As I've mentioned previously, Armidale is having possibly the worst drought in a century, although as I write this there is a massive thunderstorm approaching! And it did rain overnight dropping just 3 mm on our garden. We're turning creative, however in our supply of water for personal use or even the garden.
For example, earlier today Dot and I discovered a massive trail of ants through our dining area and kitchen all leading to our pantry. We soon found out why when we cleaned it out and discovered that a tine of fruit had somehow leaked and the little critters where lapping up the juice. So we cleared much of the lower part of the pantry eliminated the ants and discovered some embarrassing contents. For example, we found 3 cans of beer, two have a use-by date around 2014 and the other going back to 2007!! What do you do with out-of-date beer? We'll, I fed it to some dying shrubs, assuming that they would prefer to drink beer rather than have no water at all - which is mandated by our current water restrictions.
Well, some people around our town are so desperate for water that they are resorting to things I've not seen before. For example, many of our farmers are not connected to town water, especially those further away from Armidale. Normally this is not a problem because (a) they have large water tanks on their properties to capture rainfall via the roof; or (b) capture bore water from underground aquifers. In a drought, neither approach works - even the aquifers are not topped up by water filtering in from above.
So farmers and others living out of town have to resort to other means of water capture and an increasingly popular one is to import water from places with a good supply either by railway wagons or by road tankers. We heard a couple of days ago about a convoy of road tankers coming to town, but I thought little about it. Well, this morning I took an early walk and suddenly I saw a line of such vehicles parked outside one of our many motels. So, this process of water salvation was really taking place! And here's the evidence:
By the way, this is a colour photo, not black and white. Much is grey because of the wet road surface, the widespread cloud cover and bush-fire smoke blown in by an easterly wind.
As I finish this piece, it is now raining heavily and this, as suggested by rain radars, could go on for another 90 minutes or so. Wow! We're getting lucky for a change. But our luck may end in an unexpected way. We're off shortly to a classical concert performed by the New England Ensemble and I doubt if any of the works were written to include thunder and lightening.
AS
For example, earlier today Dot and I discovered a massive trail of ants through our dining area and kitchen all leading to our pantry. We soon found out why when we cleaned it out and discovered that a tine of fruit had somehow leaked and the little critters where lapping up the juice. So we cleared much of the lower part of the pantry eliminated the ants and discovered some embarrassing contents. For example, we found 3 cans of beer, two have a use-by date around 2014 and the other going back to 2007!! What do you do with out-of-date beer? We'll, I fed it to some dying shrubs, assuming that they would prefer to drink beer rather than have no water at all - which is mandated by our current water restrictions.
Well, some people around our town are so desperate for water that they are resorting to things I've not seen before. For example, many of our farmers are not connected to town water, especially those further away from Armidale. Normally this is not a problem because (a) they have large water tanks on their properties to capture rainfall via the roof; or (b) capture bore water from underground aquifers. In a drought, neither approach works - even the aquifers are not topped up by water filtering in from above.
So farmers and others living out of town have to resort to other means of water capture and an increasingly popular one is to import water from places with a good supply either by railway wagons or by road tankers. We heard a couple of days ago about a convoy of road tankers coming to town, but I thought little about it. Well, this morning I took an early walk and suddenly I saw a line of such vehicles parked outside one of our many motels. So, this process of water salvation was really taking place! And here's the evidence:
By the way, this is a colour photo, not black and white. Much is grey because of the wet road surface, the widespread cloud cover and bush-fire smoke blown in by an easterly wind.
As I finish this piece, it is now raining heavily and this, as suggested by rain radars, could go on for another 90 minutes or so. Wow! We're getting lucky for a change. But our luck may end in an unexpected way. We're off shortly to a classical concert performed by the New England Ensemble and I doubt if any of the works were written to include thunder and lightening.
AS
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