Dead Battery

We have recently been tasked with moving house. At the moment we are right in the middle of building our own home and unfortunately, though we are weeks off finishing, we have been told our lease won't be continuing and have to move. In 20 days! We put up an ad on Facebook for a short term rental and have been lucky enough to find a house with a secure yard for the dogs, enough room for us and close to my son's new school where he starts next week.

So, first things first. We hired a skip bin. We have far too many things and we could almost downsize by half. What can be sold or donated has been set aside and the rest will go in the bin.

The skip bin arrives and with it, something else. Over the next two days we fill it to the brim. We are too busy during the day to notice anything off. At night, things don't feel right. I tell my partner I keep seeing things out of the corner of my eye, look around and there's nothing there. My partner works Fly in/Fly out -FIFO. On a 2 weeks away, 1 week home roster. He flies back to site.

That night I walk out of the front door to put the garbage bins out. I have a rubbish bag in my hand. It is dusk, the sun has gone down but there is still some twilight. As I open the door, I fleetingly see a dark shadow crouching by the skip bin. I look down to tie the bag, process what I've seen and look back up. It stands up, walks two steps and vanishes.

I stop walking. The street light is on, it sits to the left of the skip bin. Weird. I'm a little freaked out but put the bins out and go back inside.

Later that night while watching a movie, out of the corner of my eye I see something walk past the theatre room window. Look around and there's nothing there.

The dogs begin to get agitated outside. Running up and down the yard, growling. This is very uncharacteristic for them. One of them never barks and the other is a good guard dog but mostly a big goofball. The dogs are freaking me out more than anything else. I bring them inside, they are my safety net when my partner isn't home. They will not leave the front of the house alone. Watching out the windows and looking at the skip. All night they are agitated. I didn't get much sleep.

A few days go by, I am at work during the day and aside from the dogs being agitated at night I notice nothing else.

Saturday comes and I decide to take a trailer load of stuff over to the new house when I pick up the keys later. I pull the SUV out and hitch it up to the trailer (I have driven with the trailer before, but never done it all by myself). I pull it out from the back yard and back it into the driveway. I get it in on the first go. I am so chuffed with myself that I backed the trailer in and on the first go!

I load it up, tie it down, lock the cage and I'm ready to go. Get in and flat battery. What?! It was fine! It's a 6 month old battery. It's not cold, middle of summer. Nothing left on. No reason for it to go dead. No worries, we have a battery charger. Hook it up and let it charge. 30 minutes later I'm on the road. I park the trailer and then back the SUV into the driveway so I can jump it with my car if I have any more trouble.

Sunday my mum and sister are over to help me pack and do some cleaning. We spend the day doing just that. Then they have to go home. My mum goes to start her car in the driveway and flat battery. Totally dead. I get my car out of the garage and jump start her car. We talk about how weird this is and can't work it out. My sister gets in her car and flat battery. What the heck is going on here. I walk over to the SUV whose battery was perfect that morning when I started it. Flat battery.

We now have 3 out of the 4 cars at my home with dead batteries. I am at a total loss to comprehend this.

I jump start my sisters car from my car and she is good to go. My mum leaves and I begin to back out from my spot directly facing my sisters car. I'm watching her as she begins to back out, she's looking in the mirror and suddenly smashes into the lamp post. I hear glass fall from the lamp to the road. It is difficult to explain how this happened. The look of shock on her face and the fact that she backed into the lamp post as if it simply wasn't there. I was watching her. I could see out her back window, the lamp could not be seen yet it hit dead in the centre of her bumper.

Totally shocked we both get out of our cars, run to the back of hers. And no damage. Not even a scratch. It was a hard hit. You heard the smash and crunch. But no damage. I look at the lamp dreading the amount of damage that it must have. Not a scratch. There is also no glass on the road. Nothing shattered onto the road and yet we both clearly heard it.

My mums battery was dead after she parked it at home. She got another battery installed. We had to replace the battery in the SUV as the life was sucked out of it. All were batteries less than a year old that went dead.

A few mornings later I wake up with the indescribable feeling that I was watched all night. I went to a little shop in town and bought some white sage and smudged the place. I felt better but it did nothing. First time doing it, maybe I just didn't do it with enough conviction.

I have to replace the bulbs in the bedside lamps because they keep flickering. Once I change them, they seem fine.

One evening the dogs are so freaked out that I am starting to get very nervous. They typically tag team when on alert at night. They sleep in the bedroom with us. We have a border collie and a dingo x kelpie. The border collie has a big bark and will go off when he hears something. The dingo usually comes and sits with me on the bed as if guarding me while the border collie sorts out business.

The border collie goes off his nut barking and whining. Then starts growling. His hair stands up and he begins to bare his teeth. The dingo gets up on the bed with me and whines, her hair is standing up and she is baring her teeth. They are both looking at a spot in the corner of the room. I have bought White sage essential oil and made up a spray bottle of it. I go nuts around the room with it and it seems to calm things down. For a little while. The dogs go beserk a little later that evening.

The skip bin was picked up a few nights later. It made no difference. My partner flew back from site and we moved a few days later. I'm happy to say that whatever was there did not come with us.