The Block - right here, right now

Saturday, 3 August 2008 The block right now comprises - 2 humans, 2 border collies, 6 pigs, 7 sheep, 2 lambs, 3 cattle, 3 hens, 1 rooster and numerous rodents, insects and wildlife in general. We're in the depths of winter and it's a rough one. We had 256mls of rain in June and 267mls in July. There was rain on 21 days of June and 24 days in July. We've had one big storm and one big flood and the ground is absolutely sodden. The grass won't grow and the pigs and cattle are churning up the ground something terrible. The cattle haven't even been grazing on our land since the end of April. With 2 absent neighbours giving us grazing we have been able to save our own paddocks. However, even then the feed situation started to get desperate so we sent 2 of our steers off to the butcher 4 weeks ago. The cattle come back on our land tomorrow and most of the land they graze is on the flood plain. We walked across the paddocks today and even I was sinking in. There's a good inch of surface water in a lot of places and in the 3 and a bit years we've owned the place I've never seen it like this. Every time it rains I just want to cry. Our land just doesn’t need any more rain this week, or even this month for that matter. It’s getting me down. Enough is enough. Send it somewhere that needs it, somewhere like Australia would be really good. We’re not even getting the worst of it where we are. There are people around the country who have a lot more to complain about, there are houses lost, animals lost, not to mention a few lives. But that is them and this is me and while I’m grateful we’ve had no disasters that doesn’t stop the fact that we’re doing it tough. The fact is it we are struggling to farm the land properly this winter. It prays on the mind. Every major downpour carves away the sides of the stream, washes topsoil away, knocks more willows over and clogs the stream even more. The other half copes with winter better than me. I’m currently struggling through bad bouts of SAD that completely strip me of energy, patience and the ability to enjoy life. For days on end all I want to do is stay in bed and eat date scones. Not that I ever get to stay in bed. 07:30 is a sleep in these days. So scones it is. Actually it’s scones, fudge, cake and generally anything stodgy and high in sugar. If it wasn’t for the block I’d be stacking on the kilos. The continual demands of the block keep me disciplined and keep me going even when I am in a dark mood, close to tears and wanting nothing more than to crawl into bed and hibernate. Despite it all, I love life here. When I think I can’t take any more I think about how my life would be if I’d stayed in Auckland and quite frankly I know I’m better off here. I know I’d be just as depressed about the weather and its affects on the property and I’d be sitting inside moping, not focusing my energies anywhere.