Living ‘the country life’ means different things to different people. For Sara + David Gormley-O’Brien, embarking upon a country life meant working towards authentic self-sufficiency and taking the time to celebrate good friends, good food and mother nature’s offerings while contributing to a shared community spirit.

Until recently, Sara and David lived in the city; Sara had spent 15 years as a Corporate Project Manager while David, who has a PhD from the University of Oxford in England, is a Graeco-Roman Historian at the University of Melbourne’s Trinity College. In 2012, the duo decided to step out of their modern urban lives and into a country life. They bought a small holding of land and promptly set about learning the many skills required to be able to provide themselves with most of their food, clothing and shelter needs.

The first job was to reclaim and restore the land so they could start with what David describes as a healthy ‘tabula rasa‘ (clean slate). Impressively, just a few years later, the couple already produce their own home-grown veg, eggs, milk, beef and pork, and even make beautiful traditional breads from scratch. Onions and potatoes are a reliable staple and honey has recently been added to the successful harvest list! All that and they say the cycle of their garden is only just finding its stride!

As a result of their own trials, tribulations and triumphs, Sara + David decided to set up Three Acres & A Cow. For a very modest fee, the couple offer their skills and knowledge to help other Countryphiles on the path to a meaningful self-sufficient life as well as those who are just looking for a bit of a hand with various aspects of country life – from building chook houses, runs and tractors to establishing veggie gardens as well as tool sharpening and maintenance and building hot and cold frames to get seedlings started.

Sara + David’s passionate spirit even has them aiming to grow their own coffee beans (in cool-climate Woodend mind you!) But, as the duo says, if Louis XIV managed to grow coffee successfully in the Potager du Roi in Paris in the 17^th century, then what’s to stop them from giving it a go! Le Bonne Vie indeed! Enjoy! x

Three Acres & A Cow

Tell us a little bit about your backgrounds – what path led you to where you are now? What inspired you to ‘trade-in’ your city lives to buy 1 acre and a cow and live a sustainable self-sufficient life?

Our quest to live life more deliberately and sustainably evolved over several years.  A watershed moment was the decision we made seven years ago to move to Woodend from Bendigo.  We had been living in an awful small flat in Bendigo which only had a few square metres of lawn space.  Even so, we made the most of it at the time by growing herbs in big pots and making a chicken tractor with a couple of chooks which we could move around (we also cheekily raised four turkeys on Sara’s parents’ houseblock).  Now, in Woodend, for the first time in our lives together, we had abundant land (1 acre, which at that time seemed enormous) and extra time to spend at home since we were able to half the commute time to our jobs in Melbourne.  We didn’t have much money so the place we bought was quite run down and the land was a dark and foreboding forest of huge pine trees where only blackberries and the occasional mushroom could grow.  Nevertheless, we fell in love with the cottage itself, which uniquely had a cellar, and was made with lots of recycled timbers and bluestone, and saw the potential in the land.    We invested several years of time, energy, and money into turning the cottage into something habitable and the land into something productive.  It was a steep learning curve as we had not yet acquired the skills and the knowledge in this area but we were insatiable in our desire to learn and were prepared to do anything.  We made a lot of mistakes but we also had significant achievements which spurred us on in.  During this time, we accumulated extra animals; geese, ducks, sheep, pigs, cows.  Of course, our land was too small for all these so we went into partnerships with several friends in Woodend who had more land than we.  As our menagerie and the demands of producing our own food increased we noticed a change in our own personal attitudes towards our paid work and careers.  We had both been passionately and deeply entrenched in developing careers, Sara worked in corporations and David was an academic in the area of Late Antiquity.  We still enjoyed our jobs for the most part but we no longer felt the need to achieve and strive continually in that area and that the core of our identity lay elsewhere.  What we were both experiencing was a deep sense of contentment that came from fundamental things like enjoying the eggs from our chickens or sewing a dress on a vintage sewing machine or maintaining the forty year old Land Rover or harvesting the home-grown vegetables from our garden or making black pudding from the baconer we despatched earlier in the day and so on.  In a nutshell, we saw that our happiness and sense of belonging was very much tied to our ‘dirt’.

Tell us about the inspiration behind the name of your new business venture ‘Three Acres & A Cow’?

Three Acres and a Cow was a slogan coined by land reform campaigners in England during the late 19th and early 20th century, initially to address rural poverty.  Later the concept was adopted by distributionists in a much broader vein who saw property ownership as a basic human right and that the means of production ought to be spread as wide as possible, that people ought to have the means to provide for their own needs and the needs of their families. Three Acres and a Cow epitomized an ideal society based on an economic system that was marked by widespread property ownership as an alternative to being centralized under the control of the state (state socialism) or to being monopolized in the hands of a few individuals (laissez-faire capitalism).

