Too much water

2.7.2012

It is unbelievably wet. The paddocks are awash with water over flowing from dams and gullies and we have springs bubbling up where there have never been springs before! The cows ignore the rain. Donna carefully licks Sharron clean every day, even though she is old enough to be a mother herself. The horses are waiting at the fence twice a day for their feed and the sheep likewise. The goats stay in the shed and only come out at milking time but the dogs love to run and jump through the undergrowth. Today Flynn casually walked on a slippy fallen tree over the creek as if he did things like that every day.

Edd and I are more like the goats. We go out into the wet twice a day to feed and care for the animals but stay inside all the rest of the time. Edd is fixing the mud room cupboards and I have just about got the accounts up to date for the end of the financial year. All good stuff that really needed doing but would have got put off if the weather was fine.

The French wood fire is keeping the house warm on its own because the wood is not dry enough to use in the Essa stove. This is a problem as it means we have no hot water and the central heating does not run. We have tried all kinds of wood but so far little is dry enough. Wet wood results in a discharge of black liquid onto the kitchen floor and a grate below the cooking plates that has to be cleaned out every week! I really miss my old Aga who was much better mannered.

Edd had a concert with the Welsh choir on Sunday so I went to help Al repair his house. India, Pia, Kerry and I were putting up lime render in India’s room. Barry was cleaning the old paint off the brick chimney in the kitchen and Al was sorting out doors and woodwork. We all got pretty filthy, especially Barry who looked like something from a horror movie. Arden fetched us fish and chips for lunch, which ate squatting round a ‘table’ made from a bale of insulation in India’s room.

Al has to move his family and office out of the rented house in a matter of days now so there is a big rush to get the new place fit to live in. Unfortunately there is still a long way to go as the plumbing and kitchen are not done. However, he now has the floors back in and some of the internal walls are going up as frames. Pia has been hunting around buying old taps that match and fetching second hand doors and architrave. She is such a lovely person that she even seems to get enjoyment out of it all.

 A tiny, old, and broken, happy, house is worth so much more than a large, new unhappy place in real terms.

Eva and I have planned out a basis for a kids club and have sent off a first grant application. I do not expect to get this one but we did enough work to make a basis for other applications. Our idea is to use the new community centre and expand on what is going for kids. Recently Keith has started to show kids movies and the lions club gave steels creek a grant for a playground but we think there is a lot more we can do.