Backbencher

Philip Todhunter, Helicopter pilot, dad, and "learner" high country farmer was an artcle I read in North and South magazine. It is about a man and his family who take over a family paddock. The change was very new to them. Philip was a helicopter and airplane pilot that worked all over the world. He had worked with Italians in Antartica, and he had helped search for servicemen missing in action in Laos. He also flew for a company that used helicopters to lift their clients to high mountain summits for skiing and snowboarding. While working that job he met his wife, Anne, an alpine guide, and thbey have been together since.
They have two young children, and Philip is working very hard to get the farming thing down. Anne takes care of the children and is a stereotypical farm wife. She does not mind the classification due to her self-confidence and the love of spending time with her kids. The family does live in isolation. Mail comes once a week, and it is a 10km drive to retrieve it.
Philip has long work days starting before sunrise and ending after sunset. Occasionally his eldest son will help him after school, but the farm work is constant and there are always difficulties. There is a new obstacle almost every day. The paddock's location is close to the area where Peter Jackson created Edoras, capital of Rohan, in his blockbuster trilogy Lord of the Rings. The family works hard, but they enjoy their new life and are exited about the future. The major problem is the record lack of rainfall; however, Philip remains optimistic, hardly complains, and he only curses when he is shocked by one of his electric fences during repairs.