Describe one simple thing you do that brings joy to your life.

Where our hearts truly lie is in peace and quiet and good tilled earth…

I’m not sure if it’s in either Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, but the quote is certainly in the start of Peter Jackson’s movie Fellowship of the Ring.

I think I’d have been happy as a hobbit. Maybe not the pipeweed, but certainly I have a love of things that grow.

The past year has seen some major upheavals in my life. The loss of my wife, my son moving from Kindergarten to Grade School and by the end of this year (hopefully, although not planned) the sale of this house and a move to somewhere we can be debt free and start fresh.

Over the last few years I’ve been researching if I’d be able to make my joy into something more practical.

So now I’m looking for a smallholding – which in South Africa can be 40+ acres/20+ hectares – where I can, literally, put down roots.

There’s very little that brings me joy more than seeing something I’ve planted as seed growing and becoming fruit or vegetables I can put on my table. Admittedly 20 hectares is a tiny bit bigger than my garden with two tomato plants and a herb bed this year, but having looked at the pros and cons I’m optimistic about getting it off the ground.

It’ll also give me an opportunity to focus a bit on my writing and build a small retreat to host small-scale conferences aimed at refreshing church leaders – those men and women who give 52 weeks of the year and are often burned out by 50.

So I’m aiming to kill two birds with one stone. Produce more food than I need so I can sell it locally, including meat and eggs, and to provide a refuge for weary Shepherds to be refreshed.

For starters I just want the joy of working the earth. I’d like to use horses instead of diesel and do it at a slower pace than the insane tempo of the world.

Over the years I’ve only had two out of the last 35 when I’ve not had a small crop of tomatoes, peppers or other vine plants. And that was because I didn’t plant them.

It’s a simple pleasure, moving at the speed of the seasons instead of the speed of click.

Losing my leg in 2020 actually helped me focus on this passion. I couldn’t read the way I used to. But I could listen. So I listened to hours of lectures on farming, preservation without electricity, and a lot about how farms ran in the late 19th century. Worked with horses or traction engines powered by steam.

Growing food and talking about my Faith both bring me Joy. Simple, slow-paced joy that can’t be taken from me.