Whatever happened to ...
... all the feed?
In total there were 20+9+12 = 41 bales of legume hay provided.
There were 8 bales of lucerne provided
There were 2+2+4+4= 12 twenty kg bags of micronized barley provided
There was one Drimol block provided
There were 10+1=11 twenty kg bags of chicken food provided
There were 2 twenty kg bags of dry dog food provided.
The sitter claimed to have supplied 4 loads (two tonnes) of sweet potatoes
On our return there were:
4 bales of lucerne
2 bags of barley
No chicken food, either bagged or in the food bins
Half a bag of dog food in its bin
One bag of mouldy dog food.
No sign of any sweet potatoes having been brought onto the property
Possible scenarios:
- Waste
- There was hay scattered everywhere when we returned;
- But this would only account for maybe 4 or 5 bales
- Perhaps the hay scattered outside the house yard (up to 100 metres from the house) had been eaten by wallabies.
- There were several patches of barley flakes lying on the ground outside the house yard;
- There was dry dog food lying on the ground in two separate places, one inside the house yard and one outside.
- The sitter claimed that the cow had eaten chicken pellets, but that would account for, at most, one bag.
- Mice – we now have a plague of mice which we are slowly getting rid of by baiting. One bag of micronized barley had holes bitten in it and there was barley in several other places (including on a bench inside my shed!)
- Destroyed
- There were two places where fires had been lit in our absence;
- In one of them there were clear remains of hay, but to burn a large quantity of hay would certainly be noticed during a period of total fire ban. In the other, a 200 litre drum used as an incinerator, there were the melted remains of plastic that had been burnt, and hay on the ground nearby.
- Sold
- There are a number of items of property missing that have been reported to the police. Some of these would be easy to sell “at the right price”.
- Last Sunday afternoon (January 24) we had a person call in at our property and enquire whether we “still had any of that $5 hay for sale”. We said we had never sold hay and asked who had told him that we did. He said that “a bloke at his watering hole in B**dy said that there was a place on G**dw**d Rd near the kids home where the woman who lived there was selling it”, he had to ask for “Jaye-Cee” (not the real name he used) and she would be selling it until the end of January. We were furious to realise this was where our hay had been disappearing and it made sense that she wanted to purchase 46 bales in one go, she had customers already lined up. We told him about our experience with the housesitter and said he should enquire across the road at Neighbour 2 as the woman he referred to may be staying there. We don’t know whether he did that as we are not in communication at present with Neighbour 2. We also told him the hay originally came from our supplier about 10 kilometres away and had been purchased to feed our cattle. He appeared uncomfortable, apologised for bothering us, said that “it was a dirty thing to sell on hay like that, given how expensive it had become” and stated clearly he had not bought hay from her before.
... all the water?
We have four rainwater tanks. Three 22,500 litre (5,000 gallon) tanks are located beside the shed at the western end of the house and are all interconnected by an underground manifold but have individual gate valves to regulate their flow to the pump which feeds the house. There is a 1,200 litre tank at the eastern end of the house. This has its own pump but is not connected into the house. It is raised off the ground so water can be obtained from it by gravity in case of a power outage (not uncommon in rural queensland). It is also set up so it can feed into the main tanks via the northern house gutter.
There was over 25,000 litres of water in the main tanks when we left (2+ rungs in each tank) and 1,200 litres in the backup tank.
On November 17 6,000 litres was delivered.
On November 29 another 6,000 litres was delivered.
On December 22 it starting raining, and it rained solidly for the next two weeks. Over 75 mm (3 inches) was recorded in our rain guage. This should have been enough to more than fill all the tanks.
When we returned the 1200 litre tank was full but there was less than two rungs in each of the main tanks. There are five rungs in each tank so a rung equates to about 4,500 litres.
The water recommended water consumption in Brisbane is 200 litres per person per day, and this includes water of gardens. The house sitter was instructed NOT to use tank water for the gardens. There was adequate water in the bottom dam for the cattle to drink from.
25,000 litres should have been enough to last the house sitter 125 days without any further rain, but she claims it was all gone within 5 days of us leaving. Not very credible!
Even if the tanks were empty on November 17 (the neighbours confirmed there was still a rung left in each nearly a week later) the 6,000 litres delivered on that day should have lasted another 30 days. But the sitter claimed on November 22 that there was no water, and a visit by Neighbour1 confirmed that there was only half a rung left on November 23.
So nearly 30,000 litres (enough to supply a family of 5 for a month) had gone in less than 11 days! What happened to it?
Possible scenarios:
- Waste
- Neighbour2 indicated in a phone conversation on November 18 that the pool was full and overflowing when they visited. The pool was about 25 mm below the overflow level when we left so that would account for a couple of thousand litres. But why would the house sitter fill the pool to overflowing when she was told explicitly not to do so before we left? And she said she didn't swim at all.
- Perhaps a hose or shower had been left running? But it would take at least two days of continuous running to use that amount.
- Stolen
- During the extended dry period from October through to December people were going on to rural properties and pumping water from dams and water tanks then selling it. Given that the house sitter regularly left the property unsecured, that is a possibility. But there are no indications of a heavy vehicle coming onto the property in the vicinity of the bottom dam. It would, however, have been relatively easy to fill, say, a 600 litre mobile tank from the house tanks using a hose. We have one of those on our property. We used this ourselves to transfer water from another property we own close by when we first moved here seven years ago because the only tank we had then ran out. Subsequently we added the three extra tanks, and have only ever bought water once since that date.
- Sold
- It would have been relatively easy to sell water at one of the pubs in B*nd*b*rg, and our 600 litre tank could have been used to transport it on the back of our ute or in our box trailer. But who would take the risk of being caught for so little reward?