Chapter 06

Getting Organised

Arriving at work at 8:45 a.m. Will turns into the entrance to the staff car park at the rear of the firm’s building. The building is on a street corner so their rear access is a driveway in the side street. He’s thinking on what he has organised for today when he starts his turn, but the sight of the large flame coloured van parked on the street in the spot right next to his firm’s driveway grabs his attention. He’s quick to park his car and walk out of the gateway to look at the van instead of entering the back door to the office.

He smiles at Ernie sitting on a public seat closer to the corner and asks, “A little ostentatious, isn’t it?” While waving at the van.

Ernie stands up while saying, “I know! I wanted something a lot less conspicuous. But my friends feel they have to show how much they care by doing things like that paint job, and I don’t have the heart to tell them otherwise. On the drive down I decided the design is odd enough for it to stand out so the fancy paint doesn’t do any extra harm.”

While they talk Will walks up to where Ernie is now standing, so he’s now near the front door and he leads the way into the office. His firm’s office is an old bank building with the front door opening out onto the street corner so it’s easy to enter from either street.

A few minutes later the two are sitting in Will’s office with drinks in hand while they discuss a few matters about the farm. Will smiles and says, “I’ve got some government experts coming down to look at what to do for the fish-farm. Being construction for farming production we can do it within the trust terms. I also had a word with the other trust board members and we don’t care if the Mount Manor grows a little in the refurbishment, but you do need to keep it well within the granite mound it’s on as that’s the designated residential area for there.” He hands over a folder with some papers in it, “Here’s a copy of the current sandstone building layout plus a condition report on it. I didn’t worry about the ruined wood one as it has to go and I’ve arranged it. I don’t like what the report says about the condition. In short, only the sandstone walls are worth keeping. Also, I’ve arranged for a designer to call in to speak to you about new plans. I’ll let you do that job.”

Ernie skims through the report before saying, “This report is about what I expected from what I saw of the buildings. But we’ve got good walls we can work with. Also, since you said it can grow a little we can see about getting a new roof on quickly by having wider verandahs.”

“We’d like the finished product to be a nice historical item when you’re done, so please keep that in mind.”

“Damn! I wanted to blend it into the granite. OK! I’ll do that. When you have the fish-farm people here I want to talk with them too. I want the fish we farm to be commercially viable native products so there’s no issue if any get into the wild. In fact, we can look at having a part of our production released into the wild for restocking of the natural habitat.”

“I’ll look into that because we may be able to get some government money if we do that.”

“Will, if we do go for some government money to do this work all we want is to be paid a fair rate for what we release for them or sell to them for them to release. We do not want any government grants etcetera that gives them a right to tie our hands or supervise us too closely.”

“Hmm. I hadn’t thought about that! But it is a real concern,” and he writes a note in the file he has open. “Jason wants you to camp beside his house so you’re handy to him to learn about the farm and answer any questions for the next few weeks. It also means you have access to his bathroom and toilet. You need to pay a nominal camping fee so we can show you as resident on the farm, and you should eat with Jason’s family by paying him some board for the food. Ten dollars a week is in line with the commercial campsites around here for no water or power. They’re part of what you’ll pay Jason for.”

“That sounds fair. I’ll talk with him when I get out there.”

“On your personal affairs; Peter sent down a lot of boxes of papers for your writing company, Major Mount Publishing. John is very busy sorting out his office and those papers. He’ll call you on the new mobile phone you have when he’s got a good understanding of it all.”

“That’s OK! He should have a few weeks to get all of that sorted out before I send him the next book to send off to get a contract for. Can you arrange for the house designer to see me out on the farm as I want to have a good look at the land while I think about it.” Will nods yes while he makes a note on his pad.

For the next twenty minutes they discuss many other aspects of the farm and Ernie’s business affairs before calling it quits for this morning. There’s sure to be many more things come up while they both get organised, but that’s what they make phones for. Also, nothing should be so urgent they can’t arrange to meet and talk about it.

