27/07/2026
5 years ago today I loaded the cat, my best artworks and plants into the car and drove towards Umina to start our new life on the Coast. Alone in the car (Tim stayed behind to wrap things up with the movers) I thought… “what the f*ck what have we done”.
Since then, The Jungle Farm has become our home, our office, the place where we officially started our family and a lifestyle in itself.
Our goal was to live our dream life in our forever home with a backyard firepit, chickens, bees, veggie patch and green space. Inner city living was slowly killing our souls and we wanted to build a life around sustainability, growing our own food, a closed loop food waste system and being more self sufficient.
Tim had to shoot in Sydney for over a week just a few days after we moved in and I threw myself into DIY. My hyperfixation became getting our bedroom finished and my efforts to plaster the internal corners of our bedroom were stunning if I do say so myself. It was worth the hysterical red wine fueled 10pm calls to Tim telling him I had never been so exhausted in my life.
The bedroom floorboards had been painted grey and we gave it a red hot go sanding them back ourselves before calling in the experts to help. The first of many DIY projects.
We moved during Covid and hadn’t had a lot of time to explore the local shops or markets for good food options.
Our friends Simone and Clint lived down the road and Simone started “The Carb Cartel”, a bulk sourdough bakery delivery for friends in our neighbourhood. We’d place our orders weekly and the bread would be delivered to our door by Teddy and Wes (Simone’s kids) by bicycle.
After one too many rolls of turf were loaded into the back of the work car, Tim decided we needed a more appropriate vehicle. The JUNGL truck joined us.
Tim built me a 10m long veggie patch for my birthday one year. It’s a bit neglected at the moment but in more fruitful times has produced endless heirloom veggies, perennial chillis and herbs. When life slows down again I’ll get back to planting some of the organic seeds I painstakingly sourced from various online seed banks.
I still love looking out at it from our bedroom windows.
The day
