Post Windy

This morning is cold 10 C and the wind is mostly gone. At least not as bad as yesterday. There was a shower overnight 10mm in a few minutes. Not much but enough to dampen the soil and negate the need to water the vegetable beds en masse. A quick look at the weather forecast indicates hot days later this week which should evaporate any of last nights moisture. Jean spent the morning hand watering individual pots and plants.

My morning was pruning off sections of broken limbs. One of the Lychees lost a big central branch which required a bit of patching to hold its twin in place with baling twine and duct tape.

The Cherry Guava (as usual) lost a limb. The fallen grape vine outside the kitchen was re-erected. A tour through the vineyard with secateurs and baling twine removing any damaged growth and tying back loose growth. And then walking around the orchard and yard picking up fruit protection bags and other scattered material.

Then over the river to commence the clean up there. Paddock 21  had so many fallen poplars and broken limbs it took 3 hours with the chainsaw and tractor to remove 6 big loads of tree trunks. There is still one left but I retired to sharpen and service the chainsaw.

Tomorrow we will drive through 21 with the trailer to collect the smaller bits. Then gradually over the next few weeks clean up the other paddocks which are not so bad.

The hot weather and winds of yesterday shoed how easy it is to get into trouble. Some homes in nearby Salt Ash were destroyed by fire. We have already packed our emergency back packs in case we need to leave suddenly. The financial papers are in their carry bag with a fresh backup copy of the laptop files. Just the photographs to remove from the book shelf and pack into carry bags.

The emergency back packs are pretty basic:

Sleeping bag and liner
One full change of cloths
Thongs or rubber sandals
A little tinned food i.e. enough for one day
Eating implement
2.5 litres of water
Book
Wet bag with toothbrush etc
Towel
Pocket knife

Separate to that we have a small bag each with:

Torch
Clear safety glasses
Filtered face mask with special filters for noxious gas
Gloves

And Exit clothing:

Cotton pants,
Cotton T-shirt
Cotton long sleeve shirt
Safety boots


Back home to just get on with the normal work. A little weeding of vegetables and then a couple of hours collecting cow manure from the paddock just below the house where the cattle were last week.