Four Year Anniversary

This weekend marks four years for us on our little farm.  Changing our lifestyle, changing our priorities and learning to enjoy a simpler life.

We came here with grand plans and big ideas.  We were realistic with them for the most part but four years have taught us that we weren't quite realistic enough for some of it.

We've had our share of successes and failures.  We've had panics and frightening times.  We've had joys and pleasant surprises.

Our goal was to become as self-sufficient as possible.  We were bearing in mind that there are things we can't provide for ourselves no matter what we do but some of the things we are providing for ourselves have been more successful than imagined.

We've managed several meals where everything on the plate was grown here.  Although that hasn't been as many as we'd have liked.  One year was a complete potato failure and last year the spuds went well - we are still using them - but all the other veges were a waste of time.

We've only bought two bottles of milk in the last four months.  I'm waiting on cheeses to ripen before I can cut them out of the grocery bill too.  I haven't bought eggs in a year and our excess is well received by friends and family.  Even though I have 30-odd freeloaders most of the time.  Nearly 40 hens and maybe 5 eggs a day at the moment, although every so often I find a hidden stash before the dog does.  He loves them and will even scoff down the bad ones - I hear a crunch, wonder what he's doing and then the smell hits me.

Our neighbours have stopped making jokes about Green Acres and the townies with big ideas and started treating us less condescendingly - although to be fair, it was never a nasty sort of condescension, it was kind and helpful.

Hubby regularly watches Country Calendar (including the old reruns from the 70s) and will get researching for himself when something gets his attention.  His ongoing battle with gorse took a new turn when he saw one farmer comment that it's good to get the animals to do some of the work.  He was finding that cutting it when the grass had grown up around it could be problematic as the grass would wrap around the shaft and bind up the blade of his scrub-cutter.  So he'll now cut some of it away, let the cattle in who eat the grass down around the base of the plants (depending on low-lying branches) and make his job a lot easier.  He's also found that letting it sit for a while after cutting grows better grass underneath.  Last time he was shifting some that he'd cut months ago, he had two cows and two calves on his heels the whole time, cleaning up the grass as he shifted gorse.

It's easy to forget some of the things we've done.  It takes someone to comment or to have a look at some old photos to remind us that there were fence lines we couldn't walk around or paddocks that were completely blocked from view.  We had paddocks that were more gorse than grass and over half of our little farm unfenced. 

Hubby used to make a point of getting rid of all the crap that was around.  Every so often, he'd have a big clear out and make a couple of trips to the dump.  We don't do that very often anymore.  The amount of times the crap we've found has ended up being useful for a project or works for a short term fix has taught us the wisdom in not wasting a potential resource.  The milking shed was built entirely out of recycled bits of rubbish. 

Even the gorse has been useful.  Last winter, most of our firewood was from the big thick branches of gorse that had been killed off previously and were lying around hidden under massive stands of younger, healthier gorse.  I'm talking about wood that is four inches in diameter.  It makes a great firewood, it burns hot, fairly slowly and actually consumes some of the ash in the fireplace - we end up with less ash than we started with.

The house is a constant project of improvement.  Many of the drafts have been fixed, one tube of Selley's No More Gaps on one corner made a ridiculous difference to the kitchen.  The rotten lounge floor has now been replaced, although that ended up needed new beams and joists too.  That cost us half a cattle beast and a pig.  Where one of the add-on rooms had been clad in tin that looked like weatherboards, Hubby and Dad spent a couple of weekends replacing this with timber weatherboards, insulating it and lining it with building paper.  This winter, we've noticed a record difference in heat retention inside, getting up to 15 degrees C difference compared to outside.

I used to think of myself as quite a good knitter and all round crafty person.  I've since come to realise that I could knit and crochet, but now I'd consider myself a bit more accomplished.  I could do the basics before, but now I can tackle more difficult projects with confidence and achieve some lovely results.  These days, I have standing orders from people around me for socks, mitts and jerseys.

You'd think Miss (now) Nine had been born to this life.  The homekill man was trying to be discrete when she was around but I think he was both surprised and delighted by her fascination with the insides of the animals and how they all go together.  I'll never forget her demanding to see the heart followed by "Eww, gross.  Can I touch it?"

We've learned to make both long and short term goals, to celebrate our small wins, to be kinder to ourselves and that there is no such thing as a "free weekend".

We frequently have discussions based around whether we're improving or maintaining and that some things come under both headings.

We've learned the value of water and not to take anything for granted.  We've learned respect for the land, respect for the weather, respect for all our animals and respect for ourselves.