A flooding emergency

This week: A flooding emergency; Mopping up operations; Progress in the polytunnel;

Sunday started off as a very pleasant day. Just before lunch I took my parabolic microphone and digital recorder along the old donkey track, to try and record the first Nightingale arrivals.

I failed. The problem was that two of my felines also wanted to enjoy a sunny walk. The result was a chorus of avian alarm calls, telling all and sundry within earshot, that apex predators were abroad…

In the far distance I could hear a Nightingale, but too far away to record. I’ll have to try again, but only once the weather improves.

I have to say I am fed up of the winter weather this year!

By lunch time the cloud was rolling in. However with a lot of lemons, I decided to make some Lemon Drizzle caked. Outside it was just plain drizzle.

These are super easy to make and 50 minutes later they were out of the oven. I took the large one over to my neighbours to share over a coffee. Sharing is caring.

It has been cool and damp since October. The past few years have been warm into November, then by mid February the sun has returned and with it, the warmth of spring.

Here we are in the middle of March and this week has been wet all week. It’s not been cold, just cool, damp and unpleasant.

So the result has been that I’ve done little to nothing outside, or in the case of Tuesday and Friday, nothing at all outside.

I have recorded 67mm of rain this week, or in local parlance, 67 liters per m². There are a lot of square meters in my orchards, so I have received a lot of litres of rain.

We are still under the average for this point in the winter, however there are another three weeks to go to the end of the winter.

That is no bad thing because by the summer almost all soil moisture will have gone, so more rain now means less irrigation later.

However when I look out of the windows and see wet roofs; when the felines come in completely bedraggled; when the nearby island of Brač is hidden behind a curtain of rain and mist; and there are a shed load of jobs piling up outside, I feel frustrated.

Being wet, I have taken few photographs this week, so you dear reader, will have to make do with a “lot of wurds”…

A flooding emergency

Two full days this week and a bit more besides, have been taken up with drying out the workshop.

One recognised effect of climate change is that the human caused rise in greenhouse gas emission is causing an increase in both the frequency of meteorological events and their intensity.

I knew that this week was going to be wet. On the island’s weather Facebook group on Monday, I posted a warning of heavy rain overnight, but the intensity took me by surprise.

It was raining by bed time on Monday and all the felines were inside because the rain was being driven by a south east wind as well. They don’t like rain, but really hate rain and wind.

Rain “beating a retreat” on my roof tiles woke me around 3am. Then the thunder and lightning started and for a 30 minutes period there was a sound and light show outside, combined with torrential rain.

On Tuesday when I looked at the data from my weather station, there was a period during the storm when the precipitation rate – the rate that rain is falling – was in excess of 40mm per hour for a 20 minute period.

55.3 mm of rain had fallen by the time the rain stopped around 09:30.

After last week when I had rain water seeping into the floor socket box, I was concerned. When I took a look, I had more rain water in the box. I was not happy.

However it was much worse than that.

Once down on the ground to dry out the box, I could see more water. In fact a lot of water all across the north side of the workshop.

The problem was that I have a door in the north wall – a bit of forward planning in case one day I have a garage there – and that was where the rain had driven in.

A check outside showed the cause.

The area around the door was completely sodden and the high intensity rain event meant that the rain was not absorbed by the soil and ran off.

The runoff then pooled outside the door, eventually overtopping the step and running into my workshop.

Mopping up operations

Fortunately the floor is not completely level, so the water was confined to the back half of the workshop.

My first job was to pull everything out of the workshop in the wet area and mop up the water. In places there was between 5mm and 10mm, together with soil which had washed down with the runoff. I removed more than 12 litres of water in the mop bucket.

Very fortunately nothing has been irreparable damaged. All my big tools are on plastic casters, so it was just a case of drying up, then moving them to a dry area.

In one corner there were several cardboard boxes where I keep the summer chairs and cushions. I am delighted that after use, I always put the cushions back in their plastic bags, so the outside plastic bags were damp, but inside they were untouched.

The cardboard boxes are write-offs, but will provide more weed suppressant in the orchards.

Once I had the floor dried, I brought in my dehumidifier and have been running it 24/7 ever since.

When I checked on Saturday morning, the inside of the workshop no longer felt damp, although the floor still looks a little damp in places.

Next week when we will have sunshine again (finger’s crossed), I will be able to open the windows and doors and get some air moving through.

In the long term, I need to do something about drainage on the north side of the workshop. I’ve never had this problem before so I had not anticipated the workshop would flood!

Progress in the polytunnel

At least the temperature outside has been above 15°C this week. When it is pleasant outside, in the polytunnel it is positively tropical.

The moment there is some sunshine, the temperature inside rapidly reaches 30°C.

The problem is that heat, moisture and longer days means increased weed growth. However there is good news. Bigger weeds mean that they are easy to pull out by the roots.

Last autumn, I potted up some strawberry runners. This week I cut the stems now that each floret has rooted. They now need to be planted in their permanent bed.

The herbs have survived in the border and are starting to grow well. After pulling a few young weeds out, I came away smelling of mint and chives.

It’s time to start planting tomatoes I think… NCG