Day Five - Still Alive ... A few Shakes in the Water...



Leaves in Liquefaction

 Day Five... Yes, still alive. Doing some helping out around the neighbourhood today. Our friend B from down the road had a huge well of Liquefaction, and a few of us helped out with the shovelling. Lots of comings and goings with the wheelbarrows, which really arent built to handle the solid loads they encounter. It took us a while, and it still isnt completely finished, will go and help out tomorrow too if required.
Liquefaction has to be the most unusual stuff. The consistency changes depending on if its shaking - vibrations just from moving the stuff from hole to the front of the section bring the water out of the core of the pile, and it dribbles into the gutter. The firm silt base goes to jelly when it is shaken, and if you put your boot in, its hard to suck it out. Its seriously weird. And it smells - in the morning, as the sun hits the piles, you can smell it, like a sulphury smell. Ick! Im sure there are lurgys that lurk in it, probably some ecoli and mushrooms... magic ones? Nah I dont know.

Still doing the seed collecting. Ive just made pumpkin soup - complete with bacon bones, which the kids loved. We had it for tea. I love pumpkin soup, not only do I get the pumpkin, but the promise of more with the seeds... yes, I know. I think Ive written enthusiasticallly about that before, havent I?...
Ive got some more capsicum seed this week too. Theyre both constants at the moment, while Miss 4 is happy to eat capsicums raw, I ll keep gathering up the seeds. And with Winter setting in, theres likely to be more pumpkin seeds too, cos Soup is cheap, filling and keeps us warm!

I was lying on the bed this afternoon, chatting to Mr EB when the earth shook. Funny - the door swung open, cats and children came thru the door! Ooh says Miss 4 That was a bit scary! It wasnt though, it was a tiddler! Theres been a few today, but thats nothing unusual. The thing I have been looking at, is that some of them have been in the water, near the shore. I wonder how that affects under the water - and the tides?  And the poor fish. Im picking it gives them a headache or two!! And does liquefaction affect what grows down there... hmm.

Another thing I noticed whilst making the soup today. Youve got to be really careful with the aftershocks and cooking on the stove. We almost lost the soup on the floor twice. Almost like the muffins I made and promptly dropped as I opened the oven to get them out. Mr EB wasnt phased at all... He picked them up with his hands and put them on the plate... Never to Mind he says. Bless him! I do love him dearly. Meanwhile I was fuming...
Well, theyre all gone, so they cant be so bad :)

Time to Wander Off and do some tidying for tomorrows events...
Landlords arrival emininent, and I hope to get some housemates...
Fingers xed. Id love the company!

All the very best to You!
Keep Warm
Love
EButterfly
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Shaky Porridge, Pussycats & Power!

We woke this morning from the depths of another murky sleep. I nodded off after midnight, and didnt wake until I heard the alarm. While lying there assessing the day, I heard distinct knocking. I thought it was someone at the door until I realised the sound was coming from the wardrobe... it was an aftershock - just a teeny tiny knocky one... All good.
Had just boiled water on the stove  - Power RULES! Ok! - when we had a good shake - 4.1 - things went sideways, including the cats, the porridge and the power wavered but didnt go... we huddled in the back door frame, ready to run under the table if we needed to ...whew. Thank goodness theyre so short though.
Once we had untied the knots in our stomachs, our heartrates had returned to normal, we enjoyed some Hubbards Berry Porridge ... the best breakfast ever! Glad to be here y'know.

ITS ALL RUBBISH!
Weve put our rubbish bins out in the hope they will be emptied. We heard on the radio, that the council are trying their best to get things sorted to return to normality. The shake happened for us, the day before our rubbish collection, so our bins were pretty full anyways...
The reality is that we all have varying amounts of broken glass, wrecked items to get rid of... and the city needs to be rid of as much rubbish as possible to alleviate the possibility of disease. That is one of the most serious of subjects, and with the sewerage system down - only 65% of us have water - we need to be  vigilant about this kind of thing...

MEDIA 

I tell you, it is humbling to hear on the radio and the TV about the efforts of others elsewhere. We appreciate it all. Honestly. From our hearts, the words Thank You are very small, but it is meant sincerely.

The fund raising, the food parcels, the help and assistance, the care and concern. Every little bit is important and valued.
If I can offer anything back, it is the advise --- BE PREPARED --- Get organized so this doesnt catch you like it has so many of us. Im fortunate, I was semi-prepared. I intend to do more research, more planning. I will be better prepared because of what has happened in Christchurch in the past seven days.. 

