Flood Peak

In my last post I mentioned that we had never seen flood water come into our paddock.  Naively I thought that would be about as high as it would get so we went to bed happily and slept well.  

The next morning that water was up a bit more, but nothing too scary as yet. 

Then it kept getting higher... 

We played 'watch the gate post' and I took photos throughout the morning thinking each one would be the highest point.

I was wrong more than once...

It was at this point we decided that if the water reached the bottom of the retaining wall of the house we would shift everything we could upstairs and wait.

It got to within an inch of the retaining wall and stopped.  We started breathing again at this point.

The fence post in this last photo is a good reference for how high things got.  We had to move the round yard as there was over 2 foot of water flowing through that paddock and the water was already over the top of our gumboots as we pulled it down to move it.

It was such a strange feeling sitting here inside watching the water rise.  We were poised ready for action if needed and we felt calm, but mostly we just sat and watched.  As soon as the water started to go down I had to go to bed for a nap, I was emotionally exhausted, not that I knew it until that point

Today we can see the mess left behind.  There are fences flattened and debris in places I wish it wasn't, but we got off relatively well and as such I won't complain.....

.....but I will hope that this was our 100 year flood, and that we don't see worse to come, even if they are predicting more rain in a couple of days.

Flood

In the past two and a half weeks we have had 7 inches of rain.

This photo was taken from my back door.  You can see the flooded creek in the background.  

In the time we have been here, this is the first time we have seen the creek high enough to overflow into our paddock below the house.

The gate into our creek paddock.

This is where we usually swim.

This is just to the left of where our crossing is.

It is just awesome (in the true meaning of the word) to see this much water rush past just below the house.

As a comparison, this is what the creek looked like on Father's Day. Calm clear water!

Sheep Husbandry

Sunday and Monday saw us drenching, tagging, marking and vaccinating the sheep.

Note to self, do it earlier.  Some of the lambs weighed in heavier than I do I reckon.  Also, we lost a lamb to tetanus the other day. Hopefully the vaccine offers the others some protection from that problem.

NRWN

Have you heard of the National Rural Woman's Network?  I hadn't until recently.

The NRWC is one of six National Women’s Alliances funded by the Australian Federal Government through the Office for Women, and has been working since 2002 to inform government policy and create better outcomes for the regional, rural and remote women of Australia, their families and communities.

Recently I applied to take part in a fully funded Leadership programme they had advertised for woman in agriculture.  The course includes webinars, forums, networking and a project to be completed with the help of a mentor, my own mentor!  I have been brainstorming ideas for this and am thinking big, but it is a great opportunity and I don't want to waste it.

It is VERY exciting for me to have been offered a place in this programme!

And a great quote I saw on Twitter while I am talking agriculture:

mpaynknoper Michele Payn-Knoper 

Agriculture isn't just your work-it's who you are. Stand in 100% authenticity in that even when not on #farm. bit.ly/sSfllK #agchat