A quick tour of my place (pics enclosed)

[Heidi]

I thought some might like to see our place..
The Vegie patch

The australorps, light sussex and isa browns

Spot the House Cow

The Wiltshires & Suffolks (this lot will lamb shortly)

The meat chicks

The back paddock


H

[Glyn]

Great pics Heidi, looks like the veggies are all set up and ready to go in the spring, mulched, staked and weeded -most impressed. I love the look of spot, a nice friendly old sole and the sheep about to lamb.I'm green with envy.Yesterday we came across a chap with Dorpers which I would like to get but the prices he was talking about were horrendous. How can you eat a lamb if its mum is worth $600 to $1000 ?!! I just wanted something that sheds its wool and tastes good. Maybe we should go Boer goat - but they are not cheap either - or learn to shear. I will get out with the camera today if its sunny and put up some pics too.I hadn't realized it has been so long since I've taken any. Our place is not as tidy so I'll have to choose my angles well !
Glyn

[Heidi]

Hi Glyn,
Thanks. Looks can be deceiving... its great when you can angle the camera to minimise the mess in the photo! Also, Spot is a good milker, but she is NOT a lovely old anything! She HATES children (and dogs), and would kill a small child if given the chance, something I learnt when we first got her. We were working in the paddock and our (then) 2.5 yo son was toddling around, and she charged him from 20m away. Lucky we won that race and she didn't. So perhaps HOUSE cow is a misnomer. She will charge a barb wire fence or even the paling fence if the kids or the dog are on the other side, so kids know not to poke their hands through the fence, because she will try and squish their arm against it! However, she is perfectly fine with grown ups, and over the past 15months has only kicked the bucket twice!
Bye for now,
H.

[minnie]

Hi Heidi,

Great photos, I too thought spot looked lovely... wonder what kids and dogs did to her for her to be like that.

Glyn, gee whiz I didn't think dorpers were that much... I'd say keep hunting.

Vicki

[Shadowgirlau]

Great pics Heidi,
The vege garden is also wonderful. Loved the pics of the animals.

Yes the Dorpers are expensive, ours were $450 $250 and $350 so not cheap. Our last Dorpers were crosses and only cost $50 for 4 ewes and a full Dorper ram (the chap needed to get rid of them as he said). They were great sheep and hubby loved their meat so we went for Dorpers again this time. Are not at all happy though having spent so much for what was supposed to be pregnant ewes and find they weren't and we had been deceived. Still one lives and learns. We should have asked for confirmation that they were pregnant instead of just accepting what the people told us as being so. Hubby also hadn't wanted to be worrying about shearing although I still think this is going to be needed at some point if for no other reason than to tidy them up.

I was out with the chickens this morning and noticed that ours are growing quite well. The roosters are really begining to develop some lovely colouring to. Will have to decided in the next month or two whether I am going to have a go at incubating a few more eggs as I only have 4 hens and really would like a few more of those.

Kathleen

[dggoatlover]

Maybe Damaras would work also? Not sure on prices over your way though.

Those meat chicks are looking yum Heidi and I love the view from your back paddock. Just gorgeous!!!!

[Mojojo]

Spot does look like a gentle, lovely ol' gal, decieving looks eh?
Wow, great snapshots there Heidi, looks like a wonderful setup.
Maybe, just maybe in 3, 5 years we might get to about that stage...

[Heidi]

Yes Jo,
We've been here since 1999, had four kids, two floods, and one fire. The vegie garden and chookyard has been moved and reinvented more times than I care to remind my husband about, and he has extended our house paddock fence at least 6 times! We have been putting more dividing fences in the paddocks lately so that I can rotation graze the jersey, beef, horses and sheep effectively. My husband realised the other day that he was putting in all the same fence lines, that we took out in our wisdom of 1999! The place is STILL a work in progress! But I'm only moving from here when I break a hip on the spiral staircase.
Thanks all for the encouragement,
H

[Glyn]

Fencing has been a big thing for us too. We have gone from 4 to 17 paddocks in the 2.5 years we've been here. Next biggie has been weed control - that's very on going. We fertilized and watched as the meat ants collected bags of the granules for their nests before it dissolved! But we get there slowly. Our veggie garden has quadrupled in size and today I started a large area on the other side of the vineyard just for potatoes pumpkins and corn (can't fit them in the veggie garden any more). Inspired by your photos i thought I'd add some of my own- here goes-
from the front :-The vineyard

