Hoping for river drop
LET us hope by the time you read this, our Edward River has started to drop.
The Edward is still rising about 1cm a day, but when the water is sneaking under your house, that looks more like a foot a day.
I said to my neighbour that the river should be peaking. He said, “Yes, it is. It is peaking over the bank at my crop.”
We didn’t need that thunderstorm on Sunday, or the rain that is forecast this weekend.
The Edward is rising again at Deniliquin. The top of the Wakool and Niemur Rivers dropped a bit, but if the Edward rises, so will they.
Unfortunately, there is more rain forecast for both our catchments this weekend.
Anywhere between 50 and 100mm.
We already have another rise heading our way, so that is the last thing we need.
Do not push that panic button yet, but keep it handy.
Swan Hill Road gone
SOME of our farmers were fighting a losing battle out on the Wakool River. They had two excavators on the bank but they could not hold back the water.
The bank is gone and so are their crops as well as the Swan Hill Road.
It could be a couple of months before it opens again.
The Wakool River seems to be copping the brunt of the floodwater this year.
People are asking questions as rivers and creeks out near there are doing things they have never done before.
Great day of sandbagging
WE had a working bee on Sunday at our fire shed as our town was running short of sandbags.
We had a good roll-up and I lost count of how many pallets we filled.
Thank you to all those that helped. From kids to old farts, it was a great effort.
One of the kids that did stand out was Skye Prentice. She picked her spot out the back and shovelled for hours.
Skye managed to fill three pallets on her own. We tried to get her to slow down and not overdo it. Skye just asked, “Why?”, and kept shovelling.
Let’s just hope Tim Flannery is out there filling sandbags somewhere. He is the man that started all this it-will-never-rain-again crap.
Plenty of volunteers in town
ALL of those strangers you see running around our little town in a yellow uniform are volunteers with our Rural Fire Service (RFS) from all around our state.
If you talk to any of them, just say thank you, as they have given up their time to come and help us.
A thank you would be good or maybe a cake or something yummy dropped off at our fire shed to show our appreciation.
Just remember, they are not on the payroll. They are all volunteers giving up their time for us. Thank you to all those helping.
Oxygen levels holding
I DID a few tests on Sunday. The Niemur has been good all year but was excellent with my test.
It could have been because they just had a 30mm thunderstorm out there but it tested at 7.3 per cent. The Murrain Yarrein was 3.9 per cent, the Yarrein was 2.9 per cent, the Edward flood bridge was 3.2 per cent, the Edward was 3.27 per cent at the bridge and the Billabong had come back a bit to 3.2 per cent. Anything over 4 per cent is great.
Down to 2 per cent, the fish start to feel hungover. Below 2 per cent, they get real sick and start to die.
I have seen three dead cod in the Billabong so far. One of them almost a metre long.
As the weather warms up, unfortunately more fish will die.
Unfortunately, this is a natural event. Or as natural as it can be with our controlled rivers.
Division 4 still on top
AFTER another tight game, Division 4 took out the chocolates again by six points.
Division 1 was not so fortunate, going down to top of the table Murray Downs on three rinks.
Sheep get a chopper ride
ONE of our local farmers ended up with a heap of sheep stuck out in a swamp.
They tried all they could to get them out, but nothing would work.
It may not have been worth it financially, but it was doing his head in to see these sheep suffering.
The chopper or shoot them were the only alternatives.
The sheep are now on dry ground.
Our stranded mob were a bit easier to get out. Borrow the neighbours’ portable yards. Drive through two or three foot of floodwater along a six-foot-high bank that you cannot see and cart them out in a trailer.
My young fellow thought I was mad as I was just guessing where the bank was.
Four trailer loads of lambs and they were safe. Probably not as exiting as a chopper ride for my sheep, but I found out that my tractor has a first gear to go slow enough.
It will be interesting when the water goes down to see the tracks to know how close to disaster we were.
Only once I had to back up when the front wheel disappeared. What could possibly go wrong.
