Simple Country Living: Hannah Talks About Tree Changing

A few weeks back I posted about some of the downsides of tree changing. Hannah and I were talking about the good and bad parts of moving to the country. Her perspective was different to mine, being a child, so I asked her if she wanted to be interviewed for my blog. She was initially reluctant, but later changed her mind.

What are the best things about living on the farm?

I like the trees because you can climb them. There is always
lots to do and there is lots of space. There is lots of room to ride bikes. We
are allowed to play where we want because there is no traffic. I like the animals, particularly Jazz (the
dog). I like living close to Nana and Pa.

I like being in a small school. There are 12 kids in my
class. Because there is not many of us we are allowed to do lots of fun things
like guitar and ukulele lessons, or listening to music at lunch. We each have
an ipad for us to use at school. I love playing Alice Greenfingers

I get to ride on the motorbikes with Dad.

There is heaps of food in our garden so if you’re hungry you
just pick something like a tomato or a strawberry. You don’t need to go inside
to eat.

I’ve learnt lots about animals. Like dogs don’t sit by your
feet and do nothing (like they do in the city). There are lots of different
breeds of each animal.

What things don’t you like about living on the farm?

Not being close to anyone else besides Nana and Pa. We are a
long drive from my cousins and other grandparents. I can’t walk to my friends
house like I used to. We can’t just walk to the shops if we need something. The
other day I wanted to have some bread and honey with butter, but we were out of
butter, so we had no butter until Mum or Dad went shopping. It always takes a
whole day to go shopping. You have to get everything at the same time so the
fridge goes from being too empty to too full.

What was the hardest part about moving from the city to the
farm?

Not seeing my friends from my old school. It was hard to
settle into a new school, because the schools taught some things differently.
And all the other kids already knew how my little school worked. I had to get
used to lots of different grades in the one class room. The size of the
playground is a lot smaller, and I didn’t know where to go.

I had to learn to handle animals. I used to be afraid of
dogs before we moved here and would scream if they tried to lick me or jump on
me. Now I love our animals.

I miss our old house, because I was used to it, and I have
lots of memories from there.

Where would you like to live the most? Why?

That’s really hard to choose. I wish you could just load
them both on a truck and pull them together. I wish we were closer to the
mountains. I do like here better now, but it took a while to adjust. I wish my
friends from the mountains would move here! Now that I am used to living here, I think it would be hard to live in the suburbs again.

Is there a difference between city kids and country kids?
Kids in the country get to do more things. My friend got a motorbike when she was six. There is more to do outside. We don’t play with computer games much. Sometimes we have to help around the farm (though I don’t have to much) or go with our parents while they are doing farm work. In the country you have more freedom and learn to do more things.

Want to ask Hannah some more questions about tree changing? Do you have a question about our life? Ask away!

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Hi, I’m Jo