Welcome to Frog Song Farm

Easter 2011

2012-01-25T17:32:00.002+11:00

What a fantastic time we all had at Easter. Most of the time it's just the two of us there so it was a rare pleasure to have Katie, Tim and burr-dog Cedric with us. There were quite a few photographs taken so I'm going to make this post mainly pictorial.

Nothing had changed from our previous visit - no unwelcome surprises, thank goodness, but neither had the clean up fairy helped us out either.

Where were the 7 dwarves 'hi ho-ing' when we needed them?

I guess it's all about perspective.. in January we see "flood affected", at Easter it's kindling!

We don't put on the dog around here ya know!

After a bit of sleep

and some breakfast

(may I just say - DEAR GOD TIMOTHY!)

it was time for us all to get to work. These pics must have been taken the second day, as the grass is nice and short around the van.. Katie was a whiz!

Heckle and Jeckle got to work pulling down the old pen which proved to be quite a difficult and delicate task as the mesh had been buried a metre into the ground.

Tim - aka Axeman or Thor - began his quest for man hands.

The gloves soon got thrown to the ground with disdain. Yes, he threw them to the ground.

Soon, his hands were as manly as THIS...

but he didn't let Katie's insistence on having bandaids all over his hard earned wounds stop him from leaving her a message..

and not long after the photo was taken he threw the bandaids to the ground too and the spring returned to his step.

After a great deal of hard work one side of the pen eventually was cleared,

the materials were taken to the high ground on the other side of our campsite, and work on the newly designed 'modular' pen system began.

Meanwhile, back at the camp, I was getting some exercise..

getting the place looking nice,

and burning off some of that 'extra energy' I have so next time someone comes near me with a camera I don't have to shriek "god, my fat rolls" and start madly hugging myself.

Katie, on the other hand, is so thin that perhaps she should leave the mowing to me!

Evenings were always entertaining, as you can tell by the look on my face (and hers),

but Mother usually has the last word in most matters. Actually, I don't often have to say anything...

Now whilst we're having all the fun, the men were hard at work. No, really, they were!

Although Ray has designed this new system to be modular, construction is following the same process. That ground was rock hard because Russell had serious difficulty getting the digger to dig one metre down.

Success was to be had though, in the end.

The final result of our trip to Frog Song Farm was one section of our new pen finished

and some very exhausted but happy campers. Bring on Easter 2012!

PS. Almost forgot the foreman..

Cedric - aka burr dog. <3

So we've had flood, fire and drought - how's about some

2011-04-20T16:36:00.002+10:00

theft to go with it?!

Yep, theft. Not happy Jan.

The kids and I took a day trip last Tuesday to check things out for our trip at Easter (tomorrow, yay!) and discovered that our caravans have been broken into and our power tools stolen.

Really, what more can I say?

More updates with before and after pics to follow after Easter.

Hope the Easter bunny is kind to you!

This blog seems to have become a means

2011-01-17T23:42:00.008+11:00

of reporting on what's not happening at Frog Song Farm and to inform those who may be interested that we've had another setback. I'm tired of trying to put a cheerful spin on not so cheerful happenings and so in this post I'm not going to.

Friday at around lunchtime Ray received a call from Woody, a mate of ours who runs a few sheep on our place. Normally when he calls it's to tell us that he has some lamb for us for our freezer but I realised pretty quickly that he wasn't calling about that, and that along with thousands of other Australians we too were "flood affected."He started off by telling Ray (I could hear the conversation too) that we'd lost some fences, they'd been flattened by the force of the water and that his sheep were stranded on higher ground, cut off by the water that was still on the property. Apparently at that time the water hadn't subsided. When Ray asked Woody about the pen Woody very succinctly and in typical country style replied, "It's fucked, mate." And it is. By the time we got up there at around 4pm the water had subsided and we were faced with some very heart wrenching sights.

The log that you see up against the pen gate was originally about 8 or so metres away. I can hardly imagine the force of the water that swept through there - that log is bloody heavy! The shed survived, but the water tanks that we were using for wood storage, along with the water tank that was going to be used for water storage were all swept away and are now lingering by the creek, and our huge esky is nowhere to be found. Debris is littered all around the place, plant pots and Erin's old bike from the tip, and the old butchers cabinet that weighs a bloody ton has been picked up, dumped and smashed metres away from where it was.

