Fixing Things

I have spent the last two weeks fixing things after the heavy deluge saw record floods at Possum Valley.  Cyclone Marcia crossed the coast as a category 5 early this morning, and is rampaging inland.  I have no doubt other people will be spending some considerable time “fixing things” as well.  Australia’s climate has always been noted in having a high variability index, being a land of extreme conditions, and it may well get worse.  From a “Sunburnt country, with droughts and flooding rains”, to all that plus being blown and blasted away.  Blown by cyclones and the floods here were from a whole train of thunderstorms in a few hours blasting me away.  Once again a naked man dashing around the house in the night, pulling out electrical connections to avoid being blown up.

Sure, you can always debate data, and the conclusions drawn from that data, and science always does.  There is dubious research and confusion in the fog of statistics, but the avalanche of information clearly indicates that global climate change is happening to you and me, and it is here and now, at a corner store near you.  And Australia is particularly vulnerable.  Perhaps not quite as much as many of our Pacific neighbours whose countries might disappear entirely, but on the endangered list. And what are we doing about it?  Sandbags.  Much media coverage of people and council workers filling sandbags.  Expect a lot more sandbags in the future, because little is being done to treat the causes, only palliative treatment to alleviate the symptoms.  A major cause of extreme weather events is clearly man’s tinkering with the atmosphere.  Our present government clearly thinks a BAN (Business As Normal) is the appropriate response.  Keep filling the sandbags.

My own feeble efforts to fix things include firmly fixing the steel ram pump down pipes using rock bolts.  This means drilling holes in rock.  Hard rock.  Just 10m away, the same rock laid down at the same time (about 400,000,000 years ago), is weathered by chemical erosion and I can hammer in 20mm by 200mm spikes with a sledge hammer.  It took me a morning and 2 destroyed rock drills to make 2 holes. I sincerely hope that my latest effort is successful in flood-proofing the pump because ITOFTS  (I’m too old for this shit).

I have spent the last two days repairing roads. Dear reader, I know that such a thought has never entered your head, but just for a moment imagine that you cant go anywhere because your road is trashed, and that you have to do something about it.  No one is coming to help.  The gravel has been stripped, and gullies have torn the driving surface so that cars will bottom out and wheels spin uselessly on slippy clay.  The whole profile of the road has to be changed so that the next downpour will divert the water off the road.  Fortunately, I have a little 17 HP tractor with a 4 ft back blade.  I can angle the blade and pitch either side up or down to cut and grade soil onto the road to reshape it to a nice round camber to get the water to run off into drains either side.  Then all that is required is to resurface it with gravel.  For this I use equipment commonly known as a shovel.  I take my old ute to my gravel stockpile and shovel a couple of tons on, drive it to the road and shovel it off again.  It is distressing how little coverage a couple of tons of gravel actually gives you on the road.  Rest then repeat until the road has a thin veneer of stones.  Roll it flat by driving over it, then collapse in a heap.  Yes, all you people uselessly jogging around parks and expensively pounding treadmills, I have the perfect accommodation for you.  Shovel provided.

This recent onslaught of nature has cost me little but time and effort.  I have no doubt that Marcia will have cost many people much more.  Lend a hand to a neighbour when they need it.