Radio stars

“It’s very brave and exciting, what you did, Love!”

“Excuse me?”

“Packing up everything and starting a winery!”

“Oh, thank you. Yes, I suppose it is.”

“I heard all about it on the radio this morning!”

And that’s how I learned that we were radio stars! Apparently our interview (recorded about a month ago, one afternoon at the winery) was played at 6:15am on the local ABC radio ‘Country Hour’ on Monday morning.

Josh and I have been spectacularly lucky these last six months. It could be because we work hard, have met some incredibly helpful people and have a clear vision of what we want to achieve. If you ask Von, it could be because we are both 8’s and dragons. Or it could just be the universe repaying us some good vibes for taking such a huge risk. Whatever it is, I’m pretty stoked with what’s been happening lately.

We’ve managed to snag a small snippet on Queensland Weekender (tentative air date 26^th September!) and have had a few newspaper articles written about us. The most recent is an online article for ABC Wide Bay (http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2015/08/20/4296903.htm) and then later the radio interview. We’ve built up a bit of a following on social media (www.facebook.com/ohanawinery - like us if you haven’t already!)

I can honestly say that I love little old Childers. Perth was great, obviously, and all my friends and family are there and I LOVED my job, but moving to Childers has been a surprisingly easy transition for me. I love going down the street and knowing the names of the local butchers, the girls at the post office and the bank. I always keep an eye out for BK (the guy who did some bobcat work at our place) leaning up against the window at the pub. There are a few local ‘oldies’ who we’ve met who like to call by for a chat every now and again. Childers has just been so welcoming and supportive – and we’ve already met a ton of people that we can pull favours from!

One of Josh’s drinking buddies is also a volunteer firefighter, and bought the Childers Rural Fire Brigade truck out to our place last week to help with a BIG burn off. Within about an hour we had cleared up a heap of green waste…and we didn’t even set fire to the cane farm next door! It was a pretty epic fire. We even had some “concerned passers-by” (American backpackers) stop off to check that it was all ok!

We’re also planning to build a semi-permanent roof/rain proofing in our outdoor seating area. I want something new, shiny and preferably made out of colourbond. Josh and another drinking buddy reckon they’re going to rig something up out of an enormous tarp. (If it’s a tarp, its not considered permanent, therefore doesn’t require council approval). The next decision is whether we do it over our existing café area…or move the big junky cool-room (affectionately known as “the toad shed”, as opposed to the garden shed “the snake shed”) and create a new seating area. The toad shed is on a concrete slab and overlooks the orchard, so it would make an awesome seating area…..but it’s just SO much more effort!

And a new under-covered seating area will come in so handy, if our next big trick pays off. I can’t reveal anything just yet (I don’t want to jinx us!) but we have something very exciting in the works.

The massive fire

Otto, with his avocado "ball"

Kooky Booky, my bestie who comes to visit every arvo :)