Life here is slowly returning to normal. Social conversations are still all about what happened and who was badly affected. Most of us – but not all, have our electricity back on and we can get where we need to go, although there are roadworks everywhere and a few detours still. The vegetation next to the rivers looks ravaged and huge trees are lying sadly on their sides with withered leaves. There will definitely not be a shortage of firewood here for a while.
Our water on the other hand is still quite disgusting
I put this water into the bottles 10 days ago hoping to be able to sediment out the sand and get clean water. To date there is very, very, little sedimentation and it still looks just as orange as when I bottled it. I have tried filtering it through cloth and coffee filters but nothing comes out. Ceramic jug filters just get blocked so they are no good either.
A city 100km’s away from us sends a huge truck filled with water to our town every day and we can collect water. For a day or two all bottled water in the stores was sold out but they are all fully stocked now. I looked at some prices for those who purchase their water – Pick ‘n Pay R18.95 for 5L, – Labamba R12.95 for 5L and Oasis, R13.95.
I use our purchased bottled water for cooking and drinking. Even Cleo and Savannah get bottled water to drink. We shower in the orange water but I just can’t bring myself to wash our clothes in it. Our laundry pile is quite huge. I met a lady yesterday who is taking her washing to Nelspruit (2 hours away) to get it done in a laundromat there. I will have to make a plan to get some washing done somehow as it does not look like this problem will be resolved in the very near future.
The small roads on and around our farm are in a state of disrepair.
These gullies will have to be filled with rock and sand to avoid further erosion when it rains.
Some good news though, is that our new baby giraffe is fit, fat and flourishing and survived the rains well.
The Slowvelder 
I’m happy for the giraffe family 🙂
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I hope things get back to normal real soon for you Jackie….
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Ek is bly dat jy nie so baie skade het nie, en jy ok is – ek vra ook soos een van jou vriendinne: hoe voel jy binne, het hierdie drama skade gebring of sal Jackie soos – altyd, ook dit kan verwerk en agter jou sit. Ek is so bly jy praat en vertel vir ons almal hoe vreeslik dit was! Lief jou my kind en kyk mooi na jouself! Mwah
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It’s a hard question to answer really. I am sure it must have changed me somehow but I still feel like the same ol Jackie. It made me remember how tough I really am and that I can cope with most things. It made me realise how fragile balance is.
After one week I noticed I was a bit nervous when I got into my car to drive – probably a little delayed shock after my bad drive through the start of the flooding. But generally I feel the same, have the same passion for my dream of becoming self sufficient (maybe even more so after this) I really really wish I had enough money to put up a solar system here. It will come I am sure – i just want to do it now – my typical impatient self 🙂
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This probably won’t help, but have you tried these methods of purifying your water? http://www.wikihow.com/Purify-Water I like your art and photos :o)
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Thanks Jeffrey. I took a look at the article. Right now I am not so worried about bacteria etc but just the colour of the water. Its saturated with very fine sand I think, which does not filter our with cloths. I think the point 5 using aluminium sulphate would probably work best for me. I must see about getting some – it may be a problem in our small town. If it works I’ll be thrilled because I can then do my washing. I wonder if I could use it in bulk to get clean water for my swimming pool. I just cant put the orange stuff into my pool and it is really low right now.
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Thanks Jeffrey. I took a look at the article. Right now I am not so worried about bacteria etc but just the colour of the water. Its saturated with very fine sand I think, which does not filter our with cloths. I think the point 5 using aluminium sulphate would probably work best for me. I must see about getting some – it may be a problem in our small town. If it works I’ll be thrilled because I can then do my washing. I wonder if I could use it in bulk to get clean water for my swimming pool. I just cant put the orange stuff into my pool and it is really low right now.
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Wow, that’s a lot of damage to deal with. Now you’ve got me worried about your water supply and laundry. Hope things regain their balance soon!
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It has been raining here in Brisbane for a week and there is some flooding around the state, but nothing like last year. The house we own that was flooded took almost a year to be fixed and there are still lots of buildings waiting to be fixed. It is amazing how much damage water can do.
I hope you get back to normal soon.
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Wow, it’s amazing to read that it’s water in those Coke bottles. Glancing at the picture I assumed it was orange juice.
Glad that things are, at least, beginning to return to normal
Hugs,
Kathy
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Thanks for the update, was wondering how things were progressing. If you just changed the labels on the bottles of orange water, you could be fooled into thinking it was Fanta! Good luck with continued recovery.
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thank you for the update …did you put a donation button on your site ?
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Hello native girl – no I did not put a donate button on my site but i did give out all the details.
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Water was one of the last things to get sorted out after the hurricanes down here in Florida, so I understand your frustrations. Hopefully it gets settled soon and you don’t have to take such inconvenient measures for your laundry and such.
Glad to hear the giraffe and other such animals made it thru okay.
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