Chapter 8.2

About August again, we had found the water tanks on Ebay to suit us.
We ordered them and awaited a call for a delivery date.
The first one to be delivered was the smaller header tank.

We had not received a call but was not worried as we weren't actually in a hurry as yet.
I had called the farm house early September to talk to the tenant about something where he mentioned that a tank had been sitting way up on the back road in to the property for about a month now which would have been delivered not long after the ordering of all tanks.
Maybe they had the 5000 litre already sitting in site to be delivered, the larger ones would have had to be produced.

I contacted my contact for the water tanks who was astounded that the tank was just placed in the middle of no-where ,where it could have been taken by any one
My contact then contacted the company that delivers the tanks to sort it out.

I was assured that the correct tank would arrive in a day or so......a few days later I received a call here in Sydney, from a man who was up just out side Grafton on the way out to deliver a new smaller tank and he would be picking up the tank left on the road...
Again a comedy of errors......

It was about a week later that the large tanks arrived.
A 30000 litre and a 24500 litre

By this time James had arrived to receive the tanks.

The tanks are now in location awiting the arrival of a crane to lift them into their respective places.

Chapter 8.1

2008 This is the year James retired but since his retirment I have been unable to visit the property due to knee surgery.

It was about August we ordered the American style barn.
James went to the property to arrange the construction of the 12x12 slab for the barn.
By going himself , he has managed to save quite a few thousands of dollars by purchasing the rio, the chairs,the plumbing items,the sand for the concrete and ordering the concrete from town.
It took 3 truck loads to do the slab.
We also saved money by having some one other than the shed company to lay the slab.James's brother had a friend from QLD come down for 3 days to lay the slab.

According to James,the man did a maticulous job not leaving a cm out of line.

Night time found them around a camp fire enjoying a "bevvy" Scottish for a drink.
Now we await the arrival of the barn which is surposedly to arrive this week.


It was about Early August I had started to contact Telstra to have the phone connected in the farm house.
The operators could not find that there was ever an existance of a phone line ever being connected in the house.
This was not true as the tenants that were the workers in town had the phone one whilst they lived there.
I could not remember the phone number nor could I find out where they lived to ask.
I tried several times to convince them there had been a line there, they just wouldn't have it...
As this time it was a Friday and the surposed excnage the line went through was close they couldn't talk to any one about it so I had to wait until the Monday.
Monday came and yes they found a line and gave me a new number BUT then they decided no , not that number we'll give you this one...
It became a comedy of errors from go to whoa for the connection until about 2 weeks later a line was connected and we had lift off....

Chapter Four

2007. Was uneventful as James we busy with work commitments and mostly what we did was not involving going to the property.
We busied our selves in making plans by searching the internet for the information we require for raising cattle, cheese production of which we want to do when we milk the cows.
The cattle we chose are an Irish breed in Dexter cattle.
The reason we chose this breed after much research of the pros and cons of breeds was that this breed are small in stature,docile and make the best milk for cheese making.

These reasons suit us well as neither of us are big in stature ourselves and the docile nature is just what we require due to our ages.
We have purchased electric fencing so that we can move them about to eat the grasses but as the ground is poor in condition, riddled in rocks & stones, it will take us a long time to clear to a satisfactory condition for sowing grasses .
The Fodder solutions Unit I have mentioned above chapter 3, will take care of the need for feed until such times the gorund is suitable

Another way we plan to assist with raising rocks & stone to the surface in the poorer areas on the ground, is by building portable pigs styes to house the pigs with portable water tanks so that they can wallow in the mud & dirt digging up the rocks & stone enabling us to remove and stock pile.

The pigs of our choice are Berkshire for the quality of their pork.

It was in this year I was searching Ebay for farm implements and found a 6 metre tall water tank stand in close proximity to the property.

It now stand high & proud awaiting the 5000 litre tank to be lifted ontop.
This tank will be the new head feeder for presuure for the house for the showers.

A chapter on future plans

http://www.foddersolutions.org/



Here I have added a link to show our plans of how we intend to feed our live stock......
I'll leave it here for now to remind me to go back and edit

Chapter 3 More stages & Camping on site

I will keep writing as I remember stages and if I find I have omitted some I will go back to edit.......

Each time we would travel up on long week-ends we worked that much more to improve the property to our satisfaction...

As I had retired in April 2006 I was more available to go when ever I felt like it, but James was still working where he was unable to go as often as he would have liked to...
I would on occasions take the dogs and go up by my self, once was in between tenants,where I was able to stay in the house.
Here I could do somethings by my self being the creating balsa wood patches for the holes in the pine timber walls.
It became an arduous task so I stopped doing it, not being able to reach in high places.

