Farm life calls for Sam and Robyn Martin, as a new opportunity awaits

Calling the Bega Valley home for so long, while Sam and Robyn were excited for the move, leaving the community that has been such a big part of their lives came with some mixed feelings.

"I'm excited about it but there's also things that make me nervous about it too. Obviously it's a big shift for me and the family to go into a new community," Sam said.

"Given that I'm pretty connected to my community here, and have been very involved in Candelo and across the South East that's going to be a massive part of my life that is going to shift."

It'll be a year of firsts for the Martin family, calling a converted 1978 school bus they found on Gumtree home as they immerse themselves in life on the farm, a part of wife Robyn's family for generations.

"Her parents are looking at retirement and we thought we'd head down there to help them with that transition," Sam said.

"Also it was an opportunity for us to give our kids an experience of what it's like to live in a very different community."

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While it was bye for now, Sam anticipated only spending a year away from the Bega Valley, but will "see where the wind blows", with his focus shifting to the 1820-hectare biodynamic wheat and sheep farm in need of some TLC.

"Robyn and I are just going to be around to assist in what we think will be the last year of farming on her family's property," Sam said.

While the Martins will be heading off in March, Sam's Caravan will continue to roll on around the Valley in the safe hands of some close friends and colleagues, with plenty of gigs and events in the works.

"The caravan is doing two events in February. Candelo Cabaret, a night where I'm featuring Barry Morgan's World of Organs and Rhys the Trickster and a contortionist, so a bit of a variety night on February 11," Sam said

Sam's Caravan will also be putting on a show on February 18 in Pambula at Covington's Wild Rye on February 18 doing a show with Sam Stevenson and the Deep South and Petrol Bomb.

"There will be that part of me running here without me, so that will also be an interesting thing to contend with.

"I'll still be managing a lot of the interactions around events," he said.

As for teaching, both Sam and Robyn will be taking the year off school - Sam from Eden Marine High and Robyn from Candelo Primary.

Sam also hinted that he was looking forward to revive his YouTube channel 'Refuse Revival', restoring and repairing machinery and farm vehicles as well as tinkering with creating things from rubbish.

"I create things made out of rubbish essentially and I'm dedicated to making sure we use everything to its last possible point.

While music won't be the main focus, it's something that's never far from the Martin family and Sam said he would continue to play during his time on the farm.

"I reckon we definitely will. I'm hoping to actually come back with a whole album's worth of material and maybe use this space as a bit more of a creative time to write music.

"I'm sure there's going to be a lot of music in our home, and we will find the music community over there if it doesn't find us first. It's such a massive part of our life that it will always be there in some way shape or form," Sam said.

All the info on Sam's Caravan events can be found at www.samscaravan.com/

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