Happy 2nd Birthday to RES

Happy Birthday to us ... yes, RES is two years young today!!! What an exciting month of celebrations we have in store with our CYBER CROP. Yes, a month-long cyber crop, full of fun challenges and activities, lots of chatter and of course some great prizes and giveaways happening too. 

Come and join us, bring your friends and CELEBRATE with 

RED EARTH SCRAPPING.

The Cyber Crop starts today, 1st August. You will find all the details of what's happening during the CC here in the forum. 

The theme I chose for our 2nd Birthday Cyber Crop celebrations is an unashamed plug for the industry my husband and I live and breathe and love.

For those who haven't seen any media or marketing regarding this, 2012 has been declared the national Year Of The Farmer. The Australian Year of the Farmer 2012 is a multi-dimensional campaign with many elements.

The year asks all Australian's to celebrate our farmers and support our unsung heroes of the land.

It is about celebrating our farmers, our agribusiness leaders and inspiring tomorrow's generation to be the cream of the crop!

The Australian Year of the Farmer 2012 is a year-long celebration of the vital role farmers play in feeding, clothing and providing building materials to house us all. From small farms handed down over generations, to our largest agribusinesses, farming is inherent to the Australian way of life.

I was originally a city girl, born and bred in Brisbane. My school friends often joked that I was a bit of a country girl and would marry a country boy, something we all had a giggle about ... but apparently they were proved right. When I was 23 years old I went to live and work in London, and whilst on a camping tour of Europe, met this bloke from a farm in central west NSW - he drove tractors, headers and trucks, did a bit of shearing and all sorts of other farm work ... things I'd heard of but had no real concept of at the time. And as fate would have it I fell in love with this bloke, Marty, and cut short my time in London to move back to Australia and move to the farm. And the rest, as they say, is history.

I got my country boy, but in falling in love with him, I fell in love with the land, with the rural life, with farming and all its up and downs, challenges and joys. I cannot imagine life any other way now. This is what we do and Marty and I are working hard on ensuring that it will be our future, and if they choose, our children's future too.

Our farming business incorporates a large cropping enterprise (wheat, canola, barley, oats) together with running sheep, cattle and hay making operations. We have our own properties in the Canowindra district, and also lease and share-farm other properties. The family farm business evolved from Marty's grandfather who was originally a shearer, and so Marty has literally always lived and breathed this life and knew from a very young age what he wanted to do, who he wanted to be, and what he wanted to achieve. We want to give our children every opportunity to live and work on the land, if they want to.

And so from this perspective, I feel it is hugely important that those not familiar with what farming is in today's world, get a taste of it and hopefully have a greater understanding and respect for those on the land in Australia today.

So throughout our Cyber Crop, I hope you will embrace this theme fully, join in the various challenges and activities that Amanda, Susanne and I have put together for you and have fun celebrating at Red Earth Scrapping.

You can find out more about the Year Of The Farmer here.