Our family grows

Peter and I both liked the idea of living in the country but the reality was we were city born and bred. We knew nothing about looking after two acres of land. We had never built a house before. The girls were going to go to a small country school. What if they hated it? We were 100 km from Canberra and our very comfortable life. Peter had a new job and I couldn’t see much. What were we thinking?

Our first few weeks here were interesting. We moved a couple of days before Christmas and the TV didn’t work and the washing machine died. It was also very cold and we had no curtains until we found some old ones and taped them to the bedroom windows. Buying curtains was fast tracked and it was lovely to close the house up on a cold summer night! The house was surrounded by dirt and when it started to rain we had to go out in the middle of the night and dig trenches around the verandah to stop the water coming in. The girls were unhappy and feeling isolated and we had many trips into Canberra to see their friends and bring them out to visit for a couple of days in the country.

As the weeks went by we started to settle in. We met more of our neighbours and when I was able to wear a contact lens and drive for a few weeks we went to the Braidwood pool and the girls met some local girls. We went shopping and bought the things we wanted and needed for the house and as time went by the house became our home.

As the house wasn’t quite finished our gate had not been put back up and there was no way of keeping our dog Madeline in when we went out. We tried tying her up on a long rope and using her car harness to make her more comfortable than having a rope tied on her collar. We had to go out for a few hours so into the harness, tied to the rope, lots of water and a bone. She was set and off we went. When we arrived home she came running to greet the car – how? Maybe someone had been over and let her off? Maybe we didn’t put the harness on properly? No – she was a very clever dog and didn’t like being tied up. This had happened a couple of times and we finally figured out that she had pulled the rope tight and wriggled out of the harness backwards. How clever was our Miss Houdini? Tying her up wasn’t going to work but as she was a dog who didn’t wander we decided each time we left to give her a big juicy bone to keep her occupied. We were very lucky with her and discovered that each morning she went for a walk to say hello to each of our neighbours and then came home. That’s as far as she went so we felt comfortable leaving her alone. Little was she to know that her days as the only pet in the house were numbered.

The minute we moved out here the conversations started about which other animals would come to live with us. We needed to get something to eat the grass but we needed to do some fencing and of course put the gate back before that could happen. The girls were also putting pressure on to get another dog or two and had the support of their dad. The argument was that two dogs would keep each other company and not annoy Madeline too much. This argument had merit but I didn’t see the need for three dogs.

We went into Canberra one weekend for a couple of birthday parties and spent the weekend there. We all went and were staying with friends around Tuggeranong. Even Madeline had a sleepover with friends as the kennel was fully booked and there was my argument. What do we do with all these animals when we want to go away? It would cost a fortune to put all the dogs in the kennel and what about the rest? We would need to find someone to come and housesit.

We had this conversation in the car on the way to Canberra and we arrived at Teresa’s house for her party and surprise, surprise we left with two pet rabbits! Rabbits were never on the list of animals on request! What happened here? Teresa had some baby bunnies and yes they were very cute and the pressure was on all through the party to bring one home. It was 3 to 1 so what hope did I really have? Ok, we had to find somewhere for them to live, what do they eat and who would take responsibility for cleaning their house? Emily totally fell in love with these little cuties and I was telling the partygoers how my CWA cookbook has lots of recipes for rabbit stew! So the rabbit we were getting became Stewie! But wait there’s more! Stewie would be very lonely by himself and before I knew it we had Louie as well!

Teresa assured us they were both boys and I told her that if they weren’t the offspring were going straight back to her house!