It's raining.... again.

Just when it began to clear up again after recent rains and we had a few days in which to get the washing dry and a few outside jobs started or completed, here it is again. NOT that I'm complaining... truly!

I haven't checked the rain gauge this morning however it has been pelting out of the sky and we have lost satellite connection a few times already. Here is a photograph of the rain spilling over the front verandah guttering.

The paths are flooded and the geese are in their element, sloshing around in the puddles.

Last night I picked up some ducks. Five Indian Runners and another little unidentified duck. The previous owner is going overseas and had an assortment of geese and ducks to relocate to new homes, and my plan is for these to roam the orchard, probably with the geese, whilst rotating the chooks around in their various yards and the paddocks. Here is a photograph of five of them in their former home. I will wait until this rain eases to take one of them all here.

Yesterday I spent some time walking around the yard, looking closely at the various trees. I noticed a second small wattle has been blown over; after all the rain and then a few days of strong winds, it couldn't keep upright. As usual, in Winter, the walnut tree looks dead, but the Fuerte and Reed Avocados are looking great. Small but growing well. One of the White Sapotes is very tall and I look forward to trying it's fruit one day; the Black Sapote (Chocolate Pudding fruit) is delicious and I'm hoping the white will be the same. It looks as if the Pine Nut tree is flowering - woohoo!


So much for the working bee planned for outdoors today. I think it will be a clean-the-house day instead! It feels like a baking day (wet and cold) however the oven has decided to pack it in. It has been working intermittently for weeks but I think those blueberry muffins the other day were it's last efforts at cooking. If the same part has blown again (something to do with the ignition) then it means an expensive call out charge for a small part, and by the time you pay for three of those, one may as well have gone and bought a whole new stove. This will be the third time we will have had that part replaced - if we go ahead with it. :(

This oven is an underbench style and we have a large, separate stove top on the bench above. Getting a replacement oven will be close to impossible as no-one seems to make an all-gas oven any more! NO-ONE! As we are off the grid and try to have as few electrical appliances as possible, or very energy efficient ones when we do, to have an all-gas stove is a boon. We run on LPG gas and buy in bottles of gas for cooking and as back up for the hot water.

I've found the only option if we want to purchase anew would be to buy an upright stove, which would mean altering the cupboards and benchtops that are presently set up for the two separate units, as there are only two models of upright stoves which run on gas only and need no connection to electricity. Unfortunately, as well, those two stoves are the same brand as the underbench oven we already have, and I'm none too fussed with the track record there.

Baking today might just mean pikelets..... I may also have to do a quick trip into town as without a stove, we cannot bake bread either, and it may be wise to stock up on a few items and some generator fuel, just in case this heavy rain continues and floods the road to town. Fortunately we keep a good stockpile of all the basic neccessities in both pantry and laundry cupboards!