what a storm :-(

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by bazman, Nov 30, 2005.

  1. bazman

    bazman Junior Member

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    Hi All

    I'm a little water logged here, had 78mm last night and 35mm the night before, which is good, but not so good when it hits the house side ways....

    Last night we got hit big time, smashing trees, taking out power and phone lines, down stairs had water leaking and the garage had water pouring through it (garage is part of the house)

    We have pretty good drains and I think the light flooding was due to large amounts of heavy rain.

    My orchard and vegi garden got hit but was in pretty good shape, but due to the very wet ground one of the mulberrys was push over but did not break, it's now been supported as with a few over trees.
    https://www.soulkeeperproductions.com/ba ... lberry.jpg
    https://www.soulkeeperproductions.com/ba ... garden.jpg

    The more formal area of my garden is what really got it, I "had" a wonderful sheeoak tree which had another tree climbing it, these two shaded the house in summer and shaded the front grass area.
    https://www.soulkeeperproductions.com/ba ... heeoak.jpg
    https://www.soulkeeperproductions.com/ba ... eeoak2.jpg
    https://www.soulkeeperproductions.com/ba ... eeoak3.jpg

    We also had some major gum trees break up too, so I have been quite busy with the chain saw this morning.
    https://www.soulkeeperproductions.com/ba ... eescut.jpg
    https://www.soulkeeperproductions.com/ba ... tamess.jpg

    I have to go back outside and keep cleaning up, maybe if a close my eyes and make a wish, someone will clean it all up for me :lol:

    Oh and I have to go next door and help clean up their yard too, ahhhhh

    See you Saturday if your dropping by. (bring ya gumboots)
     
  2. baldcat

    baldcat Junior Member

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    hell bazman, thats looks like it was a hell of a storm... You Queenslanders know how to have em :)
     
  3. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Bazman,

    I am sorry to see and hear of your devestation. It looks depressing. But chin up! In a few years it will look much better, and opening up the canopy a bit should give you places to plant other trees!

    I say all of this because we got hit by Hurricane Iris in 2001, which flattened half of 13 years worth fo agroforestry work.... It was disorienting, looked like a bomb went off, and depressing. There wasn't a leaf on a tree as far as the eye could see. Ugggh, and the work to clear out all the damaged trees (firewood for years, though :lol: .

    Today the place looks fine.

    (Incidentally, we built out house mostly out of blow done chainsaw milled lumber, might be an option for you, tho I don't know the species).

    Wish i was there to help...

    C
     
  4. forest

    forest Junior Member

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    Hi bazman, sorry to hear about the damage. We were on the edge of it yesterday. We got thunder and lightning but no wind, hail or rain. Looks like there's more on the way. I just cheked our weather radar.

    https://mirror.bom.gov.au/products/IDR082.loop.shtml
     
  5. sab

    sab Junior Member

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  6. derekh

    derekh Junior Member

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    Looks like we're in for another one .... this is from the BOM website
    ---------------------------------------------
    For people in the
    Capricornia,
    Wide Bay & Burnett,
    Darling Downs & Granite Belt and parts of the
    Central Highlands & Coalfields and
    Maranoa & Warrego Forecast Districts.

    Issued at 3:54 PM Wednesday, 30 November 2005.

    Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce large hailstones, damaging winds and very heavy rainfall in the warning area over the next several hours.

    Major locations within the warning area include Warwick, Toowoomba, Dalby, Goondiwindi, Gladstone, Rockhampton and Roma.

    The State Emergency Service advises that people should:
    * Move your car under cover or away from trees.
    * Secure loose outdoor items.
    * Avoid driving, walking or riding through flood waters.
    * Seek shelter, preferably indoors and never under trees.
    * Avoid using the telephone during a thunderstorm.
    * Beware of fallen trees and powerlines.
    * For emergency assistance contact the SES in your local government area, listed in the White Pages under either State Emergency Service or your local council.
     
  7. forest

    forest Junior Member

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    yes widgee.
     
  8. bazman

    bazman Junior Member

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    I have been working like a mad man all day and to finish it off I did two hours next door until I ran out of light, their hedge got blown over as it was top heavy.

    Yeah I can see it on the way and I can hear rumbles in the background.

    Looking at my front yard I have noticed a bit of a hole where the tree was, which used to block out the road and give the house shade in the afternoon in mid summer.