I had gone back to Sydney and waited until the June 06 long week end when James was able to come back to the farm with me.
This was about the time the working couple from town had moved in.

It was a wet week end, by this time we had now taken delivery of a demountable building which was James's old office from his work site.
Having this building made living so much more comfortable in not having only the caravan to be housed in.Especially with 2 dogs.

We had erected a camp shower.
I had purchased large plastic drums for our water supply at the site.Using bottled water for drinking.
With one of the drums filled with water, we could heat a large boiler of water,add to the drum for a shower. At this stage this shower was better then the house shower.

A battery operated vamping shower purchased from K-mart was attached.
An end was placed in the water, the shower head hung above then press a button for a small motor enabling warm water to flow down was quite sufficient for us.
We had also purchased a Port-a-potty....camp toilet.(It's amazing how heavy this can get)

Night times were great with us building a BBQ and also having a 44 gallon drum cut in half for a fire to sit in front of to enjoy.
Often we would invite neighbours for a BBQ and cold beer.


It was wonderful being out in the bush,taking early morning walks before the heat set in.
But as this was a wet week end we'd still go for our walks around the property inspecting different areas every time.
It was on one of these walks to survey the perimeter that we found an abandoned shack....we were excited thinking it was on our land but on further inspection we realised it wasn't, it was just over our boundary.

The fences are in bad order and will require a surveyor to mark out our perimeters to repair the fence line.
On our way back to the caravan one morning on our walk,it started to rain.
As we were already wet we decided to inspect the creek that was fast filling up with water.
We observed that in heavy rainfall, another creek would surface well with-in our property
We followed it's path to find that the creek was filling up due to the over flow of the dam.
When rains falls, a lot of the rains totally miss the dam, as well and end up in that creek
Poor direction of fall towards the damn, where water from the back of the property runs right past the dam.
This has to be rectified at a later date.

We had made enquiries with the counsel, as to what permission, if any, was needed to be sought to extend the dam.
We were informed that we were unable to build a dam but were able to build a duck pond....inset laugh.....knock knock,hello....
Well, that's exactly what we want isn't it?A large duck pond?

As the damn was quite dirty & murky we purchased 6 bags of Gypsum to throw into the dam to help clean it out.
Due to it never being cleaned it didn't do all that much to to water and we'll have to do again.
The damn houses creatures such as Water Dragons and Yabbies.

We do plan of creating an island in the middle of the dam to encourage the ducks we will introduce.

It was on one of our early morning walks we had veered in into the thickness where I had spotted what appeared to me to be a "path" of sorts.
We followed it in about 50 metres where we came across a small compound that was fenced off into a small area where we climbed in and found about 6 deep holes dug where it was obvious that some sort of "plantation" had been established.....evidence of this were also empty pots, empty water bins and other paraphernalia pertaining to growing marijuana....
we had already known this as behind an old shed near the house was also evidence of a production of old....

The time we searched the internet for the property where we found the photo,it had displayed a lovely green bush in front of the house of which I had not noticed any thing untowards until it was pointed out that it was a large marijuana bush.
He had contacted the owner who in turn arrived and pulled out the bush which alludes us to believe further activilty had been occurring on the property prior to our purchasing it

Chapter 2 Continuing stages of creation

It was after these tenants had left after Xmas 2006, we had once again driven up to the property for further clean ups......
Previous tenants, before our purchasing of the property, had created a "tip" where plastic bags were found in the creek,blowing all over the land with plastic milk carton etc....we called in scrap metal recyclers to remove old corrugated iron water tanks, old body cars old dumped TVs etc along with metres & metres of old wire......all this made a huges difference.

It was at that time I had to crawl under the house on my hands and knees to remove rubbished piled up over the years......and whilst I was doing that, my daughter, who had come up with us at this stage, was pulling out old timber wardrobes from an old shed that was riddled with white ants then burning them in a pile.
As the flames built up I also dragged timber lying around also riddled with white ants....
it was during the search for more timber to burn I had come across a disastrous garden bed behind the house where some one had laid wooden poles for a garden edging......we immediately pulled it out and again laced with white ants so on the fire they went.


It was time for us to return to our homes to prepare to return to our places of employment.
It was was about 4.30 am when we had packed the car for our return to Sydney when James was out on the veranda he heard a sound unfamiliar to him.
Remembering he is Scottish..... he called out to me to come hear it...
I listerned and hearing grunting noises in 3 different locations in the trees.
We waited a while to hear it again and realised they were koalas...How delightful...
Evidence of this were apparent later with sightings by the neighour and markings on trees.

