A country going from extreme to extreme. What a challenge it sets.

Today is the second day in a row that the temperatures here have hit the mid 40s in celcius.
My chooks are fretting, so I have soaked the soil beneath their favourite tree for them to lay on cool ground, changed their drinking water every two hours and added iceblock (see bottom photo) to keep it cool for longer.  They have had water sprayed on them to help keep their body temperature manageable.  Still they puff and pant with the soaring temperatures.  Then there is Snake our cat (no longer the sweet kitten) who is absolutely panting with heat stress.  We have bathed him twice and he is now laying on a tray with a wet bath mat in an attempt to combat dehydration.  Although he is weaned, I even resorted to giving him some electrolytes in a bottle just to boost his hydration.
Meanwhile, inside the house I am melting with no airconditioning.  Don't really like or believe they should be used if some more natural alternative is available.  So I have a large beach towel over the back door and continually wet it to make the breaze that comes in cooler.  A bit like an old coolgardie safe that my grandmother had for her meat in the old days.  I have a Chilli Band around my neck,  they are wonderful for reducing personal heat stress and am only glad I had a few left from my original sale stock. I originally designed these and began production back in the early 1990s, have sold so many lost count and if it wasn't so hot would be at the production table right now to make a heap for this season.  (perhaps when it cools a little)
Whilst all this goes on, parts of QLD  and Victoria are still going through the recovery process from floods as the second of two cyclones is due to collide with the QLD coast and there are fires raging across NSW.
Yes, we are a resilient lot us Aussies, no doubt.

Study and pressure

\Over the last 3 years, I have been undertaking a Permaculture Design and Sustainability course, in an attempt to become certified as a consultant in the field.  Further to this I have hopes of doing an ATT cert4 course to allow myself to become and accredited teacher.  What a journey this has been and what enlightenment it has brought me.  Just recently I began to tackle a unit that covers identifying weeds, pests and diseases in the system.  However I hit a snag when I was unable to identify 4 particular weeds.  So being the bilateral thinker I am, decided to post photos on as many of my networking sites as possible.  Next in line happens to be here, so if anybody out there is able to post a comment with a name for them, I would be a happy little permi indeed.

Australia in crisis

With so much of the land in the Eastern states of Australia struggling with floods, the people on this great land show their true colours.  So many have come forward with shovels and work gear in hand to pitch in with the clean up.  A monumental task, it will take years for the destruction to show full signs of recovery and still we are being battered by storms and rising waters.  The most amazing story to arise from this whole scenario comes from a small town to the mid north of Victoria.  Deciding that emergency services were already stretched and they couldn't just wait for help to arrive, the townfolk took it upon themselves to build a massive levy bank around the entire town as well as the big power station.  Their aim,  to keep the town dry and save the power station from total destruction.  How did it fare?  Let me tell you, these people need to be written up in the history books, because it worked.  Not one house got wet and the power station is safe. No, the waters haven't yet receded, but so far so good.  The broadcasts about the floods have been extensive and non stop, keeping everybody up to date on conditions and where emergency evacuation centres are.  Three cheers for the media for their efforts.  Without adequate warnings, many more people may have perished and many more families would be grieving.  My thoughts and prayers go to those families who now carry the sadness of losing loved ones.  Another heart wrenching story arose, it came in the form of a brave lad who made rescuers save his little brother first.  Upon their return for him, he and his mother had been swept away.  This young lad had such great love for his brother he sacrificed himself to see his brother to safety. Nobody can ever put words to this story that will do him justice.  I can only pray for his family that they cope with the loss.  To the world at large, we are doing it hard, it will take many years to recover, rebuild and re energise our homeland.  We have not only lost homes and loved ones.  We have lost food crops that would have fed our poplulation for the next year or more.  Our farmers are our lifeblood, they have endured many years of drought when crops would not grow and stock had to be put down for lack of food and water to sustain them. They have endured loss through bushfires and now through devastating floods.  Yet we are a strong nation and yes,  we will stand up and rebuild all that has been taken.  We are Australians.