What a day

Gah what a day. Obviously the north Island felt left out what with all the South Island's Earthquakes so we got hit with a full on legitimate flood. That blurry picture is my dad up to the tops of his gumboots inside the pit in the cowshed. The water was running in so fast that even with two pumps working we were losing ground, and neither of us wanted wet boots. We even opened up drains that are normally closed off and still we we were slowly getting flooded in. Walking in water constantly is tiring! I was working up a sweat despite all the water around. Halfway through milking Dad rang Mum and her and I milked we he stood at the end of the pit and bailed it out with a bucket. Seriously, like we were in some rickety sort of a boat there. And Mum could only work at one end, because she is a little lady and her boots don't go up as high, and she couldn't venture into the deeps. Eventually though we had battled through that.

Mum and I took a trip to the store and the flooding around was just unbelievable. At one point we thought we were going to have to shift the calves into the woolshed, because a torrent was only 9 paces from the front of our new shed. It was unreal. Luckily about 2pm the rain slowed to showers and the water backed off pretty fast, though some roads are still closed.

Back to work than, and thank goodness for my Kaiwaka wet weather gear. Expensive yes, but awesome? Double yes.And it lasts awesome. Anyway, back from my product placement, then there was a dead cow in the drain after the night paddock. Luckily, it was only a pretty shit one, and not one of the favourites but it is still a blow. Still too not lose one in this weather would have been some kind of a miracle. On a side note, my beloved 119 who has calving paralysis is still down after 14 days, but her appetite is still good, so while she keeps trying I'll keep looking after her. I really don't want to lose her. She is loving the horse feed I'm giving her with a huge dollop of molasses. Then the cows where just contrary to deal with. They don't like the bad weather either but come on girls I'm trying to help here. I must have fallen over six or seven times chasing them and got covered in mud. At one point I did what all exhausted frustrated tough as farm girls do and cried my face off. And then got back to work and got everything sorted out.

So while comfortably relaxing with an after a crap day drink- apple sourz and cranberry mmmm- my mother came in with a gem of a piece of news. Dear old Bill had crossed the lake in her paddock where the culvert had blocked, that no horse in it's right mind would cross and was now stuck on a little piece of land in the corner against the road. AAAHHHHH! I took her cover off and sent her back into the lake and it was going well and she was nearly back across when she really proved the moniker "Dumbblood" and turned where the fence was underwater and tried to cross it. Crunch! (she has only been living in that paddock for a couple of months). Luckily with being dumb she is also tough and has not a scratch on her. She swam back to shore- such that it is- and snorted at me. Friggen horse. So back into the ute, back to the house for tools and I dismantled the road fence, stepped her out over the rails and put her back in the other side (with her cover back on of course) and closed a gate so she should be safe and sound. I was oh so tempted to leave her there being tired, but at the same time I can't afford to lose her, and could never deal with that sort of guilt for being lazy. Still all is well that ends well. Back home for my second what a hell of a day drink and then bed. Jeebers, and then we do it all again tomorrow.