Beyond Frontier - 27. BF Chapter 27

“Anton Hamilton, stop that this minute,” I heard Anita shout to me.

Ignoring her, I gave Micha another raspberry, and he laughed again as I carried him into the lounge, while Anita scolded me. “You are a bad influence on my youngest son, Mr Hamilton,” Anita said to me before turning her back to me and continuing her conversation with Jasper. Finding a picture book, I began to read a story to Micha.

Once Anita and Jasper had finished their call, she sat down in the lounge. “Men! What am I going to do with you lot?” she said to me.

“Not much you can do. You are surrounded by them,” I replied with a wicked grin, which received a grunt in reply from Anita.

“Jasper and crew are on their way home now. They will arrive back at about 2300 hours,” she informed me.

“That is good. As far as I am aware there are no charters for about a week, so he can spend some family time at home. My brothers and I will be moving into our temporary cabin in a few days’ time,” I replied.

“That will be nice. As much as I love you and your brothers, it will be nice to just have my hubby and sons for a change,” Anita replied, and I smiled.

“More story, Unca Ant,” Micha said to me, which made me and Anita chuckle, before I continued to read the story while Anita went out to check on the other three boys.

Once I had finished the story, and said hello to my brothers, I headed back to my cabin, to feed the animals and to take Roey for a walk around the paddock. Emma was getting much better from her injuries, which I was very pleased about.

Once back from the walk, I went over to the bigger cabin to start unpacking some of the stuff we had bought. I put all the kitchen ware away, as well as all the linen, before returning to my single cabin to organise some dinner for myself. Emma kept on nudging my foot for some attention, so I had to delay my dinner to pick up Emma and give her chin a rub. I checked her injury which was almost healed.

The next morning after feeding the animals and leaving them at home, I headed over to the new property to check on the progress of the project. I was pleased to see that all the ground work had been completed and all the fences and walls were completed, plus holes had been dug ready for trees to be planted along the back and side fences.

Two days later the trucks arrived with all the furniture for both new cabins. Jasper, Alex, Toby, Kirk and Leon had all volunteered to help with getting the trucks unloaded and all the furniture and whitegoods placed in the right rooms, which was all done within three hours. Once the lads had returned to the trimaran, and Jasper had returned to the house, I went to my single cabin to collect my already packed luggage ready to be moved over to the new cabin.

When I walked into the cabin I saw Roey lying near Emma’s box wining, so I raced to the box and very gently lifted the towels that Emma always buried herself under, and there I found four baby echidna puggles in her pouch. I smiled. “Well done, Emma. You have a family,” I said softly, and I put the towel back over the top and left her alone. I called Roey away from the box.

I picked up my mobile and dialled Gramps number. “Hey, Gramps. How are things going in Leeman?” I asked when he answered.

“Very good, Grandson. I presume you are calling to let me know that the cabin will be ready for me to move into soon,” Gramps replied.

“Yes, that is correct, and I was thinking, when the boys and I move into the new house, how would you and Isaac like to move into the double cabin? I am sure he will get lonely without you up there,” I replied.

“Isaac heard what you said and he is smiling and nodding his head. Thankyou, Anton,” Gramps said.

“That’s good. It gives him some time to sell his property if that is what he wants. He has a permanent home here for life if that is what he wants,” I replied.

“Anton, this is Isaac speaking. That is a very generous offer, and I gladly accept it with my deepest thanks,” Isaac said to me.

“Well, we all need to keep family close together, and if you and Gramps want to share the twin cabin or one has the twin and the other have the single, that is fine with me,” I replied.

After the call with Gramps and Isaac, I walked up to the house. It was very noisy inside when I arrived, with Micha crying and Anita shouting at the boys, so without hesitation I walked right in and whistled loudly, which once again brought silence. A moment later Micha came dashing towards me wrapping his arms around my legs. “Story, Unca Ant,” he said to me as he held his arms up to be lifted up.

