#PRAYFORRAIN: On drought, fires, and life 10 months in.

I've been wanting to write a blog post on drought for quite some time, but I felt that I didn't know enough about it to even touch the subject. We have heard about the drought since before we even set foot on the continent of Australia; through social media and through daily conversations with locals. Whatever we have heard about the drought has been a bit of a mixed bag of information. When seeing posts on social media, it is like seeing posts on most things - there are posts that tend to monger all sorts of fear, and then posts that tend to down-play. And, like many things, I reckon the truth can be found somewhere in the in-between. I decided to do a little bit of internet research on the subject to enlighten myself, my family, and any of you who actually read this blog of ours. I tried to avoid news articles, and instead stuck to information I could find on government websites. Here is what I found:

• Dubbo is in the Macquarie Valley region which is one of the worst affected regions in severe drought at the moment.
• Since January, 2018, this region has had the lowest recorded inflows of water in history.
• The Burrendong Dam, which supplies this region with water for irrigation (mainly for cotton, lucerne, cereals, oilseed, wheat and veg), water for household needs, water for marshes, is currently at 4% capacity (almost empty). 
• The Burrendong Dam is also one of the largest inland dams in NSW (three times the size of Sydney Harbour) and would need months of average rainfall to replenish its supplies of water. 
• The average yearly rainfall for Dubbo is 639 mm. To date, in 2019, we have received 204 mm of rain. 
• The city of Dubbo seems to rely mostly on underground bore water for city use, so running out of water is not an immediate fear for the city.
• Other towns in the area are coming up with future solutions such as building pipelines to bring water in from other areas, trucking in water, and building new dams. 
• The whole area is greatly affected in terms of industry, (i.e. farming, Dubbo has the largest meat processor in Australia, mines, etc.), therefore, all the supporting industries and services are affected as well. It has been especially devastating for the farmers in the area.

These are the main points I could muster during my little bit of research that I conducted in between helping the kids with their school work. What we have noticed directly from living here in the area during drought, mostly lines up with what I found. Here are the small day-to-day things we have personally experienced:

• My normally dry, cracking skin on my hands that I experience in Alberta winter has occurred here all year long.
• The vegetation in town is brown and crackly dry, unless it has been diligently watered. 
• The surrounding farmland has been brown and dry the whole time we have been here, and we have been told that much of it is normally crop land.
• Level 4 water restrictions.
• Dust storms blowing in more than once per week now - sky turning an eery orange colour, blowing orange out of your nose, having grit in your eyes and teeth, having layers of orange dust on all vehicles, outdoor furniture, sidewalks and streets, and having orange socks, etc. 

Like most natural disasters, the drought is seeming to bring some people together for support and hope. The churches of the area have banded together and are having regular prayer gatherings for rain. I have also seen support organized in the forms of encouragement and food drives for farmers. It is a beautiful thing during an ugly time for many. 

To give you an idea of what dry looks like:

Dust storms:

Where it is dry, it seems there are cat-heads aplenty! If you think stepping on Lego is bad, you should try one of these. These devilish thorns are nasty enough to pop ALL of our bike tires and poke through our thongs (flip-flops for you Canadians - I know what you were thinking).

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Now for a bit of information on the fires that are currently burning across this beautiful country; specifically in NSW. I'd say that fire has been weighing heavily on the minds of most Australians these days, as the fires are in populated areas where everybody seems to know somebody who lives there. We have some Ontario-to-Oz teacher exchange friends who have been surrounded by fire for the last two weeks. They have been consumed by smoke and uncertainty, and I can imagine their exchange partners have been feeling less than settled watching the destruction around their home from Ontario. We are loosely connected to what is happening, and I have found myself checking the fire reports quite frequently throughout the day with a heavy heart. I feel for those who are closely connected to what is happening.

The photo below, from yesterday, gives you an idea of what is called catastrophic fire conditions (we are safe in the area that is circled on the map). The day was very windy and very hot (35 degrees here and in other areas). There were 300 bushfires with 50 homes lost in NSW yesterday alone, and at its worst last night, there were 16 red diamonds (emergency warning level) at one time on that map. But after a ton of hard work done by firefighters, the number of emergency warnings was brought down to 2 this morning. And, it is not just the dry forests that are burning, but also wet, tropical, old growth forests that have been affected. The forecast is not too good at the moment, with more cold fronts on the way (which bring hot winds ahead of them), no rain, and it is only Spring.

Just to give a picture of a small piece of the areas that are burning, these are photos taken by us when we visited our exchange teacher friends a couple of months ago:

And these are photos of the same general area that I stole from: https://www.greatlakesadvocate.com.au/story/6476576/the-beauty-and-the-beast-the-power-of-photography-in-the-forster-tuncurry-fires/#slide=0

Apparently, this photo was taken at 2 in the afternoon.

I know we will continue to keep our new Australian friends in our prayers as we soon make our way back to the freezing cold great-white-north. We have pieces of our hearts rooted in this land now, and our hearts will continue to hurt for those affected by the natural disasters that are being experienced here.

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I will end this post by posting some pictures of our day-to-day lately. Maybe to leave you on a lighter note, but mostly because I am also using this blog to document our experiences during this unique year.

 First day of grade 5 and grade 7!

 

End of winter term shennanigans, and last day of wearing a tie!

         

                                                Lego Club creations

Kevin went away twice in September - on a camping trip with his students, and to Sydney for a conference. The kids and I kept busy going to the Dubbo Gaol, the RV fair with snakes, and to Peak Hill to check out a busker festival and the old gold mine.

 

We thought we'd try a new experience and watch some horse races. The kids were bored, and it was hot, so we didn't last long. Oh well, not all our outings are winners.

Kevin and I had a little date at a professional soccer game in Dubbo - Newcastle vs. Sydney.

The lantern festival was a fun little outing in Dubbo one evening.

 I wish I knew the name of these purple trees. They line the streets of Dubbo in the Spring, and they are so beautiful. And the jasmine (at least I think that's what it is) smells like heaven.

 We had a decent rain two weeks ago, and the kids enjoyed dancing in it. While it rained, we had a  day of family lego challenges. We had time limits to build six different creations, and we judged each other on each one. I think we will miss these moments of having nothing to do but spend time together.

I've been enjoying the wildlife on my evening / early morning walks - I'm trying to soak it all in before we head home to winter (and no kangaroos).

 

 

We've also been enjoying watching little geckos catch moths in the evenings. One little gecko came inside the house for a visit, and Rylan was able to catch him and set him free to catch moths to his heart's content.

We are more than 10 months done! These little Aussie blokes would like to say, "Catch ya." (See you later.)