We couldn't get into the pen via the gate because the log was blocking the way but no matter, we just walked over the fence that last week stood 2 metres high. The fence is leaning on the fruit trees but they appear to be alright as the poles are dug 1 metre into the ground and seem to be taking the weight of the fence successfully. I hope they don't buckle more because then we'll lose the trees too. Ray tells me that it's unlikely to happen.

The one boundary fence that we share with a neighbour was also washed away. It's the same fence that needed replacing after it was burned out in the fire that went through a few years ago. I'm hoping that things don't come in threes because I'm just not ready for a bloody tornado to come and rip the damn thing out of the ground once it's replaced again.

As we were leaving we saw our neighbour Anne who said that she's never seen anything like this happen in the 26 years that she's lived in Armstrong and that in 2 days she emptied over 200ml out of her rain gauge. In past years we'd have been lucky to get that much rain in 6 months.

Despite this event being called a "once in a lifetime/once in 100 year/once in 200 year" occurrence, we've witnessed flash flooding twice in the past 5 years and have heard stories of the previous owner also losing stock to flooding. What this means for us is a total re-think on where to go from here. We cannot replace the materials to rebuild so the next step is to salvage what we can from the original pen and re-design the whole farm plan.

Good grief

2010-12-28T09:17:00.003+11:00

time flies!

Again, nothing to report other than a tentative plan to spend some time at FSF over Easter.

I'm also going to try to have a day trip over the current holidays - wish me luck!

It's time,

2010-07-05T21:59:00.002+10:00

well and truly for an update, except there's really not much to tell.

We've barely been to the farm in the last twelve months due to Ray's shift roster changing (he now works day shift Saturday and Sunday) and my schooling. The last two times we have been it's poured with rain and we've gotten absolutely nothing done. The locals must love us - the rainmakers!

I'm really missing our time on the farm together. The place looks unkempt and unloved. It's pretty sad. :| The fruit trees are growing well, and Woody's sheep are happy there too I suspect but FSF is going to have to wait another 18 months at least before she's really going to start being looked after well again. Thankfully time seems to fly these days.

Plans? What plans...?

2010-05-12T22:05:00.002+10:00

I'm beginning to think that the only thing that plans are good for is starting the fire with! In fact, I don't even bother to write them down any more..

Here it is almost Easter

2009-03-30T10:54:00.005+11:00

and again time is getting away from us... thankfully this year things are going well.

There have been a few changes happening since I last posted. I have started studying, which takes place mostly on weekends and we bought ourselves a little caravan! Here she is...

Ray and Russell are in the process of leveling what Russell dubbed "The Love Shack", removing the wheels and generally making things comfortable - no rocking for this little van.. :D Ray has stayed overnight a few times since TLS has been set up but unfortunately I haven't as yet as my study weekends have been eating into farm time, but that's how life goes. I'm loving the course, so the farm sacrifice hasn't been too difficult. Can't wait to stay this weekend though! Now that the older girls aren't staying with their dad every fortnight they will be coming along with us and sleeping in a tent overnight - I wonder how long that will last!!

Ray has designed a shower/toilet block which we will be working on this weekend. Russell dug the post holes for it after helping us set up the van and Ray put the posts in last weekend. Rails this weekend and tin soon to come and yay, somewhere to wash.

We have decided to set up a courtyard area around the van for some privacy so here I am marking the intervals for the postholes that good ole Russ dug out for me... yes I do actually do more than sit in front of the fire watching the birds!

Once the post and wire is in I'll be planting a couple of mile-a-minute vines to create a non-permanent screen to provide some shelter. We'll bring the fire pot up there from the shed and set it up on some pavers, bring the old outdoor setting up from home and set up a nice little place to spend the weekend. When the girls stay we'll set the tent up in the screened off area too. So it's taken a while but we're slowly beginning to make the place feel like somewhere easy to stay. We even have a porta-potty, much to the girl's horror!! Better than than a hole in the ground, I say.. :D

Back again after next weekend to provide an update, should be an interesting one given that we're being accompanied by two ipod-loving, myspace missing teenaged girls! I don't even think their mobiles have coverage there... now where are my earplugs??!

