#69 - withstanding the floods

It's been a very worrying time the last few days. Not only have we watched our northern friends in Queensland get devastated by flood, we have also had to endure the same. Thankfully it hasn't been on as grand a scale as Qld but it was hairy for me nonetheless.

This morning, what was once my dam resembled a lake after 2 days straight of driving rain. As the picture shows the dam rose to within a few metres of the house. Luckily our draining systems coped but it was a bit scary. I had to contact the SES (State Emergency Service) in the end and they arrived just as the weather was breaking.

Teddy has hated the whole rain and flood experience. I would go out in the driving rain to check on him, reassure him, change his rug and give him a feed. He just stood there with his head hung low. If I tried to move him from any place he had chosen for himself he would become very frighten and play up, not letting me halter him mainly. Once he got to the drier place I chose (while still walking with his arse to the rain) he would relax and show affection to me. Now I am pleased to say that he is back to his good ol' self. I reminded him that he got out of a dentist visit today as the flood kept the dentist away. Now that has to have cheered him up!

Steve and I went into town to inspect the damage and the worst hit was the racecourse. It's completely underwater. The flood water hit it with such force that 10 foot chain link fences have been crushed down and split apart. You could just see the top of some of the ironwork chair backs in the picnic grounds and the top of the monument is just visible.

As Steve and I were wadding through the water to get a closer look at the damage and take some photos I heard a neigh behind me. I walked toward the stable block that was flooded through and saw a horse in the closest stall to the door; all other horses, if there were others, were gone. Someone had put a whole heap of full chaff bags up against the entrance to the stable but there was no people around. This horse was standing to his cannon's in water. On the way back to the car I stopped a copper and let him know the horse was there. I hope he was OK cause he certainly didn't look very pleased (that expression wasn't a chance shot with the camera, he looked like that the whole time.)

Just this afternoon, 3 days later, the rain has finally stopped, the sun is out, it's as humid as hell and bugs are everywhere.

I did learn a lot from this experience, such as:

• Our place can withstand any amount of steady rain but gets worrying at the torrential kind
• Cows with stand around and eat grass through anything - the only thing they did differently during the rain and flooding was stop swishing the flies with their tails because the flies were smart enough to leave!
• Yabbies go walkabout in the rain (reasons yet to be confirmed)
• Idiots with drive through flood waters at 100 kmh and overtake you!
• SES men need to learn to carry hankies (seriously all 5 of them had gross things going on!)
• Chickens love the rain even though they look ridiculous with their feathers wet and are ridiculous animals anyway
• The fifth season of Dexter is excellent! (I watched the entire season while confined indoors.)
• It's not easy to swap over to a mac computer, and as a result I now don't know how to arrange pics in this blog.
• The rain brought a new group of ducklings to the dam - which are just beautiful!

To end a perfect few days I thought I would take a well deserved bath. In the process I slipped and smashed my knee into the tub! Yep! Perfect!