Water was a priority when buying our farm. We just never expected to have too much of it

‘Every time it rains and the paddocks turn to slush, I’m struck with the feeling it’s a fluke. It can’t be that wet all the time, can it?’ Photograph: Igor Bukhlin/Shutterstock

There is something about growing up in drought that makes having too much water unfathomable. That’s the excuse I’m using for being so unprepared, two winters in a row, for the stinking, ankle-deep mud that has taken over our property.

It should not be a surprise. It was so muddy when we first saw this place that we swung past Bunnings before the second viewing and bought $15 gumboots. We were slipping through the cattle yards and sinking into the back paddock. But central Victoria had just been hit by the worst storm in years, so we figured it was a particularly wet month.