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Speaker 1: This is the Fits In with Her with Kate Richie podcast.

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Speaker 2: Fitzness is fascinating because I didn't think it was possible.

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Speaker 2: You're going to introduce us to someone who lives off

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Speaker 2: the grid, not plugged into the system at all, does

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Speaker 2: everything by herself without any need of services.

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Speaker 3: And you know what, we're very lucky whipped to have

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Speaker 3: this young lady with us this morning. Jane Nemath quit

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Speaker 3: her corporate job as a community development officer in twenty fifteen.

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Speaker 3: Joe was overwhelmed by the cost of rent and bills

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Speaker 3: and she wanted to fight the climate crisis. So Joe

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Speaker 3: passed all her money and bank accounts to her eighteen

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Speaker 3: year old daughter before she moved to a friend's farm

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Speaker 3: and she built this tiny little shack from old building

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Speaker 3: materials and she now lives in that home instead of

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Speaker 3: paying rent. She does her own cooking, cleaning, grows produce

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Speaker 3: on her little place as well, and she has she

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Speaker 3: hasn't had a car, phone, internet, new clothes, or running water.

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Speaker 3: We've been trying to get Joe on the show for

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Speaker 3: the past month.

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Speaker 2: Do we do send a homing pigeon software?

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Speaker 3: I don't know. We're going to have to ask, but

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Speaker 3: Joe joins us.

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Speaker 1: Now, good morning, Joe, good morning, Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 2: My question would be, first up, what does total freedom

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Speaker 2: feel like?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, look, it's been a really nice experiment for me

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Speaker 1: for the last ten years. I just have to correct

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Speaker 1: a couple of things there. Yeah, I did start off

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Speaker 1: in that situation that you're describing. But now so for

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Speaker 1: the last few years, I've been living in a suburban

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Speaker 1: home in Lizmore, and in this home, what I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to do is still do what I've been doing and

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Speaker 1: reduce my footprint. I don't have any new resources that

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Speaker 1: are just for me. I don't have my own money,

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Speaker 1: but the rest of the people in the house have money,

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Speaker 1: so it's tricky. But my idea here is to reduce

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Speaker 1: their consumption of resources, reduce their need to buy things,

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Speaker 1: and I think I've done that successfully.

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Speaker 3: Joe, this is an unbelievable story, and I commend you

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Speaker 3: for it. What was that in twenty fifteen? What was

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Speaker 3: the hardest thing when you first started doing this? You

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Speaker 3: gave all your money over. Did you hit rock bottom

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Speaker 3: at some stage, Joe? Or was there a real hard part? No?

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Speaker 1: No, no, Look I didn't hit rock bottom. Look there

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Speaker 1: were difficulties, like washing my clothes in cold tapporter, I

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Speaker 1: did hand washing. I didn't enjoy that also, but I

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Speaker 1: also really loved the fact that I didn't have to

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Speaker 1: be anywhere or doing anything for anyone else. So I

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Speaker 1: did have that sense of freedom. And with that sense

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Speaker 1: of freedom, actually I had a sense of guilt. I

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Speaker 1: was like, Oh my goodness, everyone else around me is

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Speaker 1: working so hard and being all stressed like I used

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Speaker 1: to be, and I'm not like that anymore. Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: feels really weird, a little bit wrong. I should be

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Speaker 1: doing all these other things.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's what I wanted to ask, Like, Joe, was

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Speaker 2: there a moment in your old world. Was there a

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Speaker 2: stressful moment that broke you where you thought there's a

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Speaker 2: better way of doing this thing called life.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, I used to go to the supermarket and

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Speaker 1: do my shopping, and I was just always I got

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Speaker 1: to the point where it was just really really stressful

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Speaker 1: because I knew that I'd done enough research and reading

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Speaker 1: online to know that whatever can of tomatoes I picked

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Speaker 1: off the shelf in the supermarket, there was going to

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Speaker 1: be someone somewhere It's going to be hurt. You know,

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Speaker 1: whether that my daughter because of the supply chains and

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Speaker 1: the shipping through from the other side of the world.

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Speaker 1: Or if I was buying Australian tomatoes worthy Australian farmers

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Speaker 1: getting a fair paid and that was just doing my

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Speaker 1: head in that.

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Speaker 3: Interesting can you give us? Just just go through it quickly.

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Speaker 3: But what would what would a normal day detail for you, Joe?

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Speaker 3: What would what would you do?

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Speaker 1: Oh? Well, when I was living on the farm back

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Speaker 1: in the when I started, that was pretty chill. I

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Speaker 1: used to just just do a bit of gardening and

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Speaker 1: sit around and read. It was pretty. But now I

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Speaker 1: live in this busy household. We've got nine people here,

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Speaker 1: including young ones who so it's a hectic household. And

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Speaker 1: here I'm trying to minimize the footprint of the household.

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Speaker 1: So I'm constantly like, I'm in the kitchen, I'm making food,

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Speaker 1: I'm doing preserving, I'm making tofu, I'm making soap, I'm

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Speaker 1: out in the garden, and then I'm trying to grow

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Speaker 1: food here.

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Speaker 3: So what's the one thing that you missed out in

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Speaker 3: the farm, Joe? When you're out in the farm and

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Speaker 3: you're out there, was it chocolate? Was it a red wine?

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Speaker 3: What was the one thing that you just missed the most.

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Speaker 3: What was your vice?

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Speaker 1: Look, I didn't like it if I ran out of

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Speaker 1: my honey that people had given me.

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Speaker 3: So you are an inspiration, you really really are, because

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Speaker 3: a lot of people think this and they would love

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Speaker 3: to do it, but you did it. You know what

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Speaker 3: you just said, I'm not going to deal with this anymore.

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Speaker 3: And for a year and a half you went off

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Speaker 3: the grid, which is unchange. It would have changed you, Joe,

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Speaker 3: and I can I just say that you look very

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Speaker 3: healthy and obviously stress free. There's probably a bit of

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Speaker 3: stress coming back into a house with a family and

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Speaker 3: young kids now, but wecommend you and thanks for finding

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Speaker 3: the time to having a chat to us.

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Speaker 1: Joe, no worries, Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 2: It's in Whippa with Kate Ritchie is a Nova podcast

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Speaker 2: walk great shows like this. Download the Nova player, find

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Speaker 2: the app store or Google Playing.

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Speaker 1: Neither play up