Hiya. I bought a farm. Well, almost there. Offer and acceptance signed. Waiting now to see if my soul is enough for the bank to lend me the money, or if they want to take my heart and vital organs as well.
But, lets assume that the bank says yes, otherwise this blog will be rather short, and pointless, except as an outlet for my frustration with the banking industry!
It all started, many, many years ago.
I come from a farm. I remember laying on the dirt staring up through stubble at endless bright blue skies. I remember my Dad throwing me up into the wool nets in the shearing shed, in the cold winter nestled in the freshly shorn and still warm fleeces, sliding down and then begging him to throw me back up there. I remember being constantly barefoot, carrying a chicken around in my arms and it ... well, dumping down my leg. I remember eating sheep poo under the shearing shed, and building little homes for the ants out of almond shells and wondering why they didn't want to live there. I remember watering Dad's strawberries directly to their roots with the hose turned on full ball, uprooting them in the process...
I could go on (in fact I do) so I will cut to the point. Those memories are all great, mostly, the memory of open space, and isolation. I want that again.
I want to bring up children having all that, and knowing where their food comes from, knowing that you have to work hard to make way in life.
I want to earn my living honestly, and be a primary producer. Growing food to feed people is important.
I want to farm sustainably and minimise the off farm in put in terms of fertilisers and sprays etc. I want to be working towards being self sufficient, in almost every way - power, water, food, and personal satisfaction, minimising the things I need to buy to live my life.
Travelling through South America, I think it was, when Richard and I came to realise we both want the same thing - if not for the same reasons, but with the same end result. So we started talking about it, and thinking of where and how we could do it. Richard came up with the idea of growing table grapes, having had some experience helping someone out with their grape farm previously. It was also something I had looked into previously.
At first we looked to the very south west of WA, Pemberton, Northcliffe and Manjimup. Beautiful tall trees, lovely country, beaches within cooee, but oh so far away to truck produce to market.
All of a sudden, a few places around Donnybrook looked like they might be in our budget range. With the new freeway through cutting the journey to Bunbury to around 2 hours, and being just half an hour away from Bunbury, the travel time issue is resolved.
So Donnybrook it is.
Again, to try and cut a long story short, we've been looking at that area for about a year.
Found a place, did buckets of research on everything, and I mean everything. Will the grapes be financially viable, is there enough water for them, how do we get power, where will we build, what will we need, and for that block in particular, how much is it going to cost to rehabilitate the 20 hectares of bluegum plantation, will we be able to afford it.
Went down to make an offer, last minute went and looked at a second property, and decided instantly that the new property (at Yabberup, 18 kms east of Donnybrook) was the ONE.
We found it. One day of research covering all of the above, offer in, done.
110 acres of gorgeous. Half trees (Marri, some Jarrah I think), half pasture. A million gallon on stream dam (110m x 60m) two creeks, some outcropping Jarrah, and a big, long, not too steep north facing slope to grow grapes on.
More details about the place and our plans coming up later. But here's some photos...
