Chapter Nine – Walking Around the Farm

Dylan, however, had been delighted. ‘You’ll love it, Matt, and learn so much. I am tempted to come myself.’ It was Dylan’s sentiment that Matt chose to focus on as he prepared to leave.

It was a particularly early start and still cool. Cool enough that Matt rode slowly while he warmed up. Being early on a Saturday the roads were clear. So Matt rode down the centre of the lane as if cars did not exist and the roads were made just for boys on bicycles. As was the routine, Matt noted the time he crossed the bridge, he took a big breath and started to pedal harder. The time it took to cycle to the farm had finally started dropping. Each week or two Matt would set a new personal best, which he found very satisfying. Because it was early, cool and there was no wind, this day would be a good day for a fast ride. With this in mind, Matt set about finding his rhythm and holding a steady pace. Dylan had fitted a trip computer to Matt’s bike and Matt had become a bit obsessed with tracking his progress. Matt now knew what speed he had to maintain on each section of the ride to get a good time. He smiled as he recalled Dylan’s words, ‘You will never enjoy cycling again, but you’ll be faster.’ Yes, he would be faster.

Once at the farm Matt put his bicycle in the shed and scuffed his shoes in the gravel. Bess came tearing around the corner of the house, fiercely barking and snarling. She loved her job, to make sure that strangers knew their days were about to come to an end. She also knew this was just for show and her real mission was to alert Gary and Heather to the presence of intruders. So best she put on a mighty show. If Bess met someone she didn’t know, she would not approach them. She would stay back at a safe distance, making as much noise and looking as fierce as she could. Bess knew Matt would give her more attention than most. As soon as Bess recognised Matt she would transform herself into a wriggling, welcoming bundle of love. She would bound playfully over to him and push herself sideways into his legs as he knelt. Sometimes Bess would manage to push Matt over, if she did she would take the opportunity to lick his face with great enthusiasm.

This day was no different and Matt knelt while scratching Bess for some time, with one hand behind her ear and the other reached around to her belly. There was no mistaking Bess’s gratitude. She gently licked Matt’s forearm, encouraging him to keep this up for just a little bit longer.

“Morning, Matt,” called Sandra, “come around this way, we’re sitting outside.”

Bess bounced over to Sandra, a little bit like a rocking horse. Matt followed them to the patio, where Heather, Gary, Sandra and Allicia all sat, seemingly waiting for him.

“Morning, Matt,” said Gary, “come and grab a seat and a bite. Your timing’s pretty good. Another minute and Sandra would have cleaned this up.”

“Still prepared to fight ya for it,” said Sandra, while pointing her hand in the shape of a gun at Matt. Unbeknown to Matt though, it was no coincidence. Heather had been patiently looking out the window for him to appear on the final section of road to the farm. Then began another routine. Gary would load up Matt’s plate for him, along with, ‘It’s just a little bit to get you started.’ Though in fact, it would be the biggest meal Matt had seen since his last visit. There was cheerful banter, plans were made for the weekend and following week. After the chatter had started to slow down Gary pushed his plate forward. “Okay, time to go for a walk, Matt. The first thing to do is to show you around and meet the team.”

“Thank you for breakfast,” said Matt, smiling at Heather.

“No, no, no. Don’t thank us, thank the team,” said Gary, “we just did a little cooking, some of them made a real commitment. Especially the one who provided the bacon.”

“Don’t say that,” chided Heather, “you will spoil it.”

Gary winked at Matt. “I think he knows where his food comes from, Heather.” With that said Gary stood up and walked around the table giving each of Heather, Sandra and Allicia a hug.

Gary looked at Matt’s shoes. “First stop the shed. We’ll find some boots for you.” After selecting some gumboots Matt followed Gary around the corner of the main shed and was surprised to see more sheds, many fences, tanks and pens. There was a whole new world that was completely out of sight from the approach to the house.

“We’ll start with the chickens,” said Gary. “Now these are all layers, just for eggs. We don’t have any meat birds, or broilers as they’re known. We keep about twenty birds. More than enough for us. That’s about one to one and half dozen eggs per day, depending on the time of year and the age of the birds. We get the birds in batches, so these ladies are all the same age. They lay very well for about three years.” Gary led Matt down a path between two smallish fenced paddocks. “The chooks reside in ‘Feather Mansion’ as it’s known. It’s in the middle of these four fenced areas. The way the doors work means that we can give the chickens access to one area at a time. This way they can always have access to a green zone. I grow veggies in here for us and the chickens. When I am done with an area I let the chooks loose and they clean it up and finish off the remaining vegetables and all the weeds.”

