![My Drought Story project lead Kate Arndell and farmer Karen Weller with the recently launched book. Picture by Peter Hardin My Drought Story project lead Kate Arndell and farmer Karen Weller with the recently launched book. Picture by Peter Hardin](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/164349425/0967cb23-f53b-4aba-959e-144eeadedb63.jpg/r0_0_5396_3597_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"THE worst drought to overcome us in our lifetime of farming left me bewildered for a while, but through sheer determination, I found the strength to survive."
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These words begin farmer Karen Weller's pages in book My Drought Story, a reflective compilation of photos and stories of the 2017 to 2020 drought.
Purely due to the drought, Ms Weller restructured and downsized her beef and stud cattle business. She and her husband had moved into the Tamworth area six to 12 months before the drought, and were in debt.
She didn't realise at the time, because of the uncertainty in how long the drought would last, but looking back two years later, she'd spent $250,000 on feed.
"And that's quite confronting when that money is poured into that, and then you start to question, do I really want to be in this agricultural game anymore?"
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"We know that we will have another drought, that's just inevitable," she said.
"But when anyone ever talks about the next drought, they say hopefully it won't be as bad as the last."
A challenge of compiling the book was finding that people don't generally think their stories are unique or special, she said.
"I think that's probably something in the country, no one thinks they're doing anything particularly interesting, but they are," she said.
There's also the element of nobody wanting to open up, farmer Karen Weller said.
"When you go through that as a producer, you're actually probably at the worst point of time mentally, physically, and financially," she said. "It opens up old wounds when you do have to tell the story again."
The book has been distributed to 89 regional councils across NSW and 45 regional libraries. The ebook is available at ramhp.com.au/news/my-drought-story-2/.
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