We named our business Three Acres and a Cow as a deliberate response to what we believe are the shortcomings of the prevailing economic system in the developed world, the global free market, and the unbridled consumption that fuels it. Instead of a highly centralized global market, we advocate small, distributed, local businesses; instead of profit being an end goal, we focus on providing an exceptional service and developing a relationship with the client; instead of producing luxuries to excite consumption, we help people to provide for their own needs.

Tell us about Three Acres & A Cow. What is its philosophy? What services do you offer?

Three Acres and a Cow is a small business run by Sara and David Gormley-O’Brien in the Macedon Ranges, Victoria.  The business arose because we recognized that our transition to a more self-reliant lifestyle in the past several years was achieved through a lot of research, a lot of time and energy, and trial and error.  In retrospect, the transition would have been a lot quicker and easier if we had a person or people from whom we could draw support and advice.  The transition, I think, would be nigh impossible to achieve while we were both working full-time and not having any support.  That is why we see our business as chiefly a training and support enterprise aimed at helping people who may be time-poor but still wish to make the transition to a more sustainable life-style.  We seek also to help them to develop the necessary skills for living self-reliantly which they may not have had the good fortune to learn, or indeed the need to use, while they lived in an urban setting.  Our products include such things as chicken coops and tractors, rabbit hutches, tradition timber clothes and dish drying racks, cold and hot frames, and vegetable garden beds.  Our services include consultation, design, and maintenance of vegetable beds, and tool sharpening and maintenance.

What does a typical day in the ‘Self-Sufficient life of Sara + David’ look like; from when you wake to when you go to sleep?

David still has a part-time academic job which requires him to commute to Melbourne one or two days per week.During the other times, the day would often comprise getting up early before dawn to do some research or writing, at daylight letting out the chooks, geese, and tethering our Dexter cow, Megan, to an area on our property or nearby paddock; a lovely breakfast with home baked bread, our own eggs and sausages or black pudding; then either take our dog, Del, for a walk or take her to our friend’s paddock so that she can herd our sheep; some gardening and watering while it is still cool enough; then it would be time to do baking, cleaning, construction or maintenance jobs – fixing fences, making chook houses, rabbitries, or other things for the business or our property.  We always seem to have several projects on the go at any one time and it takes discipline and good time-management to complete the important tasks rather than just the fun ones.  We usually work on our projects until about 7pm when we have dinner and then a quiet read (we are both voracious readers) and research on the internet (usually references for our projects).  We intentionally do not have a television but we do listen to music or BBC recordings of comedies like the Goons or Dad’s Army.

Sometimes during the day we sneak into town to have a coffee or a drink during happy hour at Holgate’s pub.

What are the ups and downs & challenges you’ve experienced in your journey toward a sustainable self-sufficient life?

There are always droughts, floods, and fox attacks to contend with but we think that one of the biggest challenges in the journey toward a responsible self-reliant life is that it necessarily entails a reduction in income from the market economy.Living a responsible life requires us to embrace a voluntary frugality.We are adjusting from living on two professional wages a few years ago to living on one part-time wage now.  This is quite difficult as we still have a mortgage and supporting a child at university.

On the other hand, there are many benefits in this way of life.  The birth of new animals always gives cause for celebration. Nothing brings so much satisfaction as enjoying our home-made charcuterie.  Above all, it is the friendships with others in the community that brings us so much joy and contentment, a sense of belonging.

Have your values altered during your journey?

There is a sense that the values that we espouse so strongly today in our way of life were always with us albeit in an incipient and undeveloped way previously.  Living a sustainable life has led to reflect on what it truly means to be human, what it is to live a good life, and what it is to be happy.  Arising from these values is a high sense of justice and equity and the need to scale back our consumption so that other people and other generations can meet their needs.

What words best describe your experiences of self-sufficiency so far? E.g. Is it healthier, better, simpler?

There is certainly a great sense of achievement in being able to produce our own food, clothing, and shelter to a large extent.  It is simpler in the sense that our needs are fundamental and are largely met by our own efforts.

What do family and friends think of your choice to live a sustainable self-sufficient life?

Our baby-boomer parents come from a generation where convenience and affluence were the chief goals in life – living in the suburbs, driving the car everywhere, shopping at the supermarket, eating in restaurants – so on one hand they simply cannot comprehend why we ride bicycles and go to the trouble of growing all of our own food and intentionally reducing our consumption, but on the other hand they see our life as a romantic ideal, no doubt coloured by the 1970s BBC sit-com ‘The Good Life’.Friends, by and large, are excited by and attracted to our way of life and what we are trying to achieve, whether or not they think it is necessarily for them.

John Seymour (author of The NEW complete book of Self-Sufficiency) says self-sufficient living is not regression to tough times but ‘going forward to a new and better life’. Do you agree?

