As a rural woman born and bred to farming, who was lucky enough to marry a farmer and continue the rural experience as her life long journey, I get great pleasure from the advent of social media that allows us to share, experience, compare and learn from others in similar situations.
It gives me great joy and a sense of having been there, done that, to read blogs of new wives, city girlfriends, partners who are prepared to take the leap and enter this rural life of joy, heartbreak and new challenges. The wonder of the fact that now a lot of them can incorporate their careers into their new lifestyles, develop them to suit, and value add to the richness of rural communities.
My husband, Phil and I farm a mixed cereal/sheep farm in the Great Southern region of WA. I was born in my local town, Dumbleyung, grew up attending the local primary school and have memories of the rare social outings that we attended. The yearly holiday to the coast where Dad relaxed for a couple of weeks and Mum caught up on her reading while we enjoyed the beach.
I went away to boarding school in Perth, hated it, and to start with hated my parents for sending me away from my beloved farm. Holidays were greatly anticipated and I so dreaded the drive back down the highway at the beginning of each term. I survived, thrived, made friends and am now thankful to my parents for the chance of the experience, but the sole decider for a career was one that would lead me back to the bush as soon as possible. In my day it was a nurse or a teacher. Would have loved to have been a Vet but wasn’t smart enough, and to study it meant going to Queensland which financially was not an option without help from my parents, who still had boarding school fees for my sisters who were following me.
Teaching it was, and to this day, I praise the gods or whatever deity is out there for wisdom in directing my choice as I loved teaching.
The usual placements and associated difficulties and joys, but at last I was back where I belonged…in the bush. A few years down the track and an opportunity rose to come back to Dumbleyung to teach. At that stage I naively thought, a year or so of living back home, from which by then I had been away from longer than I had ever lived at, would be good, then I would head north.
I loved being home. Different coming back as a primary school teacher, rather than being a shy little bush kid that I had been when I left, but I soon slotted into the community life. Fate stepped in, managed the obligatory trip to Europe and then in a very short period of time I was engaged to a local farmer, who had no intention of a long engagement – living together for a school teacher in a small country town, was not an option in those days. Moved my horses, cat and few possessions 30km north from Mum and Dad’s, and my new life as a farmer’s wife at “Gulnare” was launched.
When I read blogs of new comers to rural life and finding their place, I too remember the disdain of my husband’s sheep dog who could see no reason why I should sit in his seat in the truck or tractor. Who was this interloper? The despair of not being able to save a sick animal, and the joy of delivering a live lamb. The animals and their individual personalities that always give you something to laugh about. Watching for rain over the hills – despair when it bypasses, joy when it falls. Seeing crops emerge then coping with the dry, the wet, the frosts, to give us the best result for whatever season we’ve just had – then doing it all over again.
The cooking for shearers; yes, we did that then. Morning smoko, lunch, and it had better be on time. The shuffle of shearers into the house, then the quiet consumption in a very short time of what had taken me all day to prepare. The mumbled thanks (if I was lucky) as they shuffled back to work.
Kids as they arrived, under foot, tucked under an arm in the sheep yards then later confined to a yard as we worked sheep around them, asleep on the floor of the tractor cab/header while I did my bit, and as they grew older helping out, learning all the skills that bush kids learn. Being a part of the community – cooking for events, not really my thing but done as required, relief teaching, coaching gymnastics (taken on from a previous mum who set it up but was moving on. The club needed a new coach so in I jumped with absolutely no knowledge of gymnastics. Always felt I was only one page ahead of the kids but we managed and the club grew and thrived with all the help I had from other mums). Playing and coaching hockey, forming and running a pony club, committees, being part of the community. In time my children headed off to boarding school so the treks up and down the highway started, all the while helping on the farm, doing office work and in general just being a wife and mother. My passion for farming lead to involvement in Women in Agriculture. We turned to No Till farming very early and enjoyed the WANTFA (WA No Till Farming Association) association, field days and farm trips overseas with like minded farmers.
Phil must have thought I would have time on my hands when our youngest daughter when away to school, so in an attempt to diversify we started a sheep stud, Gulnare SAMM. My first thought when Phil came home from the Wagin Woolorama saying that we were going breed SAMMs was “what on earth was a SAMM (South African Meat Merino) ? I did not even know it was a sheep, and this was after five years of no sheep on the farm. Droughts, frosts and resistant rye grass put them back on the grid.
We then embarked on a learning curve of great proportion which has been fascinating – learning the “rules” of stud breeding, establishing our take on the breed, marketing, selling, socialising with new and amazing people, embracing technology.
I look at the blogs of the youngsters starting out in the rural industry and I see the joy and intrigue as you grapple with farmer partners and all that being part of a farm and farm community requires of you. The unwritten rules and expectations that you will become proud to be part of. The journey you are starting on with the fun and satisfaction you will have, the heart break and the worry you will experience and carry.
My story is far from over. Phil and I have reached an uncertain time in that we have encouraged our four children to choose life journeys that they have passion for. We could have made farmers of one or all of them, but they are all individuals and are on exciting journeys that make us proud, and we admire their ability and comfort within themselves that has allowed them to reach out to new and different challenges.
A ship’s captain in the Kimberley, a WAAPA graduate who is a sound engineer and musician, a creative copywriter with huge dreams and wonderful ideas, and a horse crazy Vet student. This leaves us with decisions about perhaps staying and puddling along doing what we love doing, or selling and moving on. We would like to travel Australia, visit our children, farm sit for other farmers so they can have a break, continue to learn, grow and explore. I have always carried a camera around the farm and recorded pretty much everything over and over again each year. I have done some online photography study recently with the aim of setting up a website and sharing my view of my world. An uncertain future but I have no doubt it will be exciting and interesting.
To all you girls starting out on your rural journey, embrace it, love and support your partner, love and cherish your kids and be prepared for the ride of a lifetime.
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