When Tom and I met, it didn't take long for us to strike some common ground. We had both wanted to live on farms since we were little people. The longer we were together, the more we knew that our future together would involve making that goal a reality. So, some 6 years later, we sold up Tom's house (and our home where we had just experienced our second baby's homebirth) and began our farm change adventure.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Settling into the neighbourhood

Another productive weekend just gone.
We attended the district Christmas party (and were told about the Australia Day party to look forward to) and met our neighbours. Not all of them, but a lot of them. Some of them grew up in the area and return at Christmas to visit family and these are the ones who were very enlightening. We learned things about our property that a real estate agent wouldn't know (though we did like our agent!). It's time, in the 19th Century, as the site of a settlement with a train station came to a close when a landslide occurred. Not only did the landslide wind down trade by the creek, when the dam broke it flooded the next town, just a few kilometres downstream, and finished that off as a town, too. Our whole property was ploughed, by hand as well at tractor, later, for snowpeas. Even the steep bits I've only walked a couple of times - that's dedication! The last footage of the steam train that used to travel the railway was taken from the end of our hill that looks towards the Prom. The house that existed many moons ago would have been dismantled by the 50.
Tom had to fix a couple of things with the tank and it is now collecting rain water without leaking. Next time we go to the farm we will be able to plumb straight into the caravan - mod cons!
And the Tibetan Prayer flags are in place. It's feeling a lot more like 'home'.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Love your Catchment Management Authority...

I'm loving ours. The CMA in our area works very closely with Landcare in our area. Actually, they share the same building. That's how close they are!
I just got off the phone to the same guy I spoke to earlier this week and we are both very happy with the win-win situation presenting itself to us. I heard correctly last time when he said our creek falls under a priority area for the CMA and that there was the possibility of assistance with fencing and planting. He elaborated today, after calling me from where he was standing at the bridge over our creek, that our property will be high up on the list of priority properties for assistance in their program. In fact, he is compiling a list of sites to take investors to, and ours will be one of them.
He is impressed with the remnant vegetation at both ends of the creekline on our grazing licence area, there aren't that many willows and the creek isn't in a bad condition. They require an average of 10 metres on either side of the creek, which is half of what DSE required for EcoTender (about which we still haven't heard and now no longer require) for protection of the creek and the best bit is to come: the CMA will pay for fencing, erection of fencing and plants. Landholders pay for the first 10 metres of plants and the CMA pays the rest - sweet!
That leaves us with more money to fund conservation on the hills and fencing that Landcare won't cover on those projects. I am really having fun with this. What we 'lose' in grazing land (and it's debatable just how much was productive grazing land) we will gain in quality of life and boosted health of the remaining grazing paddocks. Instead of having 160 acres of varying quality land, we will end up with at least 30 per cent vegetation coverage, a very healthy waterway attracting aquatic, marsupial and monotreme life, a koala biolink, dreamy bird life, an exploratory wonderland for the kids and friends and family, and our grazing paddocks will thank us for it. In other words, there is no 'lose', only adjustment and gain.
We will meet with this key contact in the early New Year and then with these investors soon after that to make it all happen. The sooner we start the protection and reveg plans, the sooner we get to enjoy a wonderland that makes us money and gives us life.
As we approach our last Christmas in the Dandenongs, and begin to wind up our time here, I've got a skip in my step and a vision in my head to keep me from looking back. Forward motion.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Money and water.

We have a tank installed! Silly me took a photo of the ground being prepared for the smallest tank to go in first, and I didn't take one of the tank installed...ah, well!
With a little help from a brother, Tom worked hard last week (with two trips down straight after work) to prepare trenches and pipes so that the small tank could start collecting water. I will be able to report after this weekend as to the efficacy of works undertaken.
I've also had a chat with our accountant about our tax affairs. It was scary in anticipation of the appointment, but now I have complete confidence in what I have to do...wholly and solely because I've been recommended I leave the hard work up to the sweet, sweet magic of...SOFTWARE! The package she recommends is a PC-only job, and I don't fancy messing around with Parallels to get Windows on my precious Mac. So, I'm going with a package called MoneyWorks Express. I'm mostly through the tutorial and really excited about setting up account codes, recording receipts and generating reports. Sad, I know. Efficient, definitely.
I've been on the blower to the CMA guy who said he was going to do a walk of our creekline to determine if we qualify as priority landowners for assistance in water frontage management. He reckons we do, and he'll go back to do a more thorough inspection. Between children annoying each other (loudly) and dogs barking, I *think* I heard him say we ARE in a priority area and will be eligible for fencing and reveg assistance - brilliant! He also said they have done some work upstream and a bit downstream, so I'll be interested to see those works and plans of action for them.
Oh, and possibly the most important part of proceedings is the news that I have two poles ready to be 'planted' into the ground by the hill track gate, for the purposes of attaching our Tibetan Prayer Flags. It's gotta be a good vibe for us to implement this vital detail for the prosperity of the farm and of the universe we serve!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Learning, planning, observing

