The next few years saw the farming enterprises reduced and reduced as Michael succumbed to dementia. I was his 24-hour carer for 5 years. Maintenance on the farm and buildings was abandoned, the veg garden was nearly overwhelmed by its neighbouring pastures, and by the time Michael finally moved into a Nursing Home in 2009, I didn't have the energy to walk a dog!
But life has a way of kicking you when you need it. After 12 months of slow recovery, I suddenly found my sense of fun again - and heard about Transition Monmouth. Here was an issue I could identify with, and which matched in every way what I found I wanted to do on the farm with my new energy and enthusiasm. Michael and I had never aimed at self-sufficiency, being older and more realistic than our former hippy-style selves, but with Climate Chaos and Peak Oil on a very near horizon there is clearly an urgent need to change life-styles from the old lavish buy-your-way-out attitudes to something much more basic, local, nearer the soil, and, frankly, far more enjoyable.
