Bellandarreh Farm

[Bel]

Well, we’ve finally landed at our dream home/farm at Mount Pleasant, South Australia. We moved on 27th September, but only managed to get satellite internet connected last week! The place has dried off a lot since we moved, but there’s still plenty of dry feed around for animals. As well as the 9 chickens we moved with, we’ve added 9 sheep (2 dorpers and 7 Wiltshire horn ewes), 2 alpacas (Hamish & Halifax) and a myriad of wild rabbits. I’ve also got 2 hens sitting on eggs at the moment (chickens next week – yay!). Since moving, we’ve learned how to shoot rabbits, kill & prepare roosters, fix and tension fences and got our 500m2 shadecloth-covered veggie garden/orchard under control. I can’t wait to share more with you – we are so excited. Here are some photos of Hamish & Halifax to start with.

[Bel]

The property was set up by previous property owners for horses, although we don’t plan to have any. We’re gradually adding wire to some of the paddocks to keep other animals in. Can’t wait to get some pigs!!

This is the dam before it dried out. It needs a lot of work for it to retain water. Does anyone know anyone in the Adelaide Hills who could give us a quote/some advice on how best to tackle the dam? We have some sodium bentonite in the barn, but don’t want to add it ‘willy nilly’ and waste it. Better to get some advice first….

The view from the top of our property:

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[Hummer]

Congratulations Bel, it looks loverly 🙂

[caddie]

Isn’t it lovely to look out over your own paddocks and dream?

Good luck with the dam, that I think should be a priority unless you have other sources.

look forward to seeing more of your place as time goes by!

[pavbenth]

Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. Lovely spot, too.

If I could have afforded the Adelaide Hills I would have bought there. But I didn’t want to have to take on any debt to purchase property. And thus, I bought in the Mallee.

[mudhen]

WOW! You haven’t exactly been sitting on your hands, have you, Bel?!! We LOVE the alpacas! They are gorgeous! You might tempt me into giving spinning another go if you ever decide to sell your wool – I have a friend with a loom too. I can imagine that you are all working hard but learning lots and having a LOT of fun doing it all too! Can’t wait to get up there and see you in your element!

[fruitful]

Hi Bel, long time no hear, glad you have settled in and got internet access :clap:

It looks fantastic there, WOW with all the animals you have and are going to get, I have a brother in law who builds and repairs dams but he works up north mostly, if you pm me any questions I can pass them on and see what he says? I can also get the number of a mobile butcher who comes around to your place and processes your animals if you want to go down that road. Two of my sisters get this done and the meat is divine, the butcher is very popular and needs to be booked in advance from what I understand.

It’s great that you have the basic infrastructure already in place to do what you want and it looks like it was done properly too. Can’t wait to come and visit when you are ready!!!!! 🙂

p.s.LOVE the name of your property

[Vanessa]

Fantastic to hear from you on here again.

What did you do with the rabbits? Did you eat them? or was it just to cull them.

We are looking to breed rabbits as a source of meat (and manure for the garden)

[Bron]

Wow, that looks fantastic!!

[Bel]

caddie post=359036 wrote: Isn’t it lovely to look out over your own paddocks and dream?

Good luck with the dam, that I think should be a priority unless you have other sources.

look forward to seeing more of your place as time goes by!

You’re right caddie – we are pinching ourselves that it’s actually ours. We couldn’t be happier!

Yep, the dam is high on our priority list. Luckily, we have a lot of rainwater tanks and also a bore, but we still think it’s important to get the dam fixed.

[Bel]

pavbenth post=359038 wrote: Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. Lovely spot, too.

If I could have afforded the Adelaide Hills I would have bought there. But I didn’t want to have to take on any debt to purchase property. And thus, I bought in the Mallee.

Thanks pavbenth. We initially looked at hills properties closer to town, but it was way out of our price range. We were lucky to have afforded this place, albeit with a HUGE mortgage. It’s worth it though, we think. Good luck with your place in the Mallee.

[Bel]

mudhen post=359039 wrote: WOW! You haven’t exactly been sitting on your hands, have you, Bel?!! We LOVE the alpacas! They are gorgeous! You might tempt me into giving spinning another go if you ever decide to sell your wool – I have a friend with a loom too. I can imagine that you are all working hard but learning lots and having a LOT of fun doing it all too! Can’t wait to get up there and see you in your element!

We just wish we’d had more time to do more mudhen! I’ll let you know when we get the alpacas shorn as we have no plans for the fleece (spinning is not something I plan to learn in the short term). Despite travelling a long way to work and spending daylight hours farming, we LOVE it and wouldn’t have it any other way. Best decision we ever made!!

[Bel]

fruitful post=359040 wrote: Hi Bel, long time no hear, glad you have settled in and got internet access :clap:

It looks fantastic there, WOW with all the animals you have and are going to get, I have a brother in law who builds and repairs dams but he works up north mostly, if you pm me any questions I can pass them on and see what he says? I can also get the number of a mobile butcher who comes around to your place and processes your animals if you want to go down that road. Two of my sisters get this done and the meat is divine, the butcher is very popular and needs to be booked in advance from what I understand.

It’s great that you have the basic infrastructure already in place to do what you want and it looks like it was done properly too. Can’t wait to come and visit when you are ready!!!!! 🙂

p.s.LOVE the name of your property

Thanks fruitful 🙂 When I get a spare minute or two, I’ll PM some questions re the dam to you. I’d love the number of the mobile butcher, thanks. I know the Mt Pleasant butcher also processes livestock, but I believe you have to take it to him. Yes, we are very lucky to have infrastructure. Even though some of the fences aren’t suitable for all livestock, they can be modified with minimal fuss. DH has become a dab-hand with a gripple tool and we are both learning new skills daily. We are regulars at the Landmark store – always something we need to buy! Hope to have a GTG for ASL’rs soon! 🙂

[Bel]

Vanessa post=359053 wrote: Fantastic to hear from you on here again.

What did you do with the rabbits? Did you eat them? or was it just to cull them.

We are looking to breed rabbits as a source of meat (and manure for the garden)

Rabbits are cleaned, skun and in our freezer awaiting Dad’s culinary talents. Looking forward to hearing more about your rabbits tales too.

[Bel]

Here are a few photos of our shadecloth-covered veggie garden/orchard. We were lucky that it had some established fruit trees in it before we arrived. The whole area was covered in weeds, but I’ve managed to uncover most of the beds (a small corner left to go!). We’ve got a cherry (already eating the fruit – yum!), apricot, peaches, nectarine, pears, apples, plums, mandarin and probably a few others I can’t think of right now. There was also some dripper irrigation in place in the veggie beds, which is fed from the bore. Fun times ahead! I’ve planted a few tomatoes and some other bits and pieces but wont get too carried away seeing as it’s so late in the season. The soil here is very sandy and needs a lot of organic material, so it’s lucky I have a free supply of horse manure from our neighbours.

We also put in an internal wire fence so we could keep the chickens in around the fruit trees, but keep them OUT of the veggie beds.

Oh, and here’s a visitor we had to the farm last night

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[Author]

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