OK, so I've run out of witty

2009-01-07T17:26:00.004+11:00

things to say about managing last year's hideous happenings. '08 is gone and '09 dawns fresh and new with everyone I've spoken with feeling positive about the year to come. If our fruit trees are anything to go by then all will be well. :D

We arrived on Dec 27 feeling rather nervous about how the trees would be faring after being so neglected this year by comparison to last year's mollycoddling and we were very pleasantly surprised!

Yes, there were still weeds everywhere

and Woody's sheep had made a terrible stinky mess in the shed, but we couldn't believe it when we saw Bonnie's tree and it had fresh growth on it, and our apple trees had these...

The potatoes from last year have sprouted again and we have three nectarines growing happily!

So, so far so good... mulching deeply has come up a winner!

More later... stay tuned!

Hmmmmm

2008-12-09T13:33:00.004+11:00

What a year! So damn difficult!

We've hardly been at the farm all year due to many and varied obstacles. Hopefully it will be different next year. We've decided that we need to get a caravan as the tent has turned out to be less suitable than we thought. I don't know where the caravan is going to materialise from but the goal is to have one by this time next year.

I have some photos to post from our last trip but I don't have the gadget to get them from the camera to the computer so I'll bung em up later on.

Right, so it's now later on and I have the photos available. They were taken on 15th November and they really show what happens when the we don't get up there often enough. Everything is overgrown and the thistles that Ray so diligently slaughtered have all come back again.

We expected as much but also expected to be able to knock them down every year, which hasn't happened this year. Thus the cycle begins again. These thistles will flower, set seed and bingo, another seed bank to contend with over the next 10 years. As the saying goes, "life happens"..

Ray slashed the grass down from around the fruit trees and into the pen a little bit, but didn't have time to do the whole pen.

We weeded around the base of the trees, gave them a good drink and mulched them heavily. We've not been back since then to water them but there has been some rain around Armstrong lately so hopefully they will be ok.

We plan to head up there this weekend (27-28 Dec) so I'll update again shortly.

Merry Christmas to all, and a wonderful and peaceful 2009 for all of us!

2008-09-15T16:26:00.002+10:00

We had another burial yesterday. Willy, our darling sweet 12 year old sheltie, had to be put to sleep last Wednesday due to old age.

We took him home to the farm yesterday and laid him beside Bonnie...

:(

2008-07-30T19:10:00.002+10:00

Well here I am again.. updating, well, nothing!

Since my last post we have been to the farm once, on June 14th to have a look around and to plant Bonnie's tree.

All was well with the trees growing and the tomatoes having long ripened on the vine and subsequently perished. An ex workmate of Ray's has patched up the burned fences and put some sheep in the paddocks to graze so I'll be interested to see how much they keep the grass down in spring.

I'll pop back here to report more once we get up to the farm again. In the meantime, life meanders on in Gisborne.

It feels like forever

2008-06-04T21:46:00.002+10:00

since I've been here to post an update.

Life has been extremely busy in our household as as such we haven't hit the road for FSF since we spent a few days there at Easter.

We've had Shelby's debutante ball, my grandmother's burial, illness in our immediate family and other more ordinary happenings which have kept us all very busy.

The other deciding factor at the moment is that petrol is so pricey! Thankfully the weather is cold now, and we have had some rain so the fruit trees don't need us there every fortnight to give them a drink, which is vital during the hotter months.

I'm not sure when I'll be back to post again - hopefully soon as I'm missing my patch of paradise terribly.

Stay tuned....

This weekend was

2008-03-12T20:14:00.005+11:00

not the weekend for getting much done on the farm.. it was too damn hot. Neither of us like the heat much but this weekend it really floored us.

We couldn't get accommodation for Saturday night so we stayed home and visited my Grandpa, went to the movies in the afternoon and stayed up way too late that night watching "Gone with the Wind".. :) Ray hadn't ever seen it (I have, many many times!) and I suspect that it was only Grandpa's recommendation that convinced him that 3 1/2 hours of technicolour and overdramatisation was a good idea!! haha! We both enjoyed it...

We were supposed to get up early Sunday for our day trip to the farm. We planned to get there by 9am but when we woke at 7.45 we realised that we were not going to beat the heat and that watering was going to be a real chore.

