Another week of Springtime works

It was a busy week.
Paul is preparing the soil for the poplar planting. He finished putting on the second grow-wires for the Gewürztraminers (my Pimadonnas), tightened the old foliage wires in the whole vineyard, sprayed out the herbicide and slashed the grass between the rows. He dug up the veggie garden - the garlics should have been in the ground by now...and raked the 08 Pinot. He's happy with them :-)) good colour, good flavor...the new yeast he used this year proving to be better then expected :-))
I'm tying the cordons of the Pimadonnas. Sill have 13 rows to go :-((( The buds started to swell -they are the earliest to start- and I'm wincing whenever I brush one off... So much work with this variety....and they produce the least...If they don't repay my extra work they'll be thrown out! Overgrafted soon....
Our swallows didn't return yet :-((( They used to arrive on the 3-rd of September. I'm looking and listening for them...hope they return safely!
No big farm dramas this week...only the neighbor's steers decided to come over...the grass is always greener on the neighboring pasture :-)...it was easy to shepard them back. We found out that Gondor probably died of liver fluke :-(( It is not supposed to be present in the Huon Valley! Allegedly, wood ducks transported it here. By the time the animal is too ill we can't do anything about it :-(( A farmer lost 12 animals here...The vets should have known what's happening...Now I have to find out if this is a one-off thing or we have to drench our animals to prevent it from now on forever....