Deception - 27. Dec Chapter 27

The boys went and retrieved Tom’s laptop computer, and sat around the dining table discussing ideas while I wanted to ask Bryce a question. “Since Tom had been having a difficult time lately, with bad things happening, I have come to the decision to not return him back to his normal school, but instead enroll him into distance education – home schooling, and I was wondering since you are hanging around with us for a while, if you would like Ethan to do the same” I said to Bryce cautiously, and I was a bit surprised when I saw Bryce smile.

“You know mate, you have come up with the perfect solution, I have been thinking about Ethan’s schooling for a few days now, and I think your idea is perfect, we could use the conference room next door as their main class room, and we can add some more reference books to the library upstairs, and I can get Ethan a laptop as well”.

A few minutes later I was talking to the coordinator of distance education in South Australia, and we set an appointment time for 11am tomorrow for an interview. For the next twenty minutes Bryce and I worked out a list of jobs for Jack and his boys while we are away, and we thought that Jacob could remain on the island to help Jack and his boys. At dinner time that evening, Bryce and I announced to Tom and Ethan that we are going to Adelaide for the day, and that Jacob would be remaining on the island to help Jack, Amos and Lloyd.

The following morning, we had the boys up early, and we set off to the mainland in time to catch the morning flight from Port Lincoln to Adelaide, I had messaged Jack to let him know what was happening, and asked him to collect us from Louth Bay, when we arrive in the late afternoon from our day trip to Adelaide. Once we had arrived in the city, we went to a large bookshop, where we purchased some reference books a number of atlas’s and dictionaries to be added to the library at home.

When we had done that we had some morning tea, before heading to the Distance Education Office for our interviews, which took over two hours to complete. After some lunch, we went to the education bookshop, to get the required text books, teacher manuals and some extra bits and pieces that we noticed would be ideal, and with everyone having two large bags of books and supplies, we caught a taxi back to the airport and caught the mid-afternoon flight back to Port Lincoln.

We drove south to the city instead of to Louth Bay, and we called into the nursery that Shamus owns, and we had a look around the small nursery before Shamus recognized us, I introduced Bryce before explaining that I own Louth Island, and that I was wanting a very large number of native shrub and tree seedlings, when he asked how large, I said about 10,000 seedlings and I said that I would provide a bank cheque to the sum of $5,000 as an advance payment to assist with getting propagation into action as soon as possible.

Shamus was a bit surprised by this request, which he would keep him very busy for some time, as he accepted the order and the cheque, with a big grin on his face. Once that business had been concluded, we headed north to Louth Bay, with Bryce phoning Jack, to let him know we were on our way to the Louth Bay now.

When we arrived back on the island, Bryce and the boys took all of the new supplies to the conference room in the house, while I went to see how the preparations were going for the new boardwalk and the 4 double platforms for the Eco Tents. Jack and his boys had properly measured and marked each of the Eco tent sites, in a staggered formation, as Bryce had suggested, they had also measured and marked the line for the new boardwalk that will provide access to the Eco Tents.

When Jack and his boys arrived in the house at the end of the day, with their luggage and swags in hand, I suggested that Amos and Lloyd set up in the formal lounge room so they are close to the toilet on the ground floor, and Jack could have last spare bedroom, sharing the bathroom with Bryce. Once they had settled in, I called a planning meeting, so we could organize what will be happening with this new project.

Jack, Bryce and I would be installing the support posts and struts for the boardwalk, Amos, Lloyd and Jacob would be laying the boardwalk. When not doing school studies, Ethan and Tom will be delivering the wood slats for the boardwalk by quadbike and trailer from the barge and shed, this way we can get the new board walk completed, so we can start on the tent platforms overlooking Carl Cove. After dinner, Bryce and I sat down to work out a school schedule for the two boys, and we gave it to the boys, just as they were preparing for bed.

The next morning after breakfast, Tom and Ethan headed to the conference room to start school, while the rest headed up top, to begin work on the new boardwalk, with everyone working on getting support posts and struts into place first, so the concrete can set overnight, ready to begin laying down the boardwalk the following day. When we stopped for lunch, the boys had it all prepared for us, and after we had all eaten, I checked on what the boys had done during the morning and gave them permission to help up on the island for the rest of the afternoon, getting boardwalk slats up from the barge to the shed.

The new boardwalk and connection boardwalks with each Eco Tent Platform, would be just under 1 kilometer in length, so it would not take too long to complete, and I was hoping that it would be just over a month before the whole project is completed. As it started to get late in the afternoon, my phone rang, and it was Shamus calling, to let me know that he had sourced 2,000 native seedlings, available for delivery by Friday this week, I asked Shamus to go ahead with organizing the purchase and having them delivered to Louth Bay.

For the next three days, everyone was kept very busy with the start of the new boardwalk, and with extra helpers, it was getting built a lot faster than I expected. On the Friday after lunch, Bryce, Jack and I took the barge to the mainland to collect the trays of seedlings, I had also ordered some reticulation pipe, fittings and sprinklers, that I wanted to connect up to the water tank near the shed, to provide a water source to the new seedlings, especially when Summer was almost here.

