Adventures of an Urban Nomad - Feeling Grateful

Laurence Harrould - Sunday, February 26, 2012

As housesitters we've been very lucky to stay in some amazing houses. We're currently in a lovely place past St Albans over the Hawkesbury River near Sydney.

We're tucked away in a beautiful valley overlooking a lake. On a few occasions recently we've seen pelicans in the lake and kangaroos nearby (yes, we've had them in our driveway!). While there are other houses nearby we can't see them and we never hear other people.

We have a productive vegetable garden, fruit trees and chickens producing more eggs than we can use (see last week's post about the Henhouse Rebellion).

Days are warm to hot and nights are cool. In the morning we wake to the valley shrouded in fog sometimes so heavy you can't see the nearby hills.

Nights are beautiful. As it's been a new moon recently with cloudless skies the stars have been magnificent. We've been able to see the Milky Way again. It's wonderful to look up into the sky, see the band of stars in the Milky Way and understand we're looking through the plane of our galaxy and then look 90 degrees away and see deep space with very few stars. I often hear of people experiencing this who get a feeling of how small they are but for me it gives a sense of being part of something huge and incredible. Yes, I'm only a small part of it all, but I am a part.

Today we had some friends visit. We're grateful for that as it's no trivial undertaking. It involves a couple of hours travel time for them but when they arrive and are struck by the beauty and wonder of the place we're living in, it's a great reminder how lucky we are.

Our deepest thanks to a couple of people who we didn't know before we undertook their house-sit. Moving into their home we're having a wonderful "working holiday". I hope they're enjoying their holiday as much as we're enjoying ours.

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Adventures of an Urban Nomad - The Chicken Rebellion

Laurence Harrould - Sunday, February 19, 2012

You've, no doubt, heard about the Arab Spring. We're currently experiencing something similar - except it's in the chicken house.

When we took over the current house the chickens (yes we've now added chickens to our resume) were laying 4 eggs a day. This was fantastic and more than we were able to use. So we were in the wonderful position of being able to give eggs away. While we were very happy with the situation it did occur to me that since we had 10 chickens, 4 eggs was either an indication of some seriously underperforming birds or there was a roster system of which I had not yet become aware ie they were taking turns to produce. At first, I opted for the latter view. However, some recent events have been leading me to reconsider my position.

It started with a refusal to return to the coop after the afternoon's designated free time. Each afternoon we would let them out and let them run around freely for a few hours. During this time we would keep the dogs locked up. At first I would come back to the coop to find all the chickens inside on their own roosts - there really is a "pecking order" but I won't go into that now.

Then one day things started to change. It started with one chicken still outside when it came time to return to the "security" of the coop. I attempted to "herd" it into the henhouse but as I went around one side, trying to move it to the doorway at the front, it headed around the other side. So we had a Mexican standoff with me on one side of the henhouse and the chicken on the other. Meanwhile, a couple more chickens came out and so I found myself needing to go in three directions at once - clearly not a viable position. Having Sancho running around them added an "interesting" element to the chaos. Now Sancho isn't a big dog (he's a cute 10kg white fluffy) but to a chicken he does appear to be rather threatening. The fact that he has a chicken wing each morning for breakfast may also have added to his perceived danger.

Many years ago I heard about a management course in which trainees had to get a chicken to do a particular thing. Clearly, the only way to achieve the course objective was to change your own behaviour in order to achieve the desired change in your staff's behaviour. I suddenly found myself wishing I'd attended that course. However, I found the principle a sound one and so looked at how I could change what I was doing to get them into the chicken coop. This finally worked and I had all the chickens present and accounted for - I really didn't want to have to tell the home owners I'd managed to reduce their chicken stock.

Next we started to notice a decline in the number of eggs. From 4 per day it was dropping to 2 per day. This was clearly an unacceptable decline in them meeting their KPIs. To address this we tried feeding them more interesting things - scratch mix and kitchen vegetable offcuts. Things didn't improve. In fact they got worse.

We now find we need to check the nests regularly because they've started destroying the few eggs they do lay. On a number of occasions we've found only broken egg shells instead of the intact version for which we were very grateful. Also, when it's been time to "go to bed" a group have been regularly wandering around the enclosed vegetable garden. Somehow they're getting in but can't get out again.

I'm finding this "rebellious" behaviour quite unacceptable and if they continue in this manner I'm afraid I shall be forced to contemplate more dramatic action. If you come to our place for dinner and are offered roast chicken it may be best not to ask where it came from.

