Friday night 21:30, 16th September
I was standing in the kitchen and heard a funny crackling sound. I looked at Coral as we could hear a crackling whoosh followed by a big thump that shook the house. All in all it was fairly quiet. Gordon didn't even hear it, standing beside the TV.
The shake of the house was what told me that it was a tree fall and I knew it wasn't too far away. Quickly, we grabbed torches and went out to investigate.
By night we ascertained that Coral's car was okay, the only damage would be superficial, the nursery was basically a write-off and then our attention turned to the Hiluxury. After climbing through a mess of branches, leaves and massive limbs I managed to torch right around my precious 1996 dualcab ute Toyota Hilux buried underneath it all. So far, so good, although we would have to find out for sure in the morning.
Yet, I had to get to the market by 6:30 in town.
At first light I surveyed what I could and took photos. I counted my blessings that at least I had most of my plants packed away in The Peu (the irritable and whimsical 2005 307 Peugeot) and market trailer. Any other day and all my plants would have been in the nursery! Plus The Hiluxury still looked like it was okay.
After showing photos to those at the market I received two very kind offers of help, The Hiluxury was in need of a rescue and my chainsaw was badly in need of a service. More rain is expected this week and without the Hiluxury, we may become isolated by mud and/or floodwater!
So Saturday afternoon the cavalry arrived, in the form of Phil with chainsaws "Eric" and "Big Pedro" (actually I never found out Big Pedro's name ... I made that one up, but I decided to dub him that!), plus Justin and Leanne with their chansaw. Within the hour we had the Hiluxury freed and amazingly unscathed, just a few minor scratched and two very superficial dings! No broken windows, not even a punctured tonneau cover and running just fine!
Monday morning, Joey arrived to help with the rescue and recovery of much of the nursery. A few expensive trees are gone, some are recoverable but unsaleable and others are actually okay after a bit of pruning, repotting and restaking.
All in all we were very lucky and we have the bonus of a massive Red Stringy Bark that we would like to cut into slabs for our kitchen bench, some good sized posts for our front gate and plenty of firewood for the next few years.
The shake of the house was what told me that it was a tree fall and I knew it wasn't too far away. Quickly, we grabbed torches and went out to investigate.
By night we ascertained that Coral's car was okay, the only damage would be superficial, the nursery was basically a write-off and then our attention turned to the Hiluxury. After climbing through a mess of branches, leaves and massive limbs I managed to torch right around my precious 1996 dualcab ute Toyota Hilux buried underneath it all. So far, so good, although we would have to find out for sure in the morning.
Yet, I had to get to the market by 6:30 in town.
At first light I surveyed what I could and took photos. I counted my blessings that at least I had most of my plants packed away in The Peu (the irritable and whimsical 2005 307 Peugeot) and market trailer. Any other day and all my plants would have been in the nursery! Plus The Hiluxury still looked like it was okay.
After showing photos to those at the market I received two very kind offers of help, The Hiluxury was in need of a rescue and my chainsaw was badly in need of a service. More rain is expected this week and without the Hiluxury, we may become isolated by mud and/or floodwater!
So Saturday afternoon the cavalry arrived, in the form of Phil with chainsaws "Eric" and "Big Pedro" (actually I never found out Big Pedro's name ... I made that one up, but I decided to dub him that!), plus Justin and Leanne with their chansaw. Within the hour we had the Hiluxury freed and amazingly unscathed, just a few minor scratched and two very superficial dings! No broken windows, not even a punctured tonneau cover and running just fine!
Monday morning, Joey arrived to help with the rescue and recovery of much of the nursery. A few expensive trees are gone, some are recoverable but unsaleable and others are actually okay after a bit of pruning, repotting and restaking.
All in all we were very lucky and we have the bonus of a massive Red Stringy Bark that we would like to cut into slabs for our kitchen bench, some good sized posts for our front gate and plenty of firewood for the next few years.
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