It has been a very, very wet spring. Even for South Gippsland standards, so I'm told.
Our hillsides are soggy from the overflowing springs that stream into the creek below, and the rains have kept coming...all the while, we still don't have our tanks connected...doh! Not to worry, if it's going to rain again anywhere, it will be in our neck of the woods.
This weekend just gone saw the conclusion of the workshop I had participated in, called Horse Property Management, that I have referred to previously. It was just brilliant for a newby like me! And not just for the horse knowledge. Not at all; it was a great overview of farm management with a view to sustainability of the environment that will provide a lifestyle and income. Of course, I learned some highly relevant and key things about horse management on any property, and that we are at an advantage for having purchased a 'blank canvas' of sorts, because we can design things much more cheaply than if we were redesigning an existing set up.
Many things I learned are held in common with broader Landcare principles, so we are still going to fence off the waterways, refence along contour lines, fence off erosion areas and revegetate, remove problem weeds and minimise hoof impact on the soil and grasses. Jane Myer, of Equiculture renown, educated us about horse herding and grazing behaviours, and opened our eyes to a lot of truths that have been obscured by 'common practice'; practices that worked for humans when we were managing a very different beast - the one that worked all day long, every single day. For example, stable design has, for the most part, not changed in 200 years, yet the use of the horse is almost unrecognisable from earlier times. Same for horse nutrition. People believe they are loving their horses more by filling them with the same grasses that cattle farmers use, yet all horses need is 'poorer' pasture and good rotation, based on various physiological and herd behaviour factors. We were most surprised to learn that best practice nowadays is to keep stallions with a herd of geldings or select mares - 'best' practice is most certainly far from 'common' practice. Most stallion owners still firmly believe in separating their entire beasts, believing this will protect both him and other horses. This is only true because the stallion has been kept separate all its life and has NO social skills, so feels threatened by other horses and becomes dangerous - it's not an inherent trait. After all, geldings are stallions who don't realise they've got no testicles, and don't miss what they never had...the urge to mount a mare. It all made sense when explained to us, and one participant reported at the second workshop that a friend had acted on this advice and now has a very happy stallion in with mates!
Anyhoo, I procured an aerial photograph of our farm, for the purposes of the workshop, where we learned about Whole Farm Planning, though we were specifically looking at accommodating horses on farms. Most participants had between 2 and 20 acre properties, with only a couple of us having more. No-one else quite had 160 odd acres, but then I was quick to point out that I don't have that whole 160 odd acres for my horse interests, either! The farm planning tools I have now I am sharing with Tom and have injected me with a new vigour, and also a fresh eye for observation of what's happening on our farm.
I'm noticing soil structure, type and land classes. I'm noticing grass types and growth patterns, steer behaviours, and natural features of our property. Most of all, I can't wait to fence off the creek and start tackling the pest weeds - the willow being the biggest offender. I have been learning about willow management and I'm keen to start rehabilitating the creek, with the front section of our creek line being what I want the rest of the creek line to look like in about 10 years. I'm in contact with the CMA (Catchment Management Authority) and the DPI (Department of Primary Industries) to see how we can get some bucks and expertise for this purpose, with the trade-off being that our Crown licence will be reviewed and adjusted, according to how much less land we'll be left with for actual grazing, once land is fenced off. Win-win. If we can come to this arrangement, then I will surely be the Landcare Queen! But before I get carried away, we have yet to do the more formalised Landcare iFarm 21 planning course, where we learn to do farm planning with provided software...and then I shall prepare for regal duties...
The grass is growing at an astounding rate, the temperature is rising through this season and snakes are becoming active. I saw my first one yesterday, in the creek, and it was black as black and FAT. So, we'll have to start slashing the roadsides and the areas surrounding the caravan, in order to be able to see any of them coming our way. And I'll have to keep the gate shut to the caravan yard unless I am walking down our road with the kids. They are not snake savvy at the moment, and it's only a teeny comfort that there's a hospital about 5 minutes away...
We're a lot more decided on house site location, and were only talking tonight about how to set up the dam there for swimming in. It's years off materialising, and so much fun to plan!
We have a gutter up on the shed and plan to do more to set up the tanks this weekend. This needs to be done, ideally, for us to make our farm move. I'm really, really ready to make the change and start living on our patch of paradise.
ETA: I forgot to write about the wet wombat! A flooded creek meant an evicted wombat had to wait for its home to dry out - but not before availing of the grasses along the creek. Here he is (or she, it didn't declare itself...):

