Flood

Wont be mustering to the yards from that direction for a while

Here we go again......
I'd put this flood at about a 1 in 10 year level in terms of effect, and its timing in that frame is consistent.
Checking Horizon's river level forecasting yesterday, after only 22mm rain overnight, the gauge about 10-15km upriver from here was showing a peak of 11.5 metres to occur at 8pm last night.
The really devastating 2004 flood was 13 metres, and the 2006 one, 10 metres, but we were still a bit unsure how much we could tempt fate so far as leaving stock out.
Even though the local rainfall wasn't great, you cant tell what the effect of the huge catchment upstream from here will have, and I have to say, Horizons monitoring system, rainfall, soil saturation, expected run-off etc, works pretty good.
At 6 metres and rising at the upstream gauge, we know we have 6-7 hours before the river breaks banks down here.

Scot doing a bit of aqua-mustering

The stud lambs are only a month old, but all the mobs got boxed and taken up onto the hill faces I spoke so glowingly of assisting the cow wintering.
The beef herd's right in the middle of calving, and one of those mobs we shifted, as it turned out, un-necessarily, and the dogs spent the night well above ground-level in the woolshed.
A visiting mare I was foaling for a friend, we arranged to go to Letham Stud up on the hill from here, and the yearling I was boxing turned out with a paddock mate.
After the 2004 flood, I dunno who it was, Min of Works I think, decided that there wasnt enough of a water-table along the road outside the farm, so they rebuilt the road 18" higher. I tried to talk them out of it, explaining if they they just cleaned up the road verge I'd be happy for the flood water to run free across the road into paddocks following its old natural course downstream.
But no...... it has to be one of the stupidest bits of engineering I've ever seen, the water stays dammed on the river side of the road, and runs through the family homestead that's been dry in every flood since it was built around 1920, and also through the horse stable.
The horses spent the night paddling ankle deep, but I'm confident they're safe around the stable paddocks, its just this infernal 4-6" that the road works is damming up that's really consigning the home I grew up in to be an elaborate hayshed.
Citizens of Wanganui ought to be careful about Horizons spending millions on city stop-bank works, in my opinion, engineers dont always get it right.
The best way to handle flood water is to watch what it wants to do, and let it do it un-impeded.
Keeping out of its way is the best strategy.
Now I wait for the flood water to recede so I can sort these mobs of sheep and cattle back out where they belong.
I'm grateful for the help of neighbours Malcolm and Cameron, shifting stock.
Not so for the young gawkers who farted up and down the road in their tractors this morning for no apparent reason other than the thrill of seeing if it could be done, and who helped themselves to a drive around my paddocks seeking an alternative to the impassible bits of valley road.
In the end I let them cut the boundary fence so they could get round, but I bet no bastard offers to rejoin the fence for me.