Magali and Delphine

After a brief spell with no guests, two French girls - travelling separately - stayed with us for a week. It turns out they're both from just north of Paris.

More Maggie

Friday 18th September was The Big Day when Maggie Beer came to Oranje Tractor for lunch. Our new outdoor area was ready - just in time.

Maggie Beer comes to Oranje Tractor

Maggie Beer, Australia's favourite cook, was our guest of honour at a literary lunch held as part of the City of Albany's "Sprung" Writers Festival in September. Forty lucky people dined on superb food created by Daniel Sharp of Sharp Infusion, based on recipes from Maggie's cookbooks using local, seasonal produce....some of which came from the Oranje Tractor garden - which all of our previous Woofers have been involved in developing. Prior to The Big Day, we held a trial dinner as a celebration for Murray's Birthday....and once again, the lovely Ulla took great pix of the night....and particularly the fantastic food.

More than just a happy snapper!

We were very lucky to have Ulla woof with us at the same time as the Maggie Beer lunch in September. Not only did Ulla get to do a wide variety of tasks, from pruning, to sparkling wine making and gate-making, she was our photographer for the Big Day. Ulla's profession in Germany was/is a photographer. See the next post for some of her pix, and visit our picasa web album for a fab photo record of The Big Day.

Don, the King of woofers

Don Huffer, one of frequent woofers, joined us again in August to help us get prepared for "the big day" AKA the visit of Australia's favourite cook, Maggie Beer in September. Don toiled hard to create many things in the yard, including an enclosure complete with fences & gates for Merlot (and also to separate our home from the cellar door area). Here's one of the fences.

We made sure he ate lots of good tucker and drank an appropriate quantity of our wine. I think he was suitably satisfied. We certainly were with all of his skills, knowledge and help.

Viva La Revolution....or something like that!

On Bastille Day (14 July) our fabulous Frenchies - Remy & Floriane - departed for the crystal clear waters of Esperance. Having spent a whole month with us, pruning and doing a host of other tasks, they felt they'd best move on to see the rest of this great State. Being a wwoof host is such a great learning experience - for us! We learnt some cool things about France and French etiquette, and of course French Food. It is easy to see why they French are so healthy relative to us, the Yanks and the Poms....not only do they enjoy wine with every meal, and finish with a sliver or two of cheese (the mouldier, the better), they consume salad at almost every meal - well, all except breakfast! We're hoping to catch up with Remy & Flo again in Perth soon. They were a delightful couple (as have been all of our French wwoofers - where on earth did the French get the reputation of being rude???) and we miss them already.

Merlot update

Merlot, our new JR puppy, continues to delight us with his bright personality and good behaviour (well, most of the time!). He graduated from puppy pre-school this week, being able to 'sit', 'drop' 'stay' and 'come' on command. Merlot loves bones and balls, but barks like mad at the wheelbarrow and the shovel when they're in action. So far he's not too interested in chasing birds, cars or cows - so that's a good thing. He is a magnet for small children and vice-versa, but he's still learning not to jump up at little tackers. Here's Merlot in his favourite sleeping spot - on the north side, which catches the warming winter sun.

Remy & Flo

Here's Remy & Floriane, from Clemant-Ferrard in central France, hard at work in the vineyard, doing the all-important task of pruning. They came to us looking for paid work, but we were able to convince them to stay with us and wwoof instead. This has been their first wwoofing experience, and probably not their last.

A new Merlot

Life without a Jack Russell is a much quieter life....so quiet, in fact, that no time was spared in finding a replacement for our beloved Savvy. After searching near and far, Pam secretly located an almost identical JR all the way from Tamworth - the capital of country music in Australia. On a trip to Perth, she and her neice Becky (pictured) collected the little fellow from his Qantas flight then transported him by car back home to Albany. He was given the name, Raz (short for Shiraz) by Sammy & Becky (the neices) but renamed Merlot - coz he's soft & smooth!

RIP Bazza

Not long after losing our beloved dog, the oranje tractor driver - AKA Barry Gomm (Murray's dad) also left us, for the great vineyard in the sky. His loss is immense, as not only did he furnish us with the latest jokes, and newspaper clippings of all things he thought relevant to us, but he also provided lots of advice and practical assistance around the farm. Gone, but not forgotten - his generosity and support were a major factor in the establishment of Oranje Tractor Wines. RIP Bazza.