Kia ora,
The month began with more rain (again). Our water tank overflowed (yet again). The driveway and bits of the garden were awash with water, and Peter and Sox got drenched while out walking. Ann and Honey continue to drive to the centre of the village and do short walks before driving home again!
Sox is never happy when she gets wet and has to be towelled ‘dry’.
We managed to get a week of dry warm weather before Ex-Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle struck bringing more rain and strong winds. Most of North Island was severely hit with massive flooding, landslips, trees and powerlines downed.
Our part of the Waikato got off very lightly. Between the light rain on Sunday and heavy rain on Monday we had about 95mm in 48 hours. The drive and our road access were as badly flooded as we have ever seen, however Peter and Sox only saw two trees with fallen branches on their walk on the Tuesday morning. Hamilton Gardens was closed to visitors on Monday and Tuesday so Ann got the afternoon off ‘work’.
At least we haven’t needed to order any water in to fill up our water tanks this summer.
Ann had her credit card details stolen and almost $7,000 used with it. The banks are still investigating (and deciding whether they’ll write it off or Ann will have to pay it).
We both needed steroid injections. Ann had one in her shoulder and Peter had to have one in his knee. Peter’s slowly catching up to Ann in the ‘body falling apart’ stakes.
The drive belt controlling the forward / backward movement on the mower broke whilst Ann was mowing the paddock – it took Peter over an hour to replace it the next day when we managed to get a replacement.
Peter has been concentrating on the scenery on his railway, adding fencing, grass, bushes, gravel, veggie beds and pavements as well as finishing off a row of terraced houses and the school.
The end of the month finally saw some warm, sunny days which meant it was back to sunbathing for Honey and Sox.
One of the good things about all the rain we’ve had this year is the green lawn. This time last year there was no green grass – just brown, bare earth and the odd weed over most of the lawn.
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