I chuckled and picked up Micha and walked into the lounge, where Anita was not looking too happy. “Where is Jasper?” I asked Anita as I saw the three boys try and slip away.

“Freeze you three,” I snapped at the boys, before turning back to Anita. “He has gone down to the marina to do some maintenance work on the trimaran.” I pulled out my phone and dialled Jasper’s phone number.

“As of now you are on two weeks holiday. I don’t want any arguments. You are to stay away from the marina for two weeks and spend time with your family,” I said when Jasper answered. I ended the call before he had a chance to reply. “Micha, uncle has a few things to do. Daddy will be home soon. You can ask him for a story,” I said to Anita’s youngest, as I gave him a kiss on the cheek and put him down on the ground.

“Right, Wallis boys, our temporary cabin is completed and ready to move into, so into your room and start packing right now. Nathan, can you please go and take Roey for a walk around the paddock, as I need her to stay out of the way while I pack up my stuff from the single cabin?” I asked Anita’s oldest boy. Soon all three boys dashed out to do as they were asked.

“Thanks, Anton. Once again you have been a life saver, and thanks for ordering Jasper home. He can be such a workaholic sometimes that he forgets to pay attention to his family,” Anita said to me with a tired smile.

“You’re welcome. Now this is paid leave, so make sure you guys go out and have some fun on your days off,” I replied, and Anita smiled.

Leaving the house, I headed back to the cabin where I saw Nathan leading Roey down the driveway, and after checking on Emma and making sure that she had eaten some food and drank some water, I began to pack up all of my luggage and belongings and started to move it across to the twin cabin nearby. I took my time to unpack everything and put it away.

After 1 ½ hours I had everything of mine moved over, including all the food and drinks from my small pantry and fridge. The last thing to move would be Emma’s box, but I wanted to wait till the boys had moved all of their belongings in before I did that so there would not be so much noise.

Before getting the boys settled in I went into town with the box trailer on the back, as I wanted to get some supplies for a little project. I returned an hour later with a 3-metre diameter round water trough, that was 1 metre high, eight large bags of beach sand, a variety of different sized rocks and small logs, a 2-metre length of 250mm diameter PVC storm pipe, four 45-degree angle joiners, a small bag of grass hay, and a 500mm diameter and 400mm high heavy duty plastic tub with a lid.

When I got back to the new cabin my brothers were there waiting for me, sitting on the front veranda reading books till I returned. “Sorry to keep you waiting boys. I had to go into town for some supplies,” I said to my brothers, as I let them into the cabin. They looked around. Being a lot smaller than the house they had been living in, they came into the lounge room after a quick look around not looking happy.

“It is only for about three months, then we will be moving into our new house which is bigger than the house on the hill. There you will have your own bedrooms and a lounge room downstairs and separate from the main living room and my bedroom. Right. Go and put all your stuff in your bedroom, then come outside and help me set up my new project,” I said to my brothers.

Leaving the boys to cart their suitcases and boxes of belongings into their room, I headed outside. I dragged the round trough off the trailer and over to the side of the raised veranda of the cabin, placing half of it under the veranda to provide shelter from rough weather. Just as I had done this, the boys appeared.

“Grab that box of PVC fittings and the pipe, and follow me up to the shed,” I said to my brothers as I picked up the plastic tub.

In the shed I went over to the work bench where I have a small number of power and hand tools. After cutting the PVC pipe into two lengths of 800mm and two lengths of 200mm with the hacksaw, I put one end of the pipe against the tub and marked around it with a marker pen. I did the same on the opposite side, making both circles about 50mm above the bottom of the box.

Using a drill, I made a hole on the line of both circles, then I used a jigsaw to cut out both circles. “What are you making, Anton, and what is the big plastic trough under the veranda for?” Neal asked me.

“I am building a secure temporary home for Emma, and her new babies,” I replied, revealing for the first time the existence of the puggles. “Babies,” Jedd said excitedly.

