Keeping Up Appearances

Life on the Land often means living a fair distance from friends and family. I'm very thankful that some of my extended family live mere kilometres away (it makes Christmas time a breeze)! However, my dearest friends are, at the very nearest, an hour and three quarters drive away. The furthest being over 2,000 kms away! 

When I say keeping up appearances, I mean setting aside a day purely for driving to a friends house and catching up with them. It's incredibly easy to go on living and breathing farming without stopping to socialise. As a young person, that can get very hard on you. 

So I'm used to the fact that I clean my ute only to have it covered in gravel 'slurry' in seconds flat. I'm used to driving a 370 km round trip to see my best friend. I'm used to going to jump in the ute, only to find the weaners have walked into the house yard and need pushing back to their paddock before I can leave. I'm used to watching for kangaroos as dusk hits on the way home, and feeling relieved that I have a bull bar. I'm also used to running errands on these trips for the farm too. 

What's the moral of my story? When you're isolated and your work is 24/7, as opposed to 9 til 5, it's important to keep in touch with your loved ones. Without their support the toll of living your work can become too much. 

Oh and here's a happy puppy for good measure ;)