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Country Life Experiment

Simple Country Living

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History

Our village doesn’t have a pub, which is quite unusual for a village our size. The residents of the town near by  call our village ‘The Holy City’ because it used to have several churches and no pub. These days the life of the village centres around the school, the fire brigade, and the memorial hall.
In the front entrance of the memorial hall are honour boards, listing all the local boys (and a few girls) who served in World War I and II. Surrounding the honour board are photos of many of them. Both of Country Boy’s grandfathers are listed. I love to stand there and read the names, and look at the photos of the once young men. All of the names are familiar. The sense of history and connection to our past is tangible.
Over the weekend was the annual hall fundraiser. The community contributes goods and they are then auctioned off. Fruit and vegetables, eggs, jams and pickles, cakes and biscuits, and craft are all sold to raise money to keep the hall going. Country Boy and I contributed a whole lot of pumpkins and cucumbers, some bunches of parsley and spinach, and we made some Pumpkin Spice cakes and Lamingtons.

There are some local specialities that are hotly contested. The honey sponge rolls went for $60 and $70! My Pumpkin Spice cakes went for $16 (very proud of myself ).

We arrived with a car boot full of vegetables, and left with a whole lot of cakes and biscuits. The freezer has been loaded up, and the biscuit barrel is full.

The annual sale of gifts has been going for years. Country Boy remembers going along to the hall as a little boy with his parents, and now we take our kids along too. I hope desperately that my kids will never be up on that wall, but I do love that we are continuing the connection.

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Comments

  1. Marg G says

    May 3, 2013 at 2:44 am

    Thanks Jo, I have fond memories of enjoying a similar country life back in the 1950's. Your photos are great and I'm pleased you are embracing your new life style. Excellent Blog!

    Reply
    • Jo says

      May 5, 2013 at 1:01 pm

      Thanks Marg!

      Reply

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Hi, I’m Jo

I'm a city girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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A lovely, easy Christmas with family, good food, a A lovely, easy Christmas with family, good food, a few presents, an afternoon swim and dinner on the veranda as the sun set. Time to stop and be thankful for the many blessings of the year. I hope you had a lovely Christmas too!
We have been mulling over how to fix up the drivew We have been mulling over how to fix up the driveway and lead up to our house for a while. Currently it’s just a dumping ground for old bits of metal and a big pile of mulch, but C would like to create a turning area and put in a garden. First up though, there’s a huge old stump that needs to go. What better excuse is there to have a fire on Sunday afternoon? C and the kids jumped on the quad bike and trailer, and hauled back a big pile of sticks and logs to help the stump burn. Once the fire was going, marshmallows were found and roasted. No better way to spend time together.
Team work makes the dream work. We were asked rec Team work makes the dream work. 
We were asked recently whether we “make” our kids work on the farm. The answer is of course not. Having said that, all three love to help out whenever they can. They all work hard because they want to; because they take pride in working hard and contributing in a meaningful way to our family life; because they love living on our farm and don’t remember life before we moved here. Whether it be planting trees or doing sheep work or feeding animals, they all want to be involved. As a parent, nothing is better than watching them grow in skill and confidence as they work along side you. We’re so glad that we get to spend time with our three, working together.
We’ve had an unexpected addition to the family ☘️🐑. She is a lot easier to look after than the other family members but she does try to escape her yard and head butt people. Poddy lambs are super cute but they tend to think they are a human. Clover the lamb is sure that Meg is her mum. Can’t think why… 🤔🤣
The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: toge The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: together, cooking damper around the remains of the bonfire.
It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got through shearing without a hitch (thankfully 🙏) but we’ve had a run of the flu followed by Covid run through the family since then. The kids and I have tested positive (this is my second time getting it 🦠) though so far C has managed to avoid it. There has been a lot of lying on the couch feeling pretty ordinary. Han had to reschedule her driving test for a 4th time due to Covid, which is disappointing for her because she wants her freedom and for us because it would be so much more convenient if she could drive herself places. Just to add in to the mix, our hot water system has chosen now as a good time to die so we’re on cold showers until we’re all out of iso. This is not meant to be a whinging post but sometimes life just sucks a bit and it’s good to be real. Fortunately, the sight of the fire going with a stack of wood next to it cheers us up. Things will improve soon. Onwards we go…

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Hi, I’m Jo

City girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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