Recording your life story can be a rewarding and fun activity. Take your time to read through the questions and sit with your memories before writing them down. Some people like to write a draft on another piece of paper before committing to writing in the journal, but this is not necessary. Write at your own pace. Some people prefer to start at the start and work their way through, while others answer questions in random order. There is no right or wrong way. Much like life, writing this journal is not a race. Take your time and enjoy your memories. ​

Families are complex and come in all shapes and forms. For that reason in this journal there have left space, in for example the parent profile space, to include more people if necessary. The journal has been designed to be flexible, according to your needs, and is suitable for blended, step, adoptive, foster families and more. Remember this is your record of your history. You can write your own story. You don’t have to stay in the lines. ​

If you need more space to answer questions, use the notes section at the back of the book. All pages are numbered so you can indicate where to find the extra content. ​

​Photographs can be inserted throughout the journal. We haven’t boxed out particular spots because photos come in many shapes and sizes. There is also a photo gallery at the back of the book for the inclusion of more photographs. We encourage you to affix photos with photograph corner stickers, which are available in our online store, so that they are not damaged and can be removed if needed. Don’t forget to record the names of those in the photographs. Further details can also be written on the back of the image as well. ​

Once businesses realise they need a style guide the next hurdle is working out where to start.
Hint, hint: We can help you out.
In the meantime, start with the Macquarie Dictionary - Australia's National Dictionary.

Why not the Oxford?
Choosing the Macquarie Dictionary is a deliberate choice for Australian businesses because it is our national dictionary.
It's a great way to banish annoying and often confusing Americanisms from your content. 
Is it colour or color?
Is it fertiliser or fertilizer?
Macquarie can answer these questions quick smart.

First step
Selecting the Macquarie Dictionary as the first step of your style guide covers a lot of words - all the words in fact - and means you are not starting from scratch.
As you find problems with the dictionary, for example two spellings of the same word, you can make a choice and record it in your own document. 
It not only provides answers, but also provides the building blocks for your own style.
It's also a great way to get staff or contractors thinking about style, actively looking up words and questioning if they are writing in the correct format.

Hard copy or online?
The Macquarie is available in hard copy. You can check your cupboard or bottom drawer and may be surprised to find you already have a copy.
Don't worry about it being an older edition because realistically most words haven't changed. 
In an office environment where many staff will be using it, put the hard copy in a central location so that everyone is aware of where it is and feel comfortable accessing it.
These days there's also an online version which can be accessed for a subscription fee, which is popular with many Australian-based copywriters and editors.

Do you use the Macquarie Dictionary as part of your copywriting and editing?

“We all need to be aware of how easily it can happen with a lapse in judgement or not taking time to complete a task properly, taking shortcuts, even as adults,” Nirranda farmer Andrea Vallance says.

It's school holidays time, which means there's more kids on farms than usual - here's your reminder to prioritise the safety of your farm kids, and visitors.

It's also a busy time on the farm with the race against the weather to sow crops. Here on our farm we've been marking calves in the yards in recent days and lambing is underway.

There's plenty of chances for kids to get involved and learn, in a safe way.

In a recent article for Victorian Farmer we met Andrea Vallance. The dairy farmer dedicates her time as a volunteer first responder and also champions teaching school children farm safety and life-saving lessons with the Timboon Agriculture Project (TAP).

Check out her story and the inspiring work of TAP on page 18 of Victorian Farmer.

For practical ways to make your farm safer for children PLEASE check out the Victorian Farmers Federation's Child Safety On Farm Handbook.

A smart aeration system coupled with a ring storage solution promises to both cut costs and reduce risks for Australia’s almond growers.
Harveston Group says its goal is to provide a cost-effective storage solution that improves the process of taking an almond crop from the orchard to the processor, and importantly minimises post-harvest losses.
The key is reducing weather exposure by no longer having to dry almonds on the ground after harvest, which gives farmers control they have never had access to before.
After harvest the fruit can be moved to the specially designed ring storage system where it will dry evenly, preventing mould and insect attacks and take weather risks out of the equation, with the overall benefit of consistently better quality fruit.
Other advantages include the need for less labour and increased effectiveness of fumigation, which all deliver cost savings.
Harveston’s newly developed storage ring system consists of a self-supporting steel ring, an inbuilt aeration system, a sealed tarping system and a tarp vent. 
An important development is the aeration controller that uses a specific algorithm to interpret the storage environment conditions and ambient environmental conditions to determine the required volume and timing of the airflow. 
The stored product stack is enclosed in a ventilated tarping system that protects the product from the elements and provides a sealable enclosure for product fumigation. 
Harveston’s IP is in the configuration of the ring assembly specifically for this purpose, the air distribution system, the fan control system and the tarp vent. Each of these elements is patent pending. 
Three of the storage rings are being installed at a Victorian Smart Farm at Irymple at the end of March. 
The rings are constructed from Australian-made steel and Australian-made recyclable plastics and are expected to last on-farm for a minimum of five years.
The kits are prepared at Albury on the NSW-Victorian Border, from local components, and freighted to farms across the country, where the structures are easily assembled with components, tools and instructions all provided.
Harveston’s technology is beneficial to almond farms using conventional harvest techniques and is ideally placed to optimise the world-first almond harvest process called “green harvest”.
Research by the University of South Australia’s Agricultural Machine Design Centre and Professor John Fielke have developed a new process called “green harvest”, which takes almonds directly from the trees to the harvester and then on to storage. 
This replaces the conventional “grey harvest” process which involves shaking partially dry fruit from the tree to the ground where it completes the next stage of drying - if the weather Gods so wish - before being transferred to bunkers.
Green harvest coupled with Harveston’s ring storage delivers the new gold standard in almond harvest and storage.
For more information about Harveston’s almond storage solutions email [email protected].

Noelene Brown lived just 15 minutes from a bottle shop in a rural town. Like in all small communities she knew everyone who worked there.

So she found reasons to visit another larger town, 40 minutes away, multiple times a week to help hide her secret - an addiction to alcohol.
The planning and brain power it took to keep her secret safe, and her fridge stocked with two bottles of chilled wine each night, was all consuming.
“Even at the pub or out to dinner I’d be thinking ‘Are they noticing that I’m filling my glass three times as fast as they are?’
These are behaviours you may recognise in yourself or a loved one. Noelene, who is now a certified sobriety coach at Rural Sobriety, has a clear message: “There are people who have been through this and have come out the other side of it. There is help out there.”


It was my pleasure to interview Noelene for this article for the summer issue of Victorian Farmer and to help share the message that it's #OK2SAYNO to alcoholic drinks.
Follow the link below for the whole story (page36-37) and some tips on how you can create change in your rural community.
READ STORY HERE

Natasha 💚

In 2022 I Heart Farming supported The Livestock Collective with a monthly suite of long-form written content.
It was our pleasure to write articles for them that articulated the ins and outs of key issues as well as profile members of the agriculture industry across Australia.
We love working with the Collective's dedicated and knowledgeable team and are thankful that they shared some love back our way with this testimonial.

Happy New Year from I Heart Farming.

​We're officially closed for the month of January but there's plenty of writing and planning still going on behind the scenes (as well as late harvest/weaner sales/family time).
​
It's been a great time to take stock of all we've achieved in the past year and look ahead to 2023 and how we can best serve our clients.

You have probably been doing the same for your rural business or farming organisation.

If looking for a rural journalist to handle your long-form content is on your list we would love to chat.

We've just released some time slots this month to discuss how we can work together and finally create the articles, blogs and press releases your business deserves and needs.

Make an appointment for a free 15-minute discovery call at: https://calendly.com/iheartfarming/let-s-talk