We plan to stay Easter Saturday and Sunday so the tent had to be put up and the floor fixed as our rabbit decided that last time she and the tent were in the same vicinity she would scratch the hell out of the floor. She was very close to becoming dinner that day but she lives on - away from the tent!

So we are prepared (somewhat) for our camping trip at Easter. We are expecting visitors on Easter Saturday which is very exciting for me as we've had visitors just once so far (other than our lovely neighbours of course ) - Mum and Al came up for the day last Easter. I can't believe that was a year ago. I'm really looking forward to showing our friends where our future lies..

Oh, the tomatoes have grown beautifully in the tyre garden but haven't ripened as yet.. any suggestions as to why?

We said goodbye

2008-02-27T18:59:00.002+11:00

to our beautiful Bonnie this weekend.

Last Thursday morning (21st Feb) we woke up to discover that she was not in the backyard. After a few tense hours and some phone calls to the council we found out that she had been struck by a car throughout the night some time and had been killed.

Ray dug her a grave right in front of the fairy stump and we laid her to rest there.

The current project

2008-01-30T18:58:00.000+11:00

is the construction of the chook house in the middle of the pen. As with the pen itself, the chook house is being constructed of galvanised posts and rails and the walls will be of corrugated iron.

We decided to construct it in this manner to avoid using timber wherever we can as timber harbours lice. The other reason is that the posts will form part of the aquaponics shelter/roof system once the pen progresses to that stage of development.

"What's aquaponics," you say? Ask Ray... :)

We have many

2008-01-30T13:37:00.000+11:00

high tech systems at FSF.. check this one out..

We have been known to wonder if we drive 2 hours just to have a snag in bread with a cuppa tea!

Having mentioned

2008-01-30T13:04:00.001+11:00

watering the tyre garden, I thought I'd show you our sophisticated watering system...

look at that lovely mucky dam water, full of goodies for the trees and vegies. It's like liquid compost!

These pictures are taken by the creek's edge, one looking towards the dam, the other towards the pen and the shed. It takes over an hour to water everything, even longer on hot days when we just about lose the will to keep going. We love winter!

We're always careful not to collect these tiny little cuties when get our watering happening..

Speaking of thriving...

2008-01-30T12:44:00.000+11:00

here are some of our fruit trees.

Although we didn't expect to so soon, we have managed to harvest a piece of fruit from FSF! A single cherry... hehe. We were very surprised to see it growing and hoped and hoped that a bird wouldn't get to it before it ripened enough for us to pick it and eat it..

We waited and waited and each week it was still there.. slowly ripening...

Ta dah! We had half each and it was worth waiting for... delicious!

Whilst the war

2008-01-30T12:25:00.000+11:00

on the weeds was being carried out, I busied myself with a small experiment. Ray had picked up a tractor/truck/not sure but sure is big tyre in his travels around tips and clearing sales and although I'm not usually keen to grow food in tyres, I set up a small garden bed to see how it would fare being neglected for two weeks at a time.

Having read about African women who bury unglazed pots into the ground as water sources for their plants I thought I'd give it a go. The theory is that by filling the pot and covering it to stop evaporation, the slowly seeping water provides moisture to the root zone of the plants. As we are not there to water more consistently, I figured that this was as good a system as any, and so gave it a go. Having said that, we have had during each fortnight away some rain at FSF so I am unable to give a definitive answer as to whether the pot alone would have produced the results below.. also, when we are there I give the plants a good drink, like 6 litres of water and obviously the thick mulch makes all the difference also... but I'd say that the experiment is a success - we're thrilled, everything is thriving!

FSF is truly a learn-as-we-go experience. We've never dealt with weeds before, we've never grown fruit trees or vegetables or built structures like these before.. we're flying by the seat of our pants! :D

On the weekend

2008-01-30T06:12:00.000+11:00

of Cup Day, we had some rain. Boy, did we have some rain! The creek is usually dry, and although our neighbour Dave said that it does run on occasion, I confess that I didn't really believe him. I stand corrected!