Ernie leaves Will’s office to have a quick talk with John to confirm he has everything in hand from last week’s purchases and sales. He does.

While thinking about some grocery shopping Ernie puts away the cane he bought on his last visit and just got back from John. Using only the batteries he drives to the nearby locally owned IGA store to stock up on a few things like Coke, hot chocolate, sandwich makings, and snacks. He’ll leave the main meal stuff to Belinda, Jason’s wife. Twenty minutes after arriving at the store Ernie has his purchases loaded in the camper and he’s on his way to the farm.

Mount Station

It’s nearing 11:00 a.m. when Ernie arrives at the farm. Seeing a few utes at the workshop shed he drives over there to see what’s going on. He gets out and goes to the shed where there are two groups of men working on machinery. Jason and two men are working on a tractor which looks like a routine maintenance service is being done while two others are working on a piece of equipment with a lot of metal plates which Ernie thinks it may be a disc plough but he isn’t sure as he’s never seen one before. Both areas are dirty with a lot of grease and oil etc. on the floor where they’re working.

Ernie is standing there watching it all when one of the men at the disc machine leaves it to go to a bench on the side of the shed. He grabs a trolley with an acetylene torch kit on it to drag it back to the work area. When he puts the helmet on it’s clear he intends to use the torch right where he is, and right now. Ernie is both stunned and shocked.

The man has the torch in hand and is reaching up to pull the helmet down when Ernie shouts out, “Put that torch down!” Everyone turns to look at him. He stands there as he points with his cane, “I said to put that torch down!”

The man with the torch looks at him, frowns, and asks, “Who the hell are you?”

He’s about to start the torch when Jason says, “Bob, wait a moment! This is Ernie, our new boss. So let’s take a moment to say hello and find out what his problem is.” All of the men down tools and come over to be introduced, it’s also clear Bob isn’t happy about having to stop work.

After the introductions Jason says, “All I know about Ernie is he’s now the one in overall charge. He admits he knows nothing about farming but he was responsible for both returning most of the old farm to the fold and sorting out the compensation with Argent. So let’s take a bit of time to find out what his problem with the torch is.” He makes eye contact with all present before asking, “So, Boss, what’s the issue?”

Ernie smiles at them, “I’m not a suspension system nor an electronic music system. My name’s Ernie, please use it. If you want to get all formal, then Mister Mount will do.” They all nod yes. “I don’t know how to plant crops or to tell if they’re ready. I hope Jason will educate me, a bit, over the coming years. I do know about workshops, the tools in them, using machinery of all types, and safety. I don’t care if a job takes a little longer to do, but you will take all of the proper safety measures when you do a job. In my last job we had a huge pile of safety equipment we all wore, yet we still had people badly injured or killed when ’Murphy’ had a go at us. If you don’t have the right gear or time, don’t do the job until you do. I’ll gladly pay out to buy more gear to see everyone is kept safe. The worst thing in the world is to attend the funeral of a workmate who died on the job, and I’ve been to way too many of them. So I don’t want to attend one for someone who works for me and I’m responsible for. I hope you all got that!” He looks at them, and they all nod yes. “Now, that job with the torch. You never use a torch or a welder without having a fire extinguisher on hand. You also clean up the work area, and you do not have grease and oil sitting around to catch fire. Work smart, work safe!”

Bob looks a bit sullen when he says, “It’s not been a problem to just get on and do it, before!”

“It probably hasn’t, but how long has that grease and oil been lying around over there? It looks fairly new to me, and just right to ignite.”

They all turn to look at the floor right where the torch kit is. Two of them go a little pale and one says, “Shit! Dave was supposed to clean that up this morning. Where is he?”

Jason responds, “In hospital. He should be out tomorrow. He got drunk and fell over last night so they’re keeping him in for observation.” He takes a deep breath, “Bob, Ernie’s right on the mark about the danger if you just start up the torch right now. Go get the extinguisher from over on the bench and put it back in its holder on the trolley. Then move the plough outside onto the dirt to work on it while Jim cleans up the floor.” The men mentioned nod yes. “Ernie, what did you used to do?”

