The thread is taking over my life.
Youse wanna know how I came to be in possession of a Furphy wagon end?
I was living in a quiet NSW country town.
The bloke next door had a reputation for being light-fingered, so we were careful about what we left lying about in the yard, especially when we were away.
Well our water bill was always a little high. We had a few problems with leaking water pipes that were repaired a few times and then we had to replace the water pipe completely.
It seems that while we were away the bloke next door would use our water to water his garden in the middle of the night.
The bloke on the other side of him worked for the council, and his brother was a local copper.
One day when we came home from a trip the bloke from two doors down came to see me and mentioned that they challenged the bloke next door about pinching our water - he had the sprinkler going in the middle of the night and they heard it from their place.
He had the council put a new tap on my meter so that I could apply a lock to it while I was away.
Little did he know that the bloke next door came to see me as soon as we came home and he mentioned that he had been using our water because he had a leak in his system and had turned his water off.
Some time before this, I noted that the bloke next door had three of these Furphy water tank ends I did ask him one day if he wanted to sell me one.
What he did was to move one into our front step and he said I could have it as compensation for his using our water.
Two days later the cops turned up and asked me about the bloke next door pinching stuff. Well as I said to them I have to live with this bloke as a neighbour and besides he has given me something as recompense so I told them I didn't want the matter to go any further.
Some of the stuff that went missing over the few years was a wheel barrow, an antique tap on our outside water tank that was being used as a garden ornament and often plants, such as orchids that grew wild in our place would be dug up. There may have been lotsa tools and stuff because I never knew where anything was or what I had.
What I have learnt since is to leave something out that someone would like to pinch and if doesn't go missing them things must be OK.
I have no problems here in Yap-Hoon because Miss Penny is on patrol.