It's a Sunshiney Day

Gentle Breeze & Sunshine

A lovely day to get everything out on the line for a good airing. 

After the floods of the past week the house has that damp smell. 

Fantastic weather today, threw open the windows & doors like a women possessed and invited the wind to whirl through & through.

Caroline :) 

Another Update- Emerald's Sleep Apnoea

For the ones that have asked of late-

It seems like we finally have a handle on Emerald's sleep apnoea & with many thanks to her fantastic surgeon the operations a success and she doesn't have to sleep on a CPAP machine. Thank goodness for that it would have been devastating at such an age.

Mind you she wasn't overly impressed with the ultra fashionably leg wear she had to wear her entire hospital stay!!

Of course waiting around hospitals is never easy

but....

if you have to be in a hospital The Noosa Private Hospital was great.

Fantastic care & attention & the nursing staff were lovely & very attentive.

This was the lovely bush view from Emerald's hospital bed, such a lovely peaceful setting has just got to be an advantage with patients convalescing. There was always something new to see looking out the window. Plenty of birds flitting around along with lizards scurrying to & fro.

Must say very good for mothers sitting beside for MANY hours.

and so life continues....

Have a great weekend (flooding in our area again)

Caroline xo

Been to busy...

to blog, but hope to return soon.

What with School starting,

Emerald having her op... (more on that to come)

Granny's house having gone under in the floods (she say's it's aged her 3yrs-don't know how she came to that figure, but that would make her 90-going awesome I reckon)

Hope to be back here soon.....

Caroline xoxo

This & That?

I've dropped out of blog land for a few days, I have been busy busy busy. My Granny's house went under in the floods & at 87 she is finding it very hard to cope. Family First right!!

I have also been having a massive clean at my own home, with a leak in the roof last week & a small amount of water getting in under the house. Everything has grown massive amounts of mould. Did you know that mould even comes in different colours, we have had the white looking dusty mould, the black/grey mould and even to be a little bit artistic(yuk!) a blue & a pinky colour.

Everything & I mean everything has had to be wiped clean. I have found Vinegar & a good dash of Oil of Cloves to be the best. I have also been running the air-con on the "DRY" air setting and if you go outside where the outlet pipe is the amount of water that is running out of the pipe is amazing. Didn't think to use that setting when it was teaming with rain all last week but I'll be sure to remember from now on it may help to eliminate the mould problem. Although living in a hot humid climate like ours I may just be "DREAMING"

Luckily, although we have had storms the last two afternoons there has been plenty of sunshine in the mornings to put things out in the sun for a good air. Nothing like a good old air in the sun!!

I find the kids old trampoline is great for putting items out in the sun that are difficult to hang on the clothes line. I pull the trampoline over close to the house & because the mat is a mesh material it has good air flow from all sides.

I realize I am much luckier than most- my grandmother included, all her worldly possessions have been put out on the footpath as rubbish for removal.

Hope to get back here soon & to get around and answer the growing amount of mail in my inbox. I have had a few new followers of late -Thank you. I hope to be able to get over to discover your blogs soon.

Emerald has her operation scheduled for this Friday for her Sleep Aponea so wish us luck. we are hoping for the best outcome, meaning hopefully she will not have to sleep on a machine for the rest of her life.

Caroline xoxo

Wildlife in the Qld Floods

In the last couple of days we have seen a lot of different wildlife doing a lot of different things. They surely do have good survival mechanisms, in fact just by observing we could probably learn a lot from them.

BUT, I wouldn't like to take any tips from this baby bird.

He flew into our front sliding door and must have given himself a throbbing headache,

along with a 3hr stretch of the dizzies.

Lane picked him gently up and put him on the bush seat on the front veranda. At least it was under cover and he was also able to dry off a bit & groom himself. It took the little bird about 3hrs to pull himself together before flying off. Hope he's okay.

If you have any concerns with wildlife caught up in floods Ph-07 3221 0194 or go here for more information.

Caroline

The BEST blog post I've ever read!!

Mandy & all her family from The Old Diary are safe.

