Chapter 08

Inspecting the Manor

After his action packed week life settles down for Ernie until the tenth week after the start of work on the Manor when he’s surprised to be asked to do the final inspection of the work as he thinks it’s too soon.

When he drives up to it Ernie is happy to see the Manor blends into the granite mound quite well. Only in the last hundred metres or so is it clear there are buildings there and it’s not all a large granite boulder.

The drive comes up on the east side of the buildings to curve into the main visitor car park which is simply a section of levelled granite with some deep and narrow rain drains across them. The drive has a road that cuts off near the bottom of the mound to go toward where the fish-farm will be, plus another road at the top to go across the north face of the two buildings to curve around to the west face of the new building. The main car park is on the long eastern side of the old building to stop the official visitors going to the staff living areas and staff car parks.

The original building had many windows and a wide entrance door in each side of the building. However, Serge found a workman to make changes in the doors and windows on the old building’s crop side to look like original work; which he’s done. The second building’s exterior matches it so the external appearances of both buildings is the same.

The buildings are sited with their long axis parallel and the new building is set so most of the area between the two buildings is protected from the winds from the east or west. To do this the new building is sited a little closer to the river than the old one as the original river side faces were in line and now the corners are in line. Both buildings have an eight foot verandah around them with a carport on three sides that’s twenty-five feet deep to make a total under-roof area of each building two hundred and sixty feet by one hundred and sixty-two feet due to several feet of thick wall blocks. Each building has one roof line that’s a very low dome shape with less height than the original, despite having a larger area to cover. Measured between the carport posts the space between the two buildings is forty feet. This means the new building is also sited a bit further along the river than the original was. However, the way it’s constructed no one can tell it’s location is different to before.

There’s no carport on the short side facing the crops. Each of the other three sides has a six foot wide twin door entrance in it with a ten foot wide ramp up to the verandah in front of it. These are twelve feet long to give them a one in four slope from the ground to the verandah. The centre of the middle area has a ten foot wide weather protected covered walkway between the two buildings as well. This divides that area nicely into two. On the crop side of the walkway is an enclosed children’s play area with play equipment and sand pits under the covers while the river side of it is parking spaces for residents and staff. These also go along the river facing side up to the entrance ramps on that side. On the other side of the ramps are two large barbecue units and a bunch of all-weather picnic tables so there are two large barbecue areas for use. The carport area on the western face of the new buildings is for farm vehicles, staff, and residents. However, the ramp on that face is also the access to the garage and workshop inside the building, despite it looking like the pedestrian ramps to the other entrances. The only difference is the entrance doorway is the full ten feet wide and eight feet high.

Ernie notices one interesting aspect of the design is the ceiling line at the main wall is thirteen feet from the ground due to the original one being a ten foot ceiling with the floor three feet above the ground. By having the same ten foot ceilings and the very low profile roof line the carport has an eight foot ceiling at its outer edge.

The entire verandah area has strong fine mesh security screens and these are extended across the two exposed ends of the playground area with locking full height gates into the walkway in both covered areas. The entrance areas have doors from the same material with high end security locks that can be shut when not in use. All but the top three feet of the verandah grills are backed with smoke grey plastic sheeting to reduce the ability of rain entering the verandah while the gap allows for airflow. This is extended to both sets of security grills to the playground and to the six feet of the entrance ramps nearest the houses.

Entering the original building from the eastern doorway you walk into a hall just under ten feet wide that goes the length of the building. On the left are the doors into the three smaller residences which are thirty feet wide and one hundred feet deep with a verandah door in the crop facing wall. On the right are three doors; two into the thirty feet wide and ninety feet deep entertainment area, one near each end of the room; the third is a function centre style kitchen at the eastern end, which also has a door into the main room. The entertainment room also has some toilets in the western end. The main residence in this building is the river side strip of seventy feet by ninety feet with its main access from the river side wall, but it also has a doorway into the entertainment area. This residence has eight bedrooms and the other three have four bedrooms each; all of the residences also have the usual other rooms and multiple bathrooms.

The new building is a different layout. Entering the building from the east side you have a ten foot wide hallway that’s sixty feet deep with a door through the stone wall into the garage and workshop. On the left is a stone wall with the doorways into the two residences like in the other building. On the right are two doors into two rooms thirty feet by thirty feet, the front one is an office then a storeroom. Both open up into the main residence in this building which is like the other big residence.

All seven residences are large and spacious. Double glazed skylights provide more natural light to the interior rooms through their grey tinted panels which match the roofing. The official front doors for both of the main residences are on the river side with the entrance for the other residences being the eastern doorway of the building. There are residence doorbells installed in the public access area of the eastern ramps so people can be ‘buzzed’ when the place is secured for the day.