Thursday, November 11, 2010

More land management learnings and caravan life

Well, we are now members of the local Landcare group. We met with the new landholder co-ordinator and she was very excited about our place and we joined up. This will open up a world of grant money for various projects that EcoTender doesn't cover (if we even GET EcoTender money).
Meanwhile, the Yarra Ranges Council (still getting used to them not being a Shire anymore) is offering a Horse Property Land Management course that runs over two days. I tried my luck, asking them if it mattered that the property in question is not in the shire but that we are. It never hurts to ask, and in this case that held true! I'll be doing the course this Saturday (no farm on Sat for me, but this is for the benefit of the farm and one must suck it up from time to time), and on another Saturday, with lunch and nibbles provided - may as well avail of my shire while I'm still in residence here! Participants also receive a $500 grant from Landcare (or DSE, one or the other, I can't remember!), which isn't huge, but may pay for a drinking trough that doesn't have to come out of our personal funds. Every little bit helps, especially when we're aiming to do the right thing by our patch of dirt, in the scheme of the biosphere.
Our steers are busy eating down the tall grass in the creek paddock - it was almost waist high two weeks ago, and they are making progress down that narrow strip of title. The grass is green as can be and we have more rains due this weekend. It's a pity our guttering still isn't done to fill our tanks (currently resting on their sides!), but if it's going to rain anywhere any time soon, it will be here.

The composting loo is set up in the shed, with its little fan running and is making life on weekends quite a bit more comfortable for everyone. It means I don't have to think of a reason to drive into town to use the public amenities...which is a shame, because I rather liked feeling compelled to go to the bakery for croissants! And I am rather enjoying the drive up a nearby road to buy farm-gate eggs - $1.50 for half a dozen and $3 for a dozen...yes, please!
We were also graced with the presence of a koala and her baby, in a tree right next to the caravan, for the entire Cup long weekend. It felt really nice to be chosen, and when we returned the following weekend she had taken her leave of us. I wish the wombats would!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Eco stuff update

Ok, that title was vague!
Due to the impending state election, we won't know the outcome of our EcoTender bid until later this year. Damn politics!
Our composting toilet has arrived and been shipped via efficient courier (aka Tom) to the farm and is awaiting installation.
I'm growing some oak trees from seed and have 15 shooting so far - they are so cute in their infancy :) Small Boy is very proud of his acorn collecting efforts and may even have some more respect for plant life as he sees the progress of what we started. No, oak trees are hardly native, but given we'll have a few acres to play with, I want to have some shady oaks and pretty Euro and Asian trees to look at!
So, that's farm changing, thus far...

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

EcoTender bid is IN!

I got the tube stock quotes, found a supplier for tree guards, got the fencing quotes...the bid is good to go! Wish us luck, cos any funding we can get to start revegetating is going to help get our block healthier sooner. If we succeed in our bid, not only will I be very excited, but I'll be very busy - I didn't quote for labour costs or machine costs...cos we'll be planting 982 plants...by hand...!

Friday, October 8, 2010

Practical arrangements

Well, another piece of the puzzle is falling into place. Toileting facilities!
Very soon, we will be the proud owners of a Nature Loo Compact 3. It's a composting toilet, and will make our time in the caravan very comfortable...cos it won't be in the caravan, for one, and two, it won't impact on our waterway.
The strawbale home we will build will also have composting toilets, albeit upgraded versions of what will be in the shed.
This is what you can expect to use when you come visit our new farm enterprise:
I'm easily pleased, and I'm really looking forward to having this most basic 'mod con' at the farm!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Regrowing the removed

