Not the FRENCH FRIES!
It's murder! The winds have been gale force in erratic bursts, like dragon's breath from the N, NW then SW through to SE. And today, though the temp was a bearable 26C, the NE wind was fanning flames back on dessicated vegetation.
Here in the Lower Hunter the front is 10-12km from me, but Port Stephens lies between us and I have the luxury of relative safety. Not so many of my family and friends who have been on constant alert, actual evacuation and tenterhooks for nearly a week now.
Relative Humidity on Thursday was 3%! whilst the temp was 37C!!!
Honestly, I really do count myself blessed! So, it sounds a little churlish to highlight my woes amidst such disaster. But I'd like to make a point - burned on the ass of this post!
My property is heavily treed - too heavily, but I've not yet the funds to remove the 3 or 4 20m ironbarks within 6m of the house. Subsequently, I awoke on Thursday and lived with branches raining down all day - actually, for 4 of the last 7 days.
I can live with this, it provides next winters kindling and fuel, but keeping up with water in such conditions... I'm on tank water and we've just had the driest August & Sept in decades.
That aside: I was raised in the bush; my father's half indigenous; water-wise is nothing new to my family! One tub of water... mum bathed first, my sister, my lil brother n I and then... hey, he's coloured anyway. You get my drift? I maintain 7 tropical freshwater aqauria with discus and exotic shrimp. Who bathes last these days... lol
I know these conditions seem unprecedented, but for crying out loud! data are as scant as the number of my countrymen who understand the ecological driver that mitigates against catastrophic extinction events - FIRE!
When we fail to fire frequently - slow, cool, controlled burns undertaken as the cornerstone of land management, husbandry (flora & fauna) and stewardship - we're as culpable as the householder who's... french fries erupt into a cauldron of disfiguring oil n flames as Shaz screams at the lil mongr*ls to stop storming through the kitchen!
In my own lil patch of Paradise, Worimi Country, terrestrial orchids, reptiles, birds, frogs, et al are all losing their battle to survive because of a lack of controlled burns that do everything, and more, from:
initiate germination;
eradicate woody weeds;
open the forest floor and grasslands to more light;
provide food as fresh new shoots, shelter as burned out hollows etc...
Light up Australia!