http://www.sacsplash.org/critters/gophersnake.htm



All I have to do to kill an intern is have them work with me for a day. I've never had one back for day two

quote:

Originally posted by jgreen:
what is your means for whacking gophers.

Try this - I have seen it work well....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-4_%28explosive%29

http://www.lesliehawes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/shovel.jpg

Try a T-16.

I used to bullseye womp rats back home on Tattooine in one of these, and they couldn't have been more than two meters across!

quote:

Originally posted by Dom'n'Vin'sDad:

quote:

Originally posted by jgreen:
what is your means for whacking gophers.

Try this - I have seen it work well....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-4_%28explosive%29

That'd take care of the gophers but the holes in my lawn are what I am trying to avoid...

Hey Paul,

I ended up getting a job with a professor related to my thesis research. However I'm in CA from this Saturday until early July. Is that job still open?

-Rajiv
email ayyangar [at] princeton.edu

P.S. How do you personal-message someone on this forum?

Everyone... Barrelmonkey completed his first day.

He suckered and tucked vines at Chaine d'Or all day, and then helped me top in the winery.

Reports from Herardo in the field were that he worked very hard, and he did well in the winery as well. No heavy lifting, but lots of bending and he said his high school Spanish started to come back to him.

Day two is today.

Thanks for the update - hope this works out for all involved

Great thread!

I hope we'll get lots of reports over the course of the summer.

Diary of a Mad Vintner

Has he lost his enthusiasm yet, Paul?

Agree with Rothko et al., this is a great thread.

A winemaker's reality show. If Barrelmonkey craps out, I want to read about it here first, not in the ambulance blotter of the Palo Alto Weekly.

BM, suck it up, drive on, hooah. Internships aren't supposed to be easy, they're for weeding out folks. Even if you get that MBA and buy a winery in 15 years, the good relationships you make now will help you out then. But, you already know that.

Hi Paul!

He just wrapped up for the day. He sounds tired, but he's still willing to come out Saturday and Sunday and help at the Vintners Festival. He'll be able to learn some about the sales side doing that, and I'll be giving vineyard tours, so he should learn some of the technical details.

The crew is headed to Corralitos tomorrow and the Woodruff Family Vineyard. It's too far for him to hitch a ride, about 80 miles from his house, so he'll have a couple days off from hard labor.

He got to meet Jerry Anderson while at Chaine d'Or and that should be good for him. Jerry has a PhD in Physics from Cal and a wall full of Patents in his office, so hopefully talking with him grounded him some about the need for everyone in the wine industry to do the grunt work. Jerry loves driving the tractor.

Next week, I'll take him out with me to talk with vineyard owners. He'll get to meet some great folks, the President of EA, the head of the a VC fund, and a few other highly succesful tractor drivers.

Herardo hasn't said "get this guy off my crew", so he's getting along well. I might expose him to Millie next week as well and have him pull wire with her.

He's doing well through day two.

quote:

Originally posted by Stefania Wine:
, the President of EA

Tell him to stop playing with his winery and actually make a madden game that's not just a graphics revision. =)

I'll pass that on

quote:

Originally posted by Stefania Wine:
Next week, I'll take him out with me to talk with vineyard owners. He'll get to meet some great folks, the President of EA, the head of the a VC fund, and a few other highly succesful tractor drivers.

Now that's how I want to get into the wine business.
Not quite going according to plan though.

Great thread.

What a great experience. It's so cliched to talk about how you (barrelmonkey) will look back on this, no matter what you do, but there are reasons something gets said enough to become a cliche.

Speaking 8 years out of college and 3 years out of law school, a job that's outdoors and interesting should not be taken for granted.

Contact the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, NJ immediately. Openings for Som for the Summer and only an hr away from Princeton. Email me if you need more info

I'd rather be a wine maker then sommelier any day.

There's just a sense of snobbery amongst sommeliers that agitate me.

Working with a wine maker though, is a humbling experience.

Rajiv made it through the weekend in one piece. He worked with Millie on Saturday and spent about 4 hours pulling wire and tieing up the drip system at the Sesson Vineyard.

Millie ran him over to Uvas Creek which is close to Sesson and they stopped to meet Bill Holt and Ted Mederios. Bill toured them through Uvas Creek, and Ted let them walk around the old head trained vines at Sycamore Creek. They mixed in some tasting along the way.

Sunday he helped us at the Vinters Festival. Pouring wine and talking with visitors mostly. He can down a few times to do barrel samples with me in the cellar and listen to the questions from guests.

My favorite line of the weekend though was actually after I did the first tour of the cellar and barrel samples on Saturday. A women in that group went back up stairs and told Jerry: "That tour guide in the cellar is sure well trained, he knows everything about those wines."

I'm adding "Tour Guide" to my list of titles and Anne and Jerry are going to get me a "Tour Guide" badge to wear.

Paul, you're a great guy for giving Rajiv this experience.

Rajiv, you're a good man for sticking it out

Man, if there's one thing I don't miss about my childhood/early adulthood, it's working in the fields! Each crop has its own reasons for sucking, detassling corn, picking tomatoes, etc.

Today's agenda is almost all about dealing with property owners.

Rajiv was out at 9am doing a site assesment with me. His comment was "None of the questions they asked I would have expected."

He's out with Herrardo now. I got a panicked call at 11 PM last night from the owners of the Sesson vineyard that all the drips haven't been tied up, so I sent them there to complete that. That followed a 7pm call to calm them down and keep them from spraying a pesticide because they had found a bug in the vineyard.

People go nuts about water. It drives me nuts from the time I first meet them until year 3 all I do is answer water panic questions. At year three I turn the damn drip system off and tell them to stop calling me about water

They're on their was now to the Crimson Vineyard to do suckering and tucking. Good calm homeowner there. He's at year three now, and the drip system is off.

quote:

Originally posted by Stefania Wine:
T That followed a 7pm call to calm them down and keep them from spraying a pesticide because they had found a bug in the vineyard.

Was it a big nasty bug like those flesh eating scarabs I see in the movies? Makes me second thought about interning for you =) ...

4 ft gophers, whacking interns, huge bugs.

What a fun read...
keep 'em comming. (please )

Wish I were closer, I'd intern too...