2011 brings pestilance of biblical proportions

I am deliberatly over exaduarating of course...but 2011 HAS kicked off with a bang here in the desert

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Earth quakes
We are now experiencing earth tremors daily, most are inconsequential, but on Friday we had a loud BANG! Followed by several seconds of deep rumbling..and much shuddering and shaking of the house...but NO damage.

Farm is intact!

I was moved to send an email to the “powers that be” to ask if the Augrabies earth tremors were being monitored and if so, what the scientific explanation for the recent spate of tremors was. Surprisingly I received a reply.
Yes the earth tremors are being fully monitored by the geo science department, Friday 7^th, measured 4.00 on the Richter scale [getting perilously close to the point where damage occurs [about 4.2] .

Although we are not on a fault line there is one in the Atlantic close to the West coast, about 400 kilometres from us. Augrabies suffered a similar spate of quakes in the 50`s and no undue damage was recorded. They say that there is evidence that suggests that a series of continually minor “events” [such as we are experiencing now], helps to dissipate a catastrophic event. I not sure that I am reassured by this.

Record of the seismograph picture that was taken of this mornings earthquake..IT WAS 4.2 !!!!

Indeed this morning. I woke to what felt like the biggest tremor we have had, bits were falling from the ceiling and Bongo was apparently quivering in the kitchen staring at the ceiling. Big managed to navigate his way to the bedroom with two coffees without having spilled any, and Little slept through the entire experience.
Mrs Smallie and her son ran from their house, white eyed and horrified and Mrs Smallie has told Moses she wants to move back to the family home in Pretoria!

Floods

The railway bridge across the Orange river at Kakamas

Added to this The Orange River is in severe flood again. South Africa has experienced unusually high rainfall over the past year, and all the dams are full so once again [as last year] the water management body, simply opened all the  dams way above us on the Orange river and today we reach the height of our floods. Littlke and I went and visited the bridge out of Kakamas to Upington yesterday, we sat on the railway brindge that runs paralell to the road and the water was only a matter of a few meters under our dangling feet. Normly there is a 30/40 METER drop!

Normally there is a 30/40 meter drop from the bridge to the water

Flooded vineyards

This has has a severe impact on the raisin farmers crops, which are a week off being harvested, and many farms on the huge islands in the orange river are now flooded and the crop has been destroyed. Those that chose to harvest early because of the flood reports, will have produce but it will be a very poor quality this year. So we have a reduced crop and poor quality..not so promising for 2011.

Grey Heron

Snakes
To add to this we have had our first close encounter with slitherers of the snake variety. Those of you on face book will have seen these photos before.

Spotted Bush snake

Little and I were undressing the Christmas tree, and had spent an hour removing all baubles and lights, then [as the tree is a fake on] I had started on the lower section removing the boughs from the central pole. Once these were all off, I simply had to pop the top section [which is all in one] from the pole. As I unpopped  it from the central pole , and lifted it up a snake threw itself from the upper section of tree...into the air and plummeted to the floor ,rapidly squiggling behind the sofa.
I DID SCREAM!..then shrieked to Little and the dogs to RUN...They did.
All of us stood ,panting in the heat and then Moses popped up. “Missus?” he said questioningly.
“Moses a slang in the house!!!” he looked worried and asked me how big..Of course I remember it being huge and stretched out my arms as far as they would go. His eyes were very white [Remember how he hates all squiggling, crawling, flying things.]
He asked me how thick it was, and I remembered that it really wasn’t that thick..he was visibly relieved..and went and poked around in the garage for a suitable tool. Returning with a length of thinish and very whippy plastic piping.
The two of us re entered the house and crept towards the lounge..Little and the dogs with their noses pressed against the big glass windows from outside.
Moses stood stock still..whippy pipe in hand, and so I assumed that it was up to me to turn the sofa upside down...no snake!..as I turned I noticed a tail squiggling by the opposite window. There it was a very long [about 90cm] bluish snake with black spots down its body length.
I have to say because of its colour and size I made an immediate assumption that it was a Boomslang, very shy snakes that live in tress [especially the vines at this time of year] and eat birds. They are deadly poison!
So it was with great relief that Moses gave it a serious slapping with his whippy pipe...he was so intent on murdering the creature that I had to stop him saying..”Moses its DODE” [ my Afrikaans is improving!!!
He lifted it by its tail and threw it onto a pile of sand outside, where we later inspected it. Having gone through the snake books it was is NOT a Boomslang, but a Spotted Bush snake and totally harmless.
I am increasingly surprised how many locals are as horrified by this story as I am..each one who has heard of the tale sais that they would have done exactly what we did, and everyone is surprised that it was in our Christmas tree.[ I still wince when I remember it flying out]. The consensus is that I probably brought a hibernating spotted tree snake into the house when I erected the Christmas tree..which has ..after all..been in storage in the garage for a year. But this means that the spotted tree/bush snake had spent his last Christmas with us in the house...YIKES!
So we are now waiting for  locusts, famine and war.

Sitting on the railway bridge last night just before sunset..feeling chilled!
[Today the railway bridge us under 1 meter of water]