When we arrived at FSF on the Sunday morning we were surprised to see that all the mulch from underneath the fruit trees had been moved with what looked like some force. It was forced up the trunks and had also been pushed to one side of the boxing that surrounds the trees. We were really confused, pondering what on earth had happened. Eventually after looking around some more and noticing that the grass had also been flattened and that there was a high tide mark around things in the shed we figured that we'd had a flash flood. So, fire, drought and flood at FSF so far - Dorothea Mackellar eat your heart out!! Naturally as soon as we worked that out I hightailed it over to the creek, and it had burst it's banks! Naturally also we didn't have the camera with us.. aaargh!

Monday came and on Monday night I decided to pack the kids, camera and lunch and hit the road on Tuesday morning. I didn't really expect the creek to still be as full as it had been but I was disappointed to see that it had dropped a lot - still I got some photos of it with water in it and also learned a lesson - always take the camera!

It was a good day. Katie and Erin toasted marshmallows and Shelby had a driving lesson. I got the pics I wanted and Ray had an empty, quiet house to sleep in (a pox on night shift!).

Lately

2008-01-30T05:51:00.000+11:00

the most pressing issue has been weed control. As I mentioned earlier, last year Ray cut down hundreds of scotch thistles by hand, loaded them into the trailer and burned the lot. This year he got a new helper - a brushcutter!

Every fortnight since September Ray has been waging war on the weeds, concentrating on the scotch thistles with amazing dedication! Due to our no chemical policy, he's taken on a large task. The weeds have been beaten this year - they try to keep flowering and therefore setting seed, but they are weakening. However, that's only this year! Next year all the seeds that have been set from previous years will germinate and the whole process will start again. What's that saying.. "one year's seeds = seven years weeds.." Yikes.

An abundance

2008-01-15T14:21:00.001+11:00

of feathered, furry and frightening critters call FSF home.. here's a few more.

Our rooster who now resides in Ballarat. We never did get around to giving him a name, which is a shame really considering he was such a good boy. A true gentleman - keeping his girls safe and always offering the best tidbits to them before partaking himself.

We have heaps of wolf spiders lurking under the leaves and mulch. No matter how hard I try not to, I still get a fright when I come across one of these critters. Beautiful markings, scary as hell!

A spawning beastie! Ack!

Oh the biggest and scariest of them all! The other weebeasties get polite personal space afforded to them from me, but there's nothing wee about these beasties - they get half a mile put in between me and them quick smart! The buggers love to hid under the bark on the logs of wood we put into the fire in winter. I hate it when it's my turn to get the wood..

Despite being one eyed, and quite elderly, Willy loves to get up to the farm. He considers it his duty to patrol the pen perimeter every hour or so which then earns him the right to sleep under the trailer for the remainder of the time he's there.. :)

If a picture says a thousand words, then I'll just leave it up to Bonnie's face to tell you how much she loves the farm..

The lone ranger.. most unusual because this tree usually houses so many of these noisy sods that we can't hear ourselves think. I'm glad I like them otherwise they might drive me nuts!

Along with frightening, furry and feathered, we also have fungus! I have no idea what this is, so if anyone can enlighten us we'd be pleased to find out..

Over the

2008-01-06T21:54:00.001+11:00

two years that we've been hanging out at FSF, we've taken a number of photos of the folk who reside there permanently..

Katie discovered this little fella whilst spending a week with Ray at the farm during school holidays. She immediately dubbed him "the Gonzo bug". We've since discovered that he's a gorse weevil so we were pretty pleased to see him. We'd like a hoarde of his mates to turn up as well so they can knock off the gorse we have but unfortunately that's unlikely. Ray acquired a brushcutter in September so the gorse will be meeting with that shortly.

This little fella doesn't reside permanently but just stopped by for a feed one afternoon. He was remarkably friendly, letting me get quite close to him before wandering off to another briar rose bush for some more tucker. A great visitor - nice and quiet and didn't overstay his welcome!

This unusual creature is known as the Grim Fence Clinger, which has evidently migrated from New Zealand. He is a rare find, known for being fiercely protective of his territory and those within it. The Grim Fence Clinger has a voracious appetite, has been known to exhibit strange behaviour such as imitating monkeys, expels gas continuously, and amazingly for his sex, doesn't snore! All in all I'd have to say that we are most fortunate to find this rare and special creature at FSF.

