Thursday, January 13, 2011

We Are OK

Thanks to all who rang or emailed wanting to know if we were affected by the horrific flash flood in Toowoomba. I had just left the CBD when the inland tsunami ripped through our main streets.


There are many You-tube videos of this inland tsunami's incredible force and  devastation  as it tore through Toowoomba., down the range to Grantham, Murphy's Creek, the Lockyer Valley and onto Brisbane.

I haven't been down town since as I have been glued to the TV for news of the floods in Brisbane and Ipswich where my children and grandchildren live.  All are fine with only my eldest son David and his family having to be evacuated from a low lying area in Ipswich.  His house was an old Queenslander, possibly about a hundred years old.  It was built  high on wooden stumps so the water only came up to the floor boards.  Those old timers certainly knew how to build houses to cope with all seasons.

The long term concerns for us are the food shortages after the state wide loss of crops and live stock.  The forecast is that prices for meat, fruit, vegetables etc. and petrol will increase.

So out comes the fork and shovel....it's time to get serious about my veggie garden.
For over 3 years now I have had a surplus of chokos and pumpkins that I have passed onto Freecycle members.  Mostly young families, single parents and aged pensioners.  This year I have also had a surplus of eggs from my little bantams that have helped  to stretch their budget a little further.  With the inevitable increase of prices for fresh fruit and vegetables an even larger variety is needed.  I suspect that we will all need to apply the same ingenuity that our grandmothers used during the great depression for quite some time....even if we have not been directly affected by the floods waters.  There is already a state wide ripple affect, so we need to be prepared.
First pumpkins of the year scrambling over a shed.

This years Chokos on my clothes line



2 comments:

  1. Hi Joan,I am glad that you post new blog,I was worried ,but don't have your number.Spoke with Char-lee and she is fine.We here on higher ground and didn't have any problems.But watching TV and see all of this poor people who lost everthing -it is hard.I am babysiting today and tomorow-my daughter and her hubby I helping with cleaning up.It will be hard times for all with prices going up,but we will survive as always.
    It is great to se how people are helping each others.I will go back to plant some veges again,I used to have some but water shortage stop me from doing it.Now -we have water but no food.
    I wish you all the best.
    Cheers Visnja

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Vi, so glad that you are not affected. I too had so many friends that I would liked to have contacted, but the word went out to keep the lines free for emergencies in case of an overload. Also the poles for some mobile services were impacted by the flood waters and we were asked to not use the mobile phones unless urgent. All had good family or neighbour support so I knew they would be fine.

    Stay well and happy gardening.
    Cheers
    Joan

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to comment. I will endeavour to reply to all comments, but if for some reason I am unable to get back to you, please know your comments are greatly appreciated.
Please come again....new content is being added regularly. Cheers Joan