The Native Iowan

Weather changing here in QLD. You can feel it. We are moving from a cool, cool summer, an amazing summer. A summer coming off of wet. WET! Lots of wet. Rivers of wet. Cubic meters of wet. Last winter came off a wet summer. In calendar-year 2022, my valley received in excess of 3m of rain fall.

This time last year we were heading for floods. It was wet. The little stream was a small rushing river. By the end of Feb2022 we were blindly hoping for a “change in the weather”. It did not come. We had numerous, significant flooding events between Feb n June.

Looking back on the past 12 months, I smile. A lot of frustration and confusion, no doubt. Luckily I was smart enough to make the right decisions, then. Sold the herd early. Kept cleaning up the messes and destruction, after each flood came and went.

Am still cleaning up. A lot left to clean up.

The earth here became saturated. Liquified. It’s only “just” drying out enough to get work done in the lowest areas.

Noting it’s been rainy, again, for a couple days, again.

2022 weather sees us changing the use of the land. No longer cattle “managing the land”. Harvesting, fertilising, keeping the weeds down. All it cost me, then, was fences. Put up fences and the cattle do the rest. No fences no cattle. No cattle and the land begins to degrade. The noxious weeds take over. My back 100 acres are not looking good. But I’ll get to it. the situation is not critical, yet.

But the front 20 acres are looking fantastic. Ive had to slash and mow to keep all under control. Lots of hours involved.

It was not, is not easy. A couple miles of fence lines had to be removed. A number of flat tyres ensued and are on going. One positive is I bought a nifty CAT excavator to dig n excavate. Replace culverts, re-dig clogged drains, and generally be cool whilst operating a big machine. It is cool. Very useful.

Im slowly finishing off the front. Some areas, to the right in the pict, are still too wet to get machines in, to clean and clear and slash and mow. Been getting “good” rain so it’s all green, n soggy, still, again, yet.

Slowly, progress comes slowly when you are an ol’fart.

And the beat goes on.

And it is still raining.

Smiles