Tales from Byeni

In between birthing another child (aka another issue of FOUND Regional magazine), raising her actual children and still finding time for a G&T with husband Marty, the editor of this great magazine and website Steph Wanless has invited myself, Jim A. Barker and my wife, Jamie-Lee Garner to pen a monthly column for its immaculate readership.

If, dear friend, you are a long-time reader of FOUND then you’re already acquainted with us. Jamie-Lee and I appeared in issue number four where we introduced you to our poodle Joe and our new home, Byeni: an off-grid mudbrick wonderland, located on a sprawling bush block. TL;DR version is essentially the lyrics from John Williamson’s Home Among the Gum Trees… just without the plum trees because the possums eat everything.

For those unacquainted, Jamie-Lee and I are your classic tree-change artistic duo. I’m a photographer and experienced public relations runaway, she is several entities rolled into one. A whip smart beautiful package and an artist in every sense of the word, a painter, potter, photographer, cook, architect and well-dressed appreciator of tall, moustachioed men. Well, only this one specific, tall, moustachioed man, so much so that she put a ring on it – by a fire under the stars in the Japanese countryside at an off-grid tiny home. Yes, we are also insufferable, too.

In just over a year since we last graced this publication, I’m happy to report we’ve been settling into property life with both style and aplomb, meeting neighbours and sampling the finest teas and scones known to man. However, ‘settling’ isn’t a word employed too often around this house – although, I’m happy to say we do have a fine collection of teas.

Since arriving, we’ve not been resting on our laurels. This spring will mark three years that we’ve called Byeni home, and in that time we have:

• Acquired another dozen chooks and ducks (one of whom laughs like a maniac), and a miniature Dachshund named Sir.
• Started a mudbrick chicken coop.
• Got married twice… once with just the two of us and two witnesses then a second, hosting 120 guests at our home.
• Discovered that rocks and shovels are not friends.
• Considered paying someone to finish our mudbrick chicken coop.
• Started and finished a photography project that entailed driving thousands of kilometres and meeting with 75 artists and artisans, before compiling and presenting a physical exhibit for the first time, as well as a 200+ page coffee table book available here.
• Joined the RFS to learn about protecting our property, and others, subsequently fighting our first active fires at Tenterfield in October ‘23.
• Rushing home from said fires to do anything and everything we could to defend our property, resulting in the design and installation of our own rooftop sprinkler system (only to be told by social media that we’d done it wrong and our house would 100 per cent burn down because fire is “hot”).
• Multiple visits to Sydney to visit friends and family.
• Considered levelling the mudbrick chicken coop and just building something out of timber like normal people.
• Discovered that apparently the country health system is… not adequate?
• Created a new medium of art by pairing colourful offcuts from vintage beach towels with hand-built ceramic forms, thus enriching the lives and minds of all who behold them. Available here.
• Started (and almost finished! I swear!) an above-ground productive garden consisting of 50m2+ of garden beds, protected by a series of barbed-wire fences, machine-gun turrets and a loud poodle because apparently brushtail possums and deer are the worst neighbours imaginable.
• Discovered that after a few trips, our eight-hour-each-way roadtrip to Sydney or Brisbane is, in fact, not as cute as we first imagined.
• Started a new Christmas card tradition.
• Made peace with our fate that we will have to finish the damn mudbrick chicken coop… eventually.

We’ve learned a lot over the past almost-three-years. Achieved a lot too. But our greatest is still to come, with the impending birth of our first baby, a girl, eclipsing all other learnings and accomplishments by an order of magnitudes. We’re starting a family! Well, more of a family than whatever 19 chickens, two ducks and two dogs is, anyway.

Suffice it to say, the addition of a real, human child to the mix is an exciting prospect for us. To be honest, just getting to where we are today has been a real journey in and of itself, but there’s a lot to still get through in these next few months as Jamie prepares for her first physical exhibition in Sydney – with opening night falling on exactly week 37 of the pregnancy!

There are so many exciting musings happening in our life which we’re keen to share with you, dear immaculate reader. Not least of which involves a certain mudbrick chicken coop. Join us each month as Jamie and I share the happenings and observations of a life among the gum trees: a life full of creativity and can-do attitude; a duck that laughs too loudly and the pitter-patter of tiny Dachshund paws on polished timber floors. Jamie will most likely write about various creative existential crises, while I will share the glorious building of our garden and family. We look forward to bringing you along this collaborative journey that is our lives. A life inspired by nature, art, loved ones and that special kind of freedom. A life spent in gratitude, admiration and awe of the world around us.

Jim, Jamie, Joe and Sir