The hail went in to the gutters, down the pipes and clogged-up the inlet for the water tank. It gushed out all down the side, and this pile of ice even hung around through the next day as well.
The hugel bed was drenched, but it held the water from running down the hill. Perfect!
The rest of the property didn't get as much soaking-in as that one spot did - it's the first time I've seen rain running down the side of the hill like that. Too much to soak-in. It flowed down the driveway, into the old diversion drain (that was here long before we were), and into the dam - sounding like a creek, bringing silt and dirt with it.
After the storm, we walked the property, looking at where the water came from, where it went and learning as much as we could. The sun came out for a short time, and it looked eerie with the dark sky from the storm beyond the trees.
It's been raining on and off for the last two days now. The water tank is full, the garden swales are full, and all the plants in the shade house is un-damaged. I'd say we were pretty lucky. The cottage didn't drip once, the fire kept us warm, and the lights and power remained steady. Speaking of power.. we're still working on that..
And we just got the Antarctic wind. I started to complain about how cold it was that night, and then realised how lucky I was to live in a sealed dwelling, with electricity, heating and warm blankets at night. Our native animals have to live out in the elements. Our chooks have a lovely tin shed that warms up during the day, and they even have a wind break and the sun comes in to warm the floor.
ReplyDeleteLooking at your pictures, I realise again, some get even worse conditions than us! Glad it didn't impact your mud brick house. During the 2011 floods in the Lockyer Valley, our gutters were simply gushing water because the tank was full and the rain was coming down too fast to drain away. The best result is all that hydration of the land however, and it looks like that swale did a fantastic job of retaining the water. It will be interesting to watch how that hugelkulur bed, responds to this over event over the spring/summer/autumn period. It will probably retain more moisture than anywhere else on the property, I suspect.
Hi Chris, your chooks have it pretty good and you've made me think a bit more about the aspect of our future chook house. We'll keep posting updates about the hugel bed. We really don't want to be watering it so I think any plants there (asparagus, yacon and sun chokes for now) that don't survive weren't meant to be...
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