Jamie Mackay has been reading Doug Avery's new book The Resilient Farmer. Photo / Supplied
It's good to be back in print after an absence because of a family bereavement.
When you lose someone near and dear to your family, it's always a time for reflection and to take stock of your life.
One man who's certainly taken stock of his life is the inspirational Marlborough farmer Doug Avery whose new book, The Resilient Farmer, is due for release next week.
I've known Doug since he was named the South Island Farmer of the Year in 2010. His work in the field of farmer mental health has been well documented and was recognised in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours list.
As a regular correspondent on my radio show I've been well aware of his tremendous contribution to the rural community in recent times.
What I really found fascinating about his story though, was the early years of struggle - climatically, financially and mentally - before he discovered Dr Derrick Moot from Lincoln University and drought-proofing qualities of lucerne in 1998. That was the year Marlborough faced its worst drought on record.
Doug had a carefree upbringing on his family's Marlborough farm until fate intervened on May 21, 1966.
He described it as a day that changed a family's life forever.
As a rugby-mad youngster, 11 year old Doug went off to watch the local senior side play in Seddon. His older brother Eric, who was unhappy at boarding school, decided to stay home and go hunting. He was found the next day with a fatal gunshot wound to the head.
It was never confirmed whether it was a tragic accident or a parent's worst nightmare. But what it did do was destroy Doug's father, who blamed himself for letting a 13 year old boy go out hunting by himself with a gun.
Reading this tragic tale, made me wonder whether this might have been one of the drivers for making Doug Avery such a staunch advocate in the fight against rural suicides?
Tragedy struck again in 1976, on the day Doug returned home from his honeymoon with his new bride Wendy, when his young farm worker was killed in tractor accident as Doug helplessly watched on.
In Doug's words, "Wendy's introduction to married life was a man who woke every night with terrible nightmares. All I kept thinking was what could I have done? What didn't I do to prevent that?"
Despite all this great personal adversity, Doug lived to tell the tale, turning his life around to help others. He describes it as his second chance.
One young man who didn't get a second chance was Private Morgan Fraser, a splendid young Army lad with most of his life in front of him. He was tragically taken, at the tender age of just 22 years, in a climbing accident recently on Mount Taranaki. Morgan was my late brother's beloved stepson.
Your family's grief makes you take stock. Reassess what's important. Take time to stop and smell the roses. So with that in mind, and on a much lighter note, I've decided to grab the (Texas Longhorn) bull by the horns and take up an opportunity I'd previously decided I couldn't afford the time to do.
It's a two week sojourn to the southern states of the USA in November in search of such things as jazz and jambalaya in New Orleans, a Mississippi steamboat river cruise, Steven Adams and the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Houston Space Centre, Elvis's Graceland home in Memphis, the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, the Jim Beam Distillery and Kentucky bluegrass thoroughbred country in Lexington, the Muhammad Ali Centre and Churchill Downs (home of the Kentucky Derby) in Louisville.
Throw in five farm visits along the way to the likes of a Texas beef ranch, an intensive housed dairy farm and a Kentucky horse stud and you have an ideal two week break post calving, lambing, mating, docking and crops in the ground - a real breather before the pre-Xmas on-farm rush. And the best bit is for farmers, it's a legitimately claimable expense.
Life's short. You're a long time dead. There's no point in being the richest person in the cemetery. If you don't travel business, your kids will go first class. Throw whatever cliché you want at it! Smell the roses. Dust off the passport. Departure is November 12.