Heading for Higher Ground

News flash!

• Lake Parents Retreat reappears.
• New lake discovered.
• Spring flowing after five-year drought.

Need I say more?

The weather over the past week has been damp and dismal. There had been warnings about possible flash flooding but we weren't worried. Last year, we had a lot of plumbing work done to fix the problems we had had with water coming into the house and we had survived the heavy downpours since then. Until yesterday ...

I left home in the afternoon in torrential rain. Water cascaded off our roof and over the gutters. Rivers flowed down the footpaths and streets, carrying away debris and converging in pools in the gutters and troughs in the road. Dams formed as dirt and leaves were swept into piles against fences and garden edges. Unfortunately, a dam also formed at our side gate that has a board nailed to the bottom to stop the dogs crawling under. So when I returned home I found Lake Parents Retreat, like Lake Eyre, was full of water. But this wasn't the pool that we had formerly seen; the lake filled every corner of the room.

What we had not previously known was that Lake Parents Retreat is part of a greater lake system that includes Lake Main Bedroom and Lake 'whatever you call the area between the main bedroom and the ensuite'. The entire carpeted area from the parents retreat to the ensuite is soggy and squelches as you walk across it.

And the back room that has remained dry since the ag drain was installed? It's flowing again.

Luckily our insurance company were able to arrange help for us. However, we couldn't sleep in a room with wet carpet underfoot so we moved into the guest room (aka my study). Funny how it's the 1980s extensions that have been causing us problems, not the 1920s Federation cottage!