Chapter 03

Life at Right Here

James settles in well, almost like a member of the family due to the time he spends at the homestead: all of the meals plus many evenings for James and Al to discuss the farm. The two houses are only twenty metres apart, so it’s no issue. There’s even a protected walkway between the two that crosses the back of the double garages attached to the side of each of the houses.

The work on the farm goes ahead steadily. The orchard is cleaned up and expanded, so is the range of fruit planted in it. None of what is in the fields at the moment is worth trying to harvest or use as anything except fertiliser, so they cut it down and plough it into the ground. This is done as part of breaking the soil up for planting crops again. The land is almost as hard as rock due to the long time without planting. At this point the only land they don’t plough and break up is at the houses and work buildings, even the orchard gets a light workout with the plough in the areas between the trees and tree rows.

The soil reports are back and examined: all of the fields are good to grow any crop they want as an organic crop. Deciding what to plant and how to set it out takes a lot of talking while they do other tasks. One task they do while talking about crops is to remove all of the old fencing. Only a few of the steel posts are any good for further use. All of the wire is rusty and beyond help while the wood posts are old and rotted, so it all comes out. Whatever can be reused or recycled is set aside while the rest is properly disposed of.

The plans for the fields are to set out two sets of seven fields the same size for the crops, another for the houses and work buildings, one for the orchard, and the end field that’s for stock grazing because it’ll be too much work to clean up and set up for planting and harvesting. This is due to the creek and rough areas in it making it hard to work properly.

During this time the council negotiates buying a strip along the front of Right Here for the road expansion. It’s easier to buy Al’s land because it’s less work to shift the fence line due to it being replaced. The council surveyor is quick to peg out the new front fence boundary so James and Al can put the new front fence in to mark the new roadside boundary. The fence and gate for the stock field is next up, going along the top of the creek’s gully on the crop field side, thus giving the stock access to the creek for the length of the stock paddock. They put in the orchard and house fences, then those for the fourteen crop fields: seven fields of equal sizes on each side of the access drive. To simplify access each is a long field running back from the drive with gates opening to the drive from each field, there are no gates between the fields. The fields will be worked in a seven year crop rotation the way it was done for centuries, until a few decades ago.

Most of the local farmers grow either wheat or canola; a rapeseed plant grown for cooking oil. Due to the local large amounts of both grains Al decides to avoid them and James agrees with him. They’ll be growing legumes and hay grasses for part of the cycle, but the main crops they decide to grow are sunflowers for their seeds and corn.

Al and James get on with preparing the fields, building the fences, and getting the orchards ready. Much of the time it’s James showing Al how to do what needs to be done, but neither man has an issue with the way things go. The work proceeds at a good pace while they get the farm up to scratch as a commercially viable operation.

Firearms licences are issued for both men and they have to buy a gun-safe to keep them in before they get approval to buy a couple of shotguns and rifles for use in reducing the wild animal pests. Over the time they spend getting the property ready they supplement the larder with rabbits and roos, which then requires James to teach Jean, Jenny, and May a number of ways to cook the animals for meals. He concentrates on stew variants first, because they’re a lot easier to cook right.

Family Affairs

About six months after James starts work Jean’s younger brother, Dave, turns up wanting to stay there on holiday. After a week Dave asks about staying there full-time as he had a falling out with his parents.

Al asks about making Dave a hired hand. James says, “Let him live with you and let him do household chores. But, for heaven’s sake, don’t hire him or pay him a wage. Not if you want to keep the farm.”

While giving James a frown and a hard look Al asks, “What do you mean by that?”

James sighs then says, “Dave is as lazy as hell. That can be dealt with. He’s also terminally stupid, that can’t be worked around. In a science fiction book I read as a kid they had a quote: ‘Against stupidity, even the Gods strive in vain.’ It means stupidity is not correctable. If you hire Dave he works for you and you have to worry about worker’s compo for him. When, note: when not if, he fucks up you get to pay for fixing it all and looking after the bugger for life or he sues your arse off. Family living here do not get worker’s compo, but a hired hand does. Protect yourself and your family, don’t hire him. Let him stay and be a bludger while you try to get him to find work in town or on another farm.”

