It has been a long time between meaningful posts, hopefully this will start to remedy this. I have never gone away, but I have sat silently reading and watching. Frankly on reflection, posting about the many things that were happening in my life, when they were happening, would have been really useful and I see that as an opportunity lost. I had two encounters with petty tyrants in the workplace and in both cases because I pushed back on them, I was fired. However, let me start from the beginning.
My life has changed dramatically since I last posted. In the employment space, I had worked for a small US computer networking company for 8 years, they were a great bunch of people, they paid well and they looked after their staff. Then the company was acquired by another one, and my life changed dramatically. To cut a long story short, after spending 8 years in a hands on sales management role, running the South East Asia region, I was forced into a position where I came to work and sat at a desk and had nothing to do. I tried to change the situation but after 15 months of company politics I left to join a small startup. This lasted 15 months, with none of the promises they made when I joined being kept, I foolishly leapt into another role, where I was under the management of my own petty dictator, a screaming psychopath (literally). I pushed back on this guy big time and was fired after 5 months of emotional and mental trauma. I transitioned through another two roles and finally was headhunted into yet another US networking startup, only to find that the systems engineer who was supposed to work for me was another raging narcissist at best. He took a dim view of my and my boss's efforts to control his travel and work habits and the long and the short of it was he had us fired – he was the golden boy at Head Office and the CEO thought he could do no wrong.
So after 4 years of traumatic employment issues, and the universe slapping me soundly around the head to get mu attention, I FINALLY stopped and asked myself and my wife whether it wasn't time to stop and do something else. (Unfortunately, it seems I really need a good slapping to get my attention.) Well the universe had my attention at last, I was just about to turn 60, had been extremely blessed financially in the time with the small networking company, had no mortgage, so stopping and doing something completely different was an option.
My wife and I decided that this might be a good time to leave Sydney and move to New Zealand. All her family are there, and my daughters are also and one of my daughters had just become pregnant so there were lots of reasons why we might do that.
We went to NZ for three weeks, to look around, make sure we could live there and to work out where we might like to settle. After about 2000 kms of travel around the upper north island, we settled on a coastal area about 1.5 hours north of Auckland, called Mangawhai. Nice land, clean air, friendly people, lots of local markets, no chemical spraying, lost of good organic food available.
We returned to Sydney and put the apartment on the market, expecting it to take 6 to 8 weeks before we got a buyer. (This was the classic position – put the apartment out there and see what the universe will do with it). However, we had the first open home an a Saturday and had a signed contract with deposit by the following Tuesday. There was a frantic scramble to pack up, settle our affairs and get ready to change countries, all of which while stressful, went without a hitch. So in less than 3 months of returning from New Zealand, we were back there, staying in a motel and looking for a place to buy.
We looked at about 40 places, it was tough to find something which was right, either the house was good and the land was wrong or the house was wrong and the land was good. Finally an agent we had befriended called us up and showed us a property which was not officially on the market – 17.5 acres of land, a view over country and sea to die for, 350 olive trees, 5 alpacas and 4 cattle. We made an offer, it was accepted, the property went unconditional and we expected to have a 4 to 6 week wait for settlement. Next day the agent called us and asked if we wanted to settle the following Thursday, a scant week away. We leapt at the chance as it saved us rental, and storage and insurance charges on our possessions which had arrived by sea some weeks earlier. So less than 6 weeks after arriving in NZ, we moved into our new home. And we have been working hard ever since.
Now this is a rural property, about and hour from Auckland and an hour from Whangarei, both places where there are sizeable shopping and supply areas. The local village is 10 minutes away, the regional town is 20 minutes away, the slightly larger regional town is 35 minutes away, so we are close enough to civilisation when we want it, but our nearest neighbour is across the valley and not in earshot and there are only 4 properties on our road, all acreage.
Since moving in, we have worked very hard getting the place set up. We put one of the cows into the freezer – 230kgs of lovely meat – and sold the rest. We set up a chicken house and are free ranging 4 hens and a rooster, so all our eggs are provided and we will raise a brood for the freezer shortly. Sunday last we bought our first two pigs, so we are about 5 months away from free range bacon and port. We had a stock handling yard and loading ramp built as part of the fencing renewal, and will put 7 or 8 heifers on the top paddock in the next few weeks – some for the freezer, the rest for some income. We also increased our alpaca herd from 5 to 11, primarily for the fleece and for their excellent lawn mowing capabilities, although I have been told they make great eating, tasting quite like goat. We are also expecting an olive harvest in 6 months which will cater for all out oil and olive requirements and provide an excess for sale. My wife has also planted extensive vegetable and herb gardens which are flourishing.
We have told our friends that we are retiring, but in reality we have changed our occupation to lifestyle farming, with the intention to become as self sustaining as possible (and I have never worked so hard physically). We are hundreds of feet above sea level, and were there to be a tsunami hit the coast around us, we would be well above its reach – unless it was the mother of all tsunamis, in which case we would be off to 5D regardless.
We are managing to eat organically fundamentally, and also high fat low carb, although a ketogenic diet is some way of due to external considerations.
So from apartment living in suburban Sydney, punching a time clock, to a rural lifestyle in the space of 5 months. It is quite a change. On the positive side, I no longer wear a watch, use an alarm clock, wear a tie. I live in my gum boots and my farm clothes, my suits sit at the back of the wardrobe untouched by human hands. I walk the land every day, I know my animals, I am becoming attuned to the weather.
To be honest it has been pretty stressful as well as having some glorious moments. The whole business of changing roles, adapting to a more labor intensive life, doing very different things, having different priorities is at heart stressful. It has also brought home to me how I had been forgetting to self observe, and how many little mechanical programs I though had been put away are still running in the background ready to rear up when least expected.
