Page 33 - IT'S A RUM LIFE BOOK FOUR Volume 1 "Northcote 1984 to 1998"

magazine type stories and lots of photos of local people.

I worked a great deal in the evenings and processed all my own photographs in black and
white. An occasional colour photo-shoot for the main paper made life more interesting too.

AT FIRST
We step back for a few moments to look at “Northcote” when we had first arrived, I had
managed to clear tons of ‘knee deep’ decaying manure from all the redundant sheds and
with the aid of a borrowed tractor, tip it all in a local vacant ‘hole in the ground’!

The idea of breeding white rabbits for meat had developed while I was working for
Rundle's.
I had not imagined that I would be able to find alternative driving jobs after John returned
to Rundle's and I needed some form of income to pay the mortgage. In fact John Brooks,
had assisted me during his convalescence by assembling all the rabbit cages. Then during
my weekends at ‘home’, the better buildings on the old RAF site had been pressed into
service as breeding sheds with fan driven fresh air ventilation and insulated walls.
I had studied carefully the intricacies of breeding rabbits on a large scale and introduced a
simple but effective system of breeding records.

THE “ORANGE”
It was about this time during the development of the Rabbit farm that the stress of the final
two years of ECYB caught up with me.
I woke one night with this immense burning ‘orange’, glowing and engulfing the whole of
my chest. The previous day I had felt strange tingling sensations in my left arm but given
them no thought. With the orange was a violent heartbeat almost fit to burst.
Ruth was concerned and I was powerless to move, only able to lay flat in bed while sweat
poured off me.
I could not possible allow myself to be carried away as too many furry animals depended
on my being there to care for them every morning and evening.
So I just had to persuade Ruth that it would pass and not to call for assistance.
It did pass after about two hours, my heartbeat dropped to a reasonable level but left me
so weak I could barely raise my arms.

With daylight, I managed to get up and dress but the rest is a blur. I remember having to
cross the field to feed the rabbits, but what normally took me just a few minutes now took
hours. Crossing the field took 15 minutes, resting at each of the fence posts as they came
along. I then sat in the feed store to prepare the breakfast for 100 ‘does’ 10 ‘bucks’ and
hundreds of offspring and so began what would take over six months to come to terms
with.
I had to learn to live life differently, more slowly and without stress. The lack of energy and
strength enforced my sitting at every chance I could. I learned to do jobs a different way
and taking more time was not just a good idea but it was impossible to do otherwise.
Never again was I able to run up the stairs!