Thursday, July 15, 2004
Bold New Career Move
Last week on Thursday we finished picking the last few puny trees worth of olives. The entire last section was pitiful and we often handpicked the olives off of little trees. The trees had a plan though, they grew just a few but they were the size of small plums! I admit, it was fun to pick the giant ones, if a little frustrating cuz it wasn't making us money. But we finished with all speed Thursday afternoon because we had an interview with the local fish factory in Motueka, Talleys. Well the work sounded smelly, but hey we'll give anything a whirl so we went to the interview with open minds. The guy was great and told us the scoop and then to leave and 'have a bit of a think on it'. I must say it was certainly a wee thing to be sure! Talleys wants its workers to work 6 days a week on one of two shifts: 6:30am-5:00pm OR 7:00pm-5:00am. Oh yah right. 66 hours a week in a cold, wet, fish smelling environment while we are on holiday, dream on...
So we were not to heartbroken to email the fellow, nice as he was, and tell him thanks but no thanks. We also had another little trick up our sleeves...we had another option. Earlier that day we'd gotten a reply from a fellow we called near Richmond who needed kiwifruit pruners. We found his ad in the paper and it was lovely timing to hear back from him when we did. So we headed in towards Richmond to the orchard and met Phil the owner of the kiwis and our fellow workers. Friday was our first full day and today actually completes a week's worth of kiwi pruning for us. We're pros now I tell ya! Right, well we had a bit to learn although the concept is fairly simple. Identify good cane and then hack the rest of it to pieces. We start around 8:00 in the morning and we were lucky enough to start our kiwi pruning careers during the coldest week of the year here in the Nelson area. Man, gum boots are great to slog through mud in, but I swear they conduct heat AWAY from your feet in the frosty morning weather. We immediately went to Warehouse (the Kiwi version of Walmart) and bought turtlenecks, polar fleeces, and thermal socks. After that it was immeasureably better going because it warms up lots by about 10:00 and so then we begin shedding layers.
Jas (unsure how to spell his name, though it's pronounces Yas and he's from Holland originally) is our mentor and an all around great guy. He has a no worries attitude we should all be jealous of! In his opinion just make the cut and if it's not a good one THEN you say 'oh shit' and carry on to fill that hole. Sound advice to novices who are petrified of cutting too much off the vine and thus murdering the poor girls. (Kiwi plants are either male or female, the female producing fruit, the males only flowers. We are in charge of pruning the females as the males have already been pruned.) Here is what the old girls look like before we attack them gleefully with saws and loppers.
And here's what we turn them into!
This is Jas our fearless leader. He's sort of the overseer of the orchard and all of us pruners, new and veteran alike, call to Jas when we have issues. (Us more often than others though with less and less frequency as the week went on I am proud to say)
The vines in this orchard are really modern in that they are over the wires as you see here. Most orchards in the area still use the T-Bar method where they just fall to the ground. The wires support them here and I think it's all a bit more organized. But what a kink in the neck!
When we got the camera out, we asked Jas to take our photo amongst the plants we have come to love, and he set off across the orchard to this special spot. Apparently last harvest, someone forgot to pick this bay!! So we took our photo here to show how much fruit will grow in the very same areas that we are hacking away now. Although during harvest there are leaves all over the place as well of course so they would be a bit more hidden.
Two days ago, a lovely storm whipped up overnight, and chased away the thick frost we'd been fighting in the mornings. It also created this choppy water in the usually calm and smooth waters of the bay. This is the sunrise on our way to work, glorious!
So we were not to heartbroken to email the fellow, nice as he was, and tell him thanks but no thanks. We also had another little trick up our sleeves...we had another option. Earlier that day we'd gotten a reply from a fellow we called near Richmond who needed kiwifruit pruners. We found his ad in the paper and it was lovely timing to hear back from him when we did. So we headed in towards Richmond to the orchard and met Phil the owner of the kiwis and our fellow workers. Friday was our first full day and today actually completes a week's worth of kiwi pruning for us. We're pros now I tell ya! Right, well we had a bit to learn although the concept is fairly simple. Identify good cane and then hack the rest of it to pieces. We start around 8:00 in the morning and we were lucky enough to start our kiwi pruning careers during the coldest week of the year here in the Nelson area. Man, gum boots are great to slog through mud in, but I swear they conduct heat AWAY from your feet in the frosty morning weather. We immediately went to Warehouse (the Kiwi version of Walmart) and bought turtlenecks, polar fleeces, and thermal socks. After that it was immeasureably better going because it warms up lots by about 10:00 and so then we begin shedding layers.
Jas (unsure how to spell his name, though it's pronounces Yas and he's from Holland originally) is our mentor and an all around great guy. He has a no worries attitude we should all be jealous of! In his opinion just make the cut and if it's not a good one THEN you say 'oh shit' and carry on to fill that hole. Sound advice to novices who are petrified of cutting too much off the vine and thus murdering the poor girls. (Kiwi plants are either male or female, the female producing fruit, the males only flowers. We are in charge of pruning the females as the males have already been pruned.) Here is what the old girls look like before we attack them gleefully with saws and loppers.
And here's what we turn them into!
This is Jas our fearless leader. He's sort of the overseer of the orchard and all of us pruners, new and veteran alike, call to Jas when we have issues. (Us more often than others though with less and less frequency as the week went on I am proud to say)
The vines in this orchard are really modern in that they are over the wires as you see here. Most orchards in the area still use the T-Bar method where they just fall to the ground. The wires support them here and I think it's all a bit more organized. But what a kink in the neck!
When we got the camera out, we asked Jas to take our photo amongst the plants we have come to love, and he set off across the orchard to this special spot. Apparently last harvest, someone forgot to pick this bay!! So we took our photo here to show how much fruit will grow in the very same areas that we are hacking away now. Although during harvest there are leaves all over the place as well of course so they would be a bit more hidden.
Two days ago, a lovely storm whipped up overnight, and chased away the thick frost we'd been fighting in the mornings. It also created this choppy water in the usually calm and smooth waters of the bay. This is the sunrise on our way to work, glorious!
Comments:
Meghan - I am terribly sorry to hear about the probable severe-blow-to-the-head accident that Mike obviously had which resulted in his deciding that those sunglasses were a good idea. Perhaps you should help him make his fashion decisions from now on. I think that's best.
But seriously, you guys kick ass. Keep up the good work, out here in the world living it up for all the sinners back home.
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But seriously, you guys kick ass. Keep up the good work, out here in the world living it up for all the sinners back home.
