The reality of a dream...

For as long as I can remember, Kristian and I have talked about owning our own land and raising the children in the country.  Where exactly, we weren't sure, but what we wanted, that we were sure of.  Fast forward to the present, and we are "living the dream" so to speak.  What does living the dream look like for us though!?  It looks like hard work.  Capital H, capital W.  Not much here has been easy, in terms of getting things set up.  This is an excerpt from a blog post I was writing back in April this year, it sat there unfinished but as I re read it today it was a good reminder of how, slowly, things take their form.

Im not gonna lie.  Some days out here are really hard, and the things you appreciated the day before you might detest the very next day.   Yes we are living our dream, but at the core of that dream is a lot of really hard work and sacrifice.   We have no hot water, no indoor bathroom or toilet, Kristian and I don't have our own bedroom- we sleep out in the living area of the shed, we don't have a ride on mower- 30 acres and no ride on.  Little annoying things like no dressings on the windows yet, mean that when I stand in the kitchen to do the dishes (after I have boiled a kettle or two) the morning sun beams down on you like its intent on making sure you are hot and sweaty before 8am in the morning. Flies are in plague proportions which we can't really do anything about because we live with the roller door up and sliding door open just so we don't all suffocate and breathe in each others carbon dioxide.  To do a load of washing I need to plug in an extension cord inside and hang it out the window so it can reach the machine.  If I'm lucky I'll get to have a cold shower by myself in the outdoor shower, but more often than not, the neighbours horse is looking at me, or their dog- insert wide eyed blushing cheek emoticon. 

I am happy to report that since April, we have hot water, bless the risen Lord! We still don't have an indoor bathroom or toilet, but that doesn't really bother me anymore, its actually kinda nice.  We now own a ride on mower and a total of 10, sheep, four goats, and one cow, so these also act as very good lawn mowers!  We also have curtains, which might not seem like a big deal, but I'm a big scaredy cat at night and I feel much better at night having covered windows.....I mean hello, boogy monster! The washing machine has its own power point outside now, and although I have to cover it with plastic and a kids shell pool after each use (to keep it dry) its all good! Hubby and I still don't have our own bedroom, but the living room is as good as any and when the fireplace is on, quite cozy.

Why do I say all this. I say it to remind me, you, that every dream, will only ever be a dream unless you do something about it.  Laying dormant out there, just waiting for you to put action to it.  A big lesson I have learnt (still learning) in my life is to not play the comparison game.  Its debilitating and really serves no purpose.  There is no point comparing your life and your challenges that only you know you face, to someone else's seemingly perfect or happy life.  Behind every great dream is a reality.  There are the days I lose sight of the dream.  The reasons for us wanting to go on this adventure in the first place.  The thing is I have to remind myself that we are on a journey.  Journey, meaning it will take time. You know, if we had $2 mill to throw at this project (I'll leave our bank details at the end of the page)  and as nice as that would be its not our reality. There is something very satisfying about what we are doing. Even in the waiting, we are learning and growing and as much as we are busting to get things done, its ok that it will take time.  Its like growing a baby, its uncomfortable, and it stretches you, sometimes leaving its mark, but you know what awaits you at the end is a beautiful God given creation.  I can say Kristian and I have never worked harder, and thats a reality.  With every decision we make, there are dollars and time attached to it and I can confidently say the thing that makes it seem easier or all worth it, is that its OUR dream!  We are on our way to being able to eat food we have grown and raised on our own land, we are giving the children the childhood we so desperately wanted for them and we are happy.  Sometimes physically exhausted, but happy.   

One hot day I was shovelling a massive pile of crusher dust onto the trailer shovel by shovel.  Peppa was standing in the trailer with a broom kinda moving it to the back of the trailer.  At one point I got over it and looking at the pile I said "Far out there is still so much to do", and Peppa said to me "Mum thats because you're looking at the big pile in front you and not at all the stuff you've already shovelled into the trailer".  I love a childlike perspective to get you refocused.  (Phillipians 3 vs13,14)  Look how far we/you've come, and be encouraged.

The reality of a dream, is that you are awake, and present and everything you do is shaping it and breathing life into it. 

Eliza x

ps. I will do a blog post soon with some more specific photos or videos of some of the things we've been up to around here. 

When sheep have babies

The day we had all anticipated finally arrived, when on a Friday afternoon a little wobbly legged lamb was born. We didn't actually get to see him being born but felt pretty certain he hadn't been out long.  Obviously the girls were all running around screaming and I'm pretty sure the neighbours would have heard the squeals too.  It became apparent that the mummy sheep didn't like the idea of lamby having any milk.  She would kick her leg anytime the lamb would try and suckle.  With this being our first time seeing any of this process weren't exactly sure what to expect but had a feeling things weren't quite right.  We did however have it on good advice to not intervene for at least 24 -48 hours to let him and his mum figure things out.  On Saturday night it rained all night and although it was desperately needed for the land, I couldn't stop thinking about the little lamb outside.  Anyway he survived the night and through Saturday we kept checking on him and he seemed so weak and skinny and as far as we could see mum still wouldn't let him feed.  Unfortunately we don't have any kind of hard fencing set up yet  (only the electric net fencing) and that meant we couldn't try and get mum and him and put them somewhere on their own or try to put the lamb on the mum to feed.  After a day of no improvement and seeing how frail the little lamb was we knew we had to intervene. 
 So everyone, meet Buddy.

The new baby of the family.

