It's raining! It's raining!

Two hundred and thirty mm fell in five hours here at banana well. I believe that three hunred and seventy fell at wallman community, resulting in the evacuation of all residents. Wettest wet for this part of the country in history. West Kimberley right down to Carnarvon has copped it most severely.

G'day, Builder.
Great to see you here again.

All that rain at one time!
How are you coping with it all?

Great to be back here Msolga. Forgot about this place, until I needed some expert opinions on something.

It's my first wet in the west Kimberley, so I wouldn't know any different, except for some local advice. Last fuel truck that came in needed a twenty ton loader to drag him out of the mire.

I installed a drainage system to stop the house from flooding here. Best laid plans of mice and men. The roads turn into rivers here. The whole of the Dampier peninsular rests on a limestone karst plateau, and the depth of it is less than a metre where we are, so it gets pretty soggy rather quickly.

Here's me, doing what I love best.
http://maps.bonzle.com/c/a?a=showcase&fn=64l86nen&u=Stormin&or=3&sz=3&pg=0&yr=0

Is that photograph actually you, Builder?
Life could be much worse.

How did you find yourself where you are? (I think you were in or around Brisbane in your earlier postings here?)
Work?
Or a permanent shift?
Anyway, sounds like quite an adventure!

Yeah, all the pics on that site were posted by me. Though some were taken by my German buddy, Daniel Ruttinger, including that one.

I always wanted to visit this region, and I landed a job on an indigenous community, setting the place up for the tourist hordes that share my fascination with this region. I penned this short story about where I am. Interesting place. Used to be a juvenile detention centre.

http://maps.bonzle.com/c/a?a=p&p=7131&d=stories&story=231703427

Looks a fascinating place.
I'd love to go there myself.

So your job is working in conjunction with the local indigenous community to promote the area?

The patriarch here is full-blood Italian. His wife is Japanese/Indigenous. It's very multicultural here.

I have a vision for this place. Whether or not my vision comes to fruition, time will tell. In the meantime, Mario, the patriarch, is showing me more of what this place has to offer, than any tour guide ever could, because he's been here for thirty years.

I don't have to pay for accom, or tucker, and I get to eat lots of seafood, and use vehicles, boats, quads, tractors, etc.

It'll do me until my feet get itchy again, Msolga.

Well best of luck in the meantime, Builder.
I had no idea you moved around so much or that your feet were quite so itchy till now!

Thanks. I had a serious fall at work, and if I sit still too long, I seize up. Have to limit driving to four or five hours, with regular stops, but there's nothing like near death to get your arse into gear with ticking off the bucket list.

I do hope you received some proper medical advice after that fall, Builder.

Yeah, she looked at my butt, and said that it must have hurt a lot. No xrays.

I pretty much lost faith in medics when my duodenal ulcer burst, and the intern kept insisting that it was pancreatitus. Fools were intent on killing me, but I don't like getting jabbed with morphine. Had the full laproscopy before walking out five days later. Buggers wouldn't feed me. I don't think five years training is enough for doctors. Sounds like an apprenticeship in shoemaking to me.

Way off track here. How's the rain in Spain falling mainly on the plain? Must be the wettest year on record for the whole of Australia, Msolga?

Are you in agreement with the warmists, or a denpho? (Denial Phobe)

Another site I visit, there are Hepees (short for Henny Penny's (the sky is falling)) Denphos (Denial Phobes) and Fensies (Fence Sitters). I'm still counting myself in the Fensies.

Just make sure you take proper care of yourself, Builder.
Don't push your body harder than is necessary, hear?
Look after yourself. No one else will do it for you.


I am a warmest.
And I think we should get cracking on limiting the damage, pronto!

But let's not go too far into this on this thread.
Who knows where it could lead?

Oops.
Warmist, I meant.

I started out a warmist. But I got jaded when the bandwagon started filling up with people who simply saw dollar signs behind the movement.

Capitalism sucks the big one, for mine.

Hell, if you can't be activated to do something positive for the future of yourself, your children, or the rock you are abiding thereupon, without trying to make a profit out of your own actions, then Huey, the god of surf, will be sending a tsunami your way in the not-too-distant future.

Well, I pretty much accepted that the Dry season is here, with the usual hatch of mosquitos and their food-chain aggressors, the dragon-flies, but apparently there is another low to our north-east that has formed into a category one cyclone, and is headed our way.

Best not put away the septic system pumps just yet. Strange season. The wettest in history for this region. But then, the area has really only been settled for a hundred years or so.

Crikey. Another one!

You are not alone, Builder. Though things are a whole lot different in your part of the country.
As I mentioned earlier, the wettest summer down south here in Victoria on record, too.

I just checked the water catchment situation.:




http://www.melbournewater.com.au/content/water_storages/water_report/weekly_water_report.asp?bhcp=1

While a late wet running into April is not that uncommon, this region has definately had the wettest wet to date. Flooding three times in Carnarvon and the Pilbara is unheard-of in one summer.

Same story over east. Dear ol' Mother has seen more summers than anyone in the family, and she's over the rain altogether. (Redcliffe, just north of Brisvegas).

I think we had four states in flood at the one time this season. The DenPhos are blaming La Nina, but they have quietened down considerably.

Did you know, Msolga, that the WA gov has had programs in place for years now to combat climate change? That was despite Howard being a sceptic right up to his last election, when he realised he had to pull his thumbs out of his butt and actually appear to be doing something about several issues.

I saw the largest wind farm on my way to Cervantes, north of Perth, and that was built to power the desalination plant south of Perth, at Kwinana.

Apparently an even bigger wind farm is being built west of Brisvegas. The only trouble I can see is that private enterprise are constructing these plants, and onselling the power to the gov.

Pretty ridiculous, really. Sixty percent of power generation in WA is gas-fired, and if the power plants are paying even half the cost that consumers are being slugged for gas, it would not be cheap. Howard signed a deal with China years ago, and they are getting our gas for two cents a tonne, for the next twenty years or so.

We haven't had much rain to speak of, since those record January falls.
But just now our temporary drought has broken.
All day long it has been overcast.
A very grey day .... warm & humid.
For days rain has been predicted.
And just as I came walked into my front gate, returning from a shopping trip down the street this afternoon, the first drops fell.

Then that built up to a proper downpour.
Which has continued steadily since.

You have no idea how good this feels.
Outside it smells of the earth, getting its first proper rain fix for weeks. Quite intoxicating. Quite calming at the same time.
It feels great.
More rain please, more.

Where are you Msolga? Like, what region, I mean.

The ground is so wet here that it is starting to turn sour. I welcome the next rain, just to dilute that rotting odour.

The low that was threatening to turn into a cyclone has turned north again, and we have the possibility of rain for the next week or so.

I'm going down to my namesake creek in the morning, and If I get bogged on the way, I'll be quite content to roll out the swag and eat fish and mudcrabs until I can drive out again. I miss my fishing at this time of year.

are mudcrabs what we in the US call crayfish??
Do you just boil em up in a pot with some spices and eat em steaming ? with a bit of beer?
( I drink a ST PAuli girl no alcohol beer)