The dark can be a scary place....

We had one hell of a storm yesterday. Hail, thunder, lightning, pelting rain going in all directions, and gale-force winds - all at the same time. 

One of those "once in a lifetime" kind of storms.

The results for Dad and I were that we both lost power in our respective houses for about 14 hours, which has meant some chucking out of foodstuffs today that obviously completely defrosted but seem not to have refrozen completely today, despite having power since 3am.

It's very odd to find yourself without power for a night, when you are used to having it. It is one thing to choose to have a candle night, because you know if it gets too much, a quick flick of a light switch will solve all your problems. It's a whole other thing when you walk into a room, fall over something (swear), flick the light switch, then remember that there is no power (and swear again), backtrack into the other room where your torch is, and fall over something else on the way - because even though you happily walk through your house late at night with all the lights off, to go from the bedroom to the loo, and never fall over anything, suddenly when you have no choice of lights, you find every little thing to possibly fall over!

I have to admit I found it frustrating, because normally I am fairly organised for black-outs, as we have them a great deal in the country during storm season. But storm season shouldn't really start for a few more weeks yet, and I thought I had a bit more time.

So yesterday saw me scurrying around in the middle of the day (when it was almost pitch-black outside during the storm) looking for candles, matches, and a torch, because I couldn't see where I was going!

I am going to have to do a bit of shopping for food that needs no heating (or only hot water), some reliable lanterns, that last longer than half an hour on batteries, and some proper hurricane lantern cases for my tea-lights, as it looks very much like it might yet be another summer like the last few, with storms and power outages an almost daily occurrence.

Other damage from yesterday's storm included a few trees down on our dog track that took out the fences between us and the neighbours. No home trials for us anytime soon, it seems.

The storm itself lasted all of about 45 minutes, if that. But at its worst, my entire yard, the paddock between me and my Dad's house, the front paddock between me and the road, the back sheep paddock behind my house, and Dad's little house yard, plus the kennel yard were all under flood, or covered in a fair amount of hail - so much so that it looked like snow in places. Dad had the woofy one, (because the woofy one is frightened of storms), so I was left on my tod with just Mr Vampire Teeth and the Velcro Twins to worry about outside in their enclosure.

At one point I had to race outside and rescue various cat litter trays, bowls, and bedding that were flying around the yard from where they are normally stored on a table near the cat enclosure. The poor cats were soaked through (with the exception of one of the Velcro Twins, who slept through the whole thing, inside a wet cat hutch), as was the floor and all the bedding inside the cage. They were not happy little vegemites!

They now have a large dog bed in their enclosure, as it was the only thing I could find after the storm that wasn't soaked through, to put in their cage that would be off the ground. Somehow I think my woofy one has lost his outdoor bed to the cats, good and proper. :-)

Ho hum. The weather gods are telling us to expect more storms this week, and that this is the beginning of the usual doom and gloom that we get every year at this time. We are, afterall, going into storm season, so the odd thunderstorm or five is to be expected, surely?

On a somewhat brighter note, we've had new babies born down here on the farm. Our Khaki Campbell (that's a variety of duck) has finally managed to hatch some eggs. She's only been trying for about five or so years....

So now we have a Khaki Campbell Mother Duck, who is followed around by five golden ducklings, and two khaki campbell-coloured ducklings (ie. brown). The other grown up ducks that she live with are of the white variety, which the five little golden ones will turn out to look like. 

Dad tells me one of the white ducks is also a girl, and the boy ducks, having seen that their "endevours" with Miss Khaki were evidently successful, are trying their luck with the poor white girl now :-)

Also, Dad's little pet hen has also delivered up some babies for Dad. They aren't actually hers, as she won't let any boy near her, but she's very broody, so when she went out for a forage one day, Dad got rid of her dud eggs, and replaced them with fertilised eggs from some of the other hens, which she dutifully sat on, and whaddayaknow? She hatched a bunch of babies that look absolutely nothing like her, but she was happy. Now she's in a strop with Dad because Dad has locked her out of the pen where the chicks are, because she kept turfing them out of the cage at night so that she could sleep in the warm!

We've not had any more lambs this season, but the ones we do have are coming on nicely. We are finally starting to build up some numbers, after losing many of them to wild dogs, floods, worms etc, over the past few years since the Jan 2011 floods.

Our greys are doing well now too, with two teams of dogs on the go at any time. Team 1 is the good team - two girls and two boys - and they will be racing early next year with any luck. Team 2 is made up of one boy and three girls. This lot is the injured, the sooky, the insane, and the frenetic, pretty much in that order. They have a long way to go before they come close to getting to Team 1's standards, but we are working on them. :-)

Afterall, they are only 17 month old pups, so basically kidlets still. Their mother is on season at the moment, so she has been sent to no-man's land (i.e the animal shed that is used for sick sheep, ewes and lambs, new puppies, scared horses, etc) until she comes off season, but when you go to visit her, she acts a little nuts, because it is quite clear she's a little lonely in there by herself. It's as if she is saying "Oh my god! It's a person! I have company! Oh wow! Will you play with me? Can we go for a walk? Can we go for a drive? Can we run around? I feel fantastic!" She'll calm down soon enough.

Anyway, storms are predicted again, so I'd best be off.