But, on that other day of the year she worries about how much rain is falling, about the levels of the Taieri River, the Silver Stream and Mill Creek, about her horses and about her new house.
Ms Phipps is one of those who made the choice to build on a "lifestyle" block in the area of the Taieri Plain hit by the 2006 flood.
"Technically, this isn't the flood zone; technically."
Nearby, Steve and Lee McGuirk bought a 6ha block of farmland knowing it was flooded in 2006. They believe they got it at a good price.
Their temporary home is next to and below the top of a floodbank.
They are thinking hard about whether to build a permanent home, but it is not the flood risk that is holding them back. It is the tussle with finances that any home builder faces.
If they do build, it will be on top of a foundation of at least 1.7m, or on a basement.
"There could be a flood channel going through it," Mr McGuirk laughed. "In one door and out the other."
Gilbert Black, of Milton, bought his 6ha block before the 2006 flood and is another not put off building a house on the Taieri.
He is responsible for what one of his neighbours calls "Mill Creek Mountain" - a mound of earth that will provide a building site high enough, he expects, to keep his new house above flood level.
Mr Black said he was aware of the risk but "there's probably only about a one-in-five chance it will ever happen again in our lifetimes".
Such optimism was widespread among those in low-lying parts of the Taieri spoken to by the ODT.
For every question about the advisability of building on land with a history of flooding, there was a cheery "She'll probably be right" response.
Joan and Alex Merrilees, for instance, bought one of the houses that featured in the news in 2006 when water ponded in its basement.
But, Mr Merrilees believes improvements made to a nearby floodbank culvert, blocked by baleage in the flood, mean the chances of a repeat of 2006 have receded.
Asked how confident he was of not being flooded, Mr Merrilees said: "Oh well, you just take your chances, I suppose. It shouldn't happen again to the extent it happened [last time]."
Ms Phipps is also optimistic she won't see another "100-year" flood like that of 2006.
Her house was only at the point of having profiles in place when the flood came and, as a result, her foundations are now 1.2m high.
"That whole indoor-outdoor flow thing just goes out the window, doesn't it," she said.
Ms Phipps fields flood alert calls from local authorities and always acts on them, mainly by shifting her horses to higher ground.
"You do what you can to heed their warnings, but a lot of my neighbours have got to the `cry wolf' stage."
The Merrilees are also part of the flood alert system, which gave them the chance to move their cattle to high ground last winter as water rose to within a metre of the top of the floodbank at their front gate.
Mr Merrilees questions local authorities allowing building in ponding areas elsewhere on the Taieri and also believes they need to look at new subdivisions around Mosgiel which feed stormwater into the Silver Stream.
"There's an awful lot of what used to be farmland which absorbed the water and now it's all ashphalt, so any run-off increases the flow in the Silver Stream."
Mr Black blames the Taieri River floodbank near his property and the blocked culvert in it for the Silver Stream flood.
"The floodbank caused the problem. Absolutely."
He believes the risk to his property had been reduced by the culvert being increased in size and the addition of new culverts.
Mr McGuirk also has faith in the improvements.
When buying his land, he speculated that after the flood, maintenance of waterways would be improved, but he believes not enough is done.
"They don't clean them out often enough. You've got all the broken trees coming down, bales of hay ... they block all these channels."
So far, the McGuirks have had flood warnings - with water "lapping the top" of their floodbank - but no flood.
Mr McGuirk does not believe people should be banned from building on flood-prone land despite frequent reminders of the risk.
"You look at all the flooding that's going on now and you think nature's going to come back with a vengeance and whatever you do is not going to stop it."