A most Maori lizard! hehe, not really.. :) This guy is a Shingleback lizard trying to frighten away the giant with the camera. It didn't work.

Aren't they just beautiful? A pair of juvenile Welcome Swallow who left the nest the following day. Since then we have noticed many Welcome Swallows around the place but not any more babies. Two other nests have been constructed but no babies. We arrived recently to discover this particular nest had been knocked out of it's mud housing and was on the ground. We brought it home and Erin took it to school.

I forgot

2008-01-06T21:52:00.001+11:00

to say that FSF is 14 acres, and as you can see from the pic alongside the posts, its a very strange shape!

During...

2008-01-04T10:38:00.000+11:00

the end of 2006 until May 2007 things carried on rather well. Ray was busy looking after the chickens that we'd acquired and the pasture was recovering from the fire. We'd purchased and planted four apple trees and a cherry which survived the planting and the fire. We'd been advised that in order to save space we could plant two apple trees in the one hole, which we did. Construction of the pen was continuing with the lacing of mesh to rails and the connection of the snake netting to the mesh.

Here are some general photographs from that time...

The above picture shows the posts and mesh in the trench to the depth of 1m..

Ray's tent city with the pen partially constructed.. just to the left out of the picture is the shed..

This shows the same corner but from further back.. and about a month after the fire. To the left of the pic is the aviary which house(d) my galah Strewth (he's back in Gisborne now) which stands alongside the shed.. The fruit trees are planted running parallel to the left side of the fence (inside it, naturally) which also has the gate in it. The trees are too small to see as this pic was taken in Dec 06.

The CFA had to uproot and turn over the Fairy Stump during the fires, which I was most annoyed about.. they didn't put it back the right way! How are the fairies going to live in an upside down house?? After righting a wrong, and putting it back the way I think it went, all seems to be well. Their little mossy pools are up the right way again and their waterslides go down again, not up!

The upside of having all your pasture burnt out is that you get to see things that you might normally miss. We discovered this hole full of eggs just near the dam. I think they'd be some type of reptile, but we didn't get to see what emerged.

Our gorgeous chookies.. when Ray relocated back to Gisborne in May 07 these fluffy ladies went to a new home in Ballarat. We plan to have chooks again, probably Australorps, but not until we are close by.

Next...

2008-01-03T21:11:00.000+11:00

came the grassfire. On 21st November 2006 a limb fell from a large gum tree on the other side of the railway line to our property. Yep, one of our boundaries is the railway line from Melbourne to Adelaide. The wind was howling and the temperatures were high that day. Ray was still living in Ararat at the time and was at work. I can't recall how I found out that there were fires in the area but I called Ray and suggested he check it out... he did, and discovered that the fire had gone right through our property. The fire started over the other side of the railway line, jumped the line and whoosh.. there goes FSF. Luckily for us (and Ararat too) Ray had done a great deal of clearing in the previous months. He'd physically pulled out hundreds of dead scotch thistles that burn like firecrackers from underneath the gum trees along the creek and had collected masses of fallen firewood. What was a fairly cool grass fire could have become really ferocious had the thistles still been there because they burn so high and hot the canopy of the trees would have become alight as well. FSF is quite close to what is known as "The Common" and had the fire gotten into there via the trees along the creek the whole of Ararat would have been jeapordised. So, we're really thankful that it was a relatively minor fire, although we did lose one chicken who was sitting on a clutch of eggs and all of our fencing. We are currently still discussing with Powercor the intricacies of that argument! One of our apple trees was singed all over and although she's (pink lady) appearing to do well her bark is splitting and I'm concerned that she will die eventually.

Introducing...

2008-01-03T20:23:00.000+11:00

(Fanfare)... The Produce Facility.. (fade fanfare)

We bought FSF (so named due to the chorus of frogs singing one day whilst considering whether or not to purchase) with the idea that we'd like to be as self sufficient as is possible in this day and age without working ourselves to death.

Ray (the ideas and infrastructure man - also very cute with brown teddy bear eyes) designed our Produce Facility (aka "the pen") to be a self-contained food production area, fully enclosed and protected from predators. Within the pen we will eventually have our chickens, fruit trees, vegetable gardens and four aquaponics systems.

