survival game part 7 ...

Day 45 ...
Somehow I forgot day 44, oh well .......
The rain is never ending, it just keeps on raining steadily, the river has pushed up over the bridge this morning there was no way anyone could get across. By midday it had crept up and covered all the rocks, and covered the concrete sides of the bridge. The closed road sign went up. Debris and logs came rushing down the river. The trees all got flattened with the force of dirty brown water.

There's not much we can do but keep ourselves busy. A little cheering up might help, so we decide now is as good a time to slaughter a few chooks for the freezer and get busy with that. Today we'll do 8 chooks, that's going to be full on, each one has their own chook to pluck, while George did the honours with the ax. A new experience for the girls too ... I chose 2 hens and a rooster to keep for future breeding. The man from the hatchery told me you should slaughter them all but maybe he just wanted me to buy more birds from him. When all's done, they go into the fridge to rest overnight, ready for the freezer tomorrow. All except one that is for dinner.

The 1000 ltr tanks fill up real fast and we have to pump the water over to the big tank, must look at finishing the work on the tanks. Lot's of bath water, and the kids pond also get cleaned and filled with clean water. The laundry gets a soaking too, then human feet treatment, rinsed and wrung ready to go up to dry.

Dinner is a chicken pasta bake, and small green salad with cherry tomatoes from the garden. After dinner Neal gets me one side and tells me Eliza is a little worried cause she late this month. Well that's bound to happen when you run out of prevention tablets. That's something I never considered when I stockpiled, prevention/condoms ... does that offend you, I sure hope not, for that is life. Time will tell I'm sure ...
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Day 46 ...
The full force of the brown water has crept up to 2 mtr above the bridge, boy it's a sight we hope not to see soon again. We meet a few villagers all come to have a sticky beak, dressed in their "dry as a bone" rain coats and some men look a little wild with their bushy beards and old akubra's on their heads. All that's missing is the brumby's (Horses), it's like the movie scene's from "Man from Snowy River"...
The rain is clearing a little later this morning, and the odd ray of sun shine shines through.

A pot of chicken noodle soup is cooking with a few carcasses of the chooks from yesterday. Cutting up the chooks in portions sure saved space in the freezer. A few sweet potatoes and normal potatoes, onions get baked together for dinner.
Tomorrow is swap market day, so we'll take a 6 baby chooks and a dozen eggs with us. We could do with a veggies, few pumpkins and carrots, a little flour and yeast. The veggie garden is going nicely and gives fresh greens, Chinese broccoli is ready to be picked. Maybe take a little bunch of that too. No fishing for a while until the river is settled again.

It's time to get the little boys out there riding in the dirt with the bikes, something Michael is good at, there's not a clean spot on their faces by the time they come in for a wash. But first the bikes need a clean too. They look tired and will sleep well tonight. Neal looks after the fires for the hot water.

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Day 47 ...

It's swap market day, so we head off after doing the morning chores, George stays behind to keep an eye on things here. It's nice to meet up and have a yarn (chat)Pete our Constable's wife is a bee keeper and sells yummy honey, hmmm would love a little. I get a small jar for 2 baby chooks and the small bunch of Chinese broccoli. Jenny only has a half bag of flour to spare, while she needs eggs and 2 baby chooks. Her hens aren't laying so well atm. A large pumpkin swapped for the last two chooks from the farmer up the road, he drove down with a heap of pumpkins on the back of his truck and is looking to swap them for anything he can get.

I going to get the boys to enlarge the run for them to free range a little with the few bigger chooks. Have to slaughter the rest of the big meat chooks tomorrow. So it will be only the rooster and 2 hens with the little ones. They 5 weeks old already!
It's all going to help with reducing the food bill for the little meat chooks (still got 20 or so) as the crumble is running short.

Piglets are growing up nicely, and nearly a good size to slaughter, maybe in another few weeks. Can't wait to try out the new gas smoker sitting in the container. I miss my bacon. We spend the rest of the afternoon doing weeding and planting a few more seeds.

Dinner is Chicken a la king with rice, Chinese broccoli steamed and green salad.