: Because we live so far from everywhere, we have to plan our food carefully. I try to do a big grocery shop once a month. Typically this takes 2 shopping trolleys. We always have a list on a noticeboard, where we write down everything we need to buy. If we don’t get something in town, we generally do without it until we next go shopping. I do go to town to work several days per week, but with the amount of time I spend travelling, I avoid doing shopping too often.
: Shopping for clothing, home wares, or anything other than groceries is quite hard. We can go to the big town, but it becomes quite an ordeal. I have started buying a lot more over the internet. Clothing for me is the most difficult because I am picky (you can’t tell how something is going to look without trying it on!). We went to a large shopping centre during the holidays, and I bought up.
: My work is an hour and 10 minutes (100km) from home. After only a short commute when we lived in the mountains, the extra time it takes to get to work gives me less time with family. It is also costing a fortune in petrol, and really putting a lot of kilometers on the car.
: It is fantastic to be able to grow such much of our own food, but it also takes a lot of time. Country Boy is a keen gardener, and studied horticulture at uni, so he knows what he is doing, but it is still labour intensive. Once the crop is grown, it has to be harvested and then dealt with. It takes a couple of hours everyday to deal with it all. I have had to be creative in how to preserve the food for later, and cook a lot of product up to freeze for later use.
: Growing your own food means you can’t just leave it for a week if you have had enough. Animals need to be fed everyday, and fruit and vegetables will rot if you don’t pick it and deal with it.
Do I like our tree change? Most of the time. But it’s not all cakes and pretty views; the simple life is not that simple.
I am guilty of saying that I would love to do and live like you do. I know it isn't all kittens and roses and it still appeals to me big time.
I think when people refer to it being a simple life, I don't think they are meaning that it is easier or less work, but more that is it back to basics. Less of a pre-packaged lifestyle and more of… well how it used to be.
Sorry if none of that makes sense. I am just home from an exhausting night at work and my brain is failing to function!
I know what you mean Amy. I am getting more and more convinced that the simple life is more of an attitude shift as much as a geographic one. I think that even if we decide to move back to Sydney, we would still try to incorporate more of what we are doing down here into our lives (probably not the pigs though – neighbours might not be too happy :))
Too true Jo.
For all the good there is also a degree of difficulty. The grass is always greener on the other side though, which is why people often say 'I'd love to do that'.
Oh, you're right there Jo! I've not ever lived on a farm but my Mum was a farmer's daughter up until her early 20's. Never easy, that is for sure. I think some people might think it is a more 'simple' life but it is far from that. I think if you put in the hard work, it can be more rewarding, for some people but it all depends what you want out of life. I envy anyone living on the land but I also like where I live just a bit better at the moment.
It's a real credit to you what you do Jo.
Anne xx
Here is a link
http://mylifeinthecountrytoday.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/being-farmers-wife-101.html
I wrote it when all those reality shows about farmers getting wives were on!!
Absolutely nothing simple about living on a farm!
There is a post I wrote about a year ago on my blog called Farmer's Wife 101. I will add a link. It is still my most read post and it is a little similar to this.