Beyond Frontier - 28. BF Chapter 28

I could hear a lot of scratching noises in the nesting box, so I opened the lid and looked in. Emma was busy rearranging the grass hay. I retrieved the towels from the cardboard box and placed them in the nesting box, and Emma began to rearrange them as well. I closed the lid and pulled out the cardboard box. Leaving Emma to get settled into her new home, I went inside to check on the boys.

Once the boys had put away some of their clothes and belongings, I suggested that we go into town to do some food shopping, after which they could continue doing some unpacking. The boys readily agreed to that, as they were getting bored putting all the stuff away in their room.

When we arrived back we put all of the shopping away. We stepped outside onto the veranda and peered over the side, to look into Emma’s new home. She was wandering around stopping and scratching at the leaves and bark pieces before exploring some more.

“She seems to like her new place, Anton,” Neal commented, and I smiled and nodded in reply.

“How long till we get to see the new babies?” Jedd asked me.

“Well, it will be about 40 to 50 days before they appear out of the pouch, as they start to develop their spines at that time. At the moment they just have hard fur. They will start eating on their own at about 7 months old, and will remain in their burrow for up to a year after leaving the pouch,” I replied, as we watched Emma go back into a tunnel back to the nesting box.

“I think we will need to make a pond of some kind too, so she has somewhere to paddle around a bit, as echidnas do like to swim,” I said to the boys, who were a little surprised that echidnas can actually swim. After dinner I went out to check on Emma who was wandering around her home. As soon as she saw me appear she raced to the side of the trough. I picked her up and tickled her chin. “Hello, young lady. How are you liking your new home? I will give you a pond tomorrow, and I will see if I can find some hollow logs as well,” I said to Emma, and I tickled her tummy.

Making sure that she had plenty of food and water, I headed back inside. I asked the boys to have a shower while I cleaned up the kitchen. Once the boys were clean and dressed in the PJ’s, I read them a short story before they went to bed, as they had school in the morning. I telephoned Simon to check on what was happening down in Henderson, and he reported that the research ship was now empty of company belongings and personal luggage and all the food had been transferred to the yacht.

He said they had about three hours of cleaning to do, then they would be heading back in the late morning the next day which I was pleased to hear. I said goodnight to him. The next morning after the boys had dressed and finished breakfast, we headed into town where I dropped the boys off at school, before I headed to the hardware store. I found a suitable little pond that had sloping sides, so Emma could get in and out easily.

Their garden section also had some large hollow logs, and some bags of large wood chips. I bought one bag then headed back home where I placed the large logs at various locations and scattered the wood chips in Emma’s pen. Emma watched me from the near entrance of the tunnel, and once I had installed the pond, she came out to explore what I had done. I stepped out and retrieved the water hose to fill up the pond, which was just three feet deep.

Once the pond was filled, Emma went for a little paddle before she went back into her nest. I topped up her food and water before I retrieved Roey and took her for a walk around the paddock. When we returned we climbed into the car and headed into town where I was pleased to see that the deliveries from the nursery in Geraldton had arrived, and that all the plants, and rocks were ready to be put into place.

“Hiya, Anton. I have already completed all of the reticulation installations, and I have received news that the office part of the project will be arriving next week. So, we have to get to work to get the pillars and the central staircase built ready for the upper level building,” Patrick said to me.

“That sounds fine. Just keep me posted on everything. Now I guess I better get to work, and start planting some of these trees and shrubs,” I replied.

For the rest of the morning I was kept busy with planting. Just as I was finishing before a lunch break my mobile rang, and the caller ID read Sarah. “Hello. What’s happening?” I answered.

“Hi, Anton. We are ready to move into the cabin, if you can transport us to the property please?” Sarah said to me.

“Sure. No problems. I am across the harbour on the new property planting at the moment. Let me clean up and I will be there shortly,” I replied.

Using the hose, I washed off most of the dirt and sweat from my hands, arms and legs, before climbing into my vehicle and heading over to the other side of the harbour. Within half an hour I had delivered Sarah and Oscar to their new cabin, next door to my new place. They were pleased with how their new place looked. “Who owns this new car in front of our place?” Oscar asked me.

“That is your mum’s new work vehicle,” I said with a smile, as I held up a set of keys to the car that was delivered late the previous day.

“Wow! Nice car, Mum,” Oscar said excitedly, and I chuckled as I handed the keys over to Sarah.

“Well, I’ll leave you guys to get settled in. I am going to check on the animals, then head back to finish planting the trees and shrubs,” I said, and I walked over to my cabin.

After taking Roey for a walk, and checking on Emma, I headed into town to grab a bite to eat, before heading back to the property to continue with planting. I was caught by surprise when I arrived there and found Sarah and Oscar waiting for me. “We came to help you,” Sarah said with a smile. By the end of the afternoon we had all of the trees and shrubs planted, and sprinklers were in place to water them all.

Patrick used his bobcat to put the larger boulders into place and to make a few small hills of dirt, after placing some storm pipes on the ground, with a number of bends, to create underground tunnels. Once all of this was done Patrick got to work to install the front fence of the wildlife yard with a double gate that could be locked to keep it secure and stop any animals from escaping through the entry.

While Patrick was doing the fence, I put the large pond into place, and with some smaller rocks I was able to create a small waterfall feature with a solar powered water pump to circulate water to create the waterfall. Once I had it going I stepped back to have a look at the whole area. I was pleased at how it looked.

Suddenly there was a double blast of horns that made me jump with fright. I went over to my vehicle and climbed onto the back to look over the top of the shrubs and saw both the catamaran and the trimaran approaching the harbour. Climbing down I reached in and grabbed the UHF radio mic.