It is a 20x20x3m chain meshed square which will be divided into four sections, thereby allowing us to rotate the chickens for their excellent weed eating and fertilising abilities. In order to keep predators out Ray's mate Russell (Heckle) brought his dingo around and dug a 1m trench into which Ray (Jeckle) put the posts and chain mesh. We're pretty sure that nothing will be keen enough to dig 1m down through chain mesh to get to our chooks! After connecting the rails and mesh it began to look very much like a weird tennis court, or as some said to us, "is that the new Ararat Prison?" Along the bottom and also dropped into the trench is snake netting which is in the process of being attached to the mesh.. still. Once we have finished all the lacing and attaching of mesh and netting, and backfilling all the trenches the fun will really begin. The roof. I don't even want to think about that yet! Once finished the idea is that nothing other than the tiny birds who will of course want to eat all the buggies on our plants will be able to get in. Hallelujah!

More pictures of the pen to follow..

So...

2008-01-03T17:51:00.000+11:00

Whilst Ray was up on the block in the stinking heat, before he found work he built what is known as "The Camp Kitchen" (aka "the shed") whilst also working on what was originally called "The Produce Facility" but has since become known as "the pen". I think he's pretty clever because he built the shed without the assistance of any power tools at all. I suspect our new neighbours thought he was bloody nuts, and offered the use of a generator, but he declined, enjoying the challenge of doing it all by hand. Actually the neighbours still have a good natured giggle at us as we do things manually and without the assistance of chemicals of any sort, under any circumstances. One casually drops in "I've got some spray for that ya know" every now and then, but shuts up quickly when I ask him when his third teste is going to grow! Yes, we get along well with our neighbours thankfully.

And then...

2008-01-03T17:40:00.000+11:00

We contacted Margaret from the Solar Sisters for a consultation about how suitable the land was for our ideas. We were certainly idea rich and experience poor then (and aren't much different now!) so we considered that it was a very good idea to get some help. Margaret came along and brought a friend, Gareth with her and we had a lovely time chatting with them and getting some advice. The photos are of the view from the front gate down to the belt of trees along the creek, which runs only after a deluge; next is the dam, and then the natural waterhole which we call "the swamp". The creek runs right through the middle of the property, with the dam and the swamp being "over the other side" which is left completely alone.

Consequently we put in an offer on the place and it became ours in December 05. To say that we were thrilled would be an understatement! Ray threw in his job in February 06 in order to live in a tent on the block and get our new life underway. The plan was that the girls and I would follow him there in March 06 to rent in Ararat whilst we built our home on what was now known as Frog Song Farm. Unfortunately that plan went astray and Ray lived up there alone with me commuting there every second weekend until May 07 when he came to live in Gisborne. We now only get there every fortnight for the weekend and that will continue for quite a few years, but we're still managing to get a few things done whilst we're there.

Before the beginning...

2008-01-03T17:24:00.000+11:00

Just a little bit of background about us... Ray is from Palmerston North in NZ and I'm from Melbourne and we met in March of 2004. We're really glad we met because we're just made for each other! After all, how many people confess to wanting to seriously live in a hobbit hole?!

After a number of outings looking at various blocks of land in and around our local area of Gisborne and coming up with nothing suitable I started looking on the internet for suitable land. I plugged in "land under 25 acres in Victoria" (or something like that, my memory's not much chop) and up came a lovely property in Armstrong. Ok.. Armstrong. Where the flip is Armstrong??

It turns out that Armstrong is a blip on the Western Highway halfway between Ararat and Great Western in Western Victoria, just a short trip from the Grampians. Niiice! We decided to go on a wee drive that weekend. Poor Ray, I bent his ear for two hours on the way up there about the "must haves" that were not negotiable in order for me to consider changing our lives so considerably. I honestly think that the list was so I could find some fault with the idea and get out of it! You guessed it, everything on that damn list was covered! Which, I might add, I'm very happy about. Now. ;)

In the beginning...

2008-01-03T16:10:00.000+11:00

there was Linda, Ray and the girls, Shelby, Katelyn and Erin.

I'm Linda, and I'll be keeping this blog about our dream, Frog Song Farm. Hi!!

Hmm, having seen this photo closer I'd say it's not the best one of us, or the most recent having been taken 3 years ago, but anyway, that's us..