    I have been thinking about building a trellis 15cm off the wall and growing passionfruit up it, its on the west side of the house and would be two stories high, so it would be a 9m x 6m (roughly) area to cover. This would hopefully shade the house in summer and give back some fruit in the process, think it would work on a west wall? The brick is a light yellow.
     
  9. Veggie Boy

    Veggie Boy Junior Member

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    Bad luck Baz - we got the same storm as you - but we copped the hail and got 100mm - that was on top of 90mm last Friday night. We have a gully at the lower side of our place. It flooded big time and brought all the crap with it - bringing down the fences.

    Can see I have lots of work here to stop erosian in future - reckon we lost about 10-15 cubic metres of soil over last week from our back corner (a slopey area I am yet to vegetate) and one of our banks.

    Widgeenut - we are in SE Qld, but not Logan or Ipswich. We are north of Brisbane. The storm that Baz and I got was a different one to that which hit Logan yesterday. There were about 4 good ones going at once in SE Qld yesterday arvo. More forecast every day until Sunday. Batten down the hatches.
     
  10. Guest

    hi Baz - only just found this. Still looks lovely, but can see you have put in a heap of hard yakka.

    What a shame you don't have goats. They'd love it!

    Dunno how you wound up having to clear your neighbours block too - but you must be a good bloke.

    I think the lattice sounds like a great idea...but I have no idea about east/west facing stuff. Have heard folks refer to it. I just put things where they are needed... I have passionfruit growing in all directions! And they all fruit, and do ok. They will drop off in fruit after 5 years anyway.
     
  11. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Hay, baz and veggie boy,

    How tropical is it where you are? Vetiver grass is a fantasti grass to use in anti erosion work. It has deep roots (over 2 meters!), and does not seed, has no history of being invasive, and the rootsa make a nice oil (so I have read) that is maretable. It is not suitable for forage, though....

    Good luck on soil retention and coping with your difficulties.

    Christopher
     
  12. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    They are sort of subtropical there, right guys? Vetiver grows well there. Or what about some nice bamboo? Might help mitigate some of those increasingly ferocious storms.
     
  13. sab

    sab Junior Member

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    I got stuck on the roof during one of those storms in Widgee (Qld) - man was I freaked out. I had thongs (jandals, flip-flops, slippers - whatever others call them) on and the roof was too slippery to move on. The storm came so fast I couldn't get back to the front of the house where the ladder was. Lucky my daughter was there with me and she heard me yelling and brought the ladder to the back. The last big thunderstorm we had in Manila blew up our TV and 5 lights. Fortunately I'd unplugged the fridge - the tv was unplugged too but the cable got hit.

    I had a bit of a sick feeling when I read this post, wondering where it was.
     
  14. Veggie Boy

    Veggie Boy Junior Member

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    Christopher - Funny you should say that, beacuse vetiver is exactly what I am likely to use. Last year I found a supplier of Monto Vetiver here in Qld (sterile variety), but never got around to getting any, because I had to travel about 4 hrs round trip to get it. Will try and make contact again this year, bit the bullet and go get some.

    Will need heaps though - so will have to propagate through division for a couple of years to get enough, cause I reckon about 50-100 plants in my initial purchase is about my limit in terms of budget.
     
  15. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Veggie Boy,

    We were lucky, theres a really nice guy here in Belize, Don Tompson, up near Caves Branch (three hours drive from here) who contacted me through this forum to tell me he had vetiver, and I loaded up the pan of my truck twice. He gave me as much as I wanted, and told me to come get more any time...

    I have to go up to various fuictions or pick stuff up in the City, so I stopped in to collect a second time and visit with him. I dropped off some fruit from our farm, as well as some seed for the inga edulis.

    He has done some amazing terracing and rows near his house, and crops tomaotoes, okrah and cabbages (when I was there) in between.

    There was initially a lot of vetiver brought into the country, but most of it was not tended and died. This has happened on so many cool things brought in, lately the fetida (sp) earth worms, which were brought in at huge expense, handed over to people who were not really interested, and died... :cry: we were supposed to get some from some of the EARTH WORM KILLERS! Dawn built a worm composting bin with a guinea pig house above it, next to our new kitchen, I went up north to pick some things up, including earth worms, and found out they had all died...

    Anyway, vetiver shouldn't cost too much, and it will be ready to subdivide within a year... 50-100 plants should get a lot done!
     
  16. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    Yeh, It multiplies very rapidly.
     

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