Thankful

Caroline

QLD FLOODS

So we now have water under our double story house, it is more from run off then the actual flood water level rising. We bought wisely for that reason as I have always been concerned about houses in low lying areas(we live on a hill) BUT on the top side(pardon the pun) the roof has started to leak-must have a cracked or moved tile. We have been up into the roof cavity & placed a bucket under the drip. I have been told that the SES is tarping roofs, but I really think they have more important things to do at this time. We will continue to empty the bucket!!

It has however damaged the ceiling as the first we noticed it was when the ceiling colour appeared wet. It has very quickly developed into a nice shade of black mould. I must heartily congratulate our hot, humid & wet climate for that little gesture.

My Granny has been evacuated from her home late this arvo. Atm. it is more a precaution than anything else as they don't know what the night will bring she is 87 and still lives by herself so better to play on the side of caution. In the 1974 floods she had water through the downstairs areas of her home. Granny's house is only about 200 metres from the Brisbane River.

However we can't get over her way from our side of town & she can't get to us from her side either.

I talked to Soldier Boy a little while ago he is still yet to be called in, but knows many others that already have been.

I am still very concerned about the welfare of Mandy & her family after the devastation that unfolded in Toowoomba yesterday, please continue to pray for their safety.

Caroline xoxo

QLD Floods & Queenslander Houses

Thankyou for the emails I am receiving from international bloggers with well wishes for us Queenslanders. It means a lot to know we have the support from other countries. I can't thank you enough to know people on the other side of the world care.

However I can understand your confusion as to thinking WHY?? So here's a bit of info you may find interesting/useful!!

We have been hit by absolutely tremendous amounts of rain, in my small town we have had 22inches since Saturday. 6inches fell from 9am to 12.30pm(3 1/2hrs) this morning. On top of that we have been having heavy rains for months, in fact most of last year. The ground is so wet, the dams, rivers & catchments areas are so full it really does, just have no where to go.

Here in Queensland we are used to living with flood & drought in fact in Australia there's not much in between, it's either doing one or the other. I have put up some pictures(courtesy of google) to show you the type of house that is common in our state.

It is actually called a "Queenslander" by name.

It is built to withstand the elements - Built on tall stumps to resist flooding(well usually) built on stumps it also ensures good air circulation for our hot, humid climate(especially before aircon became commonplace) Large verandas also provide an area out of the elements & again allow a cool place for the houses occupants. "Queenslanders" also often have an area called a sleep out, which is an area with beds often used on hot, humid nights for sleeping. Any way the big point is these are built on tall stumps- but it doesn't mean you will be flood proof.

Another good point for international bloggers to know is the sheer size of The State of Queensland, we could nearly fit all of Germany & France inside of the Queensland borders and as you can imagine when most of out state is in flood the sheer, size & enormity that out emergency services have to contend with is simply overwhelming. Resources are becoming stretched.

Toowoomba that was devastatingly hit by what they are referring to as an inland Tsunami was actually caused by the sheer amount of rain we are having.Toowoomba is actually approx 2000ft above sea level.

Hope you find this info useful.

Thank you to all our Emergency Services, SES (State Emergency Service) and the Australian Defense Force (My soldier Boy hasn't been called in yet) for there tireless work, away from their own families in others hours of need.

Caroline xox

PS- My internet has been going in & out all morning so I don't know how long it will last. The mobiles are playing up to, along with my Austar (Satellite Pay T.V) because of the dense cloud cover.

Toowoomba Flood an inland Tsunami

Yesterday Toowoomba was hit by a flash flood that some have likened to an inland tsunami, an 8 metre wall of water hit the main CBD with little warning resulting in loss of life & tremendous damage. Whole houses were reportable washed away.

Please go here to read a more official report.

Thank you for all your emails of concern for me & my family from my interstate & international blog buddies. We are all okay.

However this morning I am very concerned for one of my other blog buddies Mandy from the Old Dairy as after the wall of water hit Toowoomba it continued down the range & into her area again causing loss of life & damage. I have been thinking about Mandy & her family since I heard yesterday & hope she is okay. Please let me know if any one hears anything??

