Why indeed?

Yesterday was an *interesting* day.

It started with a blocked irrigation race. I headed down there in my ute, to find the track blocked by about 200 hungry cows. They were waiting for the hay that was on my side of the electric fence.

Dropping the fence as I usually do wasn't therefor an option. Shouldering my rake, Iwalked the remaining 1km through a sea of mud and shit. As soon as I got to the inlet, the rain started. I got to work clearing the flood debris, including a small tree. The rain stopped when I got back to my ute.

The rest of the day was the usual maintainence and inspections until an electrical storm started at 4pm and knocked the plant off-line. With the light fading fast, I made the call to start up the emergency water supply. That meant a trip across country- through five gates and a bog to get to the valves. At the last bastard taranaki gate, I filled a gumboot with water, mud and cowshit. It continued to piss down.

(As I have the only 4WD, I get all these fun jobs!)

With the light gone, the next stop was 25km away to another set of valves. Apart from one sticking and the fact that it was pitch black, this was routine and now the wet boot was warming up. In the shed was a welcome sight- an old damp and slightly mouldy towel that I could use to wipe my glasses dryish.

Another 25km drive with the heater on full. The roads were now flooded, so that slowed the trip a bit.

Finally back in the dry. The electrician had been and gotten the pump motors sorted, so they were running again. Shame about the chlorine injection.

Back out into the rain again, to bleed the injection line & pump. The electrical storm was now in full swing and I now had to climb up onto the reservoir to manually add some hypochlorite.

By the time I got a container of hypo and the ladder, the lightning had mostly stopped, even if the rain had gotten heavier. Now everything was pitch black again and my headlights don't shine up onto the top of the reservoir.

No problem, I've done this in the dark many times and it's only a 2 metre fall into mostly mud and cow shit. As I started to pour in the chemicals, up came The Wind, almost knocking me into the tank. I'm glad it's a small hatchway!

A couple of hours later, I finally got home at about 10pm- very wet, muddy, smelly and cold.




Now tell me why I shouldn't get pissed about my taxes supporting deadbeats that don't/won't work...