Chapter 14

Mack’s Year 10

The holidays go well for everybody at Sandy Knoll Farm, even the Thomas and Lukovic families appreciate the slower pace of having that many of the children away for the holidays. One aspect of being at the farm Mack didn’t expect was Ma Hanson organising for all of the kids to have cooking lessons while there because she’s inspired by Mack’s past lessons.

At the start of the last full week in January the Queanbeyan kids pack up their gear, load it in the Yukon, and leave for Queanbeyan just after nine o’clock in the morning. They reach Queanbeyan in due time and they unpack. The next day is spent getting ready for the new school year. Some new clothes due to them growing, exercise books, etc.

Last year Mack had set up a routine for his life while at school and it only takes a few days of the next week for it all to fall back into place. Life rolls along fairly smoothly for him with school, studies, keeping fit, times out having fun with Tanya and the other kids. Even the younger Lukovic kids are now allowed out with Tanya and Mack on some nights.

Mr Malcolm manages Mack’s business affairs and Brian Parks is too busy working hard to keep his two main businesses in operation. So he hasn’t much time left over to make life difficult for others, thus making Mack’s life a lot easier too.

The owner of the real estate business in Wood Valley, Dave Wright, is retiring and he sells it. The man who buys the business is not that nice and he has some ideas that don’t suit some of the staff or Mr Malcolm.

In mid February Mr Malcolm has a meeting with Ann Jones over a lunch in Tory’s Take-away Café. While waiting for their order he says, “Ann, I’m not happy with the way Wood Valley Real Estate is operating now. I’ve got a friend who recently got their licence and they want to move up this way, so I’m backing them in setting up their business. However, they said they want a more experienced person as a partner, and I wonder if you’re interested in doing that.”

Ann grins, “So long as Margaret doesn’t mind me being the senior partner I can set up shop with her. Where will we set up the business as there’s not a good office spot left in town?”

“I should’ve known you’d know who I was talking about. As to a spot to set up, how about the corner of Main and East Streets!” She gives him a puzzled look because she knows there are no offices there. A house block about to become a car park for the supermarket, a petrol station, the fire station, and the police station make up the corners. He smiles as he adds, “The workshop at Rob Marlow’s garage is about to be empty because the brothers who rent the space are moving out to the new workshop at Sandy Knoll Farm. It’s bigger, better, newer, and they can employ their two kids who just finished their training. Rob can’t find another mechanic who wants to set up shop on their own. I spoke with him about giving the place a through clean, put a decent floor in, build in the front, and make a professional office space there. He’s agreed to do that if I can find him a client. You’ll have a premium site where all can see your sign because he’s agreed to stick it on the corner and its right opposite the exit from the IGA car park. It has lots of off-street parking for staff and clients as well as two toilets, a lunch room, and a shower, so you can jog to work if you want to.”

“Sounds good. Have Rob and Margaret contact me and we’ll get it set up. I’ve some savings I can put to the business to help cover costs, so that’ll justify me being the senior partner.” They agree and talk of other things until their meals arrive and they enjoy them.

Note: The business does well from the first day they open the doors. The two companies with the most rental houses in town have them handle their business: Walkers and KDE Property Investments.

An agreement is reached with the NeuYou Gym for Walkers to build their own gym and to operate as a NeuYou franchise. They also come up with a gift pack to give to members of the tribe who sign up with the gym at any of their centres, as well as a discount on SKF membership.

The year flows on, the school holidays come and are enjoyed with Mack and the Thomas children going to the farm, sometimes joined by Tanya and her siblings as well. The Queanbeyan Marathon is on again, and Mack is amused to find the two first place runners from last year are in town early to train with him. This year it’s sanctioned and the three of them run in the same groups as they did last year. No problems this year because the police close the Lanyon Drive intersection to straight through traffic, only those turning right like the runners are can go down that section of the road. The finish is like the previous year with the same three putting in a long sprint for the finish and Mack lets them get ahead in the final few yards. The final results have them in the first three places with a new world record by the winner of the line honours, even Mack beat the old world record for third place over all. The three of them are so far ahead of the rest of the runners the third runner from the last group took a little longer around the course than Mack did, so he’s in fourth place.

Mack escorts Tanya to her Year 12 dance and his Year 10 dance. The end of year exams are held and everyone is very relieved when they’re over with, especially Mack, Tanya, and James because they all sat key exams which affects their futures.