“Hamilton Ocean Cruises, base to Frontier and Last Frontier. Over,” I said.

“Good afternoon, Boss,” Simon responded. “Hey, Anton,” Jasper replied.

“When you have both moored your yachts, please report to me at the new property across the harbour. Over and out,” I said, and I walked back to where I was earlier.

“I presume you want some shrubs along the outside of the front fence of the wildlife yard?” Patrick asked me after parking next to my vehicle.

“Yes, I will worry about that once all of the buildings have been installed, and all electrical and plumbing has been completed,” I replied.

“Ok. Well, as you can see we have the spiral stairs and pillars up. There is a slight delay of delivery of the upper office building which will now arrive in four days’ time,” Patrick informed me.

“No problems, mate,” I said with a smile, just as I saw Simon’s vehicle approaching. “Err, you may not want to be around while I am talking to these two clowns,” I said to Patrick, who got the hint and quickly left the site.

“You called us, Boss,” Simon said as he and Jasper walked towards me, and I turned to face them with a frown on my face which made both of their smiles quickly disappear.

“If you two ever do that again as you enter the harbour, I will suspend you both for a month without pay. Now get out of my face before I decide to change my mind,” I said and I turned and walked into the Wildlife yard to walk around and cool off.

I heard Simon’s vehicle leave the area, and after about half an hour of just staring at the wildlife yard, and a quick phone call, I jumped into my vehicle and headed home to the cabin, where my brothers were watching television. “Hey, guys, did you have a good day at school?” I asked them both.

“Yes, it was ok I guess,” Neal replied.

“Ok, get changed out of your school uniform and grab an overnight bag with change of clothes and school uniform for tomorrow. We are going for an overnight road trip,” I said to my brothers as I headed out to the veranda and checked on Emma, who raced to the side to greet me. I bent down and picked her up. “Hello, young lady. How have you been today?” I said to her as I tickled her chin.

I carried Emma inside and placed her on the floor. Then I retrieved some old shirts which I placed into the carry cage. Emma walked straight in and buried herself under the old shirts and went to sleep, which made me smile. I packed some echidna and dog food plus some bottles of water into a backpack, then went to my room to pack an overnight bag.

“Are you boys ready to go?” I shouted out to my brothers, just as they came out of their room with a backpack each. As they walked out of the cabin I closed the cage door and picked it up and carried it out to the vehicle, before getting Roey and having her loaded in the vehicle as well.

Once I was in the driver’s seat, I paused for a few moments. Then pulling out my phone I sent a text message to Anita. “The boys, animals and I have gone away for an overnight trip. I will have the boys back in time for school in the morning,” and I pressed send.

A few moments later I received a reply. “Ok. Jasper told me that you gave him and Simon an ear bashing this afternoon. He got one from me too for putting our family at risk of being homeless and him being unemployed. I am sorry that it happened, and I am sure it won’t happen again,” Anita replied.

After reading the message I drove down the drive way and headed south. An hour later we arrived in the coastal town of Lancelin where I had arranged rental of a house for just the night. We arrived just half an hour before sunset.

We placed our luggage in our rooms, and leaving Emma’s cage on the living room floor with the door open, I set out some food and water for her, before getting Roey’s lead. We then headed to the beach for a long walk, and to watch the sunset, which was nice and relaxing.

Once the sun had set we wandered over to a café and sat down out on the veranda to order some dinner. The waiting staff let Roey remain lying at my feet. While waiting for our dinner, I rang the sat phone for the trimaran. “Last Frontier, 1^st Mate Toby speaking,” I heard as the call was answered.

“Hi. What is happening on the yacht?” I asked feeling there was no need to identify myself.

“Hey, Boss, we have just finished doing a thorough clean of the whole yacht. Alex Kirk and Leon are in the galley preparing dinner,” Toby reported.

“Ok, so you took Jasper and his family out for a sail today did you?” I asked.

“Well, Jasper did all the skippering, and, yes, we were out for most of the day,” Toby replied.

“That is fine. So what are your food store supplies like at the moment?” I asked.

“We have enough food for the remaining crew for three days,” Toby replied.

“Very well, round up Kirk and Leon, and set sail south to Lancelin. My brothers and I are down here at the moment. It is 90 kilometres by sea, so it should take you about five hours to get here. I don’t want you to notify Jasper what I am requesting. He is on leave, so he has nothing to do with this. I will see you guys in the morning. Just anchor out in the bay about 100 metres off from the main jetty. Goodnight,” I said and I ended the call and smiled.

“Are we going sailing tomorrow, Anton?” Jedd asked me.

“Yes, buddy. I will call the school in the morning to say that you won’t be coming to school for a few days,” I replied.

“Yippee!” both boys chorused which made me laugh. Not long after that we began to enjoy our dinners: a nice big steak for me and Roey, and fish and chips for the boys. After we had eaten, we walked back to the house. I had the boys have a shower each before they could watch some television.

The following morning, while the boys were eating breakfast at the café, I called the principal at the Jurien school to let them know that Neal and Jedd would not be attending school for a couple of days, before I finished my own breakfast. Back at the house we packed up our bags and loaded them into the vehicle, and then drove down to the main jetty where the Trimaran was anchored off the beach.

Soon after we arrived I heard the sound of a dinghy approaching and looking up I was pleased to see that it was Kirk and Leon. “Good morning, boss and boys. Ready for a day of sailing?” Kirk said cheerfully when they arrived on the beach and he jumped out.

“Yes, and we have Emma and Roey with us as well,” I replied with a smile, as I held up Emma’s cage.

“Keep her well away from me and the sides of the dinghy, Boss,” Leon replied, and I laughed, as we climbed on board. I let out a soft whistle to get Roey to follow us.