Outback Corporation - 7. OBC Chapter 7

“Guys, back to work,” I said after we finished laughing, “We need to discuss plans for the next couple of weeks.”

“Ok boss,” Daniel answered while Chris stifled he mirth, “What do we need?”

“To start, check and repairs on the water runs, plus the boundary fences. Vehicle maintenance, locate and check on the main herd.”

“On it boss,” they responded in unison.

Over the next few weeks everyone was kept very busy with all the jobs that are required to be done on the station. Two weeks after the long weekend, I received another letter from Dad.

“My dearest son Kes, I hope you are well and rested after the long weekend, the family lawyers have sent me a copy of the newspaper clipping about the rodeo at Pondana, looks like it was a big success, congratulations on making such a huge event a success, I am very proud of you. I have settled in well in Canada. I have purchased a small property on the western river banks of the South Thompson River near the village of Chase in British Columbia, 407 kilometres north east of Vancouver by road, or a 1-hour flight, followed by a 60 kilometre drive which is less painful than 4 hours of driving.

My partner - Declan Grovedale is a computer programmer, and he works and lives in the city of Vancouver, where he has a house in the outer suburbs. He has 5 sons Noel, Harcourt, Emanuel, Gresley and Carter, aged from 14 to 8 years old. Declan is a widower of 2 years. His late wife knew that he was bisexual a few years before she died, but they remained together because of the boys. It was a few months after the funeral that the oldest boy discovered that their father liked men as well as women. He told his younger brothers and there was some tension in the family, even though they have a gay uncle, but thankfully that was before I met Declan, and all is good now, especially since they know I have my own son.

The property I bought is a 214-acre small farm that has a wonderful 8 bedroom and 6 bathroom house on it, and is just 7 kilometres from the nearest village of Chase. The City of Kamloops is just 58 kilometres south west of Chase. The house has three levels with the upper level has a master bedroom with ensuite, private lounge and private balcony on the north side with a large open lounge area in the centre with a winding staircase to the lower levels. On the south side there are another four bedrooms with 2 shared bathrooms. On the main level there is a large family lounge room, a large balcony with views of the whole property and the mountains, a billiards room, study, library, formal lounge and formal dining room, kitchen, pantry, utilities room, toilet, housekeeper’s bedroom with ensuite and private lounge. On the lower level there are two guest bedrooms with separate bathrooms, with a guest lounge room between them, and finally there is one huge games room.

Attached to the house there is a double garage, two store rooms, a generator room and wood store. Other buildings include a 6 bay stables with tack room and feed room, there is a hay storage shed, horse training yards, a machinery shed and 2 large storage sheds and one small shed. Yes I agree it does seem a bit too big for just one person, but Declan and the boys come up every second weekend, the 10 year old twins share a bedroom, the others have their own rooms, and I have a part time housekeeper, Jeanne Alyn, who has two sons of her own, she travels out from town, for 4 hours work - three days a week to keep the place tidy.

On the weekend that they are in the city, I go down and spend the weekend with them. The boys are wonderful and they call me Uncle Bas, during the weekdays that I am on my own, I do a lot of horse riding, as I have four horses, and I have a small herd of 19 beef cows and two dairy cows, I also have about twenty chickens, 6 geese and would you believe it but also a camel, which I saw advertised for sale one day, plus I have two Australian Cattle dogs.

I have turned the empty large shed into a barn for the animals, so they can walk around freely during the very cold winter months, warm and out of the cold winds, the chickens have an outdoor fenced off area behind the shed where they can run around during the warmer months, with a little hatch built into the wall for easy access.

The property has a total of four paddocks, each being around 52 acres each, and the house yard, located in the middle of the property is just under 5 acres in area and includes a nice big garden, fruit orchard and lawn areas which keeps me busy too.

I employ a neighbour’s son, Jock Peterson who is 16 to help me on the farm, 4 hours a day on weekends, and he feeds the animals when I am away in the city, as well as cleaning the stables and getting the hay for the animals. I am a very happy man now, even though it is so much different to life on Pondana, especially with the temperatures and different seasons during the year, I do miss you very much my son and I hope to be able to bring my new family to Australia for a visit in the not too distant future. Take care Kes, I’m thinking of you every day, with love your father.”

I had tears on my cheeks and was staring at the letter I had just read, when Chris entered the office and stopped dead still when he saw my face, then rushed to my side, “Kes! What’s wrong?” he expressed with concern etched in his face.

