flash flood

Wow, what next. we have had two storms in two days. the first sent chocolate mud down the creek and the creek ran for half a day.

The second storm, last night dropped a bucket of water on the hills over the creek above the walnut orchards. And all the hills ran...with gullies torrenting down with charcoal, more mud and earth. Both irrigation holes filled with sheep manure, grass and debris from the orchard.

We have a nice layer of mud on the orchards. which in the long run will be very nourishing and has given all the trees a drink. In the short term it has reduced the pasture for the sheep quite a lot and broke down some fences that only this last week, mike had replaced. And silted up the dams.

Mike reckons about 3000 tonnes of soil has been moved on to the orchards.

Its is really unbelievable....what next?

terrace walk above walnuts

the pump and the dam

update

I have been suprised how many people have read the blogsite and how useful they found it. So I have decided to add just a few more pics, now that we have toured over the property. they will fill in the gaps to some of the earlier blogs.

these pics are of the Shed on the top of the hill that had Andrew's car and various stuff of mikes, including bee keeping gear and lots of cupboards. The pipeline is from the little pump that mike saved going up to the chestnuts.

see next blog.

In times of stress I find food to give solace

A word from the man himself: Michael

The fire approached from Spring Creek on Friday night and spread through Buchanan's paddock.

The CFA crews contained it until a gale force north wind dispersed spot fires through the valley.
It was not possible to establish if it was fire storm winds but large trees were uprooted and tossed aside.

The wind then changed to the south and carried the fire rapidly down the valley. I found it difficult to defend our property because of its dispersed nature but the perimeter tracks and irrigation helped substantially to protect the orchards.

We were fortunate to have Andy Ray helping Carol around the house on that Friday night. another outbreak on Sunday burnt the remainder of our hill, except for the chestnut orchard. The pity was the loss of pasture and fences and also some of my special trees which originated from the botanic gardens.

All in all we were thankful that not more of our farmed areas were destroyed. The bushland that was all burnt will recover. We look forward to different flowers coming out in the bush, possibly things that we may have never seen before.

We are already finding interesting agricultural artifacts along the creek where the blackberries have been burnt by the fire.

A big thankyou ...and Working Bees

Thankyou so far
Mike and I want to acknowledge all the friends who have helped us so far, particularly those who braved the dangerous conditions during the fire period this week.

They worked in a very hot conditions where the ground was very hot, trees were still falling down and logs wer still burning and smoke was thick.

• Andy Ray from Boggy ck Vineyards who came over to be with me on the friday night as the fire advanced and put out spot fires in the paddock.
• Rob Harrison and Lou Mc Fadden who came on saturday to rebuild fences for the sheep, keep watch, and allowed us to get a few hours much needed sleep
• Anthony and Roze Griffiths who came on sunday to continue the fencing tasks.
• Trisha and Bill Scott who also came sunday and brought fire fighting pumps and patrolled the property putting out smoking trees. Trisha also was there at the end of the phone each day to allow me to burble on about it all.
  
• Rick Sinclair and Wendy Batey who came over monday and fenced in the morning and unexpectedly kept watch with me when the second fire started.
  

Thanks also to all the locals and CFA crews who were around at various times.

And finally a thanks to you all who are reading this and have sent your wishes and protective energies to us. Its overwhelming to know that so many people care about us.

Working bees
We are starting with the cleanup and fixup as from monday and would welcome any help if you want a day or two out. There are lots of different jobs to do, even to do the normal stuff like cocky patrol so we can get on with the other things. Having people here has proven to be a real boost for our morale too.

but be aware that conditions are still a bit yucky.