We had discussed the option of leaving the house empty as oppossed to letting it out again, and have further problems, but as the Insurance policy deems, we have to be seen to be at least looking for a tenant to ensure no squatters or vandels cause any damage and as we had heard about the unsavoury element in the community near us, we allowed a young family to rent the house off us cheaply in exchange for works done in return....
they are still in the house today but only for another few weeks as the next stage to be added will explain........

Chapter 1 In the begining there were dreams

My name is Beatrix...known as Trixie......I am 56 years young and playing out our dreams.......
In 2002 I met James.....we both had a dream of owning our own piece of Australia and living off the land.

As at the time I was still working full time.... we set our dreams in motion.
We had been up in QLD, Australia, on our way back home to Sydney, we had stopped off at a little country town called McLean in Northern NSW where there is a large Scottish community and as James is Scottish raised we fell in love with this little town and decided we wanted to live in the vicinity.

The town is on the Clarence River where there are many things to do & see in the whole region.
As you drive into the township, the telegraph poles are painted in various tartans of Scottish clans.
Every year McLean holds a Highland Games festival which is over a span of a week drawing people from far & wide to compete & enjoy the games
When we returned home after out trip up north I ventured onto the WWW and searched for properties around the region .

I had found about 6 to consider.Then culled it down to have a look at 3 on that list.
We flew up about August 2005.....picked up from Ballina Airport by a friend of James where we drivev to the real estates.

They drove us out to look at the 3 houses we chose.
The first one wasn't bad, with ample acreage but fell short of our desire in a few areas and in as much as the wee bridge in, was too narrow where we worried in flood time the bridge would be swept away plus too narrow for a delivery truck to manoeuvre.
On to the second house, which was amazing.....open plan living, loft up stair, walls in stained pine,resident diamond python snake was adorable............BUT, the issue was that it was only 8 acres where the dense bush was right on the door step with no means of escape in a bush fire.

On to the third & final property of which in the interim was our choice upon viewing it on the net.....
the price was right, the location was good, main road was excellent and the size being 100acres was perfect.
It was only 30 minutes from Grafton NSW.The Jacaranda town

As the vendor,from Sydney, had been made aware of our pending visit,he was there to greet us with the real estate agent from Grafton.
Whilst the property was on the market, the vendor & friends had camped on site to keep the house and surrounding areas tidy, raking & burning fallen branches and basically keeping up appearances.That's debatable.

The day we arrived on the property was a lovely warm day.
We weren't able to enter via the front gate, as in the previous rains the bridge over the creek,on the property, had washed away and was under instruction for repairs.
Plus the rains had eroded the roadway in, due to poor grading.
We were required to access the property via a back road that is quite good for a back road and is now being maintained by a neighbour who uses the same road.
We still use this road today as the road in from the front is inaccessible as stated.

We walked around the property that is heavily timbered but not to dense.There is plenty space between trees but there are also plenty fallen trees for fire.
The property has two access roads to the house but right now neither road is accessible due to erosion from flooding and has to be graded professionally.
There is a medium sized damn and a pond on the property with our own creek running through.

After we had walked the undulating land to inspect it's suitability, we inspected the house.
The house is 80 square metres in length.(Photos will be added)

It is a split level house having three large bedrooms an internal bathroom/ toilet, laundry up stairs. The whole bottom floor is lounge,dining & kitchen combined with a small stair case going to the upper floor.
The kitchen was plain but has long benches with ample cupboard space with a bottled gas oven and bottled gas refrigerator that didn't work.
There is a wood fire in a corner that is just wonderful and keeps the whole house warm in winter.
The house is run off solar batteries backed up by an 8HP generator to top up solar in inclement weather.
The house supplied by a 20 thousand litre rain water tank.


At the time of inspection the house was in bad need of some TLC.
The carpets were very smelly, thin & dirty.
The walls are badly in need scrubbing and a coat of paint.
The exterior of the house is of weather board with zinculum roofing.
The upper section of the house has fully fixed with windows to give good light.
There is a carport along side the house.

There is a veranda that runs the full length in the Eastern side of the house.
Inside, the walls of the lounge areas are fully lined with stained pine timber as is a feature wall in each bedroom.
Here on the walls can be seen, many of the knots have been pushed out by a human hand with a hammer as a past tenant, in their boredom, took a hammer to the knots in the pine leaving gaping holes for spiders to enter.....initially I had attempted to create covers for the hole by creating shapes of the individual holes with balsa wood, nailing & gluing them on and painting with a stain to blend in with the stained timber.
The house boasts full sized sliding glass doors onto the veranda.

