As we age, we often rely on the problem-solving methods we’re most familiar with when things go wrong.
One cold morning, it was -6°C, and I had no idea the vent pipe for our old hot water cylinder on the roof had burst. When I got home from a staff meeting on Friday, water was everywhere. My partner had slept through the sound of water pouring onto the roof all night. The next morning, while I was still asleep, he went to check. Because I am a deaf senior with disabilities, I didn’t notice anything until I saw him on the phone. He told me he had turned off both the hot water cylinder and the main water supply. Getting someone to come out over the weekend was expensive, so we decided to wait until Monday to fix it. That morning, I stayed home except for a short interview with a friend for his project.
We’ve learned many tricks for handling problems. We use secondhand materials, make our own tools, save water, and always keep food, meat, and vegetables stocked. I picked up many of these habits from my late grandparents, my great-grandma from Christchurch, her sister, my aunty, and great-uncle Fred. My partner has his own skills from his past, so we’re both handy around the house. Over the weekend, we noticed water missing from the big tank, probably because we washed the dog blankets. Maybe someone from the Waikato District Council checked the trickle or drip water line and forgot to turn it back on to refill the storage tank. Someone else also said their water storage tank was empty. I filled three buckets just in case and bought extra water containers from the supermarket. You might wonder how we manage toilet flushes or showers. We don’t live in the city. We’re in the country, and our nearest neighbours are a kilometre away.
In some parts of the region, temperatures dropped to 5°C, but for us it was -6°C. The last time we had such a heavy frost was -4°C in 2016.
The world is changing quickly with more flooding, bushfires, and landslips. Many people aren’t prepared or don’t notice these changes. Sadly, some choose to live on clifftops for the view or near rivers in the bush and cut down trees to get a better view. We don’t do that. When we moved into our home, it already had plenty of storage and a large section with several trees. The first thing I did was plant more trees along the stream and around the property to help with windbreaks. Our neighbour is a farming family with few trees and less conservation land. Sometimes the farmland isn’t cared for as well as it could be. It’s important to know which tree seedlings are best for the soil, whether they hold the ground, have space for roots, or grow fast or slow. Most trees, including wilding trees (self-seeded invasive pines and conifers), Eucalyptus, gorse, and certain conifers such as junipers, pines, and cypresses, are highly flammable.
More than forty-eight hours ago in Tibet-Nepal, a glacial lake burst, triggering a catastrophic flash flood. The flood swept down the river between two mountains and destroyed every home, hydropower dam, road, and village, without warning anyone. The disaster was triggered by a massive glacier collapse on Langtang Lirung in northern Nepal, near the Chinese border. The resulting wall of ice, rock, mud, and water surged over 80 kilometres downstream, destroying roads, bridges, and hydropower projects along a 170-kilometre stretch.
More than four thousand people are missing, including tourists from other countries and New Zealand. There is a young couple missing from our region – Hamilton and they run a small business on the other side of the river in Hamilton City.
“We mourn with every family that has lost a loved one; we stand with those who are still waiting for news, and we grieve with communities whose homes and livelihoods have been swept away. In the midst of such overwhelming pain, we pray that the people of Nepal and Tibet may know that they are not alone. We are together in this hour of anguish.”
“In this time of profound loss and suffering, may God’s comforting presence draw near to all those affected, embrace those who grieve, strengthen those who search and serve, shelter those who have lost their homes, and kindle a light of hope amid the darkness.”
Life in Eureka 