The tin roof leaked, the verandah posts leaned and the old timber cottage shuddered and groaned when the strong winter winds blew across the bare north paddock We called it "THE RUSTY RANCH" but I suppose it was no worse than hundreds of other, two bed roomed, iron roofed, unlined weather board cottages in country Western Australia in 1942. Sometimes, in the strongest gust, it swayed so much the front door would fly open and scare the daylights out of us.

Farming was very hard work here in the early days. I remember Norm Crowe - he lost his arm in a chaff cutting accident. He could do anything, with just one arm. I've seen him yoke up a team of eight horses, putting collars and hames on them, which is a big job with 2 arms. He'd push the collar up, with the two straps to buckle up and he'd grab them and hold them in his teeth, until he could do them up. He lost his arm in a portable chaff cutter, when he was about 20, might have been a bit more. He was working for people named Dowling.