As James had walked in another direction up to the original dilapidated now defunct ancient what's left of it house (now near camping site) with the real estate agent, I talked to the vendor,James did not know I had already made up my mind that this was the place we were looking for but as soon as he approached the vendor and my self, I could tell by the look on his face he was taken by it's charm.

We saw it in it's raw state,saw past the rubbish under the house, saw past the man made tip, past other rubbish laying around and the unkempt state of the house and saw it's potential.
We didn't try to negotiate as we saw the big picture.

We had found our Niaroo....(reversed and saying with a Scottish accent oorain.....our own...)

We voiced our approval and said "SOLD"

The settlement wasn't completed for about another 8 weeks or so due to issues that needed to be addressed before we signed our lives away.
No.1 was upon completion of the repairing of the washed away bridge which took longer than expected.....nothing happens to quickly in the country so far out of town.
Eventually after many inspections and reports requested by the conveyances to our satisfaction, we signed the deal in October 2005

It was about a few weeks later, upon her return from over seas, a real estates employee had requested the availability to rent the house.
We allowed her & her partner to move in under the understanding that we haven't had the chance to clean up or renovate but she was willing to move in as is.....

It wasn't until about November when we both had a chance to go the the farm to see what was required to make the tenants more comfortable and as we had purchased a caravan for us to stay in away from the house we had accommodation.

Prior to going up in November I received a call from the tenants saying the solar batteries weren't holding the power & could they chop down a tree that's blocking the morning sun.....
I had initially said of course not knowing they were incorrect......but after we arrived and they hadn't yet chopped down the tree.
We inspected the batteries and found they had not been filled with water as is required and as was instruction left in writing,there-fore one battery had exploded hence killing off most of thepower supply.

Our first improvement then was to replace a new battery system costing $3800 but not until these tenants had moved out due to not paying their rent.
It was one morning whilst we were still on the property,James was looking out the caravan window and saw a man running behind the house where he appeared naked.....upon further investigation James saw the male tenant, on all fours, in a praying to the early morning sun motion.
Not a problem, his business what he does in his own surrounds but a warning would have been good.
Just stopped us from going in that direction for our early morning constitutional walk.
That was ok as there we many other directions we could take
It wasn't until after they had moved out did we see the filth they left behind....used kitty litter still in plastic bags strewn under the house.

The tenants complained that they ran out of water and had to buy in a truck load.......this shocked us and it wasn't until we had spoken to a neighbour who informed us that the tenants had left the pump on, that supplies the water from the house tank to the header tank to supply pressure....therefore overflowing the tanks and draining the main tank......I won't go into great details but surfice to say dabbling with wacky weed will make you wacky.......

It was after these tenants had left that we proceeded to remove all the old smelly carpets out of the living area....once we pulled the carpet up, I washed the floor boards before we laid down masonite.
Then laid the carpet securing it with gold coloured aluminium edging to join the pieces neatly.
I erected new curtains in all bedrooms and hired a steam carpet cleaner to steam cleaned the carpets in the bedrooms.
As the house is run on solar, the old gas fridge wasn't working so I took it to the repair shop where they gave it it's last rights....so I had to scour the newspapers to look for that hard to find gas fridge.
I found one way up near Kyogle at a place called Jiggy Jiggy...yes funny name...and off we drove to collect the fridge.

Of course every time one goes a long way to pick up an item purchased we run into inclement weather, thats the norm.(insert rolling eyes)

Given that at this time we were still both working full time we were on a time frame and worked from dawn to dusk collapsing at night.

Once the new clean up was completed we were able to re list the house to rent out.
It was only a few weeks later another couple moved in for a short rental time as they really wanted to be nearer to town also working full time and the house still had issues.
One of the issues was the gas heater for hot water.....
It appeared it wouldn't light up very well for the tenants and it just happened, that the week, they complained about it to us, was when we had returned to do some more work after a few months.
We dismounted the heater off the out side wall and took it to the gas heater repair man who cleaned it out and had it going very well.
That problem solved......next.... always a next.......

The next issue that arose was the water pressure from the header tank that feeds the water to the house for pressure.
When trying to have a shower was like pulling teeth...painful....
No matter what we tried at that point in time we couldn't improve the pressure for the shower.

The new tenants had contacted the real estate agent that handled our rental issues being the complaint that the new batteries weren't holding power.
The property manager in the real estate asked them what they were running,lo & behold one of the worst products to run on solar...fish tanks.....with filters......
Once they stopped running the tanks they regained their power.
It's all a learning curve but why do tenants think it's owners faults all the time..heavens knows...
These were nice people and we treated them very well with the end result when they were going to leave, we were told we were the best landlords they have ever had.
Very nice to hear.

Next stage to be added..........................