Adapting And Finding New Ways To Live

Adapting And Finding New Ways To Live

By Paul McCann

The dark days of winter had left and the spring began with no change to the landscape . For most of the farmers in the valley their story remained the same . There was still no end to the drought and the long suffering on the land continued . Many farmers and their families had left the land during the years of the drought to start a new life elsewhere doing different things just to survive . Many of those never returned again .

This story is about Old Nate and who survived the drought and found a reason to carry on living on the land . He never gave up , he never gave in , he never gave out , he never allowed the drought to win . Old Nate kept looking for way to survive . He found way to be innovative and used every resource he could find . Living lived through the drought causes hardship for many who lost hope and their farms to banks and other vultures that descended on the farmers during the long drought .

On his Rusty Gate Farm Nate persevered with finding other ways to farm and finding other products for the ten thousand sheep on his property in the far southern tablelands of New South Wales .

Nate was a tough old nail ; he had been to war and when he returned the government gave him a severance pay and a choice of sheep or cattle 

He invested all his money and time to the farm and there was no way he was going to leave it behind in the dust. After he used up all the sheep and they’re by products on food ,soap and wool  . Nate started servicing cars and trucks as a mechanic and set up a large workshop where the old shearing shed used to be ,

He also started recording his songs and stories in the studio he built , Nate had always loved writing since he was a child but running the farm was took up most of his time and now that the drought had fallen over the land, he had all the time in the world to pursue his passion of song writing and storytelling . Some of the local school often did excursions to his Rusty Gate Farm with young students where he would share some songs and stories with them .

Nate was always glad of the company where the buses came and he was also paid for his trouble by the department of education who could see the value in what he was doing ion his farm during the drought . The children and their teachers could see the great diversity of life with Nate’s  ability to change his role from farmer to  motor mechanic and an entertainer .

Nate often said life is too short to walk away from things once you’ve set down roots and he believed if he waited long enough the drought would break and he could start growing crops and hay again to feed people and his animals and, in the meantime, he thought he would make the best out a bad situation . He had found in his life an ability to adapt and adjust just like Mother nature.

He looked at how nature could survive  He could see how everything in life happens for a reason which allowed the time to change direction and adapt to the challenges that came and in that process survival skills were found. Nate thought to himself about the deciduous trees and how they never grieved for their lost leaves that fell and were tossed around by the wind . He thought about how they settled in for the winter as if they knew the leaves would return again in another season and all they had to do was adjust and wait for another seasonal change to comes in.
He looked at the butterflies who never mourned or complained when they were a slug or a bug and eventually they grew wings to fly , He thought about all the insects that were affected by floods and tsunamis that crashed to the shore and ran wild over the land , They actually resided and mutated to become stronger to survive future floods and storms .

He thought about the eucalypt trees that never died after bush fires rushed through the national parks because they dropped seeds that an opened during the intense hear and germinated to regrow and they survived . He looked at the flowers that grew in the desert under the burning heat of the sun and how they grew longer roots while waiting for the seasonal rains to come .
So he learnt from nature how to adjust and he adapted and found ways to survive the drought .

Somehow in the great picture of life there are stories of survival whenever a way of life or is threatened or put to the test , the catalyst to finding ways to continue is innovation and being strong by  whatever means is available . Nate had learnt a lot about that in his life and he found a way to carry on and survive . Even during the long drought on the land, he managed to dig in and make stronger roots on the land by his determination to survive . If salmon can swim upstream and cane toads migrate hundreds of miles on the hop to find another place to live or if birds can fly south and penguins go  marching then there is always a way to carry on regardless . Life must continue , it cannot stop .  If farmers can become song writers , poets or storytellers then life will find a way  

 After the drought broke and the crops were able to be planted again there was a time of reflection before harvest time .

Before the drought came it didn’t rain and during the drought there were no crops and the dust came all over the land and the effect of drought then came and people left the land and because of the drought many lives had changed .

During the time of the drought no decent rainfall had come and the rivers ran dry and the waterfalls were silent . On the land there was no water of feed and livestock had died because of the cost to feed livestock , animals were also very cheap to buy and as all the water holes were also dry many farmers gave up and walked away from the land . Water was like liquid gold but it never fell from the sky it arrived in large tanker truck at a high price .

Then on that one beautiful day when the big blue sky split in two a cold grey shadow creeped above and clouds came and dumped drought breaking rain down in a steady flow and a new rainbow appeared in the sky . 

Nate danced on his veranda and sang a song of joy in his heart ;He had survived the drought and could return to being a farmer again .

In the first spring after the drought the wildflowers returned with birds singing and in the sky the sun appeared through the dark clouds .

It was different to see the blue and the grey together in the sky for a change , and life was ok and full of colour ,

Nate often sat and smiled and thought about life after the drought .

Somethings in life are a mystery and that’s just how it is .

Nate realised how lucky he was to find ways to survive and see all of the wonders of in the spring and in the drought and thanked God for giving him ways to adjust and adapt . He never questioning why or complained Nate always just got on with life as best as he could  and he lived in harmony and peace with the world .

The End