That night Jean and Al have a long talk about Dave. Al is surprised to find Jean agrees with James about not hiring Dave. So he ends up staying with them while supposedly looking for work with someone else. Dave pays some money as board to cover food and utilities costs, then this is all put down in the farm books as a revenue source along with some estimated charges for his food and utilities costs. This is all checked and approved by Al’s accountant in town.

Jean finds time to speak with Bob. She learns all about the death of James’ parents and how he lived with Bob afterwards.

Life and work moves on with everyone except Dave working hard. Al and James work the farm while Jean, with the kids helping her, work the house and orchard as well as the kids doing their studies.

Girlfriend?

On a more personal note: despite the ten year age difference Jenny sets her sights on James as her future husband, and he’s oblivious to her intentions. Watching her set about taking control of James’ life gives Jean and Al a lot to talk and laugh about when by themselves. At first Al isn’t so happy about the situation, but Jean talks him around to accepting it. The fun thing for them is how clueless James is about it all. Due to the way he lived with Bob, and followed by the Army, James never did get much of a lesson about male / female relationships, or how to develop and build them.

James usually spends Saturday afternoon at home because he isn’t involved with any of the local amateur sports clubs and he doesn’t go to any of the games of the town teams, either. He isn’t sure about how it happens, but after a few months of living at Right Here he’s spending most Saturday afternoons taking all of the Porter kids into the city of Rivers to watch an afternoon movie or to do some shopping. Jenny is the one to organise the trips and she’s in full control of the people on them. The other kids are used to Jenny being their boss and they’re very amused by the way James does as she says as well. While James simply goes with the flow of events because he sees no reason to do otherwise. Anyway, they all usually have a fun time in the city.

A few weeks after Dave starts living on the farm Jenny has James on a shopping expedition to Rivers that’s just the two of them. It’s only when they walk into a furniture shop he decides to act and he asks her, “Jenny, just what are we shopping for today?”

She smiles at him as she replies, “Decent furniture for the house you live in. It needs to be properly furnished.”

One of the shop staff joins them as he asks, “Who’s paying for this?”

“You are, because it’ll be your furniture.”

Giving his head a slow nod he says, “And if I don’t want to pay for a lot of new furniture because I’m happy with what little I have?” The part statement and part question hangs in the air for a moment.

With a sigh Jenny turns to him, “Jim, you need the furniture so you can have guests around to visit. You don’t even have a proper seat for you to sit and watch television, let alone something to sit on when you manage to have a girlfriend visit your home.”

“I see no problem yet, because I don’t have a girlfriend. But I don’t suppose it’d be a problem to get some furniture now. That doesn’t tell me why you’re in charge of this expedition.”

“That’s real easy. I’m in charge because you’ve no idea of fashion or what suits a room’s décor.” The shop staff member is amused at how this conversation is going.

“OK! But no dining room table or chairs because I plan on making my own from the trees we cut down.”

Jenny’s eyes go a bit wide, “You know how to do that?” He nods yes. “OK! No dining room set, for now.”

They spend the next couple of hours looking at furniture sets for the lounge room, bedroom, and a cheap kitchen table set. Jenny even picks bedding materials. She only grins when James sighs and says, “Anyone would think you’re choosing all the furniture for your house, not mine.” Which makes the shop assistant smile, because she realises that’s what Jenny is doing and she can tell James doesn’t realise it yet.

The trio are busy writing up the order when the store owner walks over to speak with them. He grins as he says, “Hi, Jim. Haven’t seen you for a long time. I heard you’re in the Army!”

James turns to face Mick Green. He takes the offered hand to shake it, “Yeah. I signed up for ten years, but I got medically discharged a little while back. Now I’m working for Al Porter on Right Here. What are you doing now?”

Mick smiles, “I own and run this store.” He turns to the assistant, “Gayle, give Jim the full staff discount on what he buys.” The assistant, Gayle Davis, is surprised as she knows Mick is very tight on discounts.

