Over the coming weeks the GLA will publish a range of outstanding stories entered in the competition.

This is Kaitlyn’s story, as it was submitted.

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6-2- 1861

Dear diary,

It was an early February morning and it was time to start planting some of my corn seeds. At about 5 am, I rose out of my luxurious slumber and I trotted down to my wife who was busy making me some cold porridge. I slurped it down like a horse that is drinking water after a busy day of harvesting. The markets were a few weeks away so I had to get moving. I grabbed my hat and pulled up my pants; it was time to get motivated. I saddled up my horse, whose name is Rusty and struggled to shove the bit into its mouth.

Then we were off to get the plough. I took off all the gear from my horse and put the harnesses on then I hooked up the plough. It was go time! It took a while for me to remember that I was leading Rusty but I soon got a grip on everything. By the time it was lunch, I already had three fields ploughed and only two to go. When my wife called me for lunch, my horse Rusty and I decided that we would eat in the west field under the big oak tree. After lunch I got the two fields ploughed in an instant. When I arrived back to the homestead, my wife put me under strict orders to go to town to get some bits and pieces. I thought to myself this was a good opportunity to go to the pub and have a couple of cold ones with my old man.

When I went to the paddock to collect Rusty and hook her up to the cart, I noticed how many seeds I had. I knew straight away that there would be enough for this year and next year. I was delighted at this thought.

8-2- 1861

Dear diary,

Today was my birthday, it’s not a big deal but my wife thought it was because when I went to the kitchen, I saw a bowl of HOT porridge. When I took a spoonful of porridge, there was a note in there and it said Richard I am pregnant. After that moment it was black. I woke up about three pm and I was still shocked. I then realised I forgot about the farm work. I jumped off the floor and ran to Rusty and rode her bare back to the seeding machine because I had to finish at least two fields before dinner time, then had to work myself hard afterwards to finish them all. I got the first one done in an instant but the second one not so lucky, at first one of the seed droppers was clogged and then I was a few hundred seeds short so I had to go back and refill it. By the time dinner was ready, I had only got halfway on the second one. Then after dinner I finished all the fields at 2am in the morning. I had only three hours to sleep.

23-6- 1861

Today was the day it was time to go to the markets. I was super excited so I got up at 4 and loaded everything into the cart. My wife was to accompany me even though she was heavily pregnant. I had over one thousand corn on the cob to sell; they were going to be one shilling each. By the time it was 8am the markets were packed. Customer after customer, person after Person. It was only 11am and I had already sold half of the corn.

I was getting heaps of money and it was nearly enough to buy me another horse or another piece of farm equipment or even some wheat seeds! And then it happened! I heard a faint scream from the back, it was my wife who was going into labour. She was three months early so the first thought was this baby wasn’t going to survive. I heard myself say “Nurse is anyone a nurse,” This youngish man came through and said he was. So I was helping the guy deliver our baby. It was a very slow process but then I heard another faint scream except it was more of a cry, it was the baby and the baby was a boy and he was alive.

The doctor told us that he was going to survive and it was the happiest moment of my life. I knew exactly what I was going to call him and that name was John.