It’s going to be hot

14 January 2013

So we’re living in this Perth suburbia, renting a room in a house. The owners, George and Rebekha, aren’t what we’d call our friends. Not that we’re fighting or anything, it’s just we have absolutely nothing in common. They’re paranoiac, insisting on locking all doors at all times, whether we are or not in the house. They don’t like gardening, so the backyard’s grass has been replaced by a concrete, which Toby the dog can turn into a minefield of turds. Speaking of Toby, he lost two kilos while his masters were on holiday. We simply refused to feed him while we ate, stopped handing him candies and biscuits, and halved his daily portion of canned food. They are nice, but that’s it, just nice.

We like open doors, fresh air, a garden, the feeling of green grass under our bare feet, watching the vegetables grow not staring at a concrete wall, hearing the birds singing not the neighbor’s stereo. Definitely we we’re cut out to live in a city.

But that’s not the reason why we’re moving out. To put it simply, it’s bloody expensive. The weekly rent is 225AUD and it’s just too much for us at the moment. Plus the room is rather small, and for that price, you can rent a whole unit or at least an apartment. I was rather surprised to hear that when George said “in exchange for looking after the house and the dog while we’re in Korea for a month, you get two weeks rent free” he meant “Claire gets two weeks rent free, but you still have to pay your share” which by the way is 75AUD (yep, single person pays 150AUD, couple pay 225AUD, you know, cos one person uses 75AUD worth of electricity and water and stuff).

Anyways, I’ll stop raving on, it was good while it lasted, but it’s time we stop spending money. We haven’t found a job yet, the market is still pretty lethargic after the Xsmas break, and it’s going to be at least a month before we can see a difference.

So, I said we’re moving out. Yes, we are. Where ? We’re going outback. That’s right, no more city, hello nature.

Well, we’re not going camping for a month, we’re simply going to live in a farm. Now, understand that a farm in Australia doesn’t necessarily mean there are sheep, stock, a huge tractor and hectares of corn or potatoes. A farm simply means the owners live mostly off the land, and they may or may not have a few animals they look after. In our case, Jenny lives with her two twin daughters in a big house, on ten acres of land, which they share with their four horses. They do have some fruits and vegetables but it’s more for their own use than anything else.

The Swan Valley is one of the few wine regions around Perth, it follows the Swan River and was established in the early 19th century. The valley is known for its fabulous wine, but also a few microbreweries. There are two parts in a valley, the hills and the riverbed. We’re on the riverbed. This means it’s hot as hell, dry and dusty as you can imagine and the soil is so poor you have to add manure and compost to hope anything might grow. But it’s beautiful nonetheless.

So, why on earth would we go there, you might ask ? Well, there is this website, called HelpX. It’s a bit like Wooffing for those who know it. Basically, in exchange for a free bed and food on our plates, we get to work. So it’s not actually paid work, meaning I can do it without breaching my visa limitations, but it will allow us to eat and sleep without paying a huge rent. This has a few advantages of course : we’ll be living in a natural environment, with fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, etc from the garden ; we’ll be living in a healthy family, meaning Claire will speak English everyday, and we’ll be sharing our lives as if we were part of the family ; and I’ll keep myself busy as I’m going nuts doing nothing.

Jenny has invited us for lunch the other day and we saw the long “to-do” list. It’s a never ending list of things to do around the property, such as installing an irrigation system for the veggie patch, cleaning the swimming pool (installing a new water pump while we’re at it), feeding the four horses, planting a new hedge to replace the old fence, or fencing some of the property where a hedge would not grow. Et caetera, et caetera, the list never ends.

I can’t actually wait to be there, and do something useful, getting out of these four walls.