I'm officially fed up with the rain now. Today it started raining some time after 5pm (lucky I took my wellies and a rain coat down to the studio just in case, eh?) and in the intervening 4-ish hours we've had approximately 4 inches (just over 10 centimetres) of rain, in addition to the 33+ inches (over 80cms) of rain we've had this month according to our weather station. I think our position on the side of a hill near the sea definitely affects things: the clouds seem to dump their water on us, en route to Coffs Harbour, as our rainfall is noticeably higher than in town.
On the one hand, this is great! We have no mains connections of any kind so we rely completely on water draining off our roofs and into our water tanks and - extra advantage! - in this sort of weather we don't have to water the garden, no sir. On the other hand, it's a pain in the backside: our dirt track is both washing away and being eroded by a certain lunatic driver who lives next door, which makes getting in and out difficult; we're using LOTS of diesel for the generator, which is an unexpected expense; and everything is going mouldy...
The drainage works we had done at the end of last year have really helped and in fact we haven't had any mould until the relentless downpours of the last two weeks. This time last year I was going frantic, cleaning the furniture off every couple of days and despairing about the state of my shoes - if I've only started moaning about it now then things are definitely better than last year! But it's getting boring now. This morning I was woken by the unusual event of sunshine reaching into our bedroom, which meant leaping up and putting some washing on as we don't have an electric dryer. I managed two loads of washing, both of which dried in the 6 hours or so of sunshine that we had, but this evening I went into the back room and noticed all the cupboards have mildew on the doors, anything wooden has a thin layer of blue mould on it, and even the floor in the pantry is mouldy. Yuk. And there's not a lot of point trying to do anything about it right now: best to wait until later this week when apparently the rain will dry up a bit and we might have a bit more sunshine. Then I'll be able to open all the doors and windows and start washing everything down with vinegar, tea tree oil, oil of cloves and a splash of dishwashing liquid and hope that it all dries out.
5 comments:
is it bad that your talk of all the wet stuff is making me just a wee bit jealous? (we've had none of the downpours of everywhere else..... a grand total of 11mm only... garden is frying.... sigh)
Poor Ronnie! We've had nothing but rain for weeks and I agree with you about the mould. Arghhhh.... I have one dehumidifier that does its best but I''d really need half a dozen to make a difference. I'm just trying to keep my book binding leather dry but I think it's a lost cause. Sun is out today, fingers crossed it will stay fine for a while.
Sheez, really? mould? I imagine that I'll get it in Thora then, if you have it there, how will I keep the fabrics from going mouldy.....We haven't had rain for over 2 months, and on the last 1/4 of the water tank, garden is struggling.
Hello Busygnomes! Yep, you're going to be damp in Thora - it's sort of Humidity Central at the moment (and quite often). If you've come from a dry climate then welcome to the world of mouldy paper, mouldy books, mouldy clothes, mouldy leather shoes and gloves... A de-humidifier is really the only option although if you contact me off-blog I can tell you some other interesting things we've been doing to try and combat the damp! Sara x
We have similar problems in France, living next to the river. The humidity level gets to 100% some days and if I leave the ground floor door open, water condenses on the tiles and the whole floor is wet! Which then gets mouldy - ugh! The lesson I have been told by a long term resident is to a) dont open the doors and windows on the ground floor on humid days and b) dry your clothes in the attic as the french do.
We now have a dehumidifier that I use in our smallest room to dry clothes. It dries a whole roomful of clothes in a few hours! Highly recommended.
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