saying goodbye to St. George!!!

we're finished! :) the crew cintured the vines in record time. . .so we leave St. George earlier than planned. . .we're headed to brisbane in the morning. . .then another job hunt begins. . .here are the photos of the day!. . .enjoy. . .

the cut of many cuts. . .it is only 3mm wide. . .it's quite the talent to make a full circle. . .hee hee. . .there have been some "creative" cuts as we call it. . .oops, don't show the boss. . .


these grapes will grow up to 40% larger because of cinturing. . .most of the vines we've cut are for table grapes. .but we did one farm that produces wine grapes. . .they were the worst vines ever!!!!!



here's our multicultural crew after a long day of work. . .although it was a really good production day for everyone. . .the vines were perfect . . we had our highest total that day of over 1200 vines!!! yay for us. .but we weren't anywhere close to "the machine" aka cory who cut over 2000 vines. . yikes!!! he said his magic potion is can of coca cola after every 4 rows. . .who knew. . .we could have just been chugging that down. . .haa haa :)

on the run. . .there were many kangaroos at our last vineyard. . .luckily one never hopped over too close! :)

beautiful sunset at the vineyard. . a welcome vista at the end of our day!!! :)

yes, that's dust on rob's shoulders. . .he gets nice and powdered at the end of the day. . .not to mention sweaty and sometimes muddy. . .some vineyards water the vines while we're cutting. .no consideration to the hard working crew!!!. . .

ok. . .if you want to wreck your back, just do this for 8 hours a day!!!. . .ahhhhhhh our spines will never be the same. . .we both need massages and a visit or two to the chiropractor. . .eek! just under rob's cap is a bit of bark. .that needs to be peeled off then the cut made. . .the hoses are for watering the vines. . .they drip fertilized water to the vines. . .

keep visiting for the next job update!!! :) :) :)

settling in St. George

we're finally done in Emerald! yahoo! we had a good Sabbath last weekend. . .walked to Emerald SDA church. . .there were about 25 people there. . mostly kids. .it was a nice service. . .they invited us to stay for fellowship lunch and who could refuse that offer?. . haa haa. .not us. . we were "adopted" by grandma Jean who drove us home, but not without a tour of Emerald first. . .she was a crazy driver which made it fun . . .

our multicultural crew of 20 (german, aussie, kiwi, japanese, finnish, russian and of course CANADIAN) travelled to St. George Thursday afternoon. . .the last night our boss treated everyone to dinner and drinks. . .as for rob and i we had "soft drinks". . the rest of the crew. . not so soft. . .the boss trusted us with his vehicle keys and we left the party as it was just beginning. . .it was interesting to hear their stories the next morning. . .as some of them didn't even remember what they did. . .and to see the shocked looks on their faces was very entertaining as the stories unfolded. . .cuts and bruises were explained. . .haa haa. . glad we missed out on that part of the evening. . .the next morning at work was quiet. . .only 5 of us showed. . .and the rest slowly staggered in. . .we managed to finish and start our eventful trip to St. George by 1pm. . .lucky rob was assigned to drive the luggage van. . .yay!. . .no A/C, tail lights, dash lights or horm, but our own vehicle was fun! :) then came the action. . . car troubles and more car troubles. . .we finally arrived at around 10pm. . it was only supposed to be a 6 hour trip. . .ahh well. . at least my mechanic came in handy. . .haa haa. . .that's why i carry him arround .. haa haa

here are photos of the week. . . enjoy!!! :)

our caravan home in Emerald. . .it was sufficient! :) :) :)




sunset over the vineyards. . .makes a nice postcard. . :) but especially a nice end to the day!



down a row. . .usually about 100 - 150 vines per row. . .wowee!



sweaty and dirty after a day's work. . makes a nice couple, eh? :)



drive by the oldest train station in queensland state (in Emerald)



dry scenery. . .there's a huge drought crisis in this country. . .



our caravan. . .car trouble #1. . .in the middle of nowhere. . .yikes!


robbie takes over under the hood! :)



car trouble #2



our 5 star cabin in St. George. . .best feature. . .air conditioning! :)

exhausted in emerald

we moved closer to our work site. . .no longer a 50km drive away. . .some have asked about our work. . it's called cinturing. . we cut a ring around the grapevine trunk to encourage more growth in the grapes. . .they are table grapes so the bigger the better. . .the trunks aren't that tall, so we're bent over almost all day. . .we start at sunrise. .take a long lunch break to stay away from the sun and snooze a bit to recouperate. . .and then work again from 4pm to sunset. .about 6pm. . .it's a crazy schedule, but we're getting used to it. .the work is hard as the back is quite sore after . . .but we're getting better at it. . .we might try it for another week. . .anywayze. . .haven't taken pictures at the worksite. .but here are some of our hands after a day of work. . .the boss got the girls gloves. . .we had 3 new girls this week. .so there's 4 of us among the 15 guys. . crazy, eh?. . .there's photos of the knife we use to cut the vines . . .the highlight is that every morning we see kangaroos. . .fun fun. . .as well at the sunrise and sunset. .both very beautiful. . .maybe we'll show you our "home" next week. . enjoy . . .
the small one is mine. . .the other hand is taking the photo. . .below is a close up of rob's hands. . nice, eh? :)

here's the kinfe. . .below is a close up of the tip that does all the cutting. . .you can see why it's best not to cut your fingers! :)

birthday in bundaberg and more. . .

i celebrated my birthday in the town of bundaberg, queensland state. . .i had good company and that made my day! :) . . .we stayed in bundaberg for about a week. . .some sketchy places and some really nice places. . . met some wonderful people - 'aunty' jeanne and the burns family - related to people we know back home! :) it's a small world. . .we went to the bundaberg zoo. . .looked for jobs. . and checked out the Queensland state campmeeting!. . wowee. . that was an experience. . .it was just HUGE!. . .welly. .many things have occured since last post. . .our team of 4 is now 2. . bren and candace went back to lacombe . . so robbie and i took up a job at a vineyard in a town called Emerald. . it's quite the job. . wowee. . .hardest work i've ever done in my life!. . .up at 4:30am. . .lunch break from 12:30pm until 4:30pm. .work again until about 6pm. . .and the work is literally back breaking. . but it sure is an experience. . .we'll see how long we can last at this job! keep praying for us! :) and thanks for those that do :) here are some photos from our latest stops along the way. . .

birthday celebration required frothy drinks on a hot day. . .the owner of the shop even gave me a little cake treat! :)

our first kangaroo :)

this is the praise team. . .ya. . .the youth tent was incredibly HUGE! :) we stayed in a tent with the burns family. . .brother to naomi burns delafield. . .very nice people! :) it was a good weekend! :)

"aunty" jeanne (rob's cousin sheldon's fiancee's aunt as well as daryl hyde's aunt :) took us in and showed us around bundaberg. . .it was nice to have home cooking and canadian/aussie hospitality! :)

cutie koala's at the rockhampton zoo and botanical gardens. . .free entry!!! yippy! :)

(above & below) wiggles the baby wombatt. . .my first one. . .robbie petting it's tummy! :)

a really cool tree at the botanical gardens. . .a banyan tree we think. . .orginated from India. . .until next time. . .hope you enjoyed! :)