A farming mum that helps out others
Regular visitors to the Facebook site, Farming Mums NZ, will be familiar with an online blogger whose zest for life seems neverending. Kate Taylor reports.
There’s an element of irony about the name of Chanelle O’Sullivan’s daily blog, Just a Farmer’s Wife, because it couldn’t be further from the truth.
She is, actually, a farmer’s wife, but is also a mother of two, qualified vet nurse, blogger, project manager, 2016 scholar on the Kellogg Rural Leadership Course, guest speaker, online business woman, long-distance runner and admin for several flourishing Facebook pages.
Chanelle lives at Waitohi in South Canterbury with husband Dave, who is working on a farm on Rockwood Rd. He grew up near Timaru and has a Diploma in Farm Management from Lincoln University.
After finishing as stock manager at Raincliff Station in July, he has turned his attention to the couple’s quest to own their own farm, says Chanelle.
‘‘We’re working on budgets and doing case studies on suitable farms to lease or trying to create ourselves an equity management opportunity. Now we just need the right block of land to show up, ideally with plenty of deer fencing.’’
Born and bred in suburban Auckland, she says she never would have guessed the path her life would take. She has uncles and grandparents farming and as a child went to horse camps on a Waikato farm,where she later helped out with stock work.
This sparked an interest which led her to a Certificate of Agriculture at Wintec (Waikato Institute of Technology).
Then she headed for the South Island to work at Guide Hill Station at Lake Pukaki. She had only been in the South Island for a month when she met Dave at a Mackenzie Young Farmers meeting.
She spent 18 months on an 800-cow dairy farm near Fairlie, then three years working at Aorangi Vets in Geraldine while studying to become a vet nurse. She married Dave in 2010. Isabelle (Izzy) is 41⁄2 years old and Hunter is 21 months.
Since Isabelle was a toddler, Chanelle has been spending a significant chunk of every day on the Facebook page, Farming Mums New Zealand. She took it over when it had 600 members. Three years later the number has grown to 6867.
‘‘I took it on not knowing what to expect, but knowing there were probably a lot of women in a similar position – who had left their job or career, moved away from family and friends and were isolated out in the country without support.’’
Online discussions range from children’s nits to party ideas, from wedding dress designs to the best wet weather gear, from employment contracts and health and safety rules to what’s cooking for dinner.
The page’s motto is ‘‘Supporting, inspiring and connecting’’.
‘‘We do have a code of conduct to try to preserve those qualities,’’ she says. ‘‘It started off like that but at times can get a bit wild and crazy. It takes a lot of monitoring to maintain the quality of the page and can be quite a mission to stay on top of.’’
There are five admin people on the main page and two more on the FMNZ classifieds page, as well as a long-time friend of Chanelle’s who looks after Daisy FMNZ, who posts anonymously on behalf of members.
‘‘That has been extremely valuable in terms of allowing people to be honest. They might be asking an employment question or a family-related question where it isn’t appropriate for them to do it under their own name. But it also gives a vicious insight into what’s going on out there behind closed doors.
‘‘People can be truthful to Daisy because no-one knows who she is.
‘‘They feel safer not knowing who they’re talking to and so they are able to pour their hearts out a little more at times,’’ she says.
‘‘It comes to the point sometimes where Daisy won’t post what has been sent because it is too revealing – it has too much information – or where it is simply a dangerous situation and it’s time to call the police or a women’s refuge or other support… or to empower them to make the call themselves.’’
Chanelle says they have to be careful about mental health and general health issues.
‘‘We don’t want self-diagnosis or women diagnosing each other.
‘‘One thing that would be great in the future is to have a free counsellor available by phone to refer women to someone relatable, a counsellor who is also a rural woman.’’
The largest age group on the page is 25-35, followed by 35-45.
‘‘But having said that, it wouldn’t be what it is without the 17 to 70,’’ she says.
‘‘Everyone has comments to make. Especially with bad payouts and recessions, for our older members to give their advice and tell how they survived is crucial.’’
That is one of the reasons FMNZ is now working with the Rural Women. With an eye on the future, she’s also talking with the Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa and WorkSafe.
‘‘They’re interested to keep in touch and use us for a sounding board at times. We have a huge dynamic of people, which gives us a chance to have a say and organisations are now realising that.’’
Most members are obviously mums on farms but Chanelle says the only real restriction is a rural link.
‘‘It’s for women who understand farming but being a mum isn’t 100 per cent necessary.’’
She says the page is a big machine and she’s learning to delegate.
After doing the Agri-Women’s Development Trust’s First Steps programme she realised one of the reasons why she does all the things she does.
‘‘I love helping others. I love being on the farm and we definitely want to own a farm, but I also want my thing on the side.
‘‘It is personally satisfying as well to know someone has gone somewhere from what you’ve said.’’
Chanelle says her blog has grown as FMNZ has grown.
‘‘At the start it was just me and my adventures but people said I should write more, so I did.’’