The Drought Continues
On our notice board you can see the following:’our time is up’ . This was only meant to covey the strong likelihood that our shop would be closed after this season has ended. It would appear though that the powers to be are extending this to mean that the world has reached a cross road and Armageddon is around the corner.
Tasmania’s east coast is experiencing the driest summer on record. No substantial rain for 2 years. By substantial I mean enough rain that the creeks start flowing and water enters our dam. As it is we are nearly out of water. We are continually watering but with drip irrigation the results are often not good. the wetted area is marginal on our sandy soil and in many cases the fruit isn’t receiving enough water to grow properly. Just outside our paddocks the bracken is dying enmasse. Bracken is usually fairly resistant to drought. So dry is it that all the native animals for miles around seem to head for Eureka Farm at night. The poor creatures are struggling to survive.
Our water supply comes from our dam and unfortunately it may run out soon. Our top takeoff has ceased to work and our bottom takeoff is a bit sludgy. The town water supply is on level 3 water restrictions as the feed in rivers have almost stopped flowing.
On top of that we have had a couple of really hot days which burnt much of our raspberry crop and dried up our black currants. the weather has been very weird often with cold nights and hot days. So cold not so long ago that there was dew on our car. Did I mention the winds. Hot days and strong winds have started our bushfire season. At this stage no comparison with the mainland fires. Two fires are near us and surrounding Fingal. They ar ein heavily forested areas where accessability has been an issue.
Meanwhile we just keep going. We have a very small team but everyone has been working hard with the result that the harvesting is still under control.
Meanwhile we have been taking advantage of the dry weather to remove some logs that fell into the dam after dying as a result of the 2006 bush fire. You can see my mate Greg Challis using his dinghy to retrieve logs that he has cut up. He then pulls them across the dam and removes them at the spillway. A most laborious way of getting a load of wood. Thanks very much Greg . Gary Laycock has also been a great supporter cutting up other fallen trees and helping with the picking. Without such help I think I would have given up years ago.