The wrong side of 60? Not us!

Don’t you hate it when you decide to do something and you’re really excited and and then along comes the real spoil sport and the say “aren’t you the wrong side of 60 to do that?”

What does that actually mean? Does it mean we are supposed to curl up and have one foot in God’s waiting room? Does it mean we can’t have any fun any more? You be the judge and decide if we are the wrong side of 60.

Many moons ago we spent time at communes, visited Nimbin and the Gold and Sunshine coast hinterlands, being the free spirited people we were/are!

Life got serious when we became parents and we “settled down”… kind of.

My husband’s work was in exploration and mining and when we were young there was no such thing as fly in/out. You went with your husband and lived in the sticks. With three children, aged five years and 18 month old twins, living in a 23 foot caravan had its challenges. It also made us tough and able to face anything that comes along!

Wondering where I’m going with this? Okay, we’ve bought 35 acres with my brother and we are going to start our very own family commune. We hope to be off grid and be self sufficient. Nothing too strenuous there. We have lived off grid before so we are going into this with our eyes wide open. We are so looking forward to this like you wouldn’t believe. We are researching composting toilets, solar fridges, and watching everything we can on realistic ideas people have to create power. We are also researching small houses! I will get my much longed for AGA back! Even if it goes outside it will make the best bread and pizzas.

I have always had a veggie garden and it is mostly based on permaculture. We have chickens and worm farms on our 1⁄4 acre block where we are now. I can bake bread (and I do). I have just done a refresher course in making our own cheese. I make our own jams and pickles. My next course is a refresher in spinning wool. I used to love doing it but this time I will wash and dye my own fleece, which will be sold online.

So, yes we are doing something we have wanted to do forever. Wrong side 60? We don’t think so. There is a little saying that we live by (once it has been corrected, and we tend to have to correct people regularly).

That is:
“You only live once! NO! You only die once
You actually live every day!
So let’s go out enjoying ourselves!”

Have you made a bold move later in life?