JOLLEY, John Vicki. JOLLEY, John Vicki. JOLLEY, John Vicki.
1990 – Current
Written by Vicki Jolly
John had done most of his schooling in Pingrup and Katanning and then began shearing work for his uncle’s shearing team and doing seeding and harvest with local farmers. John moved from Pingrup to Nyabing and lived with his brother Jason in around 1990.
I had left Katanning High School in 1992 after year 12 and ended up in Victoria picking fruit up and down the east coast for a couple of years. It gave me some worldly experiences and I met some great people from all over the world.
On my return, John and I got together and I moved into his house shortly afterwards, I’m not sure if mum was too pleased at the time. We purchased our little house from Homeswest for a mere $19,000 and with some reno’s and some love turned it into a cosy home. I travelled every day to Katanning and worked at the WA Department of Agriculture doing sheep work, grain trials and wool testing. John had a job change and we had the opportunity to live on one of Crosby’s farms ‘Kybunga’ where John worked as a farm hand for them.
JJ and Vicki with Caitlyn Seth and Campbell
John and I were married in 1998 in Busselton and later in that year we purchased another house back in Nyabing from Gayle Harman. With more renovations and getting things the way we wanted them we became very settled and started our family, we had three children; Caitlyn, Campbell and Seth.
Campbell, Caitlyn and Seth in 2011
Thinking everything was going all to plan until we had a bit of a hiccup and John had to change jobs. This came with a very tough decision as we sold our beloved house in town and moved again. This time onto another farm east of Nyabing in 2009 called ‘Grasslands’ the property belongs to Bill Hurst of Boyanup and was previously managed by J & G Long. We have been here for three years now and time is flying by. Soon the kids will start high school and we will need to decide if it’s the bus or boarding.
Harvest 2010 with Case Header & JJ
Thankfully we have at least another year to make that choice. Until then we will make the most of farm life and all the great things that come with it like catching yabbies, watching the kids play in the creek when it runs (and it did this year 2011), seeing the country change from green to brown and back again, making fires and cooking spuds, teaching the kids to drive and the smells of the freshly ploughed earth at seeding, the shed at shearing and those first rains. Give me the country any day.
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