General Mud

June 22, 2015

2–3 minutes

Well the rain came, went and left a huge mess. Big slips have caused a lot of damage to local rural roads. Ours is blocked for anywhere from another few days to ten days, depending on the source of the latest rumour. We were without power for only a day – the linesmen got whatever broken line caused our outage fixed last night. So good to have electric lights back. Reading by candlelight might be quaintly nineteenth century but it is hard on the eyes. Painting was definitely out.

The Woolshed however was dry and all my models came through unscathed. Ten years ago when we lived in Wellington we got flooded and I lost a stack of models – and all my Battlefront 15mm Sherman/Stuart tank turrets floated off – the models themselves stayed put because they were on magnetised bases in a steel tool box – that was open at the time. This time everything high and dry.

Some pictures from the last two days.

slip 2 — The first of many slips blocking our road access.

reduc_IMG_2813 — The Kiwifruit orchard next door where my son works when he is on University breaks.

reduc_IMG_2838 — Our local rubbish collection point. You can see the high tide mark of the river on the bank opposite.

reduc_IMG_2822 — The road on the other side of the river from us. Looks completely gone in places. The slips sounded like trucks engine breaking as they crashed down.

reduc_IMG_2830 — Silty volcanic mud. It is sticky and glutinous – this is down the road from our place about a kilometer.

reduc_IMG_2832 — The silt is so fine it suffocates everything – the entire surface was criss-crossed with worms tryimg to find a way to safety.

reduc_IMG_2854 — My daughter got choppered out and went back to school. Aeroworks – great guys. They are doing supply runs into the valley and taking people out who need to get out. Daughter has school ball this Friday and it was this or a tramp through the forest to get out. She wasn’t missing it on account of the worst flood event in the district in a hundred years.

reduc_IMG_2862 — Talk about roughing it. Fresh venison. Some for the helpers too.

10 responses to “General Mud”

Ashton Dempsey

June 22, 2015 at 10:32 pm

I’m seriously considering pulling a flokati rug over myself and barking until you hand-feed me venison…

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1. briansmaller
  
  June 23, 2015 at 8:09 am
  
  I would pay money to see that.
  
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Mark Strachan

June 22, 2015 at 11:25 pm

Glad to see your property, specifically the woolshed, was not seriously affected, Brian.

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1. briansmaller
  
  June 23, 2015 at 8:10 am
  
  Did discover a few places where the roof could be improved though. A job for summer.
  
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Alan

June 24, 2015 at 10:56 am

Great to hear you are managing on your venison diet – sashimi grade for the dogs! The weather system that dumped all that rain looked pretty full-on – it just skirted under us in Melbourne.

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1. briansmaller
  
  June 24, 2015 at 5:15 pm
  
  At least there has been no wind – if there were there would be a crap load more trees coming down. Cold though.
  
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jaspersdoggyworld

June 24, 2015 at 5:35 pm

Reblogged this on jaspersdoggyworld and commented:
Words from daddy…….

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philosophermouseofthehedge

June 30, 2015 at 9:07 am

Came over from Jaspersdoggyworld. What a weather system. Hope you get a break. Cold makes it worse than here (TX has been dealing with flooding, too – had a laugh about the worms. We’re seeing a lot of wigglers around here doing the same)

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1. briansmaller
  
  June 30, 2015 at 9:14 am
  
  Yes we are all well. Have water back on and now just the clean up operations – more bad weather coming though which given the state of the roads may cause more issues with access. The other thing that you get in these floods is lots of spiders at the flood high tide mark. I wish I got a photo but there are thousands of them – guess they raft along on sticks and leaves.
  
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  1. philosophermouseofthehedge
    
    June 30, 2015 at 11:34 am
    
    We get fire ants (they roll up and raft on themselves in huge balls), snakes, and displaced alligators washed down stream. (spiders – shiver!) Hope you get a break in the weather. Having water back on is good. (and a lift for your daughter is pure magic and wonder.Cheers for those guys)
    
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