Week 42

We've had a lot of stormy weather this week. Last Thursday and Friday were particularly bad with high wind coming from the east. Thursday night the power went off just as we were going to bed. P later noticed it appeared other people around us had electricity, just not us and our immediate neighbour (both houses are fed off a separate line that comes up from the street). He went out to investigate later on and found an electrian turning off the power to our line as the power lines were blowing into the trees and arcing. He said he'd be back in the morning to turn it back on again.

Friday morning the winds were still blowing strong so I took the kids out and didn't expect the power to come back on again any time soon. It came back on at 10am, just over 12 hours after it went off. We will need to get the trees trimmed pretty soon before the next big storm comes along.

As well as blowing power lines around, the storm blew down a few small branches here and there but luckily there was no real damage. However I was back in the paddocks again today clearing away fallen branches, just as I thought I had finished it two weeks ago.

The storm may be over but it has pretty much rained every day since then, and is forecast to rain for the next week as well. I'm not complaining - I'm glad the water tank is getting a chance to fill up. But it means I haven't had a chance to mow the grass either and it is growing so quickly at the moment. It's only been three weeks since I cut the grass in the lavender field and it's almost as tall as the lavender already.

Before the storm hit last week I managed to find some time to dig out a strawberry patch. Bought 20 strawberry plants for $20. Also bought a roll of chicken wire and some pins to hold it down so that I can create some kind of tent to keep the birds from stealing the strawberries. That cost $50 so all up I've spent $70 on it. Hope we get a lot of strawberries out of it!!! Of course this will (hopefully) last for years so we'll eventually get our money's worth out of it (I hope!).

-M