After Rain Hurrah Hurrah!

We have had a very wet February, & have watched our dams go from nearly empty to full in 24 hours, & overflowing in a week. Drought seems to go on & on, but it sure can be over fast! Since the big drop (75mm in 24 hours), we have had pretty good regular rain since, & I have only watered the vege garden & shadehouse twice, which is a nice relief too. We know, really know, the reality of "as happy as a pig in mud" - both pigs have enjoyed the mud immensely (but not the semi-permanent creek flooding through their house - they relocated themselves to one of the vacant chook pens!). The grass is green & growing madly, & the cows have stopped mooing everytime they see the ute in the paddock, so the expectation of hay being fed on demand has (temporarily) gone away.
I think the fruit season is just about over for us, & I don't quite know how many kg of poached white peaches are in the freezer (too scared to count, I think!), but it's a lot. Blackberries were pretty poor though, & the birds have beat us to the 2nd raspberry crop. Veges are all doing fine, & I took a tray of them into the Transition Towns Stall at the Markets last Saturday to help out, & it was surprising just how much could be contributed.
Chicken hatching/raising/moving is continuing apace, so some refurbishment with shadecloth of our small mobile tractor to stop little chicks getting out has happened, & all of the larger ones have been moved again. Most of the rats (but definitely not all) drowned in the flooding rains, & I have caught some more, so the problem is less, but not gone. There are 3 broody hens & 1 broody duck sitting on Orpington eggs in the main pen Chookingham Palace (where the rats are), & 5 broody bantams in Fowlmoral also sitting on Orpington eggs, & some more in the incubators, but this is the last group for this season.