It is a new life, and hopefully, once we have finished getting al the once only jobs done, there will be more time for reflection and to concentrate more on the work.
My life has changed dramatically since I last posted. In the employment space, I had worked for a small US computer networking company for 8 years, they were a great bunch of people, they paid well and they looked after their staff. Then the company was acquired by another one, and my life changed dramatically. To cut a long story short, after spending 8 years in a hands on sales management role, running the South East Asia region, I was forced into a position where I came to work and sat at a desk and had nothing to do. I tried to change the situation but after 15 months of company politics I left to join a small startup. This lasted 15 months, with none of the promises they made when I joined being kept, I foolishly leapt into another role, where I was under the management of my own petty dictator, a screaming psychopath (literally). I pushed back on this guy big time and was fired after 5 months of emotional and mental trauma. I transitioned through another two roles and finally was headhunted into yet another US networking startup, only to find that the systems engineer who was supposed to work for me was another raging narcissist at best. He took a dim view of my and my boss's efforts to control his travel and work habits and the long and the short of it was he had us fired – he was the golden boy at Head Office and the CEO thought he could do no wrong.
So after 4 years of traumatic employment issues, and the universe slapping me soundly around the head to get mu attention, I FINALLY stopped and asked myself and my wife whether it wasn't time to stop and do something else. (Unfortunately, it seems I really need a good slapping to get my attention.) Well the universe had my attention at last, I was just about to turn 60, had been extremely blessed financially in the time with the small networking company, had no mortgage, so stopping and doing something completely different was an option.
My wife and I decided that this might be a good time to leave Sydney and move to New Zealand. All her family are there, and my daughters are also and one of my daughters had just become pregnant so there were lots of reasons why we might do that.
We went to NZ for three weeks, to look around, make sure we could live there and to work out where we might like to settle. After about 2000 kms of travel around the upper north island, we settled on a coastal area about 1.5 hours north of Auckland, called Mangawhai. Nice land, clean air, friendly people, lots of local markets, no chemical spraying, lost of good organic food available.
We returned to Sydney and put the apartment on the market, expecting it to take 6 to 8 weeks before we got a buyer. (This was the classic position – put the apartment out there and see what the universe will do with it). However, we had the first open home an a Saturday and had a signed contract with deposit by the following Tuesday. There was a frantic scramble to pack up, settle our affairs and get ready to change countries, all of which while stressful, went without a hitch. So in less than 3 months of returning from New Zealand, we were back there, staying in a motel and looking for a place to buy.
We looked at about 40 places, it was tough to find something which was right, either the house was good and the land was wrong or the house was wrong and the land was good. Finally an agent we had befriended called us up and showed us a property which was not officially on the market – 17.5 acres of land, a view over country and sea to die for, 350 olive trees, 5 alpacas and 4 cattle. We made an offer, it was accepted, the property went unconditional and we expected to have a 4 to 6 week wait for settlement. Next day the agent called us and asked if we wanted to settle the following Thursday, a scant week away. We leapt at the chance as it saved us rental, and storage and insurance charges on our possessions which had arrived by sea some weeks earlier. So less than 6 weeks after arriving in NZ, we moved into our new home. And we have been working hard ever since.
Now this is a rural property, about and hour from Auckland and an hour from Whangarei, both places where there are sizeable shopping and supply areas. The local village is 10 minutes away, the regional town is 20 minutes away, the slightly larger regional town is 35 minutes away, so we are close enough to civilisation when we want it, but our nearest neighbour is across the valley and not in earshot and there are only 4 properties on our road, all acreage.
Since moving in, we have worked very hard getting the place set up. We put one of the cows into the freezer – 230kgs of lovely meat – and sold the rest. We set up a chicken house and are free ranging 4 hens and a rooster, so all our eggs are provided and we will raise a brood for the freezer shortly. Sunday last we bought our first two pigs, so we are about 5 months away from free range bacon and port. We had a stock handling yard and loading ramp built as part of the fencing renewal, and will put 7 or 8 heifers on the top paddock in the next few weeks – some for the freezer, the rest for some income. We also increased our alpaca herd from 5 to 11, primarily for the fleece and for their excellent lawn mowing capabilities, although I have been told they make great eating, tasting quite like goat. We are also expecting an olive harvest in 6 months which will cater for all out oil and olive requirements and provide an excess for sale. My wife has also planted extensive vegetable and herb gardens which are flourishing.
We have told our friends that we are retiring, but in reality we have changed our occupation to lifestyle farming, with the intention to become as self sustaining as possible (and I have never worked so hard physically). We are hundreds of feet above sea level, and were there to be a tsunami hit the coast around us, we would be well above its reach – unless it was the mother of all tsunamis, in which case we would be off to 5D regardless.
We are managing to eat organically fundamentally, and also high fat low carb, although a ketogenic diet is some way of due to external considerations.
So from apartment living in suburban Sydney, punching a time clock, to a rural lifestyle in the space of 5 months. It is quite a change. On the positive side, I no longer wear a watch, use an alarm clock, wear a tie. I live in my gum boots and my farm clothes, my suits sit at the back of the wardrobe untouched by human hands. I walk the land every day, I know my animals, I am becoming attuned to the weather.
To be honest it has been pretty stressful as well as having some glorious moments. The whole business of changing roles, adapting to a more labor intensive life, doing very different things, having different priorities is at heart stressful. It has also brought home to me how I had been forgetting to self observe, and how many little mechanical programs I though had been put away are still running in the background ready to rear up when least expected.
It is a new life, and hopefully, once we have finished getting al the once only jobs done, there will be more time for reflection and to concentrate more on the work.
I can't think of a more beautiful place to live and you seem to be gearing up for whatever comes.