Caroline xxoxo

And if it's something you do-Please Pray

Rain Totals & Water Rates!!

92mls,368pts from 4pm yesterday to 9am this morning.

Total rain from 9am Saturday morning to 9am this morning(48hrs)

352mls or14.08inches

but I bet Unity water won't make our water rates any cheaper!!

Caroline xoxo

Flooding!!

Rain in the 24hrs previous to 9am this morning -140ml or 560pts,

in 24hrs.

Rain from 9am this morning to 4pm this arvo-120ml or 480pts,

in 7 hrs.

So in the last 31hrs we have had 260ml or 10.4inches onto our already

flooding area.

Please, Mr Rain Man stop the rain we have had enough.....Please!!

Caroline

A Belated Happy New Year

We have been away since Christmas Eve, stuck in the floods.

Blessings to the wonderful people we were staying with & to my wonderful,

housesitter(who incidentally my dogs just adore)

I hope all my blog readers had a wonderful Christmas & New Year & a big thankyou to all my faithful followers from 2010.

Catch up soon

Caroline xoxo

NOT MORE FLOOD PICTURES

This is the Stanley River flowing over the Main Rd. This closes the road, but, luckily the water recedes fairly quickly from this area.

No School or Work these days.

This photo came out kinda eerie as my black 4wd sorta blends in with the flood water. You have to really look to see what is car? & what is water?




This is our walking path I often take the dogs for their walk along. The white rails belong to the little bridge where I sometimes take the dog leashes off and they go for a swim & explore. The water is usually 4-5 metres under the bridge & the dogs run down a little track to get to the waters edge.

Not today though, as you can see the water is up over the bridge and t'was flowing fast towards the other side.

CAROLINE xoxo

IT'S RAINING STILL!!

This is the wall of the Somerset Dam. They open the wall to let the water run through to Wivenhoe Dam that supplies Brisbane with it's water. You can read about it here in my flood post last year.

You can feel the mist of the water as it gets let out, even from quite a distance away where you view the wall you can still feel it. You would think it would be quite noisy to, but surprisingly it's not that loud.





This is a couple of hundred metres down stream. The water's looking like a pane of glass.



It has just not stopped raining here, which is kinda good I suppose as I live in a major catchment area. We have had more "rain days" this year then sunny days now. I had to drive into Brisbane today to get a Ute liner for Casey's new car. It was bliss to be able to see a blue sky & sunshine in the city, but when I started driving north towards home I could see the rain clouds. As soon as I drove to the top of our range the rain started pelting down again. I guess that's what you get living among the ranges.

Sorry the photos look so dark today....just blame it on the weather.

FLOOD PICTURES

We live in the major catchment area for Somerset Dam.

One of the dams that supplies South -East Queensland with water.

Somerset & Wivenhoe Dams were built to stop Brisbane's major flooding & of course for water

storage/usage. Brisbane of course can still flood but from local water run off.

The water from Somerset is let down into Wivenhoe, that then supplies

Brisbane with it's water.

"Stanley River"



Stanley River flows into Somerset.

Wouldn't you hate to be "Ted" at the moment,

with all his livelihood under water

This is "Teds house usually surrounded by a sea of green turf,

now surrounded by a sea of water.

You can read more about the Stanley River & Somerset Dam here

RAINING!!

Rain, Rain go away come again another day!!

Our district is in flood at the moment. The rain has been unrelenting since yesterday morning. It is so so wet.

The children have had to come home from school as they have just closed all the schools in the area.

This morning when I awoke I found the Guinea Pig cage had become a dam during the night, the cage was actually holding the water in. Poor pigs were scurrying around trying to find a dry spot.

They were all wet & scruffy but looked incredible cute we made them some hot porridge which they devoured quickly & it soon warmed them up. Then we moved their cage and gave them dry bedding.

Instead of continuing on with my Autumn cleaning today I have declared, what we call in our house "Doona Day". Quilts & rugs on the lounge, T.V or a loved book or just having a good chat. No housework/homework allowed but something yummy to eat and we will have a great day together.

Hope you have a great day too.

Caroline xoxo