“I was a fire-fighter until a burning building blew up and fell on me. It destroyed the main thigh muscle and I can’t use the left leg now.”

Jason grins, “So we can get some expert help on fire safety, huh?”

“Yes! I’ll also see about making sure we have the proper gear.”

“That’ll be good. Will is always tight on costs.” Jason turns to the men and issues a few orders before saying, “Should you need me I’ll be in the house with Ernie while we talk about a few things.” They all nod acknowledgement then go back to the work at hand. The first task being to push the plough out onto the hard packed earth in front of the shed.

Ernie and Jason are at the van when the men get the plough outside, then the others stand to stare at his camper while Ernie and Jason drive over to the house about a hundred metres away.

At the farmhouse Jason has Ernie park right beside a concrete path to the side door of the house. When they get out Ernie asks Jason to grab a box of groceries from the back of the van to take it into the house.

Belinda smiles when they walk in as she met Ernie last week when he was in the house talking to Will and Jason. Ernie waves at the box in Jason’s hands as he says, “I’ve got a few things here I eat a lot of and not sure if you’d have them on hand. So I got some to start with. You need to tell me how much you want from me for board each week to cover food etcetera for the next few months while the manor house is rebuilt.”

Jason puts the box down and Belinda starts to take everything out of it, she holds up a packet of hot chocolate mix, “Good, I love fresh made hot chocolate, but I’m the only one in the house who does. Thus we don’t have it very often.”

Ernie grins, “I drink a lot of hot chocolate. What I like about that brand is you can make a single serving with hot water and it’s OK. A half cup of hot water and top off with milk when mixed up. Instructions on the side.” He turns to Jason, “Two of those thirty pack cubes of Coke are for in here as well, so please get them for me so we can get some cold.” He hands him the van key. Jason laughs as he leaves the room.

Belinda walks over to an old fridge as the kitchen has two fridges and opens the door; it’s full of cubes of Coke cans getting cold, “Jason all but inhales Coke, so do the kids. The two cubes of lemon squash are mine.”

“OK! This is looking good. I eat almost anything, so we’ll see how we go. Will a hundred bucks a week do for starters? If the expenses seem more than that let me know and we’ll put it up.”

She laughs, “Jason was worried about asking you for fifty a week. I figured with power etcetera it’d be nearer sixty or seventy. So a hundred will be more than enough.”

When Jason walks back in with a cube of coke in each hand Ernie says, “Belinda, you better get Jason a hand towel. I was warned he’ll cry when I tell him this next bit!” They both look at him, and Jason waves for him to continue. “In all my land buying last week I also got what was known as The Daniels Farm. I’ve already signed a contract to sell it to the trust in a few years’ time after I finish some building work and a bit of research work on it. So Mount Station will soon be whole again.”

Both Jason and Belinda drop into chairs to stare at him. After a moment she stands and gets them all cold cans of drink. Jason opens his, has a drink, puts it down, and says, “How did you get around all of the legal restrictions the previous owners put on against selling the land to the trust?”

“Jason, apart from what was Mount Station at the start of the month I bought up every bit of land on this side of the road from Barker Road to the ridge. Some of the sale contracts had clauses prohibiting the sale of the property to certain potential buyers. In each case they named the property and the unapproved buyers. I bought the two properties on each side, merged each pair, gave them new names, sold them to a third party, then they sold the land to the trust. Thus I didn’t break the contracts because what the trust bought was a property of a different name and size. The same deal with the other side, but it has to wait while I do some work on it. When that property, Wells Number Two Farm, is sold to the trust Mount Station will be one piece again, plus we’ll have an extra area of another five percent of land added to the farm. I’m also developing a little village on the section along Barker Road. It’ll include a general store and a fuel stop for all of the trucks driving along it. So we’ll need to keep in mind people to run those operations. At this time it’s not been decided if I’ll sell that lot to the trust or not.”

“Damn! That’ll make a big change around here. When you get near to having them going let me know, because I know a few people who would like to work out this way.”

