Hello again.
Mty second update for 2009 and again been really busy. We have had 7 days in January without rain so the country is looking a lot better. Plenty of green grass about at the moment, but this dose also cause some problems. . .
1) The main Jessievale drive has been out of action all year - I have driven on it once and a quad bike and got the quad bike bogged !! Did manage to get it out though. And it may have had a little to do with the rum I had been drinking too !!
2) the kids are getting board - despite our best efforts - scrabble, uno, pictionary etc are only fun for so long. We have played them all quite a few times !
3) Our new road out of Jessievale is only passable on the Quad bike, so shopping is a bit of a problem. We can get to the main road, but can only carry limited grocerys back.
4) People keep getting bogged - Willy Hacon. Jamie Hacon (both from next door) Bob Scott (another neighbour) Tom (my boss) plenty of times on both a bike and in a 4x4. Me !!
5) When you do manage to get out as I did 2 days ago to go into town for Australia Day 26th Jan. You can't always get back.
While we were in town Jessievale had 2 ins of rain. This doesn't sound like too much, but it means that all the creeks flood. I spoke to Tom and he said I probably wouldn't get back to Jessievale. I had got out on the Quad and met Willy Hacon (the neighbour) to go water skiing at the now full dam, leaving the quad hidden at the side of the road 20km from Jessievale I thought no more about it until we heard of the rain. We couldn't even drive back to the neighbours as the road was too wet. For Willys parents were due to go on holiday and were unable to drive out to catch the flight, so they got intouch with a guy in town that does helecopter mustering and arranged to be picked up and flown to town. We - Me Willy & Alex (Willys sister) were flown out to Granada Station (Willy House) and Willy parents picked up. So I am now 15km past the Quad, and 35km from Jessievale and it has rained again today so I am unable to get to the Quad to get back to Jessievale ! The creek that I have to cross to get to Jessievale was well in flood - I would estimate that it would be about 2 mts too high to get across on the Quad. The amount of water is really unbelievable - I will put more photos on when I get back to Jessievale.
Getting raind out does have some upsides though. . . Yesterday we watched some movies, played cards, had a swim in the dam and generally chilled out. In the evening just before dark we had to feed and lock up the various pets, including two baby camels. I got to bottle feed them which was a new experience for me ! When I say the camels are babys the probably stand about five and a half feet tall with necks that would reach to about 7 feet high.
Today we did a little work - moved some traliers and cleaned up after some pruning, then played on the Wii for a while before heading back to the dam and doing some knee boarding - a little like water skiing only kneeling. I will be here again tonight and will see what the weather brings over the coming days.
Jessievale has now had around 20ins of rain in Jan. This is more than the last 24 months put together, and some places further North are going to be cut off for at least a month.
