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Sunday 11 November 2007

Harvest time


My husband is out playing with his new toy… a shiny, red header (harvester), which, I am told on good authority (our eight-year-old son), is ‘totally wicked’. It’s not brand new, but it’s newer than the one he had before and it’s bigger and faster and…totally wicked.

To me though, this new header has great significance. It’s a new beginning. For the past three years our family has been living on the end of a piece of string like a yo-yo. Drought turned everything topsy-turvy and suddenly the future became very misty. My husband is normally able to shrug most things off, but he began having anxiety attacks and couldn’t cope with the slightest hiccup.

Of course, he wouldn’t admit any of this at first. Real men don’t have those sorts of problems, do they? In fact, until the Premier of this state resigned and publicly stated it was because of depression, I was scared of where things were going. But that admission by a major public figure allowed my husband to seek help (thankyou Mr G). It has taken a while and there have been a lot of ups and downs on that yoyo string, but things seem to have settled now.

So what’s the significance of the shiny, red header? It was the turning point – the first time in three years my husband had been able to make a major decision. By saying yes to buying it, he was also saying yes to a future on the farm – a decision that had eluded him till then.

This season for us has been kind. We have a crop. I have my husband back. Allelujia!

3 comments:

Luc2 said...

Great post, Kate.

May your harvest be plentiful (or totally wicked, if you prefer) in all aspects of life.

Kate said...

Thanks, Luc!

Barbara Elsborg said...

I hope things will continue to improve, Kate. Farming can be a precarious business, particularly when our weather seems to be all over the place.