Challenges of Farming - 1. CoF Ch 1

Since Grandad’s funeral, I have been so busy with learning to run the farm I have not had much time for anything else. The family farm consists of just 1,184 acres, of good pasture country, in the great southern region of Western Australia, with about 4 kilometres of river frontage of the Hay River.

It is located 48 kilometres west of the City of Albany and 26 kilometres from the town of Denmark, and just 12 kilometres from the community of Youngs Siding, which is where I do my fortnightly shopping and collect my mail. My late father, had decided to not follow in his father’s footsteps to continue the farm, instead he moved to the city, studied Law at university and became a successful Lawyer.

The only time that I ever leave the farm, in the fifteen months that I have been living there full time, I usually go to Denmark to get any farm supplies, and also to sell some of my fruit and vegetables at the Saturday Farmers Markets, that I have been making for the past few months and I hardly ever go to Albany.

My usual daily routine is rather predictable, with a 5 am start each morning; I have two dairy cows to milk and their calves to feed, then feed the chickens and collect the eggs, the milking shed to be cleaned, before I have goats, & kids to feed, and hay to distribute out to the small herd of cows.

Once all that is done, I head back to the cottage to have some breakfast. After I have eaten, then I begin the task of starting to tender to the fruit trees and vegetable garden that are located near the southwest end of the farm, close to the old shearing shed, where there is a plentiful supply of sheep manure for fertiliser.

I was grateful that I spent all of my school holidays since the age of eleven, on the family farm with my grandparents, learning how the farm operates each day, depending on what time of the year it is, and when my Grandmother passed away three years ago, and my grandfather just a year and a half later, I was prepared to take on the challenges of running the farm.

On a market day, I usually have picked and packed all the fruit and vegetables to take with me to the markets the evening before, so it is just a matter of retrieving the boxes and crates from the walk-in fridge in the packing shed and loading it all into the back of the Land Rover, before making the trip into Denmark.

“Hello Mitch Watkins, I haven’t seen you in a while,” a woman’s voice called out as I climbed out of the vehicle, “I know Loretta, I have been too busy to do anything but work, always lots to do on the farm,” I replied smiling, as I pulled out the boxes and crates from the back of the vehicle, and I began to set them out on the table provided, by the wonderful Loretta, who helps with coordinating the fortnightly markets.

“Mitch, this is Malcolm Danby, the local accountant and my husband,” Loretta said making the introductions, “Hello, nice to meet you,” I said to the gentleman as we shook hands. “I don’t usually come to these events, this is Loretta’s thing, and I only came today, because I needed to have a chat with you.

Your Grandfather, Old Doug Watkins, we used to call him, had made sure that everything on the farm was running smoothly and debt-free before he passed away, and he usually came into my office every six months to bring in the books, so I could do them for him,” Mr Danby said to me.

“Oh, I am sorry, I had no idea that he had that set up as a bi-annual event, I have a Degree in Business, and so I have been doing the books myself. Maybe you can answer some questions for me; can we get together at closing time, say at 3 pm?” I replied.

“Sure, that is perfect, I will come and meet you here at that time, and we can go to my office, which is Upstairs at Shaddie Plaza, Number 1 Mount Shadford Road,” Mr Danby said. I managed to sell all of my products today, which I was very pleased about, and that would help with paying some of the regular bills that are always coming at irregular periods.

Mr Danby arrived at 3 pm, while I was chatting to Loretta since I had already packed up everything at my stall, and loaded everything into the vehicle. A few minutes later I followed Mr Danby back into town and parked in the car park next door to the blue building known as Shaddie Plaza.

“So, how are you going, on that farm of yours, are you keeping ahead with all of your finances and such?” Mr Danby asked me as he sat behind his desk and indicated for me to take a seat. “Yes, I have fresh milk each day from my cows, eggs from the chickens, and fresh fruit and vegetables to keep me well fed. I have only had one beast killed so far, and I left that to the professionals to do that.