Ten minutes later Jenny and James are walking out the door while Gayle asks Mick, “How come the discount for Jim Cowley, Boss?”

“We went to high school together for a few years. The school had a bully who was a few years older than Jim. On both the first and second day of school the year Jim started he punched the hell out of the bully when he picked on Jim. The two incidents caused the bully to review and change his behaviour, and there was no more bullying after that. I figure a lot of people owe Jim for those incidents.”

“What happened to the bully, Boss?”

Mick grins, turns to her, and says, “I now run a furniture store.” Her eyes go wide while he walks back to the office to work on the accounts.

Because Jim said there was no urgency on the delivery they aren’t delivered until several days later when they have another delivery near Right Here. The driver and his helper have no trouble unloading the gear and Jenny, already home from school for the day, has no trouble getting them to put it exactly where she wants it. Later, James is surprised to see the house all set up when he goes home to have a shower before dinner. While he gets dressed he looks at everything and he starts to have a few thoughts about what Jenny is up to, despite their age differences.

While having a cup of hot chocolate after the meal James says, “Jen, I see you’ve all of the new furniture set up! Happy with it?” She grins as she nods yes to him. “Why do I have the feeling you’re moving in soon?”

This causes Dave and the other kids to turn toward James. Jenny replies, “That could be because I intend to once I get the place how I want it. Nice furniture, nice curtains, etcetera.”

“I like you a lot, but just when were you going to tell me this?”

“I had planned to do it when I took you to the jeweller to buy me the rings for my eighteenth birthday.” The kids and Dave are stunned, Jean and Al are trying hard to hide their grins as James gives a slow nod.

“I see! In that case you better spend all of your free time with your mother while you learn to cook. I can’t cook worth a damn and if you move in with me you’ll have to do all of the cooking for us both.” He gets a few stunned looks from everyone at the table. “I figure neither you or your parents are worried about the age difference, otherwise one of you would have said or done something by now. One other point, you know what I’m like so don’t expect to change me, because it won’t work.”

Jenny has a huge grin at James’ acceptance of her plans for their future life together as a couple.

The next afternoon Jean is showing all of the girls how to cook. Once the roast is ready and in the oven she turns to Jenny and says, “Jenny, I hope you’re paying attention and do learn how to cook well. Forget what Jim said last night, not only does he know how to cook, I’m told he’s really a very good cook. He paid for his board with Bob Watt for eight years by cooking their breakfast and dinner every day. He used to do some of the family meals before his parents were killed in a bushfire. I’m also told his mother had a few ribbons for pies Jim cooked and she entered in the annual shows. Think back, it was Jim who taught me how to cook rabbit and roo.” All the girls are surprised, until they remember watching Jim teach their mother about cooking rabbits.

Over the next few months Jenny spends a lot of her time making curtains and organising everything else she needs to have the house ‘just right’ for them as a couple.

While she’s busy doing that on the weekends and in her spare time James uses his spare time to ready some of the wood from the cut down trees from the orchard. The bigger tree trunks only provide two to four boards each, but all of the trunks are big enough for making chair parts. It takes a few months for James to cut the wood to build a nice table and eight chairs to go with it. He even has upholstered seats and backs for the chairs, a skill he learned when working on his car. The whole Porter family is very surprised by the results when he shows them.

Almost six months after Dave moved into the farm homestead Jenny moves out to live with James in the other house.

Fixed for Good

Several months after Dave moves in to live at Right Here James and Al are in the equipment shed carrying out routine maintenance on both of the tractors when Dave comes in to walk off with the gas welder and cutting kit. Both of them see him leaving the shed with the kit and Al calls out to him, “Dave, what do you need the oxy kit for?”

Dave stops to reply by yelling back, “Got to fix a bracket on my ute.” Al nods yes and Dave keeps going while dragging the kit behind him.

