CMMC: Pick a Topic From My Photo
Cee’s photo had a photo of a dam which appeared to have receded so the bare bank normally under the brown water was exposed. Here are the ups and downs of the dams on my my place.
This I call the House Dam as the water is used to water the gardens and plants around the house. It has developed a leak The dead reeds are when the water level drops to. It is lovely when it is full. Even now there frogs are calling. Seven species of frog call this little dam home, the fabulously named Pobblebonk and a rarer species the Giant Bared Frog whose call I love. I do recordings every now and then throughout the year for the Australian University on an app, FrogID. A bit about the Giant Bared Frog if you are interested
This is during the drought 2018/19
This was the water level after the fire. I think the Fire Service used some but they wouldn’t have been able to get much out.
There’s not much left. I have a two thousand gallon water tank up the hill near the road and gravity feed back to water. It was full so I had a few weeks of water left. Just have to wait for the drought to break.
There was a small amount of rain raising smiles.
Not long after, the rains came and it rained and rained causing record flooding on the whole North Coast causing so much devastation to so many communities some that are still in recovery mode. People still living in government supplied portable houses in areas set up around the region. I was affected by a loss of communication, no power, no phone reception, the road to town was blocked by a landslide that took two days to clear. The power was out for over a week.
It’s lovely when it’s full
The green strip is the front paddock and the road is on the other side of that. Before the fire you couldn’t see that through the middle layer of the forest. On parts of my place the fire went right up the trees, where these are just burnt on their bases, some of the stringybarks will be burnt higher, the other trees were burnt so badly they are dead sticks. I have to be careful where I am walking.
This little dam was a push up of soil and lets see dam. It holds to ground level and hasn’t much of a catchment. It is called The Wetland as it is a nature habitat, a water point for drinking and bathing. It was quite overgrown so bird watching became hard and became worse after the fire as wattles grew thickly and rapidly. The new growth on the Eucalypts is evident.
On to the Big Dam. It would be lovely if this dam also held water. I have spent a lot of money trying various ideas to no avail. I have the next idea but it is drastic action and would require more than one piece of big machinery and lots of dollars. It is a fishtail gully so the water goes back a short way up the gullies either side as well.
This is the closest I can come to Cee’s photo, taken a few weeks after the Big Dam was full. The monster of the dam is watching you.
After the fire. You can see the fishtail gullies a bit better
Couldn’t leave on a sad photo. Here is someone who has been on the House Dam since it was made. This old fishing float was picked up in a garage sale for a few dollars and had held the foot valve on the suction pipe out of the muddy bottom.
bushboys world 