Although it is only 1,184 acres, I seem to get by with everything, and with there being just me, I don’t have any major costs, like labour, as I do it all myself. The only main costs are fuel, hay, and stock feed. What I can’t seem to work out is the three monthly amounts of money that are deposited into the other bank account, with no information for what it is for?” I replied.

“Hang on, did you say 1,184 acres?” Mr Danby asked, “Yes, that is right. Number 1966 Redmond West Road, why?” I replied in a confused manner. “Lad, you have nearly double that amount of land, let me get the records for your place so I can set you straight on what you own,” Mr Danby said as he stood and walked over to his filing cabinet, and after a few minutes he found what he was looking for.

Twenty minutes later, I had been informed that I own 2,280 acres of land, of which three parcels of 332, 498 and 34 acres are on long term leases. The remaining three parcels of land, which are all on the east side of the river, are 1,194, 190 and 32 acres in area, and that my grandfather was in the process of purchasing another block of land before he died, which Malcolm was not sure how that progressed.

“I am surprised that the family lawyers didn’t explain all of this to you at the time of the reading of the will,” Mr Danby said to me. “Yes I have some documents that he gave me, but it was all a blur at the time, with the funeral and all, I just put them away for safekeeping. I thought it was just the original block of land, I had no idea that he had bought a whole heap more,” I responded, still in shock at all of this.

“I think we both need to go and check on the other two properties, to see what state they are in, you had better follow me in your vehicle, as I know where the property entries are located, and I will be having a few words with the lawyers about all this,” Mr Danby said to me.

Twenty minutes later, we turned off the South Coast Highway, heading north on Sleeman Road, till we reached the T junction, and we turned left, onto Hunwick Road, and soon after right onto Redmond West Road, and on the left, was a gravel track that Mr Danby turned onto, with bush on both sides, but it soon opened up when we reached a boundary fence, but there were no gates at all.

Following the track we eventually came up to a small cottage with a fenced yard behind it, and continuing on we came up to a large shed, where we stopped. There was a lot of junk lying all over the place, which I could see from his expression, Mr Danby was not impressed.

“This was a tidy place last time I saw it, and that was just before it was leased out on a quarterly lease agreement that could be renewed, I believe he was instructed to pack up and leave by the lawyers, soon after your grandfather passed away. I will look into this and see if we can get this mess cleaned up,” Mr Danby said to me.

“So this is the 34-acre block?” I asked, “Yes, that is right, as you can see the bottom half is thin bushland, while the top half is grazing pasture, and there is a large dam near the top of the block,” Mr Danby replied. “I see, and where is the other block of land from here?” I asked, “Right there, right next door, behind this shed.

As you can see there is a bit of thick bushland there, but when you go around to the front gate, at the west end of Hunwick Road, you will see a bit more bush plus some good pasture land, plus there is a nice three-bedroom house, and a good size shed on it, and very close to the river as well,” Mr Danby replied.

A few minutes later, we turned right off Hunwick Road, heading north along the driveway, there are fences but again there were no gates. The driveway was a bit windy with glances of the river on the left, and pasture paddocks on the right, and ignoring the track on the right, the driveway started to bend to the right, where a nice looking country home and a shed came into view.

There are no gardens visible around the front of the house, but there are a few nice shady trees on three sides of the house, which has verandahs around it, and we spent the next twenty minutes looking around the empty house, which looked like it could do with a very good clean.

“I like this place, much more modern than the cottage on the main farm, I think I will have it cleaned and I will get some new furniture and move in,” I commented, and Mr Danby smiled, “I think you will like living here, I leased it for about five years when I was getting my home repaired and restored after a few nasty storms.

There is a landing on the side of the river, with steps and a ramp down, which is great during the occasional hot summer days that we get here sometimes.

A lot of the trees around the house, I planted during my stay here, so I am pleased that they are still alive and growing well,” Mr Danby said. “How do we get to the other two properties that are leased?” I asked.