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Adventures of an Urban Nomad - My bike is not a dirt bike

Laurence Harrould - Sunday, February 12, 2012

My motorbike (Yamaha 1100 XVS Star Classic for the enthusiasts) weighs 284.9 kg - keep that in mind. It will be important shortly.

This week we moved to a new housesit in St Albans. That's 20 km past Wisemans Ferry and so is the furthest from the city we've been yet. It has a wonderful veggie garden, fruit trees, chickens (fresh eggs every day), horses and dogs.

When we moved in, the house owners were still here. There's a separate cottage which we used for a few days before they left, giving us a good opportunity to get to know each other and do a proper handover.

This summer has been a very wet one for Sydney - another very important fact.

When I arrived, Claire, the owner, was in the garden. She suggested I put my bike (see details above) under the house where it would be protected from the weather. I thought this was an excellent idea and so rode down to where she was.

In order to get under the house there was a small incline going up. Now remember, this is a heavy bike and it's been raining A LOT - not a good combination. As I rode up the grassy slope it turned into mud. The back wheel spun out sideways and the bike went down. So, I picked it up and tried again, this time using a different section which seemed more solid. "Seemed" is the operative word as it wasn't any better - slush, back wheel sliding out and down we go again. I decided this was a bit of a mug's game and, having a cover for the bike, went back to Plan A which was to have it in the top car park covered with its weatherproof sheet. Easier said than done!

The road to get under the house was downhill from the carpark. Coming down hadn't been an issue when I went through the slush as the combination of the weight of the bike and gravity had worked nicely to get me where I was going. Heading back up was a different story. Once again hit the mud, back wheel spun out and the bike was back on its side. I lifted it up AGAIN and tried once more with the same result. Isn't there something about the definition of insanity being "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result"?

There was one slight difference - the back wheel had buried itself in the mud and so I couldn't get it to go backwards to try a different route - oh for a bike with reverse gear!

Claire had been offering to help push which I'd been resisting. By now I was very happy to accept her offer.

So, pick up the bike (still stuck in the mud) with me trying to drive it forward and Clair pushing. Nothing happening - just digging deeper. Slipping the clutch and giving it more revs and slowly, ever so slowly I could feel it starting to grip.

Eventually, with a slight side-slip we got traction and were able to get moving. When I got to the carpark I found the back wheel was covered in mud right to the rim, mud icicles were hanging off the back and Claire had a stripe of mud down her entire front. Last time she tries to offer helpful advice!

The significant amount of weightlifting I had done now meant I was in intense pain and couldn't walk or sit comfortably for a couple of days.

It's now Sunday, I can walk again (albeit slowly and at a slightly weird angle). It's sunny (momentarily) and today's first job was to wash the bike.

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Adventures of an Urban Nomad - Paranoia

Laurence Harrould - Sunday, February 05, 2012

Recently, we've been staying with our special friends - the ones who give us a home when we've got a hole in our housesitting "dancecard". I've spoken about them before. Their house was the first place we looked after when we started our nomadic adventure.

You'll remember the episode of the dead cat (see Adventures of an Urban Nomad - Disaster Strikes). That occurred in these people's house. Since then we've stayed there a couple of times and each time we seem to be a party to some trauma.

Last time we were here a friend of the owners turned up needing somewhere to stay as she and her husband were having a difficult time and she'd moved out. That ended kind of OK as she went back to her husband shortly after (much to the relief of our friends).

This time our friend's sister moved in for a few days, again in the process of leaving her partner. Not only that but the cat (the one left after the above-mentioned episode) has been quite ill, the husband had a minor operation which turned into a big issue with major infections (if you want to stay healthy avoid hospitals) and the wife has just resigned her very high-powered job.

Just a note about the cat. We came home one day and couldn't find him. Being mindful of our previous episode we became quite anxious and went searching for him with no luck. While this was going on the owners arrived home and joined the search - anxiety escalating all around! Eventually, the cat was found asleep (or hiding) in the wardrobe - phew!!

Is this something we're doing??? We're starting to get a bit paranoid; every time we stay here something goes haywire.

In a couple of months they're going away and we're booked in to look after the house. There'll also be a nephew staying who's visiting from overseas, can't drive here, it's his first time away from home, has never looked after himself and our friends are a little concerned for his welfare (and the household's). Stay tuned for "interesting" news.

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