farm ventures

Things have been moving along here on the farm since my last post.  Term time has started again and the boys are settling into a home learning routine.  Will is enjoying face time with his mates and the little boys will have face time with their classmates later this week which they are looking forward too.  Elsie is going beautifully.  She's growing like a mushroom and engaging more and more to the world around her.  Everyone in the family dotes on her and shes constantly snuggled or carried around.  

The knitted vest and beanie are a part of a beautiful gift from my friend Becci.  

Elsie is not a fan of being put down. Ever. But she is so content when being held we don't mind.

We have been planning how to get a couple of income streams going from the farm, utilizing this time Grant is home to get them up and running.  In typical Grant fashion, he is always working on something!  

Firstly Grant has his wood roaches he sells in bulk to lizard breeders via Australia Post, which is already a well established small business.  Currently, he can't keep up with demand so he and William are building a new shed to expand into.  One of the things he struggles with here is providing the woodies with the correct temperature requirements now we live off-grid.  Any kind of electric heating draws alot of power, requiring a much

bigger solar and battery system then we can afford. The new shed will have a cement floor, be fully insulated and have a small wood fire to provide heat during winter.  It will have windows which can be opened up when it's hot and a well-ventilated area where Grant can clean, sort and box woodies for sale.  Wood roaches breed best when they are around 30-35 degrees and go dormant if they get cold, so this will greatly help their productivity.  As always we will source as much material as possible second hand.  The frame will be built from our own timber.  

Secondly, we have started our goat herd.  We are starting small for now with 9 pure boer nanny goats which we will move around with electric fences.  Goats are ideally suited to our land as we have a mixture of hills, bush and open grazing country.  The goats will utilise all the different kinds of feed available and they are hardy, reliable producers.  They will also allow us to manage the weeds on the property in a natural and sustainable manner, which will help long term with the regeneration of the creek lines.  The nanny goats are good looking young animals from a dedicated and thorough breeder.  Their mothers all birthed twins and two of the goats came from a set of triplets.  In a few months, we will introduce a billy goat for breeding. I can't wait to trial milking one to determine if having a dairy goat or cow is for us. The goats are all very gentle and tame and hopefully, they will pass these traits onto their offspring.                               

Finally, we hope to start an organic market garden.  We have about an acre of land around the yurt which is perfect for this.  It's good, flat land with beautiful loam soil.  Currently, we have started two large sections to experiment and trouble shoot with winter crops. We hope to plant more extensively in spring.  The market garden will require alot of work including irrigation and a greenhouse to start seedlings, but we have nothing to lose if we start slowly and steadily.  Grant will build a greenhouse with recycled materials at first and if we can get the market garden up running well a better setup will come in time.  A market garden is will be a lot of hard work, but that's never put us off a good project in the past and it has real potential to turn this place into a farm that can support our family.    

These three different avenues will complement each other well.  Damaged vegetables can be feed to the goats and the wood roaches, ensuring nothing goes to waste. In turn, their manure and can be added to the compost heap which will then help improve the soil.  Chickens will be added to the mix when we work out how best to design their coup to tie in with our existing design plans.  

Smoko (Otherwise known as morning or afternoon tea for overseas readers)

We are excited to be starting our farm venture. No doubt there will be plenty of trial and error, but with Grant's background in business management and agriculture, we are off to a good start. Our aim is to start small and get consistent results before we rush to branch off into other areas.  We are here for the long haul and slow, steady, thoughtful progress is how we work.  Tweaking things along the way to get the best outcomes, only making big changes once we are confident they are worth the added effort and expense.  Long term we would like an orchard, free-range dual-purpose chickens and pigs for our own consumption but there is no rush on that.  It will all come in good time.  

Much love,
Emma
xx