Well hello there! 2025

Well, hello there! I hope you have had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

I must have started at least half a dozen posts since I last updated you here, but I didn't manage to finish any of them. I guess my heart was not quite in it. I feel like in many ways, our life here is not what we imagined when we moved here 6 years ago. We had hoped that by now, we would be beginning to consider building our home on the north-facing hill, that we would have basic boundary fencing up, and that we would be well on our way with livestock. 

However, as many of you well know and have experienced for yourselves, the last 5 or 6 years have not been easy in this economy. The cost of everything has gone through the roof and in turn our progress has been painfully slow. 

18 months ago, I felt the pull to finish up my theology study, which I started years ago before I became chronically unwell with a heart condition. Thankfully, I am well now, and I have gone on to do a full Bachelor of Theology. I have 11 subjects left and am studying half-time. I am also working part-time as a lay minister in the Anglican church with children and families. It is a wonderful job, which I love, and I work with the very best people. 

This has, however, been a big adjustment for our family. It's a significant increase in travel and time spent off the farm, and it takes up a huge amount of my week. Financially, although the pay for a lay minister is very modest, it does help to cover the ever-increasing bills. However there is always a cost in working, too. Petrol and childcare are significant expenses. I am not entirely sure what this will look like in 2025, how big a study load I will juggle or what subjects I will do. There seem to be two pathways regarding work and study appearing, and I am contemplating which one I am called to be on. 

The pressure of travel has not been easy, and at times, we have questioned whether it is wise to stay on the farm. The world feels so different now than it did six years ago—harder. We have, at times, felt less hope that we will ever be able to get this place up and running properly. As such, we have questioned if it is worth investing the kind of money and time it will require. Our children are only young once, after all. 

But as I watch our dairy goats snooze in the afternoon sun, hear the cackle of the chooks, and see the fairy-wrens darting around the bushes, we continue to hold to our dream. Though it is perhaps a little more battered these days and it has changed over the years. It has simplified. There is no end date nor percentage of our own food we hope to grow and preserve. The reality is Grant works full-time off-farm and I, too, work a significant amount of time off-farm these days. Caring for a family of 6 is a big job in itself. Our goal is simply to live well, grow and raise some of our own food, to enjoy our family and live within our means. 

We have recently started the extension on the yurt. To see the deck come together has injected a spirit of hope and excitement once again into our hearts. Friends and family have come to lend a hand, and their help and encouragement means a lot. There is a few more hours of work to do, and then we will be able to lay the yellow tongue flooring and the first stage of the build will be complete.  

There is a gap between the new deck and the build, but don't worry. They will be joined by stairs going down to the garden and a landing, which will double as a small outdoor sitting nook. 

The children are doing well, William is driving now, he has bought himself a project car which he is enjoying a lot, and he is entering year 12 this year. Angus is entering year 8, learning guitar and has a lovely group of friends, Henry is in his final year of primary school doing year 6 and is as funny and interesting as ever, and sweet little Elsie continues in her family daycare. She is 5 in February - oh, how time flies!  She will go to big school in 2026. 

Though there is more to share, I might leave that for another time. I am not even sure anyone will find this post as it has been so long between updates! Like many things seem to be in a transition period, I have wondered what I should do with this space. To continue? To let it go? To let it evolve into something new? 

Perhaps that, too, will become clear in time. 

Much love and blessings to you and yours. 

- Em xx