Dr. John A. King recovered from heat-induced pneumonia in Tennant Creek, then upgraded his farm's hoop house with a swamp cooler, gravity-fed water system from his dam, and wire screening to keep rain out. Helpers Justin and Leanne did the hands-on work while solar panels powered the improvements.
How hot is it in Tennant Creek, they ask? It's this bloody hot. You've got to put your computer in the bloody fridge before you can use the dang thing. Hopping in and out of, uh, like out here at the farm at 100, 105 degrees, then into town into cafes or restaurants or business offices, you know, at 70 or 75, did not do me good. We had that big wet— excuse me— we had that big wet And, um, I got pneumonia, you know, standing pneumonia. So that, that didn't go too well at all. So that was a couple of weeks just down. We ended up having to get a cabin in, in town, had AC, which is nice, but it's not out here. And I tell you what, as soon as I got out here, I felt good again. It's just great being on country. It's great, um, it's just great being home, man. Like, it's just incredible. Made a couple additions to the hoop house. So I put the bed— brought it— brought the bed down from in the tent. And it's really because it's really high, the mattress was high against the canvas, was really hot. We put the bed here and put the netting on it last night. And the brother had one of these big old swamp cooler, so we're kind of living large, man. And, um, The new trenches have gone in. He put in trenches today. Trenches have gone in for the— it'll be running water. The tap will have its own, the shower will have its own water there, and then we'll have water. We're thinking of moving the washing machine from here. We're going to move it over, and we're thinking of making like a utility room and stuff, so that'll be good. But this, this, all this water stuff is— he put this, uh, Man, I've got to show you this. You've got to see this. I don't know how the bloody hell he did this with a winch, an excavator, and 2 10-year-old boys, but he did. He has basically created a gravity feed system. It's sitting on top of the scaffold we use to, um, to chop up the cattle, um, you know, when he gets clean skins and chop up the roos, etc. But have a look at what he's done here. It's unbelievable. So there it is up the tree. So we pump the water from this dam, we pump it up into there, and then that irrigates the bathroom over there, irrigates this veggie garden here, irrigates— we're currently using that as a bit of a laundry utility room, and then it irrigates here. What we're going to probably do with this tank is raise it up again and fill it with water, so that way we'll have 2 lots of standing water tanks. And be able to do it. So with the solar power and the water, you know, the camps are completely self-sustained. So, you know, Justin and Leanne have done a tremendous job with just pushing ahead. You know, I was out for 2 weeks just sick, and, and, um, so I come home and he does what he always does. He's bloody amazing, just gets shit done, man. I love and admire the guy. Rain through the new hoop house. But, uh, hi babe. But we do have to screen the top off with the wire. You can see me put wire here. It's like fly wire. It'll stop the water coming through. We just ran out of materials. We got to do this cuz the water is making it all the way back to the chairs and the bed. Yeah, it's a bit of a problem. So we'll fill these in with panels and we'll screen up the top as well. So it's bloody beautiful, isn't it? It's absolutely gorgeous.
