This is the blog section of the Bill The Housesitter site. See above tabs for ‘About’, ‘Availability’, ‘Contact’ and ‘References’.

I was a little wary of returning to the Ipswich area after two previous housesits in the region had proven to be… challenging! To put it diplomatically. But, to quote a mantra from my old HR days, there are no such things as problems, only opportunities. Allegedly!

I shouldn’t have worried. This one was an absolute delight.

After seeing my ad on Gumtree, Emily had contacted me earlier in the year, about the time I was in the north of Brisbane and about to head way, way up north of the state. We met on my return in July, and locked in this two and a half week sit spanning October and November.

I had no other obligations or responsibilities during that time, other than to see the end of the baseball World Series on their fabulous cable sports TV (yay!), reunite with a local social group and attend a few trivia nights, and of course spend a lot of quality time with my two furry clients: Sandy and Piper the Kelpie crosses.

Being Kelpies, they were both of course incredibly intelligent and savvy. Sandy in particular had that amazing quality some dogs have: she honestly knew sometimes what I was about to do before I did it, and would move herself into place accordingly.

They were both great company, and while daily walks weren’t part of their regime, we spent lots of time playing ball on the huge property that (like many in the street) looked like a standard block from the front, but went back about three block lengths and ran down to the Bremer River.

While we initially had our daily exercise sessions by the river, strategically dodging around next door neighbours’ tethered and roaming goats, we moved the field of operations back up towards the house after the task of chasing the ball around became too tedious for them, and they left the balls somewhere in the thick grass and brambles, never to be seen again!

The house was so new that Google Maps Street View still shows the property as a vacant block. But it’s very much an existing structure, a breeze to look after, and the huge deck out the back has commanding views over the river facing due west. After a fairly dry spell, we were gifted with buckets of rain during my stay, and many exciting electrical storms which were better entertainment than most anything on the idiot box.

My clients had gone off to Southern California to tie the knot in the company of Emily’s local side of the family, and a fair swag of travelling Australians in tow. It was a pleasure to pick the couple up from the airport on their day of arrival and have breakfast in Ipswich before I left. I say ‘breakfast’ though it was probably more of a late supper on their body time clocks!

My clients were delighted with my care of their house and hounds, and I was not even a dozen stations away from East Ipswich when this reference hit my Facebook page!

Bill, you are wonderful!

We couldn’t have gone overseas for our wedding and had such a stress-free trip if it weren’t for you.

We met Bill once before we engaged his services and immediately knew he was honest and someone we could trust.

Bill watched over our two 4-legged daughters who are very sweet (but energetic!) Kelpies. He stayed for just over 2 weeks and minded our home and the pups. The dogs were so happy and well taken care of as well as the home & plants.

Coming home was great and Bill was kind enough to take us and pick us up from the airport. It was great to have someone like Bill who felt more like a friend than a home/furbaby minder.

Thank you Bill, we are so lucky to have met you and hope to see you again soon.

Emily and Peter