After the whirlwind of the last three months, we are excited to be finally settling into our new home.  We have started unpacking boxes, the shed is slowly coming to order and we are starting to realise that Christmas is only a couple of days away.  It has taken a lot of ducks to line up in order to pull off the move, and more people than I could ever imagine to thank, but here we are.

The house was built in the mid 1980s – and is in original condition.  Whilst we have ideas about how to renovate it, we are making sure we live in it for 12 months first to get a full appreciation of how the house functions during the seasons.  I have joked that I am looking forward to 12 months off… but in reality it means I have a year to get the farm in order before my time will be taken up renovating!

In a former life, the property was used as a horse stud.  It has a collection of old stables, shelters, hay sheds and small paddocks.  In fact we have gone from three large paddocks at the Rock Farm to over 20 smaller paddocks.  This will work well for our plans of soil improvement through cell grazing, and I am really excited with this prospect, however there is lots of work to be done to tidy up the day paddocks and sheds.

The infrastructure is best described as ‘tired’.  Some of the solid fences will not take much work to bring into order, however there are kilometres of plain wire fences that need a lot of work.  The sheep are not contained by these fences, and I will have my work cut out ensuring our fences are stock proof.

But the property has grass.  Lots of grass.  And we will be looking for some cattle to help us manage the pasture.  I am really looking forward to experimenting with holistic pasture management through the use of livestock, and this property has real potential.  In the past, 20 acres or so has been sown to lucerne.  We may use this paddock to cut meadow hay, which we will use for our own stock / soil improvement projects.

The boy’s love the new fantasy land they have discovered.  The new place has a creek running along one boundary.  This will create lots of challenges with flood gates to repair and causeways to cross – but it also provides a beautiful cool haven to escape the hot days. The deciduous elm trees also do their part in creating a nutrient rich, moist soil, but I will have to manage their tendency to spread by suckers..

We had many ducks to line up with the purchase of this property.  Friends of ours bought the adjoining 200 acre block, and are looking forward to building a house on their block.  In the meantime their beautiful horses will spend time between both our properties… and I have no problem with that.

I think we will like living here 🙂