The kiss that was interrupted is definitely going to be resumed later.

Glenna goes back towards the house, and I pick up my shovel again and start trying to deepen the channels I’ve already dug. There’s so much sodden earth that they’re gradually filling with sloppy mud rather than the water, but I can already see the difference it’s making. It was too frantic earlier with just me and Noel, but with so many hands on board, it’s easy to take a step back and realise that the level of the river is dropping and it isn’t as forceful. The surface water has started to drain into the channels, and I lose track of time as we all work together to stop this being quite such a disaster after all.

A couple of hours later, everyone is cold and wet, but full of smiles, Christmas songs and bad cracker jokes that make us all laugh because of how bad they are. Everyone heads back towards the house to dry off in front of the fire, but I grab Noel’s hand and hold him back.

‘How bad do you think the damage is?’

He makes a face. ‘It’s impossible to tell at this stage, but I think you’ve lost a fair few Balsams and some Blue spruces. Judging by how wet the ground is, I’d guess at six or seven hundred trees, maybe more if the rest of it doesn’t drain quickly.’

‘That’s pretty much all the Balsam firs.’ There’s a pang of dread in my stomach. It’s a big chunk out of the six thousand trees that are here, and I’m well aware that stock is likely to be short in the next few years without this blow too.

‘We can cut some of the Balsams from the far end and sell them at the market, but that’s it. You’ll have to close the whole Balsam field this season. You can’t let the public wander around with these trenches threaded throughout the field in case someone slips.’

I groan, but I’d already planned on doing it anyway. The ground is too wet and dodgy to let people in.

‘There are chains for the gate and “keep out” signs in the barn, and one of your first expenses needs to be getting a flood wall built. It won’t be cheap, but it’ll stop this ever happening again.’

I groan at that too. More money outgoing, and even less incoming.

‘It sounds like a lot, but we can deal with it.’ Now we’ve got a bit of privacy, he presses his lips against mine again. ‘I promise. It’s just a blip. One of many that we farmers get chucked at us by Mother Nature, but we overcome them as and when they crop up, and sometimes they lead to even greater things that we never expected.’