September

The month began with rain, lots of it. It rained heavily in the Tararuas and came down the valley, flooding our neighbours across the road and taking most of their newborn lambs. The waters continued on across the road to the cafe next door to us, turning their parking lot into a lake. We were unaffected, being up on the hill. Even our bottom paddocks seemed to have escaped most of the flooding, thanks in part to my trench that I dug. In the early stages it held all the water and even as the water levels rose over the top of the trench, it still helped to keep the water in that area as opposed to flooding out all over the paddock. The water flooding over the road only lasted for an hour and then it was passable again. We were a bit late for school that day. All the farms and paddocks in the area seemed to have turned into lakes, especially in the Koputaroa and Shannon areas, but not so much closer to Levin. In some places the water was so deep that when it receeded there was grass stuck to all the fence wires, from the bottom to the top. There is one farm on the way to Koputaroa where last summer the farmer had dug a very deep trench (totally puts mine to shame, it is several metres deep). Well during the floods this trench was completely full and flooding out the top. Even a week later it was still very full. The rain lasted for several days but not as heavy as the first night.





The day of the flooding


One week later

Later in the month, when things dried out a little bit, I attempted to put the plow attachment onto the tractor so that I could turn the ground over in the vege garden in preparation for planting new vegetables. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not get it on.

The Foxton Spring Fling was held at the beginning of the month, marking the beginning of spring. While we had some very cold days, this winter feels like it was more mild than last year.

The weather may be getting warmer but we have had a few very cold nights, with a couple of mornings where there has been more snow on the Tararuas than there was on any morning in the middle of winter.

-M