A New Measuring Device

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Posted on August 20, 2020

We used to have a rain gauge but we removed the last one when the verandah railings were replaced. Like most rigid plastic items which are exposed to the weather, it had become brittle with time and a couple of pieces were cracked/broken so we decided that we needed to replace it.

This did not happen immediately and time went by. Fast forward about 4 years and a couple of things have changed. The local Council have done some remedial work to the verge adjacent to our driveway where the water used to pool. This had been our unofficial rain gauge for some time but now that the water seems to run off properly the ‘rain gauge’ is no longer much use.

GMan received some money for his recent birthday along with a suggestion that he put it towards buying a new rain gauge. This was just the impetus we needed.

After considerable research he made a decision about which one to buy. One of the considerations that needed to take into account is that we can receive in excess of 250mm rainfall in 24 hours so the rain gauge needs to have substantial capacity. However, he discovered a digital rain gauge which does not need to be manually emptied but the amount of water passing through it is measured using the sensor.

The gauge with sensor is mounted on the pergola (top right-hand corner).

The information is recorded on the screen which sits conveniently on the kitchen bench.

As an added bonus, it also records indoor and outdoor temperature as well as the indoor humidity.

He is very pleased with the new rain gauge and all we need to do now is to wait for it to rain. The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a high chance of La Nina (significant rain event) occurring in 2020 so we will wait in anticipation. At least we are ready.

Camera, Internet and Rain

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Posted on September 17, 2017

I am sure you are scratching your head at the title of this post so I will explain what these three things have in common. There has been precious little of any of them and all are impacting on my ability to post.

The camera is currently being repaired and will be ready next week, I hope. It had been playing up for a while with the automatic flash getting stuck intermittently. This was becoming more of a problem so I decided to take it to be repaired because I want it in good working order when we head off overseas in November. So, I will use existing photos for any blog posts at the moment.

Our internet access (not NBN) is average at best but lately it has been virtually non-existent for hours at a time which culminated in minimal, very slow access for the past couple of days. It seems to be better at the moment so I am grabbing the opportunity to post. At least I haven’t had to resort to carrier pigeon! It is not as though we live in the outback – we are barely 80km (50 miles) from the CBD of the third-largest city in Australia!

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Speaking of things being non-existent – that is the state of our rainfall here at the moment, too. We live in what is generally regarded as a high rainfall area with reliable rainfall throughout the year, however, thanks to climate change it is becoming much less reliable. The type of vegetation which grows in area is dependent on regular rainfall so everything is a bit stressed. I have not planted too much in the vegetable gardens except beans which I am hand-watering. I am also watering the blueberry bushes as they are loaded with fruit at the moment and I want to make sure that I don’t lose that precious fruit. The kale just keeps on growing regardless of heat, cold, water or not. It is very resilient. I know that it will rain again but in the meantime the lack of rain is impacting on my enthusiasm for the garden. We depend entirely on tank water but we are in a better position than most as there are only 2 of us, we are generally fairly frugal with our water usage as we know what it is like to have very little and we have twice as much storage as most people in the district.

Thank goodness for a hose!

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The Backyard & Dinner

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Posted on February 20, 2015

We have been lucky here so far because while we have had a lot of rain of the past 48 hours we have not lost power. There has been a bit of wind but nothing of any consequence so I am hoping that continues to be the case.

The rain eased off for about an hour this afternoon so I shot this video of our backyard ‘lake’. I was standing on the verandah.

The view at the beginning of the video is where the water comes out of the drain which runs under our driveway. It is not much more than a trickle when I took this but earlier in the day you could have white-water rafted from the top of our driveway to the rainwater tanks if you were feeling adventurous! While some of this water is what falls on our property, the majority comes from the top of the escarpment which forms the rear part of our property, via a couple of substantial waterfalls, then heads down the roadway until it reaches a low point – the puddle near the western boundary of our place and the neighbour’s property and thence into the lake.

The ‘lake’ exists because the driveway of the property to the east of us creates what is essentially a dam wall. In 2011 the volume of water flowing into our property exceeded the available space and overflowed down the road, damaging the surface and creating problems for properties on the low side of the road. Ah, the joys of living on the side of a mountain!

Enough of the weather and floods. It is highly likely that we will get more rain over the next couple of days but as long as we do not lose power that will be fine. I have plenty of sewing to keep me occupied.

At the end of the working week it is time for a quick and easy ‘takeaway’ meal. Here is one of the pizzas I whipped up with some home-made bases that I partly cook and freeze. A few things from the fridge and here it is ready for the oven.