Going Under

This sweet calf stood against the river all night!

(levee wall rear right).

Although we have experienced some disasters we give thanks to God that we are alive and together as a family.  The floods have been so devastating for some people.  Our house is near a little town on the Pacific Highway called Ulmarra.  The town was pretty safe from the floods as it only just managed to come over the levee wall at a trickle.  Its still pretty scarey though because the river is about 800m wide in this area and the levee wall is about 3 feet high near the pub.  Its a very powerful scene to see this water rushing by and starting to bubble up through the ground around your feet as the massive volume of water presses right through the pores of the levee wall.  Our farmhouse was not so protected as the water rushed over the levee wall at about 30cm deep all along the 300m of river bank - a rough calculation means about 100 tonnes of water going through our property every second!  Our farm is on the outside bend (the erodable side) of the river.  So even though the wall has held for a number of floods it is always a matter of concern for us.  But we thank God that the water came to only 15cm below the floorboards of the house.  Even though we lost a bit of fence and possibly a wheelie bin we are very happy that the farm survived.  In another life, Samuel is a member of the NSW Rural Fire Service so he got busy (surprise, surprise) with the clean up.

Cleaning up an intersection on the road to Yamba

Israel turns 5 and hugs his cedar tree in the flood.  It was planted on the day of his birth.