We are in a technical age where so many of the basic life skills are eroded and the Aussie volunteer has a catch cry of “You’ve gotta be joking!” except for the old faithful CFA.

Yes, we are in a time of change, but is it for the better? More people, better roads, schools, hospitals etc - the spin is endless. Have we lost the will to work together?

Where is common sense? Where is the Anzac spirit? What is 100 years of Remembrance on the 11th hour, of the 11th month at 11 o’clock?

I contemplate the little things; but big-ticket items always grab the limelight.

A new police station in Daylesford; but the trouble is, in the last couple of weekends serious punches have been thrown, people hurt, police called but no one in attendance. A response from Bacchus Marsh is not good enough, politicians.

I do my best to handle my waste and rubbish correctly, but now I’m paying to recycle. Certainly, there is encouragement to do the right thing (joke); but Clean Up Australia Day will keep me busy next time round.

I live next to the Wombat Forest on the north end. Over recent decades we have had four serious burn-outs on our farm, this has tested our family’s endurance.

Rumour has it that the Wombat Forest is to become a national park, controlled by a few fuel reduction burns, plague proportion kangaroos, wombats, foxes and rabbits, with four-wheel drives, motorbikes, maybe future tourists and not many forest workers or cleared tracks, a so-called pristine forest for the firebug or to be held to Mother Nature’s ransom.

Rogue dogs killed our sheep and our neighbour’s goats – no one was held to account.

The NBN is coming and I’m losing my landline, power is unreliable, the creek has become a haven for vermin, choked downstream by logs and willows

I’m a bushman at heart and I fight to uphold the principles of our pioneers.

I try to make a difference by being generous towards those who need a hand up in their lives and I’m thankful to be living in this lucky country of Australia.

But on the other side of my country fence, I see many who will not work beyond their next cup of coffee.

They see some of the farming problems that we have as good attractions for the tourist dollar and they see the real bushman as a cause of climate change.

You may well ask yourself, who will take notice of me? I am only one vote, should I care?

Think hard about who you place first and second on your ballot paper in November.

Make the small things count, make our representatives represent us, ask questions that will satisfy your needs.

Remember, power rests with the average person, not the politicians with global expectations and their own interests at the forefront.

Remember, charity begins at home.