I Am Affected By the Weather

@hartfire We're in the Riverina area. On tank water but have mains supply as well, luckily. It'd be pretty rare for the Tweed Valley to be in drought, wouldn't it?

@Bushranger Aa - I remember visiting the Riverina many years ago. My Mum had an old school friend who lived there.
Such a different feel to the land - a different kind of beauty.

Yes - the Tweed is the wettest part of NSW - normally gets around 1500 mm rain a year.
The last drought here was in 2002 - and the oldest farmers called in the 100 year drought.
So it seems weird to everyone that this one is worse and comes so (relatively soon after.) We have had the odd sprinkle in the last few days - but it evaporated as soon as it hit the ground.

What are you growing where you are - fruit maybe?

@hartfire We're near Wagga, so mostly wheat and canola in terms of crops and sheep and cattle. Although olives have become pretty popular over the last few years. There's been about 10 years of bad seasons down here, but this year is a bumper crop. The local grain depot is putting in extra bunkers to deal with the crops.

Where did your mum's friend live?

@Bushranger Hmm - I saw something on ABC news about the bumper crops and the race to get the harvests into the silos before the La Niña hits. Such a relief after so much struggle for so long.
I wonder at the bravery, courage, toughness and endurance of so many farmers. Our world could not eat without them.

Mum's friend was Joan Bostock. She lived in Deniliquin for many years, close to the border with Victoria.

You never know in country life; everyone knows somebody's cousin or earth contractor or something. Small world.

@hartfire The name actually rings a bell, but I've not spent any real time in Denny.

@Bushranger The Bostocks were an old settler family in the Western District of Victoria with many cousins in the Riverina. The same with Mum's family - Whiteheads.

@hartfire There's a Whitehead lives in my town. Not sure where he's from, but I'll ask him next time I see him. I know he's from a farming family and had his own farm for a while. Lovely bloke, too.

@Bushranger The first Whitehead was a William who purchased a third of the Spring Creek Run near Hamilton in 1841. The rest descended from him. Most branches bred like rabbits, but not Mum's. Her dad, Norman Whitehead, who had the Wurroit homestead, was the eldest son of the eldest going all the way back. She was his first and only child; he never knew her because he shot himself in the head six weeks before she was born. I believe it was because his wife, my grandmother, turned out to be a scold and a drunk. For reasons unknown to me, all the other branches of the family were far more functional.