We're going to do some regeneration on our place.
The creek area already has some great pockets of native flora and even though it's a crown grazing title, there's no reason we can't lock up some areas to get more plants happening, and going some way to restore the indigenous natives that once lived along there, before European settlers decided they knew better what to do with that land (only, they didn't, they actually raped the land and then left it because it was no good to them with the consequence of land slippage).
We're applying for any and every grant available to help us regenerate, and the current one is EcoTender, through the DSE, though there are many other avenues to follow, especially as we have a waterway.
Whether this bid goes through or not will not prevent me from sectioning off other areas of our acreage to create pockets of regeneration and a haven for the bird life.
At the moment, the creek area is really it for native habitat - wombats, koalas, kookaburras, bellbirds, whip birds and the like. And that's great, because it's near where the caravan is! One day, though, we will be living at the top of the hill away from my beloved creek line, and I will NEED to hear birds! The wombats I can do without...
So, ever since the day we signed for our new farm, I have been fuelled by a growing passion for restoring some of our tenure to its former glory. It may take all of our lifetime. And I don't mean 'tenure' for just the grazing lease. I consider the whole property a mere 'tenure'. Yes, most of it is 'freehold' and 'ours' in a Euro-centric, economic, legal and administrative sense. It's ours on paper.
I prefer to acknowledge that, according to some circles, we're just borrowing it. Borrowing the stolen, in addition. However, as my family arrived here in Australia after the fact of Invasion, we live within a system, whatever its merits. I acknowledge the traditional owners, the Bunurong People, as the original custodians of 'our place'. One day it may revert to them. Who knows? Aboriginal people have the skills to survive  and thrive in environments 'we' believe to be uninhabitable, and only because we don't have the intelligence about our environment than our predecessors did and still do. They could well outdo us in a resources crisis, and environmental crisis...climate change, for instance.
Anyhow, my aim is to establish some contacts with the Aboriginal community in our new locality (via membership of the South Gippsland/Bass Coast Reconciliation Action Group) and see if I can extract any knowledge about our specific location for flora and fauna. That's the plan. Of course, I'll keep you posted!
For now, we will start work on the 'ferals', such as Holly, White Willow and the Hawthorn trees. The White Willow, in particular, galls me. It's choking up the creek and whenever there is a flash flood in the creek (such as would have occurred today as a cold front passed through the state) debris becomes entangled in the elbows of the creek where the willows are. Broken limbs collect and end up looking like a half-arse beaver dam, where the beaver just knocked up a dam from the hard rubbish collection the night before...it looks choked. In a couple of years I hope to see a vast improvement, if I have to harness my horse to pull out the larger branches that impede water flow! I know that not all debris is bad, and if you saw some of these choked up elbows in person you may come to agree with me that it's not the way the creek was meant to be.
Grand plans, noble plans, human plans. All I can do is give it a red hot go, and hope that Tom feels the same way, because I will need help for these greening ambitions of mine for 'our' place that we are looking after. I've got a lot to learn, a lot of truths to accommodate and will need a lot of energy to fulfill half of what I've resolved to do. Energy I have. Time, I'm not so sure. But what's the hurry? We're moving to the country! That's a lot of peaches :)

Monday, October 4, 2010

Why South Gippsland?

I hadn't even heard of our district before going to see what was to become our farm.
We had been hoping to find a place between Gembrook and Warragul and quickly realised that we were priced out of this geographic range. We had gone to see a block in Strzelecki that had great potential, and I had gone alone to inspect a place in Mountain View, both south of Warragul, along the Warragul-Korumburra Road. I have family friends who live in Warragul on this road, and, in fact, my first horse lived on their property and it was where my horse owning journey began.
Not wanting to put in any offers too quickly on the Strzelecki place, we kept looking. Nothing was coming up in the listings, and the two places just mentioned had been on the market in various forms for months, so there was no rush.
One Wednesday night, whilst home from brigade training, I found a block that had just been listed and it sounded really ideal. I had to run it by Tom because it was further south than I had entertained. The listing said it was 5km from the nearest main town, which was attractive because the other blocks were at least 25 minutes from anywhere. So, I asked Tom what he thought of this location; "Hmmm, yeah?". So, the next morning I made us an inspection time with the real estate agent, who was so helpful and a genuine gentleman.
That Sunday we drove out, in the morning heat and drove down to park at the creek line to meet the agent. The further we got in the wider our eyes grew...only on the inside...I THINK we had our poker faces on...
By the end of it, and after parting with the agent, we hardly dared look at each other. Instead, a sideways, "So, do we make an offer today", sufficed to sum up where we were each at. The rest is history and we ended up in here.
A pictorial account of our purchase and first few months can be found here.
We recently took possession of our new, temporary abode; a 1978 Millard caravan.
The next installment will summarise what we've done so far to turn our former turnout block into a new farm. Stay tuned!