Summer Holidays

Ann and Jess finished Year 12 this year and are done with school a month before Mack finishes. They know he’s busy studying so they stay at the farm until the Wednesday before his last week to give him time to recover from the exams. Like last year they take the bus down and are met by Mack who takes them for a meal and to the hotel to sign in.

The next day the girls spend time with Tanya and pick Mack up after school. One day he takes them for a visit to Joan at the real estate office. When they walk in the office Mack asks the receptionist, “Is Joan free?” She gives a nod yes in reply so he leads his group down to her office.

Sticking his head in the doorway he’s greeted with, “Hello, Mack. What can I do for you today? Want a place of your own yet?” He grins and introduces the girls to Joan while they wonder how they know each, this is because only Helen knows of his involvement with the house purchase by the Thomas family.

After a few minutes of general chatting he asks, “Joan, do you know of any reasonable flats or units down near where I live? Jess and Ann are after a nice place to rent near me for the next two years.”

“Well, there are some town-houses in your street and some flats etcetera in Donald Road. The good ones are priced high, too high in my mind, and the others either need a lot of work the owners aren’t doing or have bad reps due to some of the other tenants’ bad behaviour. There are a few houses with granny flats, but all of those I know of are in use...,” her voice trails off. With a smile she picks up the phone and makes a call. It’s answered, and Joan says, “Morning, Rebecca, I heard a rumour you and Abraham are moving into a nice house in River Drive. Is that true?” She pauses while the other person speaks. “Good. When do you expect to vacate the flat, and what does your mother intend to do with it when you do?” Another pause. “Thanks, I’ll go over and talk to her about it. I may even be able to get you some help with the shift.” She hangs up and looks at Mack.

A grinning Mack says, “I didn’t know Rebecca and Abraham were moving house! I’ll have to find out why I wasn’t told.”

“Abraham’s brother got offered a dream job at double his present pay, but he had to move right away. He left the next day. Alice watched the removalists pack everything over the next two days and followed. He cut a special private sale deal with Abraham last week, over the phone. I know about it because Alice was our bookkeeper.”

“It’s not what you know, but who you know. Yeah, that granny flat will do, and it’s just a few doors up the road. We’ll go up there and see about getting it.”

“Mack, I better go along and introduce you.”

“It’s OK. I know Missus Stein well. She’s been teaching me to cook for over a year. I’ll see if I can convince her to deal through you.”

Joan shakes her head in wonder, saying, “Knowing you, Mack, I’m surprised to be surprised about you learning to cook. Get over there.”

Ten minutes later Mack is introducing the girls to Mr and Mrs Stein then making a deal to rent the granny flat behind their house. They built it for their eldest son to live in when he first got married, and now their youngest child is moving out. For fifteen years it’s been in constant use as the first married residence of their children and their spouses.

They soon reach a deal and Mack convinces them to have the rent managed by Joan to simplify the legal and payment aspects. When he mentions the girls are both his fiancés Mrs Stein laughs while Mr Stein’s eyes go real wide. The only comment on that is by Mrs Stein, “Then I’ll have to teach them both how to cook well. I think I’ll also get Tanya’s grandmother involved too.” This makes Mack and Tanya laugh. They can see next year’s cooking classes including two more students.

All afternoon and Sunday afternoon Mack and the girls are busy helping Rebecca and Abraham pack up and shift house. Monday Mack is off to school while Jess and Ann help Rebecca finish moving the last of her gear and clean the flat up. Over the next few days workmen will be in to fix a few things that need fixing and to paint the flat as it’s well overdue for a new paint job. Jess and Ann should be able to move in on Friday or Saturday, depending on how fast the work goes.

For the rest of the week while Mack is in school during the day the girls are with Mrs Stein being introduced around the town, being shown where everything is, and where the best places to shop are located. The three ladies have a good time while they get to know each other.

The flat is unfurnished so Mack and the girls are out shopping in the afternoons for inexpensive furniture to set up the house. The only expensive items they buy are three desktop computers, three chairs to use at the computers, a quality sound system, and a good television. The rest is all reasonable quality gear, but inexpensive. The stores will deliver the goods to the flat late on Friday afternoon. They also get what’s needed for the kitchen: cooking utensils, cutlery, dinnerware, etc. Mrs Stein is a big help with advice on kitchen and dining room gear.

Friday afternoon is a very busy time, but they’re set up by 5:00 p.m.

