Thursday, November 10, 2005

Rain, rain everywhere, and not an Ark in sight!

Where I live, in the Upper South East of the state of South Australia, 2 hours north o f Mount Gambier, our average rainfall, is 19/20 inches in the old imperial scale. That is 76 or more Mils.This area has been a grain crop and sheep and cattle prodicing area for nearly 200 years. It has been getting less certain every year, as to whether we would have enough rain for a good harvast. This year, it did not start raining in a manner that gave the farmers hope for a good year untill July. Then, it was only dribs and drabs, but in September we had good rains and also October. Untill then, we needed at least 10 inches to reach our average. In the last two or three days it has poured! Mainly in Adelaide, our capital. They have had major flooding and homes have been inundated. In one part of Adelaide, Waterfall Gully, there was major flooding which could have been avoided if a dam wall had been erected. Because it is part of four council areas, all four needed to sign the agreement to build it. Two refused to sign, consequntly, they now have a BIG clean up bill. The rate payers are no doubt outraged that their rates money has been 'wasted'.
We have a 5,000 gal rain water tank connected to the house. We only use town water for the loo and washing machine. It has been some years since we have had the tank full at this time of the year, but it is overflowing!!! Praise God! A couple of weeks ago, hubby and I were at our small farm in a nerby town. The feed has grown so high, when we had to round up the sheep, Neville said he would have to go over to the nearby small airport and hire a plane. I fell for it again, and asked what he was talking about. He said the grass was so high he would need to be airborne to see the sheep! Never was a truer word spoken in jest! We did lose sight of them several times.

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