Interesting Instructions

Hello again everyone.

So, Eileen asked what exactly I was doing in my vineyard work. It's a newly-planted vineyard, so we had to put up boxes to train the vines into growing up toward the trellis wires, not spread out on the ground like a bush. The vines are in rows of 200, and each worker worked alone on one row. We needed to do three things: "single" the vine, which meant to pluck off all but one shoot, the one that was growing the straightest upward; we had to assemble the training boxes, which were thick plastic sheets with little tabs that you folded over in an interlocking pattern; then we had to put the boxes on the vines and staple the top around the trellis wire. At first it wasn't too difficult, because there was no wind. You could assemble a bunch of boxes, lay them out at the foot of the vines and go from each one, singling and stapling. Then the wind picked up, which blows the boxes all over the vineyard and you have to chase them. So work slowed considerably as I went from vine to vine, assembling, singling, stapling at each one.

An assembly line, where some workers went down the rows and singled the vines, other workers assembled boxes and other workers placed and stapled the boxes would have been far quicker. At least I think it would be, anyway. Assembly lines seem to be designed to be efficient.

Also, they had a safety overview before we started working. It was a lot to take in all at once. They told us things I never would have thought about if they hadn't warned us to be careful about it. Like, for example, "always wear shoes in the vineyard" and "wash your hands before eating." Are these really things they have to tell people? WTF?!?

Today I'm going to rent some movies and get a pedicure. Excitement abounds in New Zealand, doesn't it?

Cheers,
Mare :)