Rain!….Go west!

We have measured 502mls of rain in the past week.  That is a lot even for here and more than we need. There must be a way to send if from the coast, across the ranges to where it is needed most….I wish.  I look at the BOM radar for our properties at Julia Creek, at least 50 times a day, just hoping for some sort of indication that the drought is going to break in a big way.  Maybe I should make a trip out west as the last time I did we had a fall of 80ml!
Hubby has been out west selling cattle.  Twelve deck left last week with another six this week.  We have another 800 heifers drafted off to sell, but there is no market.  It's heartbreaking.  We have been slowly building our herd fertility over the past ten years and now all that hard work and perseverance will be lost.
I read yesterday that 5% of Australians live remotely in 85% of country producing 70% of our trade-able wealth and that farm debt has risen from $700,000 to $2m in just 12 years.  How do you repay the interest on $2m when you haven't had any income for 18 months.
"Drought upon drought, hope upon hope, loan upon loan, the hand that is feeding urban Australia is heading for calamity and soon city folk will wake up with one enormous headache, like it or not, in the form of depleted food security". (Extract from connectiontocountry.com)
On a lighter note, hubby arrived home Friday evening so I cooked up a "welcome home" dinner last night.  Duck Breast is one of my favourite meats but it is usually so expensive that I rarely buy it.  Fortunately this week I picked up some on special so that is what we ate last night.  I served it with a Cauliflower Puree,  Green Beans and roasted Cherry tomatoes topped with a herb vinaigrette and toasted almonds.  It was really delicious and such an easy meal to cook and prepare.