Several minutes later both men stop what they’re doing to go wash up for lunch. While walking out of the shed James turns his head to see what Dave is up to at his ute. The vehicle is about fifteen metres away on the other side of the dirt road through the farm. The ute is sitting on the cement slab poured for another workshop to be built on later. Dave is kneeling in the tray of the ute with the welding helmet on and working the torch on something near the front right of the ute tray. Both men take a few more steps before James’ mind puts a few facts together and he spins round to take a closer look. Across the front of the tray of Dave’s ute is a large silver Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinder and Dave is using the welding torch on something right up against the cylinder. James yells out, as loud as he can, “Dave, turn that off and get the fuck away from there.” All he gets for his trouble is Dave’s left hand raised in the two finger salute. He never did like James telling him what to do.

James is about to race over and drag him away when there’s a loud bang and a plume of white gas rises from the left side of the front of the ute’s tray. James shoves Al toward the ground before he races for Jenny who’s a few paces away and walking toward them. At almost the same time as Al hits the ground beside his old ute parked in front of the shed James hits Jenny with a full body check, wraps his left arm around her, and he tosses the both of them to the ground. In that same instant in time there’s a huge boom from over near the ute Dave is working on. James is almost to the ground when something hits him hard on the back of the left shoulder and spins him a little. Thus, instead of landing on the right hand and arm he has braced for the impact he lands on his left shoulder. He hits the ground hard and it hurts him a lot.

James counts to ten slowly before he releases Jenny and says, “Jenny, go inside to check your mother and the kids are OK.” She nods yes while she gets up on her feet.

Al is getting to his feet while looking at the mess that once was Dave’s ute. On seeing the grass around it is on fire he races into the shed to grab one of the fire-fighting packs. He’s soon busy putting out a bunch of small grass fires in the area around the ute.

When James tries to move his left arm or put any weight on it he has to stop due to the pain it causes him. He rolls onto his belly to use his right arm to get up. Once up on his knees he pulls out his cell phone, then he calls for an ambulance and the police. He takes his time getting up, so he reaches Al just as Al finishes putting out some small grass fires. Thankfully James and Al keep the grass down near the house, so there isn’t much to burn.

James says, “Al, once you get the fires out get your camera and take photos of the scene from every angle. Also take shots of the shed, your car, and the house as seen from here. You’ll need all of that as evidence. I called the police and ambulance so they’ll be here soon. Get hold of your insurance people because they need to know about this.”

Al glances over to where what’s left of Dave is lying as he says, “I’ll go stop the ambulance. There’s nothing they can do for Dave.”

“Fuck Dave! I want the ambulance for my shoulder, it hurts.”

“What!” Al walks around James to look at his back because he can see no injury to his front. “Yeah! You’ll need to go to hospital for that. The damn torch head is stuck in your shoulder. I bet that does hurt. What the hell happened over there?”

“That dumb bastard was using the oxy on something right up by the LPG tank. The heat would have caused the gas to expand. It eventually blew the valve off and let some of the gas out. I don’t know if the rest of the tank failed or not, but when the free gas hit the flame of the torch it lit up and we got to experience an LPG bomb at a much closer range than we ever wanted to.”

About fifteen minutes later the ambulance turns up, they check him, and James is taken off to the hospital for some emergency surgery plus a full check by the doctor. The police turn up at the same time and they ask what happened. Al tells them only what he knows about it in regards to Dave getting the oxy torch then seeing him in the back of the ute using it, followed by the explosion.

When they interview her Jenny says, “I was walking over to talk to Jim, almost to him, when he called out to Uncle Dave to stop what he’s doing and to get away from the ute. Uncle Dave gave him two fingers. There was a bang and a white cloud appeared near the left of the ute tray, Uncle Dave was working on the other side of the tray. Jim pushed Dad down and raced to me. He grabbed me and threw us both to the ground. We were still in the air when I saw a huge flash of flame make a big fireball around the ute at the same time as there’s a loud boom. I hit the ground. A moment later Jim let me go and sent me inside to check on the rest of the family. No one was hurt in there so I came outside again and Dad was busy putting out grass fires while Jim was talking on his phone and walking over to Dad with a thing stuck in his shoulder.”

The police get James’ statement after the doctors finish working on his shoulder. The doctors keep James in the hospital for two days.

A few hours after the event police specialists arrive from Rivers to check the scene. They take photos, interview everyone again, and take away the remains of the LPG tank from Dave’s ute wreckage.

