Acres, not hours!

Today (more like  last Wednesday as a result of some health issues, this is a late upload... very late upload) I am super grateful for our farmers! Thanks to my job, I get the pleasure of going to various farms and having a good old yarn to farmers that are our neighbours.

This, most of the time, is one of my favourite things about my job. Hanging out in the middle of nowhere, having a chit-chat in the company of the locals, some cows and the occasional prized bull.

Now, I can't say that every visit is a pleasant visit, but what I can say is I totally get and understand our adjoining landowners frustrations. This is their livelihood, it's ours too. So yesterday, I was on site, visiting a landowner about an acquisitions deal I have been working on with them very closely.  On my way to their property, my heart sank.... over 10,000 acres of their cattle country had been severely impacted by a recent fire after a electrical storm - to top if off they are also impacted by one of the worst droughts they have had in years.

Yep, peeps... these aren't the farms you see on T.V. for commercials with the perfect manicured green grass with a fat cow happily mooing or the farms the Politicians visit... These farms are reality... Hearing them talk about the struggle, how if they don't get rain soon they won't survive, the lack of support that they receive, the tax implications suffered at the hands of the government with the recent 'five for a farmer' fundraiser and the knowledge that the government will fork out water to a mining company for free or limited fees, but wont support the people that supply the fresh produce and meat that we consume daily. 

So as we walked and talked through their property, you could hear the crunch of the dry lifeless grass from under your boots, the struggle in their voice, and the heat that was so intense it was sucking your soul - my heart broke. I am so grateful, and even more grateful that what I was before - for all the struggle, defeat at the hands of mother nature, lack of support and ridiculously hard work our rural farmers put in day in and day out to provide what they do for our greater community.