Livestock

A cow goes moo, a dog goes woof and a sheep goes, "Raaaahhhhh." According to Stella, that is. Which is why we need to get out of the city.

OK, it's not really, but I've got a couple of dozen real reasons, if you've got the time. How about just five?

1) A house on my street is for sale and the sign out the front says "Massive 384 square metre block." Leaving aside the fact it is a tiny two-bedroom house with a price tag of $850,000, in this neighbourhood, 384sqm is 'massive'.

2) City kids think milk comes in plastic bottles. That was what my mum used to tell us. It might have been a slight generalisation on her part, but we country kids knew where our food came from. We could see it out in the paddocks on the bus ride to school. I want my kids to live it, not just hear about it.

3) Today, my four-year-old described the single tree in our backyard as 'lonely'.

4) Almost everyone I know works far too much and far too hard. And the women I know who don't have to work never see their partners who do. Nor do their kids. All to sustain the city existence. 

5) Because I want chickens. Chickens, goddammit. Isn't that reason enough?

It's been a joint goal for the GM and I since before we had our babies. We always knew it would be possible to do our work (staring at words on computer screens) remotely, and the having-two-babies-at-once thing was enough for our employers to finally succumb and set the home-based office wheels in motion. So now that it's not just a hypothetical, it's time to launch in. We're not going too far - just an hour or so south where the grass is green and the hills roll. Far enough away to feel like country folk, close enough to get our city fix regularly and easily, if we have to. Close enough to doting aunties and grandparents. Close enough for the girls' night out Japanese on King Street.


And far enough away to feel like we can slow things down, let things go, try things out, free things up. 

Want more reasons?


This kid likes running in the grass:

This one wants two dogs, a big one and a small one:

And this one thinks sheep roar:

Watch this space - Typically Red goes Rural, perhaps?