“Well for that you need to head back towards Denmark and take the first road on the right, which is Sunny Glen Road, the driveway for the first one is about 5 kilometres up that road on the right-hand side, and you will find the buildings are close to the road.

The second property, which is directly across the river from the main property, is a further 2 kilometres north at the end of the road. There are three wide bends and one sharp bend on that road, so take care when you drive along it,” Mr Danby informed me. “Thanks for the warning, I will make contact with them first before I drive out that way to look at the properties,” I replied.

“I recall that you had an older brother, what did the will state for him, If I may ask?” Mr Danby said to me, “From what I recall, Oliver was given a house in Bunbury and a large sum of money. I let the Lawyers sort that out, as my brother and his upper class English wife are not on speaking terms with me,” I stated with a frown.

“I see, well I presume that you have not heard what has happened with them then?” Mr Danby asked, “No, and I don’t really care. They disowned me when they found out that I was gay, even my parents tolerated me for a few years before they did the same, so I lived in a very small apartment, worked my backside off and went to University to do a degree in business, and I didn’t attend my parents funeral,” I replied.

“That is very sad to hear, and I can assure you that I have no issue with you about your sexual preferences, we suspected that you were gay, but it was not our business to say anything to anyone. Now in regards to your brother, he was killed about a month ago, while shopping at a liquor store, he was caught in the middle of an armed robbery, and his wife was not injured.

It was all over the news, and there was even a photo of the whole family splashed all over the newspapers,” Mr Danby informed me. “He is dead?” I asked, shocked and a little shaken that my older brother was gone for good, which in one way I was glad off as he constantly bullied me in my early teens, but in another way, he was my brother, and it was sad that I have no relatives alive anymore, as he was the last one.

“My… my brother, do you know where he is buried?” I asked, “In Bunbury I think, I will check for you and let you know,” Mr Danby replied. “Can you recommend anyone to help with cleaning the house, and maybe helping with transporting new furniture for the house. Now that I know where the extra money comes from, I can spend some of it?” I asked, “I will get Loretta to do that for you, she is the expert with organising things,” Mr Danby replied.

After looking all through the house and the area around it, we headed over to the large shed, where we found a tractor, with a front end bucket on it, and also there were some attachments for the tractor, that included a 9 metre wide plough, with the two ends folded upwards for easy storage, there was also a post hole digger, and a hay mower, for cutting pasture hay and a hay baler.

“Wow, I had no idea that I had all of this machinery,” I stated, as I looked at the quad bike and the ride on lawn mower parked next to it. In a separate area there is a clean and well set up maintenance workshop, with all the tools needed to keep everything maintained.

After saying goodbye to Mr Danby, I headed back to the cottage, and got back to work, firstly putting away all the empty crates and boxes, then I went to check on all of the animals, and I began with the evening milking of the cows, before starting the feeding of all the animals.

By the time I had finished, it was almost dark, and I headed into the cottage to relax and have some dinner, and retiring to bed early as it had been a long day, and I still had to be up at 5 am tomorrow. With it being the day after the markets, I always had extra work to do, with loading hay from the hayshed near the cottage, onto the trailer, and taking it to the smaller shed, closer to the yards, about 1.8 km’s away.

When I came into the cottage for lunch, the landline telephone was ringing, and I raced to answer it. “Hello, Mitch speaking,” I said into the phone, “Hello young man, how are you today,” the familiar voice of Loretta said, “Hello Loretta, I am good thanks, just in for a quick bite to eat, before I get back to work,” I responded.

“Malcolm asked me to help with a few things that you need done, and I am very pleased to be able to do this for you. Now, regarding the house clean, is the house unlocked?” Loretta asked. “Yes, it was unlocked when we were there yesterday, I presume there is a set of keys somewhere,” I replied.

“Ok, we will have a good look around for them while we are cleaning. There will be a group of friends of mine doing the cleaning with me, and they will be roping in their husbands to help with carting new furniture for you, and on that subject, how about I call in say at about 9 am on Wednesday, to go into Albany to help you with selecting the furniture,” Loretta suggested.