“Before you race off to see them, I have to tell you they are too tiny to see. They are in Emma’s small pouch. We will have to wait for a few weeks till they are old enough to see,” I said to my brothers, who looked very disappointed.

“Ok, what I am doing here is building a nesting box, so Emma can keep her babies safe when they are old enough to leave her pouch but not the nest,” I explained, as I poked a short piece of pipe through the hole. I placed a joiner on the end on the inside, to keep it in place, angling it slightly downwards, for easy access.

I did the same with the other hole, before picking up the box and looking at it, “Ok, grab the two longer lengths of pipe and the remaining two joiners, and let’s start putting together this new home for Emma,” I said, as we walked back down to our new cabin. Placing the nesting box and pipes on the veranda, I explained to the boys that we needed to build a suitable environment for Emma. I carried the heavy bags of sand over to the trough.

“Won’t it flood in there when it rains?” Jedd asked me.

“Good point you made there, brother of mine, and no. As you can see over on the other side there is an outlet, which I will keep open. It is too small for Emma or her offspring to get through when they are old enough to wander around, so any water collected will just drain away,” I explained to my brothers, who started to collect the lighter rocks and logs that were not too heavy to carry.

I emptied the bags of sand into the trough and saw that it was barely enough to cover the floor of the trough. “We need some more sand. Come on, jump in and let’s go and get some more,” I said to my brothers. We jumped into the vehicle after I collected the empty bags and the spade, and we headed for the beach.

Once we had eight bags of sand I called by the new property where I grabbed some of the larger rocks that were planned for use there. I loaded them into the trailer and we headed back to the property out of town. When the extra bags of sand were empty I looked at the trough, and there was now a good amount of sand covering the floor of the trough.

“Ok now, the nesting box is next. We will place it so it is just underneath the veranda, so it is protected from any heavy rain. We need that bag of grass hay to put into the box,” I said to my brothers. Once the nest was built I placed the lid on top and locked the lid in place, and placed the box into the trough.

Next, I placed a joiner on each end of the pipe sticking out of the box, tilting it downwards slightly so as to stop any rain water going into the box. Then I attached the longer lengths to the joiner, so they were facing towards the centre and side of the trough. 300mm from the end of each pipe, I placed a row of large rocks in front so as to stop any draft of strong winds going directly through the pipe.

With the boys help we scattered the other rocks around the trough, as well as the small logs and the rest of the grass hay, till we had everything inside the trough. “I think we need to get some leaves and bark. Grab an empty bag each and let’s go over to the trees and see what we can collect off the ground,” I said to Neal and Jedd. Less than half an hour later we returned and scattered what we had collected around the trough.

“Yes, that looks much better. I hope Emma like this new home we built for her. Thanks for all your help boys,” I said as we looked at what we had achieved before going to the single cabin to collect the box. We found Emma at the door waiting for us. “Hello, young lady. Have you been getting lonely?” I said to her after opening the door and placing my hands flat on the ground so she could walk onto my hands.

I had gotten used to her spines now, so I had no trouble turning her over onto her back and giving her chin and tummy a tickle which she always enjoyed. I took a quick peek at her pouch to check on the babies which were moving around a little. Then I rolled her back onto her feet and walking over to the feed bowls, I placed her on the ground and gave her some fresh water and food.

Once she had eaten Emma returned to her box and snuggled down under the towels. Carefully I picked up the box and carried it over to the new cabin. I climbed into the trough where I placed the box down near one of the pipes. Then I climbed out and along with the boys we watched and waited to see if Emma would come out and have a look around, but she didn’t, so I suggested that the boys go inside and start unpacking.

I went and retrieved the food and water bowls and refilling them with food and water, I placed them near the box. Just then Emma stuck her head out and looked around. Seeing that she was in a new unfamiliar place, she came out and began to explore the surroundings.

Firstly she investigated around the edge of the trough, then she explored in and around the rocks and logs, before disappearing down one of the pipes.