Damages

Dave’s ute is a burnt out wreck, Al’s ute has one side peppered with bits of metal, the equipment shed wall near the explosion has a lot of small holes in it and all of the windows on the side of the house nearest the bang need to be replaced: they got broken by the pressure wave of the explosion. James has a broken shoulder blade, a dislocated shoulder from the way he landed on it, and a lot of damage to the back of his left shoulder. James isn’t happy when the doctor puts him on bed rest for a week with light duties for the next two months, which includes no driving of any vehicles for the two months.

Aftermath

While he’s in hospital James has a long line of visitors to see him. All of the visits help keep him from being bored while there. When the doctors do get around to letting James out Al picks him up because Jean won’t let Jenny skip school to collect James.

On the drive home Al briefs James on the outcomes to date by saying, “The police are still looking into things for the coroner. The insurance agent’s been out. He refused to consider a claim on Dave’s ute for the damage to it but he helped me write a claim against Dave’s third party insurance for damage to my property and your injury. He’s approved a claim for the damage to the shed, the house, my car, and the tractor.” James turns and raises an eyebrow. “Yeah, we found the big tractor was damaged by some of the bits of metal, the little one was protected by the big one. He expects they’ll write off my ute, and you’re on compo.”

James grins while he pulls out his cell phone. They both use the same insurance agent: Peter Marks. The phone rings and James says, “Hi, Peter, James Cowley here. Al Porter’s ute. If they write it off find out how much I can buy the wreck for, please. I also want Dave’s wreck.”

Peter asks, “Why, Jim?”

“You know my big black beast, don’t you?” When Peter says he does James adds, “It was a worse mess than Al’s ute when I bought the wreck. I fixed it up and I can do the same to Al’s wreck too.”

Peter laughs, “Yeah! I’ll get the wreck for you. With you doing the work yourself it becomes a viable repair, but not if you pay commercial rates to fix it. As to Dave’s wreck. The company isn’t touching it. No pay out means they don’t get involved. Talk to his heirs.”

“Thanks, Mate. I will.” He turns to Al, “Dave’s wreck is ours to do as we like with it. Much of it will be rubbish, but I think we can use a few bits from it, like the motor.” Al nods his head in agreement.

“Jim, do you intend to fix mine and stick the motor from Dave’s in it to make it more powerful?”

“I want to rebuild your ute as a car for Jenny. I figure to fix what I can of Dave’s then see where we’re at. The worst case scenario is we build it as a paddock basher. We can reach all of the farm paddocks without taking it on the road, so it doesn’t have to be registered.”

“Jim, right now I’m sure glad you talked me out of employing Dave. His parents are upset he’s dead and Jean’s angry they’re upset. If he’d died while working for me I think they’d have sued me. As it is, they can’t because all I did was let him borrow a few tools he said he knew how to use. They say they’re deferring legal action until they hear what the coroner has to say. We still don’t know what he was doing.”

They talk about numerous other matters while they drive.

The workers’ compensation insurance company pays James’ wages for the three months the doctors have him off work before they pass him as fit to work again. This means Al has the money to hire some of the high school seniors to help around the farm. The pay-out for the repairs to the tractor, shed, and house is enough to pay for the parts and some people to work under James to replace the sheet metal plus do the lifting and holding while he does the fine work in replacing the broken windows on the house. The high school seniors are done for the year, except the graduation ceremony, so they hire some of the boys from the other farms in the area.

Note: Four months after the event the coroner holds an inquiry into Dave’s death. After hearing all of the witness statements and the forensic report about part of the tank showing damage from the gas torch the coroner rules Dave died by Misadventure while making repairs on his own vehicle in an unsafe manner.

Dave’s family aren’t happy with his death, but they accept the report despite it making it clear Dave died because he did something he shouldn’t have and he did it in a very stupid way.

The Fruit Store

One morning Peter follows orders from the insurance company to drive out to make sure James isn’t working on the farm while being paid compo. He laughs when he finds James sitting on the tail of his ute having a cold drink while giving directions to two late teen boys who are building a long shed on the edge of the farm land near the road.