Belinda speaks up, “When we heard a city fellow was the new heir a lot of the locals didn’t think you’d do well. And before you even start living here you turn the place upside down and make things better for a lot of people. All of the extra staff are happy to be working for Jason because they know we pay better than their old bosses and he knows a lot more about what he’s doing. So the staff are happier and our old staff are very happy to get the extra skills and people to share the workload.”

Ernie asks, “Before I forget again, did Will work out a new wage for you, Jason? And is it a fair one?”

Jason grins, “Oh yeah! I got a sixty percent jump in pay for the extra responsibility. But all of the extra staff means I don’t have to spend as much time in the field as I used to. We doubled the land and more than doubled the staff. So I can spend more time planning and managing.”

“That’s good. Also, if you need to borrow gear or people from Wells Number Two Farm just ask. Most of the time they’ll have some free time to help out.” Jason nods agreement. Ernie can already see him planning on how to incorporate them into the operation, so he adds, “Jason, since I plan to incorporate the adjusted farm into the operation here I’ve no problems if you want to take over managing it and the staff as if it’s part of Mount Station as of today.”

Jason’s head comes up real fast, and he asks, “What are your plans for that property?”

“John Wilson is my company manager and he’s doing the leg work for me, but the area now known as Wells Number Two Farm has two main purposes. I’m having some extra housing built, so if you want more let me know and we’ll put it over there ready for later. I’m also having some bio-diesel plants built on the property and I’m employing staff to work the plants. The existing farm staff will work the farm and harvest the crops there to be processed as bio-diesel for our use. They’ll also harvest the contaminated crop from Mount Station for processing. The crops on Wells Number Two Farm will have some changes while we experiment with the crops to come up with the best ones for making diesel. I hope to have a crop being harvested every month or two when we’re finished with the research. As long as you keep those aspects in mind I’ve no trouble with you integrating the farm into Mount Station’s operations as of right now, as well as integrating the men and gear.”

“I’ve wanted to try the bio-diesel thing to save on fuel costs, so I’ve done a lot of research on it. It might be a good idea get the building work done, incorporate it into Mount Station, and close out the compo deal straight away. Then I can manage it all properly from the start.”

“Let Will know I let you in on the plans and talk to him about it.” Jason nods his agreement while wearing a huge smile.

It’s nearing lunchtime so Belinda gets busy making lunch for them while they discuss a lot of what happens on the farm and how it works.

After lunch Nadia Lebedev arrives at the farm looking for Ernie. A little after she arrives Jason is leading a three car convoy to the site of the manor because Ernie isn’t too sure of the way there yet. Jason spends a few minutes with them at the site before he drives off again. He’s on his way into Rivers to talk to Will about bringing the purchase of the rest of the land forward.

Mount Manor

Nadia and Ernie look over the land for several minutes before they sit down in the camper to discuss things. Nadia has several prints of the map Ernie has and she also has it in her laptop computer.

Ernie lays the map on the folding table that fits between the bench seats of the camper and says, “I don’t know if the original builders had a good knowledge of the local weather conditions or they were building in relation to the river, but I like the way the existing building is angled. I want you to design the new interior and verandah based on the walls that are there, and to also place a building that looks the same beside it.”

“Ernie, if they were building in relation to the river I think they’d have had the long axis along the river, not toward it. So I think they did build with the local winds in mind. The prevailing winds around here are from the north or south, but when the winds are from the east or west they blow a lot harder. The current layout has the building at an angle of forty-five degrees to the wind from any of the main directions. Thus it has a corner of the building cutting the wind and having it flow around the two sides of the building. So you get a good airflow regardless of the wind direction. By having the buildings angled and parallel neither one is fully in the wind shadow of the other building, but the side nearest the other building has a lot more protection from the stronger winds. Very well thought out, if you ask me. So, I strongly urge you to have the new second building placed where the original one was put. That helps with planning for airflow and it’ll look good. The axis toward the river gives them more room for extra buildings later.”