Thursday 27th June 2007

Gerard has been away for two weeks in Queensland.I stayed home as someone needed to be here for the animals! I had a great two weeks taking the dogs for their walks each day I vowed to continue on doing this when Gerard got back, but alas I haven't. We had some heavy rain the first week and I was a bit concerned as the water created rather large puddles out the back of our place on the grass. Down by the water I noticed the water level had risen a bit covering some of the rocks near where we launch our kayaks.

A couple of days later and the water had gone down to it's usual level and I felt a lot better about it all. BUT.... the next week we had some more heavy rain and those little puddles were turning into little ponds. Gerard was due home on Thursday night 27th June, I was going to meet him at Bairnsdale station at 10pm coming back from Melbourne. I told him I was worried about the water rising and he gave me his usual speil about having the extra canals now so it won't flood!!! yeah right. I spoke to him on the Wednesday and that evening I decided to lift as much as I could in the Palace as I was rather concerned with the water rising. It took me a good two hours to move as much as I could up, I was buggared, my back and hips hurt so much I had to leave the rest. It was getting rather late, I took some strong pain killers and fell into my reclining chair to rest. I finally went to bed at about 3a.m. in my clothes!! of all things, I just did not have the energy to take them off!

It was an awful night the dogs were restless and it rained heavily. I had the dogs inside because the night before there was thunder and Millie our little dog was so upset by it all and was running around in the rain getting so wet, I tried to ignore her and Missy joined her too. My disturbed sleep was shattered at 8.30 on Thursday morning with the phone ringing. It was Gerard, wanting to know what was happening, was the water rising??? I did not know where I was as I staggered down the hall to get the phone and it took me a while to become conscious. I said I don't know what it is like as I have not been outside. Well go have a look! Gerard was flying back from Queensland at 10a.m. and wanted to know the situation before he left. I opened the curtains and opened the door onto the verandah and got the shock of my life!!! Oh ______ goodness gracious me!!! There was water everywhere. It had come over the brick wall and was over the car park and creeping up to our back fence. "Oh no it won't flood" is all I could hear!!! Gerard was saying "what, what, speak to me" I spoke to him for a little while and was in absolute shock as to what my eyes saw. We hung up after saying I will see him at 10 p.m. at the station.

While talking to Gerard, a couple who regularly walk their dog came by and as I hung up the phone, they asked me if I was o.k., did I need any help?? I said I don't know!..... They took over as I was in shock. Another couple who heard the water had risen came around to see if I was o.k. as they knew Gerard was not home yet. The four of them stayed with me the whole day taking charge. I am so grateful to them for helping me as I would have not been able to rescue all the heavy boxes in the garage of photo's, slides, records, stamping stuff and lots more that I had not got around to unpack and put in the Palace.

I hadn't had time to change my clothes, go to the loo, eat breakfast or even have a much needed drink of water and take my tablets. There were other things to do like ring the SES, the fire brigade, the shire to find out about sand bags. To keep the water out of the Palace. I also needed to go to the chemist to get some tablets I ran out of the day before. I really don't remember a lot of that day as it was so hectic.

Those wonderful people worked so hard for me and then the decision came as to leaving the house as the water was going to come up under the house for sure.

You know when you talk about things like, "what would you take if you had to leave your house in an emergency?" or "what three things would you take if you were going to stay on a deserted island for three days?" Well you have time to think about it and make your decision.

Claire said, "well come on Jill you need to pack some stuff to take next door, get going!" OMG what do I take???

Well because I was taking the dogs, their bedding and also at that point were taking the two cats too, so their bedding, cat food, then decided not to take them, they would be o.k. where they were. O.k. so mobile phone, the lap top of course coz I can keep in touch on the net, my camera, forgot the extra battery though! 6 pairs of clean undies (always the Girl Guide! Be Prepared!!) clean socks, two short sleeved Tshirts.. hey it is freezing cold of course you take short sleeved clothes with you!! I am not stressing, some track pants, pj's, sleeping bag... why do I want a sleeping bag?? there are beds there? Oh just take it in case says Claire lol.. I am so glad I did.

I looked around the house in a daze as it looked like a bomb site as we had raised the furniture inside the house also just in case the water got inside, and thought to myself "what do I take??? what means a lot to me???" I just could not decide. Mind you I looked at my newly aquired dragonfly plate, vase and salt and pepper shakers that cost me a fortune on lay by. and said nup!! what good are they going to do me?? I made sure my Cricut was up on the kitchen bench though!!

We take all this stuff to the house next door and as I look up at that stair case I think oh no how are my knees going to cope with these stairs!! Well my calves were sore for days, thank goodness I had lost weight as it was easier than I thought it would be.

The cat food came in handy for the dogs as I forgot to take some for them. They settled in well and were so well behaved thank goodness.

I will let you now browse down and have a look at the photos I took with brief descriptions. I have mainly focused on the Palace and will put other photos of the area on later on.

Don't forget to click on the photo if you want to see a bigger version!!

Here are the table and bench seats at the end of the car park. It is hard to see the brick wall beyond the table. Part of the car park is still above the water, opposite is Raymond Island.

The Purple Palace and garage sand bagged ready in case the water rises this far!!!.........

The Purple Palace, yes I know it is not purple, but inside is. Our driveway, our letter box, and the road going around the corner. On this side of the house you would not suspect a thing, it is like going through a tunnel (through the house) and coming out the back door to a different world.

At the bottom there are some pics of the palace when we put in the new carpet, you can see how tidy it was back then.