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You are here: Home / Archives for rain

rain

Rain

April 25, 2014 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

This has been a very wet autumn. We live at the bottom of a valley, and it is WET here! One day was especially wet. It had rained all week (that was a Thursday), and poured all that day, too. I looked out in the afternoon and was shocked to see the creek from the living room window. Normally, it trickles along at the bottom of a ditch and there is no way to see it. The ducks were having fun, but within a few minutes even they gave up and went to find calmer water. The creek had already overflowed its banks just past our house, and was rapidly building up a river across the paddock beside us.DSCF2424DSCF2426DSCF2428

I went out soon after these pictures were taken, and went to check the stock. Normally I don’t do that, but we’re thankful I did that day. The creek upstream from the house, in the paddock our animals are in, was only a foot below the top of its banks; normally it is a good six feet down in a gully. I could see that if it would overflow, as seemed likely, it would flood the area where our chickens were. Gayle got home from work about that time, so we spent the next hour cleaning out a chicken house we had things stored in and putting all the chickens in there. By the time we got that done, the creek had risen another half a foot and was swirling more angrily than ever. Another hour and it overflowed! The boys came and told me that there were several inches of water in the shed where I milk, and that it was up to the buildings. I had no idea when the water would go down, so I went out to milk in the flood. By that time, there was half a foot of muddy water swirling around in that shed! We were thankful that we had put all the feed up on top of two pallets to keep it out of the water. One of the boys had to sit on the other side of the cow and hold the bucket to keep it from floating away while I milked. Meanwhile, there was a river flowing fast along the front of the buildings, and around and under the house. We moved the calf to higher ground so he wouldn’t be standing in the water. Unfortunately, between the dark and the rain that continued to pour down, we have no pictures to show you—and we weren’t sorry an hour later to realize that the water was gone already! It goes up and then down very fast, apparently. The road was a raging river, too; there are drifts of gravel in places on the roadsides, a foot or more thick!

A week later, there is still a lake in the paddock beside the house. It’s beautiful on a clear day!

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Fosters Road house, rain

Rain

January 16, 2014 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

One afternoon, the end of December, we had a furious rainstorm blow in suddenly. It only poured for half an hour or an hour, but we got quite a lot of rain in that time. One of the boys was out in it for half a minute, and you can see from the picture how soaked he got! The wind was from a direction that pushed the rain up under part of the porch roof, and we had a waterfall on the porch!

The gutters could hardly keep up with the downpour.
The gutters could hardly keep up with the downpour.

DSCF1460 DSCF1462

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: rain

Supermoon

June 29, 2013 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

After a full week of rain, we figured there was no way we’d be able to see the full moon last weekend.  However, the skies cleared just in time!  We got to enjoy the brilliant moonlight as we drove home from a midwinter dinner Sunday night–we could even see it shining on the snow-capped mountains off in the distance!  When I went out to milk the next morning, the moon was about to set over the hills in the west and was so beautiful that I ran back in to grab the camera. Last glimpse of the super moon.

First rays of sunlight hitting the snow-covered hills to our west.

And, here are some random shots from the week. Sunset through the trees in our front yard.

New way to play piano: When your clothes are being changed, jump up and run away to big sister, lay down in her lap, and play the keys with your feet!

Elijah made a pinata this week, in honor of Daddy’s birthday.  We had great fun cracking it last night.

Filed Under: Activities at Home, Away From Home Tagged With: Children, Moon, rain

After the Storm

June 22, 2013 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We got 4 3/4 inches of rain in about 30 hours, a total of around 9 inches for the week.  The clay ground here was already saturated, meaning lots of flooding!  Esther got a few pictures of it, so I thought I’d let you see what we’ve been seeing.

One note about the post Monday, the day the truck washed away:  There are two pictures there of the ford.  One is from a slight distance and the other is from the edge of the water.  Both were taken the same time–the one shows how deceptive that ford is, how deeply it dips!

Water pouring off the oat field into one of our paddocks.

This is how deep the water was, flowing through our paddocks–it’s normally dry!

Poor cows are suffering from the wet. This was the only shelter they could find from the howling southerly, coming straight from Antarctica.

Several hours after the rain stopped, the children rode their bikes down to the ford where the truck still sits, and Esther got some beautiful pictures of a clean, waterlogged world with the sun peeking through for a few minutes! The Jed River has gone down some already.

Filed Under: Activities at Home, Away From Home Tagged With: rain

More Rain!

June 20, 2013 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

It’s raining more and more.  While we ate breakfast this morning, we watched the water rise in the paddock in front of the house.  It rose over 2 inches in about 20 minutes!

Our landlord going out to feed the cattle.

The lake out our kitchen window.

On our way home from Dead Boring Tuesday, we stopped to see the truck again. The water level had gone down enough that one boy was able to safely get on top of it and salvage a few things from inside–I was glad to get Gayle’s lunchbox out!  We were hoping to get a digger to pull the truck out of the river today, but it’s likely underwater completely again, since it rained all night.

Filed Under: Activities at Home, Away From Home Tagged With: rain

Adventures Never Cease!

June 17, 2013 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Most of last week was pretty tame.  We did the normal stuff–school, working outside a few minutes a day, taking care of things in the house, doing laundry–all that good stuff.  Saturday night the second-youngest gave us an anxious time when he tripped and fell against a doorpost.  We were pretty worried about his head for awhile, but we prayed over him and watched him for a couple of hours, along with a naturopath friend who came over and checked his reflexes.  He showed no signs of swelling in the brain or concussion, so after a few hours we put him to bed and other than a large bruise he seems to be fine.

I made a couple of loaves of sourdough bread Saturday. Baby grabbed part of one and happily took off, chewing on it!

Baby loves to read, especially laying on his back!

Our 8-month-old steer, the Jersey/Belted Galloway cross.

I love those chubby, dirty legs!

This morning, Gayle drove into water flowing through the ford he crosses every morning on the way to work, not realizing that it was too deep, and we’re thankful he was able to get out of the truck!  It was washed downstream a ways.  The children went to look for it this afternoon, and found it 50-100 meters from the ford.  Next adventure–getting it out of there!  I think we’ll be looking for new transportation to work for Gayle.

This is what is left of the truck.

Up close, the ford is obviously very dangerous right now.

The ford doesn’t look too dangerous from this perspective!  And by the way, this pictures was taken at the same time as the one above.  That’s how much the road dips down!

Our waterlogged world today, after the storm.

 

Filed Under: Activities at Home, Away From Home Tagged With: Baby, rain

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