I do try to not go on too much about the drought but there's no denying we are in the midst of one. Let's hope rain comes soon.
The land is parched and so many people who rely on rainwater for their household water are having to buy tanker loads of water at some considerable expense. My water tank has been desperately low but I've been managing by being thrifty with it. (Can you be thrifty with water. I'm sure there's a better word.) I have a bucket for the kitchen sink where I catch the water as I wait for it to run hot and use that whenever cold water will do the job at hand. Another bucket is in the shower and that gets carried to the washing machine and I don't do a load of washing until I have enough for a load. I got really cross with myself yesterday when I spilt coffee on a white table cloth, firstly for being clumsy, then for having a white cloth on the table in the first place when there is a water shortage - I should know better.
Any water that can be recycled is. I follow the "if it's yellow let it mellow" rule for the toilet and have a brick in cistern so it uses less water than normal. I could go on but it's pretty boring. And, anyway, I still had to top up my water tank when I had visitors.
I can carry once or twice used water to suffering plants in the garden but there's no way of helping the trees in the forest and they are suffering, too. I took my visitors for a little walk in the A H Reed Memorial Park in Whangarei which is usually so lush and green and was shocked at how dry it looked. I guess I see our forest so often I hadn't noticed the gradual changes so much.
We did the canopy walk and it was sad to note the barest little trickly of water in the stream you overlook from the walkway.
Even the tree ferns looked to be a slightly faded shade of green.
The dry farm paddocks and even drier hills of our neighbour's sheep farm.
But, on the positive side, the dry weather means the road construction company has been able to work uninterrupted on the access road to the lodge. They are making good progress for which I am truly grateful.
Several years ago, we had a drought, and the road crew finished 18 months early because of it. That's about the only good to come out of such a thing.
ReplyDeletePraying you get rain soon, enough and not too much, over time.
Your prayers must have worked, messymimi. It rained last week while I was away and there was another shower yesterday. Not enough to be of any help but it's a start and a couple of plants that were struggling look like they might now survive.
DeleteFar too much water here but then it is winter. Hope you get rain soon.
ReplyDeleteI had to go away for the rain to come. Not much but enough to give us hope of more. Come winter, when we are up to our knees in mud, it will be hard to appreciate the rain as much as we do right now.
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ReplyDeleteYour activities remind me of when I lived in the South Pacfic and we would be without water for days. I often did what you did! I am so sorry.
ReplyDeleteWe had a little rain last week and showers another day but not enough to make much difference to my water tank so I'm still rationing my water use. I'm pretty sure the worst of it is over and that it will rain soon. There is a big dark cloud overhead right now!
DeleteWe do the same with our toilet, we have 2 minute showers, washing at the laundromat, and filling up bottles in our towns - the water delivery guys in Mangawhai have just started taking orders again luckily.
ReplyDeleteIt's going to rain soon, Amy. Surely it is. It always rains in winter. Doesn't it?
DeleteHello Pauline,
ReplyDeleteAt least the road crew doesn't have to work in 40 degrees plus. Hope the road is finished and fit for purpose and lasts. Fingers crossed for some rain. You need to look up Paul Kelly's song on you tube about Petrichor. A word invented by some Aussie scientist's which means the smell of rain.
Happy days.
Bev.
Hi Bev, The new road is fantastic. Never thought I would appreciate a road so much. Petrichor - love that they have come up with a word for the wonderful smell of rain on dry earth. Now I must try to remember it. I sometimes have enough trouble remembering old words.
DeleteFingers crossed that rain comes soon.
ReplyDeleteAmalia
xo
Thanks, Amalia. The sooner more comes the better. We've had a taster but not enough to be of much help. Just enough to give us hope for more.
DeleteWow I didn't know NZ had a drought. It is usually always wet there or is that only the south island
ReplyDeleteYou made me laugh, Diane. When I first came to NZ, after living in Mt Isa, I used to scoff at talk of droughts. But, like all things, it's comparative. When you usually have a lot of rain it's absence is felt after a shorter time. A drought here is several months without rain, not several years.
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