Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Movin on up

For the past four weeks Rippon Vineyards has employed a number of temporary workers, like me, to prepare for the upcoming harvest. Those preparations will be done tomorrow, and for the next three weeks or so--until the actual harvest--the temps will not be needed. Some, may not even be asked back for harvest. Charlie, the boss lady, told me today that she not only wants me back for harvest but wants me to stay on during the entire interim between now and then so that she can train me up for a "position of responsibility" as she put it. Not too shabby, huh? I've only been working there for nine days and I've already been given a promotion!

I don't mean to toot my own horn (oh, who am I kidding? that's exactly what I mean to do) but I'm hand's down the hardest temp worker there. I'm absolute dynamite at net pulling, apparently--Ned told me so himself. And the fact that I've been able to somewhat motivate our lackadaisical German friend, Austen, may have something to do with Charlie taking a shine to me. Every morning Charlie assigns the two-person work teams their tasks. Every day the teams are shuffled up so that you work with someone new every day. Apart from Austen and me, that is. We've been teamed up for the past six work days pulling nets behind Ned's tractor. Charlie told me today that it's the only job that Austen is halfway competent at and motivated to do, and that he hasn't responded to any other pairing than with me, and that she greatly appreciated my taking him on day after day without complaint. She calls us the "six million dollar" team--think about it. Feels good to be recognized for hard work.

And now to answer a couple of questions I've received:

-Yes, there are a number of more efficient ways to secure the nets rather than "digging them in" as explained in an earlier post. For example, you could use tent stakes to secure them to the ground. Or, you could use little plastic clips to secure one bay of nets to it's neighbor, thus eliminating the need to secure any but the end rows to the ground. However, that's only half the story. What nets get put out must be taken in at some point. And that's where the digging in method earns it's stripes. A moderate tug is all that's needed to get the nets out from under the little piles of earth placed on top of them, so reeling the nets back in is a relative breeze. If you had to stop to collect thousands of little stakes or unhook thousands of little clips the job would take forever. So, you sacrifice a little bit of efficiency on the front end for heaps of it on the back end.

-I've been laying my head at night at the home of one of my coworkers: Amy. Last Wednesday Amy heard I was staying in a hostel but looking for a flat, and she offered her spare bedroom until I get sorted with a more permanent spot. She and her flatmate, a nice Irish fella named Sean Kelly (about as Irish a name as ever there was, huh?), are super nice and have made me feel quite at home. Funny note: I've been here for eight days now and the subject of a house key has never come up. Because the doors are never locked. Half of the time they're not even closed. You know, it's weird that that doesn't seem weird to me.

Cheers!

1 comment:

  1. Congratulations on the position of responsibility! So glad to learn that there is a method to the madness of "diggin in"...I will sleep better tonight for sure. Duke takes on Texas Saturday. Nice win for A&M. I would greatly appreciate it if your Team would take out UCONN on Saturday as well.

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