Self-sufficiency living is not a regression to a so-called pioneer age with high infant-mortality, where house-holds scraped by on a bare subsistence, everyone worked incredibly long hours, and opportunities for education were severely limited.  The attractiveness of increased leisure and convenience understandably led many to move to the suburbs from the country and city after the Second World War. However, many are now recognizing that the promise of extra leisure and convenience in moving to the ‘burbs is eroded by the need to work longer hours to pay the mortgage, the lack of control over one’s family’s basic needs by being overly dependent on supermarket chains and department stores, etc.  Living self-sufficiently enables people to be more in control of supplying their needs, and gives more opportunities for participating in a lively local community. In our view, this is both a new and better life.

What skills/abilities/mind frames are required to successfully live a sustainable life?

It is vital to have a desire to learn, the capacity to try and to do so again and possibly again. Resilience, recovering from failures.

How important is community in a self-sufficient way of life?

In our view, living a self-sufficient way of life ought to be done as part of a community of friends.  There is always the need to ask for or to provide help, to share equipment, and to celebrate successes and commiserate with friends.

Do you consider yourselves to be ‘Countryphiles’? Do you love country life? Why?

We love the country life, but I think it is possible to feel at home in the city or the country.  I think that it is easier to be happy, healthy and fulfilled in the country.

What aspect of country life are you enjoying MOST at the moment?

We are enjoying harvesting tomatoes, zucchinis, and onions at this time of the year.  It is ratatouille season.  We have also just harvested several litres of honey from our beehive for the first time, which is a source of pride.

What is the most CHALLENGING aspect of country life?

I think that the biggest challenge is the fact that your animals are completely dependent on you.  It is very difficult to get away from the property over night or to be away from any protracted period of time.  This means, for us, the need to curtail our travel but this, for the most part, is fine as we both find contentment at home.  Another challenge is when we have to slaughter animals for our food.  Obviously we become quite attached to most of our animals and it is never easy when it comes to that time.  Yet, we are clinical about the act and always seek to minimize the amount of pain and trauma for the animal and reassure ourselves that the animal has had a good life.

Do you prefer Coffee or Tea? Your favourite country café and why?

We typically have coffee in the morning, to start the motors going, and tea from 11am onwards.  Louis XIV grew coffee successfully in the Potager du Roi, Paris, in the 17^th century so we have set ourselves the quest of growing our own coffee in Woodend.

Our favourite café is Colenso’s in Woodend run by Hal and Kate, who are lovely, friendly people, and are keen to use local ingredients in their menus.  They don’t mind if we come in looking like farm-hands.

What and where was the last great meal you enjoyed/shared in the country?

We celebrated a combined Robbie Burn’s Day – Australia Day feast with several friends in Woodend and had Sara’s home-produced haggis and black pudding from our sheep, home-grown tatties and neeps (turnips) washed down with plenty of whisky. We had a great time drinking and reciting poetry late into the night.

Where would we find you on a typical Saturday morning?

Saturday mornings are quite likely to find us at one of the local farmer’s markets or in the garden.

Would you ENCOURAGE others to live a country life? Why/why not?

We obviously love living the country life but we realize that it is not for everyone and that some people would not flourish in such an environment.  Some people like the crowds and the busyness of the city; some people like the convenience and local amenities that comes from living in suburbia.  That is fine. We are all programmed in different ways.

Would you ENCOURAGE others to live a sustainable way of life?

We believe that anyone can live a more responsible life irrespective of his or her circumstances, whether one lives in a small apartment in the city or a 20 acre block in the country, and that this ought to be encouraged not only for the good of the planet but also for one’s personal happiness. Anyone can think and care about what his or her household consumes, the provenance and circumstances of the food and clothes that they buy, preferring bike riding and public transport over the car; none of us really want to create pollution and desolation.

What ADVICE would you give those dreaming of making a TREE CHANGE?

It is important for a couple who are looking to make a tree change to be both very excited by the prospect and to have a developed self-awareness of what makes them happy.  Living in the country is quite different to living in the city and it requires commitment and resilience when things don’t quite work out immediately, the courage to make mistakes, and the passion for learning new things.   The other piece of advice is to progress slowly.  Start off with a few chooks and a small vegetable garden first and then build up slowly to other animals and more cultivated land, if desired.  Remember that you are in for the long haul.

What are you looking FORWARD to and why?

We both are looking forward todeveloping further our expertise in our fields of woodworking, gardening and baking to a high degree of excellence and to exploring new areas of domestic trades. There is something sublime in the product of an artisan; the item produced is not merely useful and functional but also beautiful.

What would be your DREAM project?

Our dream is to be a part of a village-wide development to re-introduce local skills, labour and products into a locally self-sustaining economy.

Can you list for us 5 specific things you turn to/do when you need of a ‘dose’ of city life?

1. Go to bookshops and markets
2. Explore cookware shops
3. Walk through managed gardens
4. Walk through museums
5. Intentionally avoid department stores

Sara + David
Three Acres & A Cow
m: 0408 578 032
e: blackmorehouse@gmail.com