The next couple of weeks is a repeat of this time last year with only the tourist spots visited being ones not yet seen. Then it’s off to the farm for the rest of the holidays again. This time it’s a full load with Tanya’s two siblings also going with them. They weren’t allowed to go before due to their parents thinking they were too young. There’s a difference of five years in the ages between Tanya and her brother and sister.

Even the weeks at the farm are very much the same as last year, with the only significant event being Mack discussing furniture for his house with Hammer because he wants all of the furniture in his bedroom, den bedroom, and the common rooms, to be sturdy items made from native hardwoods. They reach an agreement on what furniture he wants in what rooms and what woods they’ll be made from, thus giving each room its own look. Hammer will make the furniture and exchange it for what’s there during the year, Ma will deal with organising to give the current stuff to a family that needs it.

Mack enjoys being able to take walks in the forest, and he also works out at the gym which is now a few months old. The building has a heated Olympic size pool so the residents can swim during the winter. He also visits the expanded mill, and he’s happy with the fencing they put up around the old house. It makes the house look more historic than it used to look.

The situation with the forest is much like how it was last year, except the trees on the farm are now less crowded due to Marker getting them back into a proper forestry management program. The expanded areas for the native hardwoods and exotics are growing well.

One day Mr Malcolm visits Mack to review their business activities and to see what opportunities there are for expansion. During the year Brian Parks expanded the diner attached to one of his take-away places and he closed the diner he had. He tried selling the equipment and he’s now looking at holding an auction for it. He needs to clear it out so he can use the site for a professional office rental space.

Mack tells Mr Malcolm, “Have someone who knows what they’re doing bid for it if they can get it cheap. I know someone who wants to set up an Italian Restaurant so we’ll set them up in the old Martin shop and warehouse you bought on the edge of the business district.”

“Good idea. It’ll cost a bit to do the place up to meet current codes, but it has a lot of parking and it’ll be a good restaurant location.”

“Get someone onto planning it so it has the restaurant seating in the main part, the kitchen area in the back, and a pizzeria on the side. If it takes off well they can also look at doing delivery pizzas around town.”

“That’ll work well. What about alcohol?”

“Apply for a BYO licence for the restaurant. I don’t want to get into selling any alcohol at all, but I can see how people will want some while they eat, especially some wine.”

“Mack, I think it may be better to get an alcohol licence and only sell wine. With Bring Your Own alcohol some people will bring beer and that’ll lower the tone of the place, but with a licence to sell alcohol you can refuse to let them bring the beer in while you choose to sell only a small range of wines to suit the food on the menu.”

“Much as I hate the idea of selling booze, I think you’re right. Do it!”

There’s not much else to discuss due to the businesses all running themselves while Mr Malcolm has control of the charitable donations and the investments. Neither can think of anything else around town they can do to make life harder for Brian Parks.

After completing their business talks Mack has Ann and Jess join them while they talk about some personal legal matters. All three draw up wills and prepare the girl’s paperwork for Mr Malcolm to lodge with the court so they can change their names to Hanson-Dean since that’s the closest they can come to having Mack’s name under the Australian laws. The next Saturday a small tribal wedding ceremony is held for them.

The rest of the holidays are a fun time for all and the Queanbeyan group are soon heading back, while this time Jess and Ann are going there to live there as well. Thus the SUV has a lot more of their gear in it.

Living Arrangements

While the kids are away Helen and John take time to review their own situation in depth. John has been promoted and has a pay rise. A used car in real good condition is bought for Diane to drive, but she’ll have to share the car with James when he passes the test and gets his licence in a few months. Each of them will have to pay for their own fuel usage and to refill the car when they use it. The other matter they discuss is Mack.

The government had paid them to feed and house Mack while he was legally a ward of the state, but that ended when he turned eighteen a couple of months back. He’s been paying them board of the same amount since then. With Jess and Ann in the area they think he should be living with them, despite him saying he’ll stay with them until he finishes high school. So John and Helen have been checking to see if they can manage without Mack’s board so he can live with his ladies. Helen is amused by the situation and John isn’t sure what to make of it. They talk about what they’ll do if Mack leaves and what to do if he stays to live with them.

When the kids arrive back Helen takes Mack aside and says, “Mack, I think you should establish your house with Ann and Jess now instead of in two years’ time. John and I have studied our situation and we’ll be able to manage without your board.”

