IT has been good to be able to get out and see the grandkids.
Grandma was starting to lose the plot, it had been that long. Pop was not far behind her.
We can now at least go and visit friends and family, so it should help keep most of us sane while we are going through these difficult times.
Good time to remind everyone to keep your distance and wash your hands often when you are out.
We have done well in our great country, but we do not want to go back into lockdown because we are stupid.
I have read that 100 years ago, when the first wave of Spanish flu went around the world, it killed somewhere between four and five million people.
That was bad enough, but when the second wave went around the world, it killed between 40 and 50 million people.
Not a good time to relax and let our guard down just yet.
Most kids back at school
IT is not very often that kids really want to get back to school.
But, that is the situation at the moment in Moulamein.
We are fortunate enough to have a very well run school in our little town, but normally that is not enough to get kids to want to go back in normal times.
This is not normal times and our kids want to be educated.
Strange times we are living in.
A bit more history
WHEN there is nothing happening and you need some notes, you have to go even further into stuff given to you by mates that you will use one day.
I have some river levels that were sent to me many years ago by a mate called Laurie Perris.
Some of the levels were taken by an even older mate called Peter Robinson.
Both have been gone for many years, but I never throw anything out that might come in handy.
So, after such a dry time, here is a bit of history about wetter times, remembering that our Edward is about 1.3 metres at the moment.
I do not have any recent notes at the time of writing, only from 1955 until 1990 for tonight.
These are dates when our Edward got to over 4.5 metres.
In 1955, from August 31 until December 3; 1956 from May 7 to December 10; 1958 from September 1 to November 21; 1960 from August 24 until November 14; 1964 from August 10 until November 24; 1970 from September 16 until November 8; 1973 from August 16 until November 30; 1974 from May 21 until December 16; 1975 from September 13 until December 13; 1981 from August 7 until October 5 and 1990 from August until November. No dates available on that one.
I, like 1974, virtually under flood from now until Christmas. They might even give us an allocation with a year like that.
The highest it got to was of course in 1956 at 6.08 metres.
I will confirm that height for next week.
I have a lot of maximum heights here, going back to 1870.
But, they are all in feet and inches. If there is nothing happening, I will convert them to metres and hopefully find out what the Edward got to when they evacuated our town a few years ago.
River levels
THE Edward is on the rise at the moment and is just below 1.3 metres and just over 960 megalitres (ML) a day.
The Murray got to over 24,000ML coming past Yarrawonga after the last rain event.
That would mean off-quota in the good old days, but not in our new water world.
Still zero allocation, and will not change before the end of the water year at the end of June.
We cannot expect our crow eating mates to get 100 per cent allocation and keep their mongrel lakes full of their own freshwater.
So, we will keep sending more of ours down there to help them out.