The reticulation pipe would be laid alongside the base of the new boardwalk, with sprinklers evenly spaced apart, to water the ground 10 metres on each side of the boardwalk, where the new seedlings will be planted. I thanked Shamus for him being able to get some seedling so soon, and asked that he delay having any more available for at least another 6 weeks, by that time we will have enough hands to assist with the planting of the seedlings.

For the next four weeks, everyone on the island was kept busy with the new boardwalk and the tent platforms, which we had the first one built fairly early, so when the new Eco Tents arrived, we could get one built and furnished, so to get the photos that are needed for the website the boys were establishing in their limited spare time. On occasions, we would spot some of the introduced animals as we were working, mostly the wallabies and quokkas, which was good to see that they seemed healthy and had settled onto the island well.

After a month of hard work, I decided that we all needed a break, so at breakfast time, I announced to everyone, that there would be no work today and to just relax which the boys were happy to hear. The main boardwalk was nearly completed, two connecting boardwalks and tent platforms had also been finished, with one Eco Tent built and fully furnished. The boys took this time off, to grab the camera, and go out to take more photos for the website.

Shortly before lunch time, were Bryce and I were putting together a BBQ picnic lunch at the gazebo for everyone, the boys came rushing up to inform us that we had visitors arriving on the islands western beach. Tom and I headed off to see who it was, and when we arrived at the top of the western beach, I recognizedPaul his boss stepping onto the beach.

“Tom go and tell Bryce that we have two more guests for lunch” I said to him and as he dashed off towards the gazebo, I headed down the hill to greet Paul and Margie. “Perfect timing, welcome to Louth Island, I am the owner and your host” I said to them as I got closer, Paul didn’t look at all surprised by my announcement, but it took his boss and my former boss totally by surprise, which made Paul and I laugh.

“Come up to the gazebo, we are just starting to cook a BBQ lunch” I said as I led them up the hill, and we headed to the boardwalk, before changing directions towards the gazebo on the eastern side of the island. When we arrived there, I introduced the new visitors to Jack and his two sons, explaining they are the building team working on the boardwalks, I then introduced Bryce and his son Ethan and Jacob, friends from WA, who are helping with the project.

While we chatted, I cooked lunch, and Bryce explained the new project with an extra boardwalk, and 4 Eco Camping tents for visitors to camp and explore the island along the boardwalks and the eastern beach. Tom took a series of photos of us as we cooked and chatted, and later as we took a stroll along the boardwalk to look at the animals. To throw off the suspicion of the house, I told Paul that when we visited the island to work on projects, we often set up camp on the barge or on the beach, and we mostly have our meals at the gazebo.

I was surprised to see that this explanation seemed to be accepted by both Paul and his boss, who said that this would be their last visit to check on the animals, since we are spending more time on the island, and keeping an eye on them. When the visitors had left, we returned to the gazebo to pack up the picnic and to head back to the house to clean up, and where Tom, Jacob and Ethan headed to the office, to check all the photos, and to select the best ones for the website, as they now had enough information and photos to present a three-page website for “Louth Island Retreat - Eco Camping on a Private Wildlife Reserve”.

After dinner that evening, the boys presented the finished result of their work on the website, and Bryce and I were both amazed at how a good job they had done. With my credit card, we purchased a Domain Name for the website, and once that was done, we activated the website, and promoted it on a number of web search engines. I took this opportunity to announce that I wanted to extend the boardwalk to cover the southern end of the island,

But only along the edge of the island, so as to keep the house hidden away and out of sight, I said that this would mean an extra 2.8 kilometres of boardwalk would be built, from the gazebo to Pelican Point and around to the main boardwalk lookout on the western side. I mentioned that I wanted some of the tree seedlings to be planted about 75 metres away but all the way around the Solar panels, so as to have a viewing barrier, so they can’t be seen from the new board walk when it is completed.

I asked that in the morning, Jack and his boys continue with finishing the current project, while Jacob, Bryce and I begin planting the tree seedlings around the solar panels, and start making out the line where the next boardwalk is to be built along with lookout areas. I suggested that Tom and Ethan continue with doing school work, and delivering wood for the boardwalk, as they have been doing in the past.

Three weeks later, the newest project on the island was completed, the boardwalk that runs behind the Eco Tents, the platforms for the tents and the connecting boardwalks, plus all four eco tents are now up and fully furnished, ready for guests to occupy. Already we have received a number of enquiries on making bookings, but I didn’t want to start accepting bookings until all four eco tents were completed, now they are, Bryce got to work sending emails to those who had made enquiries, and within a few days he had all 4 tents booked for two nights, starting from 6-days’ time.

Leaving Jack and his boys to start working on the new southern boardwalk, I organized for the rest of the team to join me on a trip to Adelaide, I had learnt a few weeks earlier, that Bryce has a master’s ticket in skippering boats up to 50 metres in size, and I had a surprise lined up for him, when we arrive in Adelaide. Secretly I had been looking into purchasing a 12-metre long, 6-metre wide, 3 crew & 24 passenger hovercraft, that can do an average of 35 knots speeds for up to 12 hours, which would be perfect for the 240 kilometer, 3-hour long journey from Adelaide to Louth Island.