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Im 55 years old,married,2nd time around and Christine and I have been married for 22years this year, jeez , I hope I dont forget our anniversary this year, been there and done that, wasnt very pleasant. For all of that 22 years, except for about 9 months, we have lived here on our property at Western Creek in the state of Tasmania in Australia on 50 acres of bush, half way up the side of a mountain at an altitude of a bit over 2000 ft and we love it. We first came here it was just a bush block. No House, no road to the property, just lots of bush. We did have a map telling us where the access road to the property was supposed to be but because no one had actually lived on the place before, it was once part of a dairy farm, the road had never been fenced off or defined in any way. That was all worked out in the end with the help of friendly neighbours and then we set about making a camp and settling down to building a house before winter set in and we all froze to death. Apart from Christine and myself we had two teenage children with us, Shayne and Donna, who didnt think this was very funny at all. Back in civilisation this was all very romantic but when it came down to the nitty gritty it was a little different. I grew up in the mountains of New South Wales and was in the Army for three years, but Chris and the kids had never been out of the city or even camping for any longer than a weekend so they didnt really know what hit them. One minute a comfortable little house almost in the heart of the city with all the modern conveniences, the next, tent and a shovel to dig your own hole for the toilet.camp.jpg (103459 bytes) I had decided on a log cabin because I thought it would be relatively easy to build and quick. Just cut down a few trees, pile them one on top of each other and Bobs your uncle. Did I forget to mention I had never used a chain saw in my life and I had brought with us the biggest chain saw I could buy because we all know big is better dont we. The biggest tree I had ever cut down was when I was a child of about 10 and I cut down a wattle tree which must have been all of 6inches through. The first tree I had to cut down here was 4 feet through and about 150 feet tall. Entry in diary for Saturday 6th February 1982,Dropped first big tree today, very dicey business. Very dicey business indeed. It becomes a bit intimidating when you front up to a tree that weighs 15 or twenty tons and while your getting ready to fall the tree you remember all the stories you have heard about trees falling on people, limbs coming out of trees and killing people and all the other horror stories you have heard. It tends to make you very careful.We cleared a site for the cabin and then started on the task of building our new home before the winter set in. We started on the 8th of February 1982 and finished Your ALT-Text here on 17th of April 1982.At last a roof over our heads and some protection from the weather. We still didnt have a kitchen or bathroom and the toilet facilities were still a shovel and a walk in the bush. We found this a bit rough not long after when we all ended up with a tummy bug, from the water I Your ALT-Text here think, we werent used to untreated water, and it decided to rain and snow at the same time. Its not easy digging a hole holding an umbrella, in the snow and trying not to get the toilet paper wet. Your ALT-Text here We discovered toilet paper isnt much good when its wet. As you can see things were pretty basic. Four of us had to eat sleep and cook in space 16ft by 36ft.Sounds like a lot at first until your there for awhile. Also had to work there which took up a bit of room. As I said no kitchen so all our cooking was done on the Franklin stove. All nice and cosy in winter but in summer it gets a bit hot. We ended up building a kitchen in time for Christmas that year. For a change in diet when we were burning bits of wood and rubbish outside to clear up the surrounding area, we would stick a leg of lamb and some vegetables in a camp oven, just a big caste iron pot with a lid, bury it in a hole in the ground, cover it with coals and come back in a couple of hours to a roast dinner. One weekend after a hard day cleaning up around the house we pulled out the camp oven, really looking forward to a nice roast leg of lamb with veges, only to discover the coals had gotten a little too hot and all that was left of our roast dinner was a black leg bone and the vegetables had become so hot that they were still little glowing red hot coals. Toast and peanut butter was a poor substitute. In the photo you can see how the cabin looked from the air at 1000ft.

 

Address: Bernie Wojcicki, 830 Western Creek Rd, Western Creek, Tasmania 7304, Australia.
Telephone: 0061 363678237
Website: http://www.em-brand-whips.com/