I did eventually get around to moving to the country. I bought the house in 2017 for $30,000 and have easily spent as much again fixing it up. It’s turning into quite a nice house now, but still needs a lot of work. It used to be a bakery back in 1900 or so and was empty for somewhere between 10-15 years before I bought it, the timeline is a bit hard to figure out. I’m currently trying to buy the vacant land next door so I have lots of room for chickens and fruit trees.

The second half of last year was quite a bad time in my life and I ended up with some very physical effects from all the stress that are dissolving as I am out here in the country, spending time pottering in the garden and painting the walls. The kids have settled down a lot and their behaviour has improved dramatically.

After 4 weeks I caved and adopted a cat from a local rescue, which puts me firmly on the path to becoming an eccentric cat lady in the bush. I have decided I have a $80 a week budget for plants from the internet and boy am I going to make sure I spend it every week. The garden looks much nicer now I’m actually here to look after it.

But the biggest change is I now have a big white 4WD, which fits in perfectly on my street.