Dont forget your pets... In your survival kit, have cat/dog food. Dried is best of course, and dont forget to estimate water for your pet too when calculating how much water you will need per day. It seems to take cats especially (we dont have dogs) about a week to return, and they really are unsettled with each aftershock, but they come back if you are lucky - My friend Bee has had her cat back after six days. Ours (greedy pigs) came back for food the next day except for Zander who came back on day four. I guess we are amongst the fortunate pet owners. There are always tales of sad things happening. A lady along the road had two Tibetan Spaniels. She has not seen them since the quake. They bolted soon after the quake as their gate must have opened. Keep animals tied in if possible, so if this happens, your beloved animals are not away down the street... Our SPCA are flat out, and their shelters are full of peoples pets waiting to be reclaimed. Tens of thousands of people have left the city... 

Do you know where your furr-babies are?

Well, we are going back into it. The kids are going to help me sort out our kitchen cupboards, and then we are going to see if we can help somewhere down the street. There are only five or six of us left on this street, but we are keeping in touch and eating together... checking on each other. 

Love to all,

Blessings to You and Yours.

EButterfly

Day Six... We have Power...CHRISTCHURCH QUAKE UPDATES

Back online today, woo hoo!
Welcome to my little piece of Earthquake.
My Miss 4 and I were home on Tuesday at one oclock when I had just sat down after putting her to bed. She was tired, and was almost asleep. As the quake started, I ran through to her room, getting tossed very roughly into the door jam, whilst the door slammed into me from the other side. Ouch. I have a substantial bruise to show for it, but I got to my girl and got to the door with her, when another wave of shaking caused us to stop and draw breath in the doorway. We were lucky, we escaped and spent the rest of the day trying to steady nerves and get to the school to get my son.... Now we are through our first six days post Quake. Our city lies in ruins of twisted metal, concrete and bricks. There are missing, and at this stage, the numbers of dead climb as they are found amidst the rubble of the buildings in our central city. The country and the world waits to hear news of loved ones, and we wait to see what will become of our city, what the future will hold for Cantabrians. We stay strong because we have to be.
Photos will follow, I have many and varied, but for now, I have clean up to do, children to keep busy. School is closed for at least two weeks... Lots to do...

Things have been hectic, awesome, scary, sad, tiring and there has been a lot of waiting... so patience has been tested. We have our power back on today which is amazing.
We lost our water again though because after getting it back on day four, it was very slow pressure, due to local leaks, so theyve turned it off to locate them and fix it...
My toilet was  cracked right through the *S* bend, so I have a new throne (landlord is a plumber!)...
One of the things that is scarce in Canterbury at the moment, is toilets... toilet seats... and of course staples like flour/rice/milk powder... Lots of people are panicked about the prospect of further aftershocks, but honestly... preparedness is best. Thank god for my stored drygoods in my survival kit. There is still more I can have or do to be prepared, and by god or  by goodness --- next time I will be even better prepared!

God Bless the Salvation Army who arrived tonight and delivered to us, a much appreciated food parcel that was like manna from Heaven.
Also, BIG THANKS my darling extended family with their 20 litre water containers filled with Templeton water supply water that means it is clean and ready to drink. All other water is considered contaminated and needs to be double boiled - that is, bring to the boil, cool, then boil again before drinking... Or add 1 tsp of bleach per 10 litres of water, leave 30 minutes before using... Family arrived with these containers full, and delivered them down my street to my neighbours ... who are fantastic, and we have really seen each other right over the past six days.
THANKS to the darling men who stood at the corner in the sun today and cooked sausages in bread for us, giving away free sausages/bread/sauce/fruit and lollipops... So nice to eat something hot that you didnt have to cook yourself... and theyre back tomorrow... BLESS YOU!

HUGE THANKS!!! To ROCKGAS/CONTACT ENERGY for giving away - yes GIVING US FREE LPG... As people who have had to depend on LPG for their cooking/heating at the moment, this was AWESOME... Im so grateful, even if it took us 4 hours in line to get our bottles filled... YOU ROCK!

Ya know, its been a hellish week. The highs, the lows... theres been plenty of tears, lots of hugs, meeting new people, lots of giving, some taking, and lots of sharing. The best and the worst of it all.
Sometimes Ive found it so easy to get through the day but mostly Ive been constantly wondering what to do next. The instinctual thing kicked in for the first three or four days. Today I crashed. The adrenalin carries you only so far, and we are all tired and a bit stiff and sore.
But we are alive.
We have each other, we have food, and everyone is working together to help one another through. Its nice to walk down the street and see people getting out there to start clearing the liquifaction, or chatting to one another, clearing things, some helping to pack up to move on. Theres a lot of our street who have moved out for now... who can blame them? Not me. If I had somewhere to go, I might go, but then Id only have to come back eventually to face what needs to be done. For now Im good. We are the lucky ones. We have hope. And the sun is shining. We'll get there :-)

Love to You and Yours
Keep your loved ones close,

EButterfly
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