Gary opened a door to one of the fenced areas and ushered Matt in. “These are sunflowers, the chickens love the seeds. I put about one hundred in each area and collect the heads and store them. That way the chickens can have them all year round. You’ll see silverbeet, broccoli and other things everywhere. We pick what we need and leave the rest to the chickens. You’ll see that each area has a couple of rows of wood rings.” Gary flipped over one of the rings. “See under here? Slaters and worms. Each time we come out, we flip a couple over. The ladies love it.” Gary led Matt over to Feather Mansion, the name was painted on the door. Matt surmised this was from Liam. “If you take a look in here you’ll see it’s clean and dry. One of the jobs is to keep it this way. There are five layer boxes that you can access from outside, without getting amongst the chickens. That’s so Heather doesn’t have to get mucky feet! We keep the pellets and water under the cover there, away from the rain and sun.” Gary looked around to see if there were any other points to make. “What do you reckon?”

Matt looked over at Feather Mansion and back at Gary. “Pretty flash,” he said.

“Yes, it is. Some would say flashier than it needs to be. But I don’t think so. No animal should ever suffer on a farm, Matt. It’s not their choice to be here, it’s ours. It’s not for their benefit, it’s for ours. The contract is simple, they provide for us, we care for them.” Gary put his hands on his hips and looked around. “My goal was to have chicken facilities I would choose if I was a chicken.”

Matt nodded. “If I was a chicken, I would choose here.”

“Good,” said Gary, “you get the picture. Our goal is to make life as good for our animals as we can. Okay, let’s press on.” Gary showed Matt the pig enclosures, ‘Pork Paradise’, and the fields for the sheep. There were also fruit trees, berries, passionfruit, kiwifruit, grapes and many more plants than Matt could remember.

Then there was Dexter. Dexter was a large white male goat. Although desexed, Gary explained that he was still pretty ‘playful’. “Dexter earns his keep by eating. He trims the sides of the drive, eats the grapevines and things back when they start to get a bit ambitious.” Gary gave Matt a couple of feijoas from his pocket.

“Hold your hand out flat like this,” said Gary, “and he will gently take the fruit.”

Matt held his hand out but instinctively retracted it when Dexter came forward.

“He won’t hurt you,” reassured Gary as he rubbed Dexter’s neck.

Matt tried again. This time he let Dexter take the fruit. Indeed he was very gentle. Matt offered Dexter the second feijoa. He was intrigued by Dexter’s eyes, they were yellow-brown with horizontal black slots. Dexter sniffed Matt’s hands and legs, lifted his head high and looked Matt directly in the eyes.

“Well done, let’s take Dexter down behind the shed. There’s some nibbling required there.”

Gary unclipped Dexter and started leading him back down toward the sheds. As they walked Dexter started to pull ahead, he started walking sideways and tugging on his leash. Dexter walked backwards away from Gary and put his head down before doing a small leap toward Gary. Gary turned to Matt. “Okay, he wants to play. He’s probably just wanting to show off to you. He’s much worse around girls. A right proper show off then.” Gary walked toward Dexter. “Okay, bonehead, show us what ya got.”

Dexter slowly walked backwards and reared up on his back legs. He was now taller than Gary. Dexter tipped his head a little to one side and lunged forward. But Gary was quick too. He stepped toward Dexter with a hand held high and caught Dexter’s forehead and guided it onto his belly as Dexter came down. Gary put one foot forward, got into a long low stance and the pushing competition began.

“This is the best way to test your stances,” offered Gary. Gary’s boots slid along the ground as Dexter pushed him backwards. “Dexter always wins though, he’s got four legs.”

Matt could see that Gary was scratching Dexter’s neck with one hand while holding his head against his belly with the other. Dexter was furiously wagging his short tail. After pushing Gary backwards for a couple of metres Dexter strongly shook his head to get free and reared up again. The process was repeated several times before Dexter started trotting down the hill.

“Let’s go, Matt, it’s time for a run.” As Dexter ran he jumped and kicked, he was clearly loving the freedom. When they got to the shed Gary clipped Dexter’s leash onto a loop of wire on a post. “You’ll find loops like this all over the farm,” said Gary, “when you move Dexter just clip him on a loop.”

“When you move Dexter,” thought Matt. “Surely not?”

“If Dexter gets free,” Gary continued, “just run as fast as you can to the house and let me or Heather know. Dexter will be doing the same, only he’ll be heading straight for Heather’s roses. He LOVES roses.” Gary turned to face Matt and looked at him. “If he ever gets too much for you just let him go. He won’t go far. Come and get me and all will be fine.” Gary winked. “First though you need to learn to play his game, we’ll work on that later.” They walked through the sheep paddocks to some trees on a hillside. Gary explained that some trees were for firewood and some for making garden edging, which was the one thing Gary actually made money from. There was also a block of native bush that backed onto the farm. Gary explained that he had trap lines through the bush to control mice, rats, possums and mustelids.

