11. The Final Chapter & New Beginning
This is going to be the last chapter of our blog before I switch to writing our weekly diary, I wanted to write our story up to date and held off from doing so for a number of reasons. From our last blog until this point so many things happened, some good and some really not so good and I found it really difficult to write about the bad things, bringing up old memories doesn’t serve any purpose and I wrote regularly about them on our heartbreakandhappiness Facebook page, if anyone wants to read the details they can go there to read for themselves. So this last blog is going to be a summary from our last blog until today.
Here’s a link to all our pics on the Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Heartbreakandhappiness-900815920072196/photos/?ref=page_internal
After the bombshell of our ‘friends’ ripping us off we took matters into our own hands, Leon set up on his own and started working locally, he would be out all day, everyday working for a pittance but it was just enough to keep us in food, strangers would come out of the blue to help us and somehow we got by. We kept rescuing and rehoming the dogs that came across our path, during this time we lost our dear friend Paddy and also my mum tragically passed away, one of the main reasons I can’t revisit this time or write about it, I had to return to the UK for a few weeks and managed to get back just before she went.
Leon had a chainsaw accident while I was away and severed his hand, when I came back I knew we had to change things as we couldn’t continue like we were. The clock was ticking on paying for the farm and we had zero savings to go towards it. I spoke to one of my friends who was teaching English online and she gave me the name of the company she was working for. I contacted them, quickly brushed up on my English and grammar knowledge and did an online interview, I was successful and they gave me a job! It was a Japanese company and I was working in the old shed we kept the chickens in. Leon gave up work and took over running the house and the dogs.Our laptop and internet weren’t the best but it was ok and I was able to teach online. I worked through the night and slept during the day so I could build up my profile on the platform.
Slowly regular money started to come in and we were able to start saving for the farm and started to get ourselves straight. We got fencing and made some enclosures so the dogs had more space to run around, we built some crates inside so that we had somewhere safe to put them when we went to the supermarket. Life started to change for us in a big way. I worked for the Japanese company for a few years but the money wasn’t so great, I was working up to 18 hours a day, I started to look elsewhere and found another company that paid three times as much. I kept the old company going while I strengthened my profile on the new one and after a few months I was able to finish the old and concentrate on the new. Finally the 5 year contract date was upon us and although we didn’t quite have enough money our friends and family lent us the remaining amount and we went to the lawyers and signed the contract. It was finally ours and our future and the animal rescue project was secure.
As of today we have 3 chickens, 2 ducks, 2 pigs and 16 dogs here with us. I’ve taught over 17,000 lessons and it’s been 2 months since we signed the contract for the farm, it hasn’t quite sunk in yet as we’ve been non-stop working and repaying the loans back for the farm purchase but we’re nearly in the clear. We have also done a deal to buy the land opposite ours as it’s so overgrown and a serious risk during the fires. The fires this year have been worse than ever and we are currently researching, learning and working out how to fireproof the farm for next year.
At the moment I don’t have much of a life with Leon and the dogs, I work 7 days a week and at least 10 hours a day but it’ll only be for a few more months and then I can cut back on my hours, sit back and enjoy what we’ve worked so hard for. We have lots of big plans for our future here and now that I’ve finished writing this blog I’ll start to keep a regular diary, maybe weekly, we’ll see how it goes.
If you haven’t read the previous blogs then the free links are below and we’ve also been sharing and posting to Instagram, here’s the link to it.
https://www.instagram.com/heartbreak_happiness/
Many people have expressed an interest in helping us so if you would like to support our project then you can make a one time donation or even support us monthly using Ko-fi. All help is gratefully received, we have a lot of expenses for the dogs and it’s never ending…Thank you :-) Please click the Ko-fi image below to be taken to our page. If you prefer to use paypal then you can send a donation to chris1212preedy@gmail.com
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