The Stone Pickers

Although the grape harvest or vintage is not quite underway there is still much work to be done in the vineyards. This morning I saw this tractor in the Meadowbank Station Vineyard moving along the rows of young grapevines. These are the grapevines that were planted late last winter. I have followed the establishment of this new area of vines over the last year and blipped its progress on a number of occasions.
The vineyard is planted on old river bed. The river very likely meandered across this land many hundreds of years ago. The ground is full of shingle and stones of varying sizes. This team of vineyard workers have been tasked with removing the biggest of the rocks and stones in order to make for easier cultivation and machinery use. They are my “Stone Pickers”. It is backbreaking work but these three seemed to be taking it all in their stride and having a laugh or two. Here they took a brief break when I called out to them over the fence from the Taylor River tracks. They were happy to pose even when I warned them that they could well find themselves starring on the internet tonight. Peter is on the left with Tarik standing in the middle. (Tarik was blipped in January last year lifting wires in another part of the vineyard.) And on the right is William. Thank you guys for allowing me to capture you for the world of Blip to see……