I smiled and wiped the tears away. “It’s all ok. It’s just a letter from dad, and I just miss him so much that’s all” I explained to Chris, who smiled in relief that I was ok. When I went to put the letter back in the envelope I noticed something else in the envelope, photographs and I slowly went through each one, handing them to Chris to see after I had.

Dad looked very healthy and very happy in the photos. There was a photo of the whole family; Dad, Declan and the five boys, there were also photos of the house, the outside buildings, plus the paddocks. Another showed the two dogs standing alongside the camel and some of the farm as well. I was now smiling broadly, pleased to see that my dad was happy, and that made me very happy, though with a touch of melancholy with missing him. Chris and I were kept busy in the office over the next few days, planning and preparing for the twice a year muster.

Once all was prepared, the muster began with the yards that surround the main drinking points for the cattle having the gates locked into entry only position, staff setting up camping at the main points to monitor the numbers and report back to the office via sat phone. When the numbers were high enough, a crew of workers would go out to that point and began the branding, sorting, immunising, and recording weights and tag numbers on the database, before releasing them. It was a very long and tiresome process but it had to be done to try and keep track of the number of cattle and check their conditions. After a very-exhausting 5 weeks, the whole process was complete on all properties of both companies; I decided to give all the staff two days off as a celebration.

As it was now nearing the end of August which is usually the driest time of the year on the stations, checks on all water points was now a regular event, to make sure all the stock are getting enough water to survive and also to check the fence lines. I sometimes chose to go out on a water run, just to be able to get away from the office and the homestead, as I seem to be spending a lot more time doing paper work instead of doing outdoor work on the station. Coming back from a two-day water run trip, I found another letter waiting for me on the desk, which was from my dad. I sat down at the desk and looked at the envelope for a while before I decided to open it and read what it has to say.

“My Dear son Kes, I hope you are well. How did the August Muster go? Did you get most of the stock into the yards on all the stations? Hope you are not spending too much time stuck in the office like I had been doing, make sure you get out and do station work too, or you will soon find that you will not want to keep going with work on the stations. Everything is going very well here on my farm, I have had 19 calves born this my first season of farming in Canada, I am very pleased with the outcome. I plan to start working on developing a good quality breeding herd.

Jock is spending a lot more time over here now, often coming over straight after school to help with the chores, and I am grateful for all his help. His father is a very strict man, and he demands that Jock pay his way with his living costs, so he spends more time here to earn more wages, which I am happy to do. I get the feeling that their farm is not doing too good at the moment and that during the winter they lost quite a lot of their breeding stock.

I have made some changes to the farm, now that I have experienced a full Canadian winter, the two large storage sheds are now stock sheds for winter time, the smaller shed now houses the chickens, ducks, and the now four dairy cows, while the camel now lives in the stables with the now five horses, leaving room for the cows and calves to live in the two big sheds during the winter, my beef cow numbers have also increased to 34 and I have a neighbour who I lease his bull from to mate with my cows.

During the winter it is almost a full-time job shovelling the manure out of the sheds, but I have been able to stock pile it and dry it out, then crush and bag it and I sell it as garden fertiliser at the farmers markets. It keeps young Jock busy for about two hours each day doing just that one chore. Declan and the boys now visit the farm every weekend, and they too do some chores to earn pocket money. I think they now prefer country life than living in the city, and Declan said he is getting a lot of pressure from the boys to move to the farm full time, I love the idea and would welcome it but it all depends on their education, as Noel and Harcourt attend a private Grammar school.

It is summer holidays here at the moment and the boys enjoy swimming in the river on the real warm days, and they are always happy to help me out on the farm as well as their normal chores, I think Declan and I will be having a serious talk about our future before the end of the holidays. Well that is about all I have to say for now, hope to hear from you soon. Thinking of you always, Love your Dad”.

I didn’t have tears in my eyes this time, I was happy that my dad was enjoying his new life in Canada, and I started thinking about a possible surprise visit to see him, now things were quietening down a bit.

At dinner time that evening I asked, “Chris and Daniel come and see me in the office after dinner as I need to discuss something with you both.” This caught everyone’s attention, and I gave out a short laugh, “It’s not that serious. It’s just an idea that I and wanted to bounce off you two, for your thoughts on the matter.” Once dinner was over and the dishes had been cleaned, Chris and Daniel followed me back to the office, and we sat down in the lounge chairs instead of the office chairs, to make it less informal.

After a short spell of silence, “I was thinking of taking two weeks off to go on a short holiday, maybe to Western Canada; I wanted to see if it was ok with you guys if I left you both in charge of everything while I am away?” I waited patiently as they both thought about it to themselves silently, before Chris cleared his throat to give his view on the matter.