The lawn and the front paddocks

On the other side the brassica patch

Peas & Beans

And the rest

Front paddocks

Chooks on a rainy day in

Ziggy

Xena

Horseshoe dam cows and calves

The back block

And I've just realized I have no photos of the back of the farm -pity a few before and afters there would have been good- will have to rectify!
Cya, Glyn

[Heidi]

Glyn,
You're place looks great! Very organic (in that it looks like a living breathing thing that is growing outwards!). Like the pic of Ziggy, and does Xena take her name from The Princess Warrior? Have you got any grapes from your vineyard yet? I can't get my one vine to grow for love or money, its been sulking in the chook yard for over two years now. The horseshoe dam is great, does it have anything living in it?
Okay, got to go, thanks so much for sharing the photos with us.
H

[Shadowgirlau]

Loved the photos of your place Glyn. Fabulous. Now I am envious - you have a view just love views.
We initially bought a property with good views and I was in heaven but 12 months on the so called property title was still not available and so we pulled out of that one. (long story)

Anyway the property we now own does not have views although there are some lovely views going to and from it so all is not lost I guess Either way I am very happy here.

Thanks for sharing,

Kathleen

[minnie]

Hi Glyn,

I just love your place, and in my selfish way the cogs got going with once we start again we could swap things???

Are the vines for wine or eating? What's the rock feature, almost looks like Nimbin Rocks... not that I've seen Nimbin Rocks often.

Looking at everyone's veggie garden makes me happy that yours all look so good.

Vicki

[Heidi]

I'm guessing Glass House Mountain????
H.

[Glyn]

Heidi we really struggled to get a veggie garden going when we got here, we added huge amounts of horse and chook manure from the neighbors place, trailer loads of mulched trees plus gypsum etc and we got a very apathetic response for the first 2 years.We had all sorts of mineral deficiencies symptoms .We tested the bore water which smells a bit of sulfur (so should be acid) and it came back very alkali ??. Manure should have balanced that but never mind. Eventually we used tank water, no better.(I've since tested this and it too is alkali). So we mulched and mulched & mulched , and it all just disappeared into the soil which still remained cracked and dry and unhappy.Any way we now have access to large quantities of worm wee - (Viagra to veggie gardens) and in the last 3 months have dosed most of the garden with it. As you can see it has taken off (and I have not yet got up to speed on keeping up with the rampant growth of both weed and feed) goodness knows what the spring & summer growth will look like.We will now start dosing the back paddocks- and lets see what the meat ants can do about that!
Yes Xena warrior princess, our kids named a previous house cow we had Xena who was very like this one to look at and a lovely milker so we we're hoping to repeat a gem.
Grapes first harvest due this year - most are wine but there are 3 eating varieties
once they get going they are like weeds it takes a lot to kill them. I can send you plenty of cuttings when I prune again next winter if yours is still sulking. We have seeded both dams- Horseshoe and Deep with silver perch and bass. The SP are now eatable size which is great as we are too far from the sea to get a good supply of fresh fish.
Kathleen my Mum always said 'You cant live off a view' but for us it has always been very important.
To sit at sunset with a home brew beer, wine or whiskey , to stretch the eyeballs to the view and reflect on the events of the day, this is what makes this life style so special to us.
And Vicki those rocks are Mt Lindsay we are at the base about 5 km as the crow flys, its just inside QLD but we are NSW. And yes swaps would be most welcome, I know how many trail and error plants and things are needed to get a new garden going. Its hard moving into a new area where it takes time to get to know the locals and all the while your itching and too polite to raid their gardens for cuttings!
Glyn

[minnie]

Hi Glyn

I can see you from my place. I'm waving...

We see Mt Lindsay, Mt Barney and Mt Warning!!

We're testing the water (which I have to ring about today) for Alice, our well water can lean to the hard side but was perfect for watering the veggies etc and we wash with it (clothes) as well... so we're really hoping we can use the bore for washing and the loo... it's one of the handiest things to have - two water supplies.

Vicki

[Shadowgirlau]

Glyn while I agree with your Mother -

you can't live off a view

I likewise love to sit with a nice cuppa and contemplate while admiring one. Unfortunately it is never going to happen for me so I am just going to have to remain content to take in all the lovely views around me when I travel into town.

[Heidi]

I think I could live almost anywhere if I had a view to enjoy!
H.