl. UPS and some smaller items. So maybe it was a late damage ?? But no, the answer was: yes the pump was worn out but also the borehole dry. So we are drilling for new water this week and hoping the best, as you can sink a fortune into nothing. But the bad news did not end here. The tractor finally gave up all together and I had to replace it. So we are two weeks behind the vineyard work and are hoping the rest of the season to be less costly.

new attempt to blog again

testing the blog site. It was down and difficult to reactivate. But now I have mastered the problems and I will continue writing a blog. I do prefer it over facebook or twitter.
So what happened on Oude Wellington in the past few months? Well, I was in Germany visiting my family, in Thailand to retrace my work at the Cambodian border more than 20 years ago and visited China to sell some wine and brandy.

When I came home all desasters seamed to have waited for me: tractor finally broke down and is not repairable. Our borehole pump packed up and now the borehole is dry all together. The main water line on the farm is broken in two spots as the roots of trees have strangled the pipe line. With no tractor the spraying program is behind schedule and I hope no big harm has been done. The organic blocks look healthy and have started pushing leaves.

I promise to be more regular again now that I have found a way to publish the blog again. I found the attached picture on the net and have to share it with all of you.

New home for "silkies"

Now I know what was missing all along. The sound of a rooster in the morning. Now, here is the difference, we all like the sound of a rooster greeting the morning (something is always wrong with their timing - 4 O'clock is still night in my unshared opinion. But the chickens insists of calling it sunrise), By the way the many peacocks are not much better either.
The trick is to have small "silky" roosters = small voice = longer sleeps. The question remains: Are there miniature peacocks available?
The other picture introduces "sky" our newly born alpaca baby boy.
For all who new her: Margret has left Oude Wellington to pursue her own growing business. We are going to miss her knowledge and input, but wish her the very best of success.

Wellington Wine Festival

The Wellington Wine Harvest Festival was a great success. We saw hundreds of people and despite the heat had good sales. We noticed more real tasters and a general good vibe. The Saturday was busy to our capacity although two major events (K-day and Cape carnival)attracted large amount of people. Today,Monday the Kleinvallei wedding venue opposite us was very busy and the cars parked all along the Bainskloof road. Very impressive for Wellington.

First Methode Cap Classique on Oude Wellington

Our makeshift equipment and tight working space was the environment for the first Oude Wellington Chardonnay brut made in the Methode Cap Classique. We wanted to have at least a few bottles to taste for the harvest festival starting tomorrow.
The day was filled with last minute labeling, decoration etc.

It is the first time I used my still camera to make this short movie and edited it with Windows 7 movie maker. It's quite fun.

Introducing Edith to the team

From today Edith is joining our small team She will be the voice on the phone, the number cruncher and the one to take the bookings for the guest house. She has been in the wine industry before and is familiar with the paper work involved. So from all of us a hearty welcome and as before you can use English, Afrikaans and German when calling or writing, as she is multi talented.