{"id":3182,"date":"2016-09-25T09:49:26","date_gmt":"2016-09-24T20:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/?p=3182"},"modified":"2019-09-05T13:13:44","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T01:13:44","slug":"diary-of-a-soggy-farmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/diary-of-a-soggy-farmer\/","title":{"rendered":"Diary of a (Sodden) Farmer"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s the first day of daylight saving time and there was torrential rain all night.\u00a0I got up at 7.30 (that’s 6.30 real time) to give the horses some hay. They looked miserable. The bottom paddock sported\u00a0a puddle several feet across. I worried for Doug, Juan and Juanita<\/a>, I do hope they haven’t drowned in their beds.<\/p>\n

A quick check on the stream reassured me that it isn’t even halfway up the banks. Plenty of fast rushing water though. It would be a great day to kayak, most of the rocks that usually stop our progress have been\u00a0covered over.<\/p>\n

\"stream\"<\/a>

The stream once the sun came out<\/p><\/div>\n

Fed chickens. A few small puddles in the chicken run and an overfull water tank. The white chicken with the broken\u00a0leg (that’s a story for another day)\u00a0is moving around and the leg looks to be weight-bearing now after nearly 3 weeks. I guess my amateur splinting treatment worked.<\/p>\n

Thought I should check on the state of the lane.\u00a0Halfway down the driveway I see a huge pile of debris. From that point on a lot of water is streaming along the drive. It is forming a large pool on\u00a0the land next door, and I can see\u00a0the lane itself will be next for the overflow. A vague memory returns of a conversation at the street party last summer about the lane flooding ‘when the [unknown farming term] at your place gets blocked’. Oh. This will be the blocked [unknown farming term] then.<\/p>\n

Go and find the rake and spend best part of an hour clearing the\u00a0[unknown farming term]. At least I assume that’s what I’m clearing. It’s\u00a0some sort of ditch like\u00a0structure anyway. The debris is wet and heavy and made up of pine needles, leaves, twigs and some quite large branches. By the time I’m finished I’m soaked to the skin with rain and sweat.<\/p>\n

\"It<\/a>

It was too wet, and I was too busy to take photos while raking, but here’s the evidence.<\/p><\/div>\n

Back into the house, leaving most of\u00a0my clothes at the back door (advantages of having only far-away\u00a0neighbours). The young dog has been out and about with me, but I have to wake the old dog to give her\u00a0breakfast. After a\u00a0cup of tea and some AntiGene granola<\/a> I feel quite human again. It’s 8am (real time) and it’s stopped raining. As I type this at 8.45 (real time) I’m looking out of the window onto\u00a0blue skies and brilliant sunshine. The Forbearing Husband returns today from a conference in the Big Smoke. Things are looking up!<\/p>\n

\"Wet<\/a>

The\u00a0ponies look a lot happier now the rain has stopped.<\/p><\/div>\n

Off to change: into dry clothes, and onto daylight saving time. Here’s Hone Tuwhare<\/a> to keep you company.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rain<\/span><\/p>\n

Rain
\nI can hear you
\nmaking small holes
\nin the silence
\nrain<\/p>\n

If I were deaf
\nthe pores of my skin
\nwould open to you
\nand shut<\/p>\n

And I
\nshould know you
\nby the lick of you
\nif I were blind<\/p>\n

the something
\nspecial smell of you
\nwhen the sun cakes
\nthe ground<\/p>\n

the steady
\ndrum-roll sound
\nyou make
\nwhen the wind drops<\/p>\n

But if I
\nshould not hear
\nsmell or feel or see
\nyou<\/p>\n

you would still
\ndefine me
\ndisperse me
\nwash over me
\nrain<\/p>\n

— Hone Tuwhare<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s the first day of daylight saving time and there was torrential rain all night.\u00a0I got up at 7.30 (that’s 6.30 real time) to give the horses some hay. They looked miserable. The bottom paddock sported\u00a0a puddle several feet across.… Continue Reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,79,57,10,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dung-beetles","category-rain","category-spring","category-stream","category-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3182"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6162,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3182\/revisions\/6162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}