New Zealand is in the grip of freak winter weather right now.  Whilst we are bitching and moaning about how cold, wet and windy it is I can’t help but keep thinking of the people who have really been affected by nature. This last week or so has been a testing time for the Pacific region.  A number of earthquakes and Tsunami have caused death and destruction in Indonesia, Samoa and American Samoa.

It’s been so sad to learn of the deaths and loss that has affected those communities.  Reading accounts in the papers or online do little justice to the real pain that people are feeling. I was struck by an interview held with the man whose wife died in the Tsunami in Samoa by Katherine Ryan of Nine to Noon where he gave a most poignant account of what happened and how he is living with this most recent loss.  Listening to this interview I got a real sense of how frightening the Tsunami was.

There have been freak sand storms in Australia basking Sydney in a bright orange glow.  Freak snow storms trapped around 300 kiwis in their cars after snow blocked roads. What’s more scary is that for once kiwi drivers were reported slowing down to account for the treacherous conditions as rain has buckets down today.  Now that is truly freaky.  Kiwis tend to drive in one mode, straight and fast with little regard for either the weather or their fellow road users.

Here at Domestic Executive HQ we’ve been dealing with a little flower bed flooding which is a regular occurrence.  It’s moments like this that I think I should build some levies or something but it seems a bit extreme as the flooding does of course subside reasonable quickly.

Our water tank is overflowing right now.  Literally.  I need to look into the seal around the overflow pipe which is clearly not holding as well as it should.  Neither are our water capture filters which are simply not big enough for when big rains come.  The water then just runs out and gushes onto the verandas.  What we really need is a bigger tank and bigger pipes but that’s a whole new infrastructure project I am simply not going to contemplate.

In the month I was in the UK we had a couple of short showers late in the day.  I think nature is paying me back now for going away as it’s certainly not holding back on it’s precipitation now.  You’d expect lots of wind and rain during Spring but not the extremely cold temperatures we’ve been having.  The wind chill brought it to a balmy -3 degrees today.  I even felt sorry for George who’s bach faces south and allowed him to be reunited with his ladies in the main chook house.

Talking of strange goings on.  Beep, my sickly chicken, took a turn for the worst.  After regaining movement in her poorly leg she promptly lost the ability to walk altogether.  thinking this is definitely not an injury I shook out my piggy bank and took her to see the vet who concurred and went into the bowels of his vet library to read up on chicken diseases.  His diagnosis was inconclusive as she is bright, perky with bright eyes, eating and drinking and all the other bodily functions are normal.  He thinks it is neurological though and although not optimistic of her chances thinks that she is a young strong bird who may just have an infection so we’re dosing her with steroids and antibiotics.

I was concerned to find out what was going on to make sure we check out for the right signs with the other birds who all seem fine.  We’ve decided to give her five days and review it then.  I suspect that we’ll end up losing her but I wanted to give it a go since we spent the money seeing the farm vet.  There is no doubt that I am becoming a regular face down at the vets although I was reassured that for the right reasons and not for being a neurotic pet owner.

Whilst I’m reporting on weird goings I’m delighted to report that Mason’s tail is improving and he is almost back to his usual self.  His tail has started to twitch regularly when you talk to him or walk by but it isn’t quite performing it’s upright trick yet.  I’m sure he’ll be fully recovered before very long.

It would be nice, real nice, if we got some proper Spring next week.  I’ve finally got myself organised and am ready to get fully operational as a Domestic Executive once again.