“Now before we sit down, what are you like at jumping fences?”

Matt looked quizzically at Gary, he was not sure what he meant.

Gary pointed at a fence. “See this fence? Neither of us could just run and jump it front on, but if we use an arm it’s easy. Watch this.” Gary walked over to the fence, put one hand on a post and swung his legs over. “Easy peasy,” he said as he jumped back using the other arm. “When you’re bored give that a go. You have to know how to jump a fence on a farm!” Gary found a log in a shaded place to sit on where he could look over the farm. He stretched his legs out in front of him and looked into the distance. “So,” he began, “you know what a farm is, you now know a little bit about how to run a farm. Do you have any idea why I have a farm?”

Matt looked down across the sheep paddock to Feather Mansion in the distance. “Because it’s fun?” he offered.

Gary smiled and nodded slowly. “Hmmm, that’s probably the best answer I’ve had.” Gary picked up a stick and, starting from one end, began to snap it into small pieces. “I’ll start by telling you what are not the reasons. It’s not to make money, this farm is too small and probably too diverse for that. It’s not because I don’t have anything else to do. I have a profession I could easily return to.” Gary turned around to face Matt. “One of the reasons was to provide the best place to raise my children. One of the reasons was so that Heather and I could spend time together and do things together. One of the reasons was to do something that would allow me to contribute to my community. One of the reasons was to explore a lifestyle that was a bit more meaningful, under my control and allow me some free time.” Gary picked up another stick. “I’ve been very lucky. I have two brothers and we inherited a dairy farm when our father died unexpectedly. The deal was simple, we got the farm but looked after our mum. I had no interest in dairy farming so took a payout. I completed my engineering degree and used the money to buy a house. I soon realised that I could use the money to buy three houses and rent to pay the mortgages. All was looking good until I mucked up, which is what we talked about the other day at training. I headed overseas to get away from it all. I went to Australia and worked in the mines, the pay was good and every time I had another deposit I bought another house. I was lucky. I had no idea the housing market was about to go nuts. In the end, I was able to sell a couple of houses, buy the farm and mostly live with the rent from the remaining houses.”

Gary whistled loudly. “Bess has come looking for us.”

Matt looked up to see Bess tearing across the sheep paddock toward them. A couple of sheep jumped out the way, but most seemed not to care. Bess ran to Gary and pushed her head onto his knees, she was panting very hard. Gary scratched her on the side of her neck. “Good girl, good girl. So now Heather and I grow food for ourselves and friends. We give food and firewood to community groups to either help people directly or raise funds and we sell a few things. I love it.” Gary turned to Matt and put his hand on his shoulder. “I have the farm because I can’t think of anything that would make me happier. It’s small and not much work. I get much more satisfaction doing what I do than I would trying to earn money on a bigger farm. Very importantly I have time. Time for karate, time for the boat and time for family. This makes me a very wealthy man.” Gary stood up. “Speaking of time, it’s time for lunch.” Matt’s stomach gurgled as he stood up. Gary laughed and slapped him on the back. “My alarm has gone off too.”

As they walked back through the sheep paddock Gary started talking again. “The only reason Heather and I are financially sorted is we don’t want too much. If we decided we needed a new car every year, or overseas holidays, we would be stuffed. We have everything we need because we choose not to need much. Nothing I own is new. Not the house, car, bicycle or boat. The piano was new though. Gotta look after the ladies!” Gary looked over to Matt until he caught his eye. “Understand?”

Matt nodded.

“It’s very important to decide your path early on. If you don’t decide what is enough early on you just might find yourself on a path without a destination. Going nowhere, but getting older. When I worked in the mines I had a simple goal, save every cent. I didn’t drink or party my earnings away. I saved it all. I worked hard and became the safety manager at a big mine. This meant I earned a bit more and got skills that let me work pretty much anywhere. I was lucky, but when the ball came my way I caught it and ran hard. It’s easy to be lucky, you just keep trying till you get lucky.” Gary chuckled loudly. “I just love being told I’m lucky.”

Matt felt a nip on the back of his leg and jumped in fright. He turned to see Bess crouched ready to attack again.

“Did she nip you?” asked Gary.

Matt nodded.

“You little sausage,” said Gary. “She wants a game.” Bess jumped backwards and barked as Gary clapped his hands and lunged at her. Gary yelled to Matt, “Run, Matt, run for your life.”

Matt ran after Gary. Gary was waving his arms and yelling at Bess. All three of them ran down the paddock toward the house. Once on the lawn behind the house, Gary crouched down and roughly rubbed Bess while pushing her onto her back.

“You funny dog. Fancy biting Matt. What a sausage you are.” Bess growled and mouthed Gary’s arm while wagging her tail.

“Okay, buddy, we’ll eat and have a short nap. Then we can get into some real work.”