Ernie learns the whole of the under floor area of the houses are filled with a foam insulation. All of the space under the verandahs have big water tanks with the pumps under the middle entrance area, except the back verandah of the new building beside the garage where there are fuel tanks. The water pumps have automatic filling, but they also have a control panel to allow for moving water between the tanks and for pumping to trucks etc. for fire-fighting. Each bathroom has its own hot water tank and cold water tank in the roof space. By having so many tanks they’re able to put in much smaller ones that use less space. The appropriately tinted concrete is used for the access drive where it rises and for the last few metres of the flat area into the field road. The rest of the drive is gravel because there’s just too much of it to concrete without incurring a huge cost they can’t afford or justify right now.

The wind turbines and their control hut blend into the area. Also, on the roof of the control hut are two granite coloured satellite dishes. Ernie learns one is for pay television while the other is for Internet access. The only thing out of place is a hole with the white plastic container covering the end of the pipe for the power to the fish-farm.

The buildings have built-in security services with alarms and video cameras. There are two fixed cameras set a quarter of the way in from each end on every side of the buildings. The cameras have a coverage of sixty percent of the building width, so there’s a good overlap. Other fixed cameras are at the top of each of the entrance ramps. Also, every corner has a remote controlled camera mounted on the underside of the eaves. Thus each building has fifteen cameras covering all its approaches. Two fixed units are set to cover the wind turbines as well. The cameras have a focus adjustment but the corner ones have some horizontal and vertical adjustment too. All of the cameras feed to a computerised management and recording system in Ernie’s office. The computer software monitors all activity to identify anything above a set of parameters and it will alert Ernie of trigger events while recording what’s happening.

Once inside the building Ernie has another big surprise. All of the old furniture is restored and set out in either the residence he’ll use or the big entertainment room in the old building. New mid 1800s period looking furniture is in many of the rooms in his residence with some more in the official entertainment room.

He likes the finished look and he organises to have the rest of his belongings delivered from the storage place in Rivers. Just three months after moving to Rivers he’s living in his own residence on the farm.

Moving to live in the Mount Station Manor is the real start of this stage of his life as the person in charge of Mount Station. While moving the last of his personal gear into his manor residence he thinks, I know this is a lot more house than I need now. But I hope to fill it up with a family in the future. Hmm, am I now a writer who also controls a farm or a farm controller who also writes? I don’t know now, but time will tell me.

Life in the Manor

Ernie’s first few days of living in his new residence are spent getting himself properly settled in, including some shifting of furniture to suit him and stocking the kitchen cupboards. The rest of the week is spent talking with the people planning the aquaculture farm. Their plans have to change to take into account his insistence on native fish instead of the more commercially valuable introduced trout they’d selected to farm.

After a lot of talking they all agree on building several open tanks in the edge of the river for the various life stages of the desired species. The initial stock being Australian Smelt, Murray Crayfish, Murray Cod, and Barramundi with the smelt and some of the crayfish being the feed for the other fish. All of these fish have been caught in the local rivers in the past, so if any get into the wild it’s not a problem. In fact, they hope to get some government money to release some stock into the wild after they’re in full operation. The farm won’t be huge, but it should provide enough for sale locally as well as some for their own consumption. What does surprise Ernie is the size of what they’re planning. They won’t need the whole of the cut-out in the riverbank, just most of it. He’ll be left with a nice area of beach on the downstream side. Part of the reason for this is to have the water flow through the whole of the fish-farm so there aren’t any flow dead spots within any of the farm tanks.

Ernie insists the tank fences be made of a material to discourage microbiology growth and the exterior one is angled so anyone washed up against it will be pushed up the fence so they can climb out. When asked about this last aspect he says, “Anyone caught in the river during a flood needs all of the help they can get to get out of the water.”

Note: When the tank fencing is put in they improve on Ernie’s idea with the riverside fence angled to have anything washed against it flow along it to wash up on the beach at the waterline.

Uninvited Visitors

Mid-morning of the first Saturday Ernie is in the Manor the security system alerts him to a vehicle near the buildings. He turns on the screen and he watches a large SUV drive across the river front of the buildings. Using one of the corner cameras he focusses in to look at the occupants: there’s five early twenties women in the vehicle. They stop to talk while they look at the two buildings. Then one points at the wind turbines. At the moment the turbines look incomplete because one of them failed the final tests, was removed, and sent back for warranty repair. It should be back and installed in another week, but the mount for it is obvious.

In the car Harriet Jones says, “This looks nothing like it did on our last visit four months ago. The old stone building has been refurbished and a new verandah put on while the wood ruin has been replaced with a duplicate of the stone building. Look at the turbines, one isn’t done yet. I bet they’re rebuilding the place for use by staff, but they aren’t yet finished. What is completed is locked tight.” After a lot of discussion they agree with her, and the car moves to park down near the beach.

Ernie watches them talk then move to the beach. In a few minutes they have towels out, a large blanket, and a picnic set up. He glances at the outside weather station and grins. Living in a climate controlled residence and not having been outside today he’s not aware of how hot it is. Forty degrees Celsius is damned hot. So he has a few visitors come for a swim, no issues. It’s even less of an issue when they strip off to swim nude. Which explains why they’re here as there are no legal nude public swimming places within hundreds of kilometres of the manor. He leaves the monitor on and he goes back to his work on the computer.

