Things I should be doing...

THINGS I SHOULD be doing other than writing a blog (while the toddler naps):

- Fertilising lawn
- Cleaning (literally anywhere, any cleaning, nothing has been cleaned)
- Fertilising fruit trees
- Mowing lawn
- Preparing lunch and dinner
- Calling Telstra again (long story)
- Texting part details for broken oven to my parents who have offered to help find part for broken oven
- Texting modem details to my brother who has offered to give advice on slow wifi
- Bookwork

Ok, now I’ve got that out of the road, let’s blog!

So we got 16mm of rain earlier in the week which was really delicious. It was right over the house at about 5.30pm, so I had a champagne to celebrate. Also delicious. My lawn greened up instantly.

Unfortunately it wasn’t very widespread. Our worker Jody was out on her motorbike at the time, walking some shorn sheep back to their paddock, and she only went through dust storms until she’d dropped the sheep off where they needed to be and started heading back to the house.

The rain was a relief in that it put some more rainwater in our poly tanks at the house. All five tanks are up around 2/3rds full now, which is especially great ahead of Easter as we’re planning on having a few people here for the long weekend.

It also ran some water into the first of the two ground tanks (dams) that we pump from to water our garden and animals near the house. We call these tanks Strip Tanks (because they’re in Strip Paddock) and the way they work is that there are two tanks (remember here every time I say tank I mean dam) next to each other. The first one we call the “old” tank, it’s a bit shallower (sediment runoff), and it needs to fill to the top first before the water runs through the fluming (big pipe) into the second tank. The second tank is bigger (catches less sediment because the sediment all settles into the first tank), deeper and wider. Our solar pump is out in the middle of this second tank.

So the second tank didn’t get any more water into it and it is looking pretty low, which is not great. However the positives of the first tank getting a top up are that 1) if there’s another storm it takes less water to run into the first tank before it starts filling the second tank and 2) that there is water very close to the second tank for us to either move the pump into or syphon across into the second tank.

A couple of the other ground tanks (Double Tanks, Rons, Three Ways, Lin's) on Burragan also go a bit of run off from the storm, which is also great! But again it wasn't a lot and there are still plenty that missed out.

In terms of feeding the sheep and cattle, this rain won’t really bring any relief unless we get another rain to follow it in the next week or so. Growing grass is all about “follow up” rain. Just like watering a garden.

There’s also heaps of intricacies about what time of year it is dictating what types of grasses will grow, and whether these are grasses sheep/cattle/goats like to eat or don’t like to eat… and of course what weeds are going to sprout as well (and therefore what we’ll spend the next however-many-months trying to eradicate)… But I’m not an expert so I’m not going to go into it.

Bottom line is, the rain was very limited, in a very specific area, and pretty much all of Western NSW is still in drought and still needs more rain. Lots of rain! Fingers crossed xx

It’s the last day of the first week of shearing at Burragan today. We’ll have a few days to go next week, as long as everything runs smoothly.

Oh, I just remembered I was going to write a bit about a day in my life, or a few days in my life, for international women’s day… but I’m not sure I have time now. I really better call Telstra.

Actually, someone’s just pulled up for lunch. Got to go. Excuse the spelling/grammar. I've got to hit post or I'm never going to.
Cheers, Bess