When Peter explains the reason for his visit James says, “Well, as you can see, I’m not on the farm at all. Nor am I doing any farm work. I’m simply keeping an eye on these guys while they build a stall for us to sell the orchard produce from.”

Looking at the sheet metal they’re attaching to the frames on the ground Peter asks, “What’s that sheet metal you’re using?”

“We’re recycling some we found in the rubbish pile, that’s all.”

With a big grin Peter asks, “Won’t it leak with all those holes in it?”

“Nope! Once we have it in place we’ll apply a weatherproof coating to the outside, we’ve already covered the inside of the holes with duct tape. Once it’s up we’ll line the inside with some good insulation.”

While shaking his head at James building a market stall out of the old shed metal the insurance company ordered to be dumped Peter laughs and gets out his cell phone. When they answer he says, “Lionel, Peter Marks here. I’m doing that follow up check you asked about. I drove out to the farm but Cowley isn’t there. I found him down the road sitting in the back of a ute having a cold drink while watching some guys do some work on the roadside.” He listens then adds, “The ute’s parked on the road, not even on the farm. The only thing he’s lifting is his right arm to drink from a cold can of Coke while he’s talking to some friends working on the roadside. He hates sitting around and he doesn’t like daytime TV, so he’s out visiting and talking to keep from going crazy.” A moment later he hangs up and he looks at James, “I hope you don’t mind, Jim, but I just sent him some film footage of you sitting there watching the others working. That should keep them happy for a while.”

James looks up, “Thanks, Peter.”

“Oh, I almost forgot. They gave approval for you to have the wreck for two hundred bucks. I paid that from your trust, so it’s yours. I hope that’s OK. I couldn’t find you when they asked for the money, sorry.”

“I was going to pay from my bank account. But no worries.”

Peter drives back to his office and James calls the boys over for a drink. All of the sheets are now attached to the five by three metre frames laid out on the ground around the five by twenty-four metre cement slab poured a few days ago. After a short break the boys attach strips to the edges of all of the frames. While they do that James is busy moving the one metre high barrels of coloured filler from the front of his truck’s tray by tossing a web harness over them and walking backward while holding the harness ends in his right hand.

It takes both of the boys to lower the barrels to the trolley they have for them, then wheel them over to the frames, one at a time. James stands and watches while he directs them in how to pour the contents into the frame unit without spilling it everywhere. This is followed by using a long-handled scraper with a metre wide blade to smooth the filler over the steel sheeting. Once the material is all spread out it doesn’t quite fill up to the top of the strips attached to the sides. With that frame done they get another barrel to do the next one, until all of the eighteen frames are filled with the dark green tinted filler material. They’re doing the work here because the finished units will be too heavy to move far after it’s all done.

After their lunch break the teens get busy erecting the uprights by placing the prefabricated units on the bolts sticking out of the cement. The bottom plates with the bolts were placed in the right spots and the cement poured over them. The uprights are put in place and nuts to hold them down put on, but not fully tightened. The twenty-four metre long light-weight galvanised steel back beam is next. For the first time since this job started James has to get physically involved. The boys get the long beam up the ladders and set in place on the bolt plates. Now comes the reason for not fully securing the bottom nuts yet. James climbs a third ladder to check one end is on the bolts right before he loosely attaches the nuts there. He moves to the next upright, where he uses a rubber mallet to move the beam back a little until it settles on the bolts, then he attaches the nuts. On to the next upright he has to nudge the upright a little to get the beam to sit on the bolts and James puts the nuts on, then repeats on the rest. They do the same to fit the front beam. Now they put on the five metre long cross beams of the same material. James takes the nuts for this beam off bolts, the boys carry the beam up the ladders to set it on the bolts and James attaches the nuts. One at a time the nine beams are put on. Once everything is in place the boys go around tightening all of the nuts as tight as they’ll go. James follows along behind to check they’re tight. By dinnertime all of the frame is up and the panels are half cured, so tomorrow Al will use the big tractor to help them put the roof on and then put the wall frame panels into place.