A little after midday Ernie takes a break to have some sandwiches for lunch. He checks the security monitor while he eats, and finds the ladies are sitting around sunning themselves while having their lunch. After he finishes eating he gets up and changes his cane for the staff because the ground is uneven and the staff provides a better support out there on the less sure surface. Leaving by the main door facing the river he opens the security door on the verandah to make his way down the ramp. While walking out he sees his view of the ladies is blocked by their SUV, so they can’t see him. A couple of minutes later he walks around their SUV and he stops to get their attention. While wearing a big grin he says, “Hello,” and he laughs when most of them scramble for clothes.

Harriet looks up and asks, “Where did you come from?”

Waving his hand with the thumb sticking out over his shoulder he says, “My house! Up there!”

“I thought it wasn’t complete without the turbine! And there’s no car in sight up there!”

“Don’t need all three turbines until after the fish-farm is built and all of the staff are living in the residences. So what’s working does me fine. My car is in the garage. With only me living here at the moment I see no need to unlock the rest, and the garage door operates by remote so I go in and out there. Now, as to you lot trespassing,” and they all look a bit worried, “I’ve got no problems with you coming out here to swim nude, if you want to. But I do want to be advised of when you’re coming out before you come out so I’m not surprised when the security alarm goes off. An email or phone call is enough notice.” The one doing the talking nods yes while the rest settle down a bit. “Things may change a little after I get the fish-farm going. A lot will depend on the attitudes of the staff who live in. The worst case will be the need to wear swimsuits.”

One of the others asks, “Are you going to farm trout here as well?”

“No, Murray Cod, Murray Crayfish, and some Barramundi. I’ll leave the trout to the government hatchery. I’m going with native fish.”

“Do you mind if I mention what you’re doing to some people? My sister and her husband are qualified in that field and they’re looking for work down this way so they can be closer to the family.”

He grins, “No problems. Let them know and ask them to send Will Dunn their résumés so he can consider them for employment.”

She smiles at his reply and they chat for a while longer. Ernie hands out some of his business cards so they have his contact details to arrange future visits. He turns and goes back to the Manor while they talk about all of the changes going on here.

Personal Staff

On the second Thursday of living in the manor Ernie is heading into Rivers for the weekly shopping trip. He’s driving the new car and he’ll pick up the children from Bowen’s Creek school because Jason left at lunchtime to see some people in Rivers as the others aren’t leaving until 4:00 p.m. The six kids fit well with four on the back seat of the car and the largest in the front passenger seat. This is the first time the kids have been in the car because Ernie bought the booster seats last week. While fitting them he was surprised to find four seatbelts for the back seat. He’s got a borrowed seat today and he’ll buy another in Rivers. He only bought five last week because he thought that’s all he could carry.

The shopping goes as expected and they meet up at Mistri Meals for dinner. While it’s being cooked Ernie says to Gayatri, “I need to hire a person to be my cook and housekeeper. I’d like to hire you.”

She says, “I’ll have to talk to my parents and look at the place.” He agrees and she goes to talk with her mother between serving clients.

Mrs Mistri comes over to speak to Ernie, “This work you want done, where will my daughter live? And how much will it pay?”

“I’ll pay the current award rates and she can either live in one of the spare bedrooms in my residence for free or rent one of the others there.”

“Tomorrow we come out to look at this place. Write directions and a map.” He agrees to, so she gets him a pen and paper to do as asked.

They all enjoy the meal and head home, as usual.

Mid-morning the next day the security alarm goes off. Ernie checks and sees it’s Gayatri with her mother come to look the place over. He goes out his front door, leaving the gate open he walks down the ramp to meet them and he stands beside where they should park the car.

The car Gayatri is driving is on its way back from a trip around the turbines before Ernie reaches the end of the ramp. Mrs Mistri sees him and points to park beside him. They get out and he greets them. The next half hour is spent taking them on a full inspection of both of the buildings while explaining the work he wants done in full detail and he gives the rental rate if she wants to rent one of the other residences.

They’re sitting down having a cup of tea for them with hot chocolate for him when he says, “One of the perks of the job will be the use of one of my cars. I’ve got two, and if I’m out in one my cook will be able to use the other for whatever transport needs she has. She’ll also have access to my Internet connection here to use as she wishes to.”

Gayatri asks, “Ernie, why do you have a large eight bedroom house for you to live in? Wouldn’t one of the others be more suitable?”

He grins, “In the short term you’re probably right. However, I’ve got my long term plans in mind. At some point I want to get married and I want a lot of kids. Also, I don’t want to have to move house later. If I’ve rented this out to another I’d have a hard time getting it back when I want it. So I start as I intend to go. Better to underutilise this place and have it on hand when I want it than to have issues later. Another aspect is the way this is set out is so I can easily install an extra interior door across the hall at one of the bedrooms to set aside two bedrooms and a bathroom as staff quarters with their own space until I need the bedrooms. That’s why I thought you might want to save the rent and live in my residence free of charge. I also have no issue with your family visiting and staying over some nights, if you want them to.”