s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

Hard to believe, but today marks one year here on the farm. Much has happened.

We had visits from my parents, Tamara’s mother and Joel, our friends Doug and Debbie from Phialdelphia, and Smiity and Clare from London. We hosted about half-dozen Bellydance parties, with mucho dancing and live music. We hosted about half a dozen SCA mini-events, with fighting, archery, singing and crafts. Nothing like keeping the social-events callendar full!

Around the farm we installed a new 22,500 l water tank for the house, and later a 750 l “header tank” to provide water to new troughs in the paddocks. (no more old rusty bathtubs! yay!) About 225 meters of new fence line was built, and multiple Ute-loads of debris and garbage were hauled out of the paddocks and away to the tip.

We began making serious progress against the gorse and broom. Most of it is now gone on the front half of the property, and a big chunk has been taking about of the massive patch on the back hill.

We purchased our first stock. Oak and Chris arrived in December, then Pointer came in January. Chris died in August (very sad). Jim the Llama came in October, and then Victora and Cariboo, our first female alpaca, arrived in November.

What do we look forward to in the next year?
-the arrival of our first cria (baby alpaca), probably in March or April
-the arrival of two more female alpaca
-tearing down the old nasty kennels and putting up a nice 3-sided kitset shed
-building about 500-1000 meters of new fence-line
-building stock-shelters in most of the paddocks
-planting fruit and nut trees around the house to make a proper garden
-planting some shelter-belts to help break the wind (shelter for house and stock)
-re-doing the bathrooms to make 2 full baths from 3 weird half-baths
-removing the rest of the gorse and broom (cut, drag, burn, whee!)
-hosting lots of fun dancer/SCA parties
-getting other friends from the States or Europe to come and visit!