Friday, December 21, 2007

Weather watching!

The countdown to Christmas has begun, and we have just received our Christmas bonus.

For the past two weeks, I have become increasingly aware and distressed about our disappearing water supply. Living in the country with no town water, we have two large tanks of five thousand gallons each and a small catcher tank of 500 litres down at the studio. That's about 44,500 thousand litres. Heaps!

There's only two of us, plus the three poodles, ten sheep and the garden, and I've been very careful.......

A short but heavy downfall three weeks ago should have topped us up, but no, we were down to our last ten thousand in one tank only. I could feel my garden wilting, and the veggies turning to crisps as the weather heated up.

Two minute shower orders were put into place and I hovered dangerously over my man's shoulder as he brushed his teeth with the tap running. Not good!

I 'put on the jack boots' and marched him out last weekend to review the situation. It turned out that the two tanks weren't 'talking to each other', and the small tank down at the studio didn't have the pump that sent the water up to the big ones turned on!

Still no rain! I reviewed the weather radar each day, watching for brightly coloured pixels on the map that might wander our way. One heavy shower the day before yesterday wandered tantalizingly close by on the flats below, missing us, leaving only a light shower to damp the parched garden.

It's Coming!

Until yesterday! Thunder, lightning and the whole damn lot! In the middle of the first really heavy shower, the man got out on top of the primary water tank, to discover that there was a thatch of leaves blocking the inlet. Aha! With thunder crashing around him, and me yelling from the veranda for him to come in or get struck by lightning, he cleared the blockage and we were away.

Lily went under the bed as she always does. She hates lightning, and there is nothing that can be said or done to comfort her.

Poor baby under the bed

We sat out on the veranda and watched that blessed rain filling our tanks and knowing our lives can begin anew.

"We never know the worth of water till the well is dry."
... Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

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