Return To Familiar Surroundings

After 6 months on the road, with just a few weeks of house sitting in 2 different states we have returned to the area where we have spent most of our time.

It is great to be on familiar roads, to know where those roads go and to see familiar landmarks. We have been fortunate to be able to land a house sitting assignment which could keep up us in the area for most of the year.

The major task in this house sit is to keep Cricket happy.

Cricket is a friendly, when you get to know him and don’t fuss over him too much, cat who sleeps for most of the day, puts in an appearance late in the day to have a feed and to drown out the television sound with his purring.

He seems happy to be sharing his house with us, and has us trained to meet his not-very demanding needs.

Slideshow

 And Looking Back

 

One House Sit draws to a close and another opens up.

There is still nearly a week to go on our current House Sitting assignment, which means just a few more days to do some of the things that we were looking forward to on the Bellarine Peninsula and at Geelong. It is also time to go through the experiences we have had as a result of this house sit.

The video slideshow below has just a few of those places visited and revisited. I have sequenced them as if they were part of the Great Ocean Road trip from Apollo Bay to Portarlington, with a short trip back to Maits Rest to wander among the tall trees.

 

Planning for the Next Move

From Portarlington we are hoping to move closer to Melbourne for a few days to visit the Zoo, Aquarium and other attractions. Then it will on to Kelly Country, across the Murray, up one of the inland highways to maybe Queensland. After that it will be back south to Sydney as we have organized a House Sit for later in the year.

House Sitting?

 

Or is that really Pet Sitting?

On way to help with meeting expenses of being on road is to volunteer to do some house sitting.

That usually involves agreeing to look after a house for a short time time while the owners are away on a holiday or working in a different area. That house sitting is usually rent free and comes with some obligations that generally are not too onerous.

The most common duty for a house sitter is to look after some seriously spoiled pets. There can also be some gardening and other maintenance tasks, but generally it is the pet-sitting duties that are most important.

Missy Likes Her Walks

The dog we are looking after at this time is a 10 year old Tenterfield Terrier and she has very definite ways to tell us what she wants. We don’t always know that is but it is obvious when she is ready for a walk. In fact we are very careful about using the word “walk” within hearing distance for her, because that usually starts some very excited jumping up and down at the door, waiting to be let out for her walk. She waits patiently for her lead to be attached, but once the door opens, she is out and heading of with the lead at full stretch. That continues all of the way during the walk, except for the times when she stops to have a sniff at things she finds in the grass.

The return journey from the walk is not usually as vigorous, but she still tends to make sure that I do dawdle, with the leash always being extended. When she gets back to the house she heads straight to the door to be let in, and then settles down for a rest to recover from the effort needed for the walk.

This video shows just a small part of one of her walks.

Pet and Animal Sitting

As the first of our House Sitting assignments draws to a close it has become obvious that the care of pets and other animals is a significant part of the things that a house sitter is called on to do.

The really good thing is that the animals that are being managed will actually help with what needs to be done.

The Chooks: Easy to manage

A prime example would be the chickens, or as I prefer to call them, the chooks. Where we are right now, foxes could be a problem at night if the chooks are not locked away safely. And since these chooks have free access to a large area, this could mean that the end of each day could be spent rounding them up.

But no, that is not necessary. As dusk hits the chooks make their way back to their house, with the rooster making sure that all of the girls are safely inside. Then the door can be locked. Well that’s the way it is supposed to work. For 6 of the 7 night things went that way. On the other night one stray chook could not get back because she had flown out the yard, and that meant a potential few minutes rounding her up. No need to worry. All I had to do was just open the gate to the yard, and she wandered off to the house to join her friends. Door locked. How easy was that.

The ducks: Now that is another story.

The 3 ducks, have a separate enclosure with a secure house built above ground where they are locked in overnight. Remember, foxes like to eat duck too. And the ducks also manage to find their way back into the enclosure and also up the ramp and into the house.

Well 2 of them can get themselves into the house. It seems that one of them is genetically programmed to refuse to step onto the bottom of the ramp. That crazy duck, who is under threat of becoming roast duck, has to be caught and physically placed on the ramp (or in the house) so it can be securely locked away overnight.

Catching Ducks:

On two nights, however, it was necessary to catch all 3 ducks. The first was because I had allowed the door of the house to close but not using the catch to keep it open. When I went to put the ducks away for the night I found that the door was closed and they were wandering around on the ground level. When I discovered that, the door was opened and I left them for about 10 minutes for at least the two who normally make their way up the ramp to settle in.

Obviously the change of routine had confused the ducks and they didn’t find their way into the house, even when I gave them another 30 minutes. There was nothing to do but catch each duck and help it get into the house. That took some doing, and probably caused some stress that night. Thankfully they got back to their routine for the next few nights.

Except for the rainy night. It seems that they enjoyed the wet conditions and despite being given extra time, it was another night of catching all 3 ducks.

Ducks, Pigeons and Chooks: Sharing Food

The morning routine for me, the Pet Sitter, is

• Open the door to the chook shed and top up the chook food.
• Open the duck house, but keep the duck enclosure closed. Top up the duck food.
• At around mid-day, open the duck enclosure.

The reason behind this strategy is that the chooks tend to invade the duck enclosure to see if there is any food left. Keeping them out

gives the duck more chance to get to their food. However, opening the duck house allows pigeons to get in help themselves to the grains. By the time the gate of the enclosure is opened there is no more grain left, but that does not stop the chooks from lining up as I open the gate.

The routine at the end of the day is as follows:

• Lock up the chook house, after counting to see that all chooks are inside.
• Leave the ducks outside, to give them a little “chook-free” time, then close their enclosure when they have returned.
• When the first 2 ducks have climbed into their house, catch the last one to return it, and put the catch on to keep them safe.

 

 

 

House Sitting

The first little expedition is over.

It involved a trip to some previously visited places and gave us a chance to catch up with things we didn’t do while we lived there. It was also an opportunity to become familiar with the mobile aspects of living the Grey Nomad life. We have started to develop routines for setting up and preparing to hit the road. We had a taste of free camping, which has highlighted some extra accessories that will be needed.

 In the next few weeks we plan to take a break from being on the road. This is to help with the finances, with Caravan Park Fees and fuel prices when travelling starting to burn a hole in the pocket.

We registered with a couple of House Sitting agencies through their websites and left a profile on one of them. From that we have been contacted by 2 different house owners who are taking short holidays and need someone to look after their homes and pets while they are away.

We start the first of these in the Adelaide Hills in a few days and then travel to Victoria for a house sit near Geelong.

This experience is one that we are looking forward to as it will give the bank balance a bit of a boost, and also provides us with a chance to explore new regions while based there without having to find the cost of park fees. This is another way to get to see the places that we intend to visit, and it appears that there are plenty of opportunities for house sitting. The biggest obstacle for us will be finding places that have room for the caravan while we are sitting.

We will add the experiences here on this site.