Animal sitting
Urunga Vet is 6655 5299, at 29 Newry St E, Urunga NSW 2455
Goats- girls
Go through both pen gates to let them out, they can just hang in the central yard. Make sure all gates to the house stay closed!
Lure back into pen at night with a few cracked lupins rattling in the metal dishes.
You can put some hay from the bins in their nets inside the pen, they will be happy but live without it for a couple of days.
Goats- boys
They can stay in their paddock. Just throw in some biscuits from the big bin. Water can be filled from the tap up by the watertank via the hose. NOTE- we’ve forgotten to turn it off several times :-/
Rocket
Dog food is in metal bin in kitchen area by the recycling. 1.5 cups of food morning and night.
Water- there’s a bowl on the deck and one in your room.
Rocket has a sore back hip, best just not to touch him there at all.
Meds: Morning – one lowsec tablet, one 500mg panadol and half a gabapentin
Evening – One 500mg panadol and half a gabapentin. You can give him cheese or butter with his tablets as a treat but you’ll probably still have to shove them down his throat
Leave him out during the day, he’s allowed inside whenever though, and allowed on the couch (but kick him off if you want). Not sure if he’ll try to sleep in your bedroom or want to be in the house.
Cat
He’s an inside cat, rarely escapes these days, but keep door locked incase. He usually comes back when hungry but we don’t want him eating birds etc.
There’s a big bowl of water in the house
When he poos in his litter box cubby, there’s a scoop hidden in the lid, scoop it out and pop it in the blue lidded bucket.
Food: ¼ cup of hills science in the morning and ½ cup at night – he’s being weird about eating the ziwi food so don’t bother with it.
Bird
Just keep the feeder topped up with the South American Mix on top of the cage, and change water- you need to be quick and/or trick him as he loves tyring to pull up the food and water doors when you change them,
There’s veges he can have – snow peas, sweet corn, broccoli, a tiny bit of apple as a treat
Put the sheet that’s on the bottom of his cage over the cage at night.
Lizard
Grate some carrot in the morning and put parsley in it (sprinkle some multivitamin powder over it, its kept on the wood platform that the tank sits on). When you get home in the afternoon feed him 5-10 wood roaches. His lights will automatically turn on and off, just make sure the red blanket on top of the cage doesn’t get too close to the heat lamp.
Chickens
Just keep their water fresh and the bowl of food full. There’ll usually be three chickens (one black, two brown) in the pen at night, but they sometimes don’t go in so don’t panic if they’re not there.
House sitting- everything else
Apologies if anything is super obvious, this is a general list for anyone who might house-sit
Call Jason 0438 609 097 or Scout 0407 636 649 anytime, we can get onto plumber, vet etc for you but if for some reason you can’t get us:
Jason the plumber does agricultural plumbing especially: 0409 823 674
Electrician who has been out here is Dylan- 0409 680 002
Usual Vet is 6655 5299, at 29 Newry St E, Urunga NSW 2455
Youtube playlist of the pumps etc: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLutiX2jcgIEkC2TjHaQ-vqkOoIVFesGLW
People nearby:
Ted (0410 315 873) and Rowena (0400 533 192) live down the road.
Peter (0418 220 918) and Felix (0413 470 315) live further down the road
Jasmine and Josh Preston live next door to the north but I don’t have a number. I can contact them on FB for you though.
Computers and internet
Desktop computer just inside the door (black with glass front) has a house-sitter guest account, help yourself. TXT scout or jason for the passwords if youve lost them.
Hot water
Its been so sunny we left it on solar. But there is a blue lever just outside the kitchen. Its pointing down (for solar), or turn clockwise and point it left to turn the gas on, then when you turn on the water the gas heater will start up.
Showers
The outside shower is working very nicely- takes a fair while for hot water to come through, nice view though. Towels are out there.
Gas stove
Sparker doesn’t work, light with the long gas cigarette lighter. Over is trickier, see youtube video.
Loo
Compost one in bathroom- just throw in a handful of sawdust when done and if there is spray there give a few squirts. There is also a flush loo down by the rainwater tanks if you prefer. Feel free to pee anywhere.
Power
You can run about 3000W of things at the same time no problem. Eg microwave and toaster oven is probably too much, even microwave and iron can be if the water pump is also running.
If its sunny you’ll have no issues.
Inside the house on the right is the power meter. Basically on the little grey panel called Victron, press + or – until the display lights up and shows you something like 76.5 % . If its at 50% or more when you go to bed it will be fine. Even 30-40% is usually ok.
If you want a lot of power in the morning (microwave, coffee etc) you will need the generator if power is less than 20% or so.
If you need the generator, just turn the key like a car (two clicks over and release when it starts). Give it a minute, then you will hear it run smoother and lift the switch on the right hand side up to on.
You shouldn’t need to refuel, but there is a bit in the red fuel tank.
If you actually lose power:
Turn off anything that uses lots of power (iron, tumble dryer or whatever)
run the generator and it should after a minute restore power.
If not the fuse switches are there just behind the generator, make sure one isn’t tripped.
Water
We will leave the electric pump on (increases pressure). Switch is in kitchen on the powerboard under the fan, labelled pump.
Water should last a week, otherwise just run the petrol pump down by the flush toilet:
Reach behind the pump and flick the red switch up.
Make sure all the levers are pulled towards you
Pull the start cord
Slowly push back the choke (not the top lever, the next one down)
Turn off after about 5 minutes of pumping (you can see the water level on the side of the header tank) by flicking the switch at the back down again.
If there’s a burst pipe and water gushing everywhere
Don’t panic. You can only lose the header tank of water, which is no huge drama
Under the header tank, at the bottom of the big wooden stand, you will see a black plastic cylinder, and near that a lever pointing up (marker water cutoff). Just turn the lever half a turn clockwise, all water to the property will be cut off.
Then screw back on whatever burst (probably the pipe just by the header tank) or call me, or the plumber we know who does ag stuff especially: Jason 0409 823 674
If you need to turn the little electric water pressure booster off for some reason, it is the yellow extension cord in the kitchen, on the top power point on the left hand side (marked water pump). Just switch off. You can do that overnight if you want so you don’t have to worry about leaks etc, but it should be fine to leave on.
Gas (again)
Hot water gas is to right of kitchen just outside. Stove is on the very left of the deck as you look towards it from the carpark. Spanner is at hot water burner. We have put new bottles on which should easily last all fortnight. If you need to swap them, clockwise loosens (the opposite from usual)
Enjoy!
Eat anything you find in the fridges or cupboards!