Baptiste came to us in early July 2025 with his two friends, Zac and Noé. Initially, the plan was for them to come just for one week to pick up about a kilometre of large, old hardwood fence posts from our smaller farm, cart them all back to our principal farm, and chop them up into manageable firewood. What ended up happening was that they
… read more finished this job in lightning speed, including immaculately cleaning out the old woodshed and stacking their chopped wood as if it were an art installation.
By the end of the week, it was quite clear that we didn’t want them to go anywhere, and they, thankfully, didn’t want to leave. They ended up staying with us for three wonderful, seriously fun and highly productive months throughout winter (with fires burning every night and wood stores continuously restocked) and into spring.
Turning to Baptiste specifically (aka Bat or Batman): he is polite, has impeccable manners, is extremely driven, a perfectionist, has an excellent work ethic and is really good company. Every single morning he was up at the crack of dawn, well before anyone else, and straight to work. He preferred to get stuck into his jobs early so he could spend his afternoons either at the gym, going for long walks with our golden retriever, Honey, or playing the guitar. Baptiste is very strong physically, with a clear passion for fitness, music, and food - and motorbikes.
He’s an excellent singer and guitarist and we were really lucky to be serenaded in the evenings in front of the fire with his music. I’d get up every morning to find an empty dishwasher and a spotless kitchen. Washing in the laundry was always folded, and tea towels and towels were rolled in a way that I'll never be able to replicate!
Baptiste is also an extremely talented cook and treated us to countless delicious dishes during his time here: crêpes, brioche, the best pizza dough, his mum’s lasagne, bolognese sauce, homemade pasta, biscuits, caramel, coconut shrimp curry, French toast, and more. He cleared the dining table every evening and was always first into the kitchen to help tidy up afterwards. His English is completely fluent, truly impressive, and he constantly surprised me with his vocabulary and knowledge of the language in general.
Some of his other jobs during his time here included: washing the house (it's a big house) and walled courtyard with a high-pressure cleaner; spending several days cleaning out the sheep yards of manure, then loading it into the ute and spreading it over lawns and garden beds; mowing expansive lawn areas; cleaning our oven until it sparkled; restoring several Victorian hinges for repurposing; raking the front gravel; conditioning our leather chairs; taking Honey to the vet for her arthritis injections on two separate occasions; cleaning my car inside and out; moving a huge number of boxes and pieces of furniture to storerooms (including up and down very steep staircases); bringing the contents of the barn at our smaller property to the barn at our principal property; taking a ute load of wood to our beach house and stacking it; clearing the working farmyard and building/burning a bonfire there; and taking numerous rubbish bins to the local transfer station once a week.
In addition to this, Baptiste spent three days in the sheep yards with our team, lamb-marking the spring lambs — a physically demanding job involving drafting off ewes from lambs, picking up each lamb (many weighing up to 15 kg), and placing them in a cradle to be vaccinated, castrated, tail-ringed, and ear-tagged. Baptiste tackled this tough job as though he’d been doing it for years, and his help and work ethic was appreciated by everyone.
And then, on top of all of this, probably Baptiste's two greatest achievements during his time here with us were:
1) His involvement in the complete renovation of an old bedroom with an existing but decommissioned ensuite (now known as The Frenchies’ Room). Baptiste meticulously prepared the space for painting — cleaning, sanding, filling gaps in the timber ceiling panelling, repairing plasterwork, applying layers of BondCrete — and then finishing all the painting just in time for the carpet to be installed a few days before they left.
2) Taking on the enormous task of restoring three large early-1900s Oregon wood farm gates. Baptiste spent weeks sanding, repairing, and restoring the wood and metal hinges and bolts, bringing them back to life beautifully. They were re-hung just two days before the boys returned to France, complete with custom spacers to prevent them from dragging on the ground.
As a memento of his time with us — and as a nod to his musical talents — Baptiste carved a beautiful miniature guitar from wood, which will form part of the décor in The Frenchies’ Room to forever remind us of him and the incredible work he did here.
Baptiste is a beautiful soul and when he smiles, his eyes do too. He’s wonderfully polite, well brought-up, thoughtful, kind, and considered. He’s a deep-thinking young man who speaks from the heart.
Bat has been an absolute joy to have with us. His contributions were many and varied, and his presence was deeply appreciated every single day. If you’re reading this because Baptiste has applied to stay or work with you — just say yes. You’ll be very lucky to have him.
We are sincerely going to miss all three fabulous Frenchmen. They’re the best and will always have a place to call home here with us. I know we’ll see each other again.
Thank you so much, Baptiste, for everything you have done for us — we’ll miss you. x
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