Mack smiles because he likes the idea. He’d just been worried about them being left in the lurch without the extra money for him. He says, “If you’re sure, I’ll do that. But if you run into any financial problems let me know and we can adjust the loan to help you out.”

“We’re sure. This’ll mean we can set up your room as a guest room and study centre so the kids can study in quiet when they want to.”

“OK. I’ve got everything I need set up at the flat already so I’ll leave the computer for you to use in the study centre because we’ve no room for it at the flat. If you set up a network in the house the kids can access their own stuff from the study centre computer and save it back to it as a back-up system. That’ll make the use of it a lot easier for them. Also, I’ve an ADSL Internet connection on and that’ll help with research. You’ll have to consider if you want that account or to change to another.”

Helen has a hard time believing he’s leaving the computer behind, but she’s moved by the action. She simply nods agreement before they both get up to start packing the rest of his gear to move to the flat. It doesn’t take them long to move Mack out of the room and for him to go to his new home with Ann and Jess. Making a lot of people happy to see them setting up as the new family they are.

Although Tanya and Mack still spend some time together because they’re now very good friends they don’t get much time together due to Tanya now attending the Australian National University. She had a high enough score in the Higher School Certificate to go, but the costs of attending are more than her parents can afford. However, Mack showed her the website for the Kelly Educational Grants and had her apply for assistance without telling her he’s involved with it. Tanya is surprised at how quick they accept her request for a grant to support her studies, and they’re very happy to help her do the course she wants to do. To keep the grant she has to work hard to keep her marks up, and that limits the time the two can see each other as friends to just meeting on the weekends.

The Next Year’s Studies

During January Mack, Ann, and Jess do first aid and advanced first aid courses at the farm. Hammer arranged for an authorised provider to deliver the training at the farm during the holidays so he could have a number of the adults and older teens do the course to get qualified. It helps toward their work safety management and overall safety.

During this time Ann and Jess also check on the studies they can do in the Queanbeyan / Canberra area that leads to their long term goals. One result of the first aid courses is Ann decides to do an advanced medical course to become a paramedic. The girls make a number of phone calls and emails after checking the course information available.

The course Ann wants to do is normally done as a four year full-time course at one of the universities in Canberra, but after talking to the staff there they agree on a compressed course of three years. Part of this is dependent on her passing the courses she’s currently doing at the farm and on passing some on-line courses she’ll do with some other training facilities while also being monitored by the staff at the university. She’ll carry a workload that’s equal to a third over a normal full-time load for the three years. A heavy load but one she feels she can do, and it will be adjusted if she can’t manage it. The university is interested to see if the compressed course can be done because they get many people asking if it can. Ann’s plan is the first time it’s seemed doable because no one else had thought to do the on-line courses from the other institutes or the recognition for the first aid and advanced first aid courses beforehand.

Neither Jess or Mack can work out exactly how it happened, but somewhere in the process of registering Ann’s course they also end up signing on to do a set of on-line courses to train them both as ambulance officers so they can assist Ann in an emergency. Although they hadn’t intended to do any further medical training they can see the advantage in doing it, so they decide to do their best in them as well. Mack is very surprised they accept his registration because he’s not yet a high school graduate. However, they are certificate level IV courses so it may not be a prerequisite. Mack doesn’t ask about his acceptance in case it was an error by the training provider due to them being in another state.

Jess signs up for some full-time courses in business administration, management, and accounting at the Canberra Institute of Technology. Although not major university degree courses they are degree courses and are recognised for accreditation by the main universities. She also works out a schedule for Mack to do some part-time course work for the same courses after he finishes the ambulance officer course.

Mack pays for memberships at the gym for Jess and Ann. Although they aren’t legally married Merry does allow for them to be added to Mack’s family membership on payment of the fees. Thus the three do a lot of their fitness training together at the gym, when they can. He also runs in the marathon again. Just like he has for the last two years, and with similar results too. Mack and the two professional all improve their run times. The managers of the two men still can’t understand why Mack doesn’t want to go professional as a runner.

Between his usual classes, the extra courses, and his physical fitness training Mack is very busy for the whole year.

One oddity is no one at the school comments on Mack wearing a wedding ring, although he can tell many of them notice it.

Their studies and life carries forward in a very busy way, but as planned and without any troublesome issues. The trio enjoys being able to live and study together.

All three pass their many exams during the course of the year.