This was the moment he fed for the first time.

Little Lasky saying hello.

He is now 11 days old and thinks he is one of us.  For the first 7 days he slept in a little pen inside with us at night so it was easy for us to get up and feed him.  That however had a short lifespan because between the cat, who hunts cheeky mice at night, and Alaska who still doesn't sleep through and Buddy bleating at anything that moved....well we had issues.  I have now (with the help of my Aunty) made a secure pen for him outdoors underneath the trampoline and he had his first night out there on Sunday night.  We give him his last feed at 10pm and we all sleep a bit better now.  I have put him back in the big paddock with the other sheep a few times but each time he has ended up tangled in the fencing! We have a few concerns about his vision and think he may be partially blind- obviously we can't know for sure but we have since had another lamb (who is feeding beautifully off mum) and this one seems very different to Buddy.  Anyway he is ours to love and look after now and when he seems a lot stronger and we get a second opinion on his vision, we will try re integrate him with his other sheepy friends.  Headcount so far is 2 lambs (one boy and one girl) with a few more to come we think!

Cuddles with Missy.

Alaska loves his soft ears.

Watching Tv with a lamb...as you do.

He likes to nibble.

The sheep.

Kristian and I are proud to announce the safe arrival of 5 healthy girls and 1 strapping boy to our family! We are doing very well, and enjoying our newest additions.  The delivery was a little complicated with myself getting kicked in the chest and Kristian almost copping a hoof to the face.  I'm talking about sheep by the way. 

We have 5 Dorpa ewes and 1 Wiltipoll ram, and if you're anything like I was you would have had no clue what dorpa or wiltipoll was, but basically these are both breeds that will shed their wool. This means no shearing for us! I'm sure there is more to their breeds than that, but for now, basic information that means less work, is enough for me.

As with anything we seem to do as a family, it felt something like a circus.  I wasn't so sure we should all  go with Kristian to choose our sheep, but he assured me it would be "fun" and that we would need the extra hands as well.  It was stinking hot and I immediately regretted not bringing a hat to ward off the suns sharp rays.  After we herded the sheep (with the help of their owners) into a temporary smaller pen, it was time to get a plan of action.  These sheep aren't exactly tame yet, so we were told that getting the six we wanted would be a bit of work.  Thats' when I piped up and said that perhaps I would be the one to go into the arena to catch the sheep as Kristian can be a bit skittish around animals. ( Not scared, hey babe, just jumpy!?)  So armed with our plan of who would open which gate when and close which one after, I found myself in the pen with Simon (owner) who was giving me a quick lesson on sheep wrangling.  Basically, you go for a back leg and get them onto their back as quick as you can and then they calm right down.  Sounds easy right...ha! Anyway Simon did most of the catching and I helped him then lift them into our trailer.  I did catch one but I couldn't get it on its back- those things are heavy, and wiggly! Somewhere in there is when I copped a hoof to the chest and when Kristian was helping lifting one into the trailer is when he just about got a knock to the head.  We were doing pretty well with our system until while we were lifting a sheep in, one sneaky one tried to jump out- think MWA wrestling and you'll have a pretty good picture of how that moment played out.  Once we were on the road, with our six sheep in the trailer we were eager to get home and get them into their new surroundings and thankfully that all went off without a hitch.

So, if you're a vegetarian or vegan you might want to skip this next bit.
In keeping with our goal of being self sufficient on our land, we intend to, um, eat some of our sheep. That is actually quite hard for me to even say and it won't be easy but I would much rather eat meat that we have raised with love and care and given the best life possibly up until their time comes.  There are a few local butchers who come to your property to do, well, you know, the unmentionable.  We will keep you posted on this, because if it's all too hard, you never know, we may just become vegetarians after all! 
I meant to also mention that a couple of the sheep are already pregnant which means little lambs will be on their way soon! They shall remain nameless.  
Please click on the link to see a short video all about getting our nameless sheep. 
https://youtu.be/pahs2eR01xI


Eliza xx

The Chickens

Before I write this post, you need to watch this clip- https://youtu.be/Tam7KO4qhUI . Its a scene from F.r.i.e.n.d.s. - the 'pivot' scene.  If you're a friends fanatic like me then you'll know it but still want to watch it anyway because it's just plain funny.

Ok so now I've set the tone, you'll understand what we went through getting the chicken coop moved and in place. Now, I don't like to name names but lets just say Ross, (I mean my Dad) kind of took on a head boss roll in re-locating the cage from one side of the property to the other.  He was definitely "pivot guy"  and I'm pretty sure mum told him to 'shut up shut up shut uuuupppp' a few times.  It was very heavy and very large and needed all 4 of us to lift. It was also very awkward to move. Mum and I were up the back and the boys were up the front, and we, as per our instructions from 'pivot guy' would count to three and lift and walk...we only could walk about 2 meters at a time before we had to put the cage down.  Then as if something we were doing wasn't working, mum came up with another idea.  Pivot guy didn't like this- even saying things like "it's just not physics"!  So mum walks off to further develop her idea, Kristian walks off because Mr practical thought we couldn't do anything with just three of us, so that left me, with rubber gloves on no less (because I couldn't find my gardening gloves) and pivot guy. 

In the time that it took mum to come up with an alternate plan, and convince pivot guy it would work, I concluded that we could have walked it over there by now anyway. It's kind of hard to explain what happened next, without pictures but it kind of felt like we were in a monty pythons skit.  Mums simple idea was to hook up the big trailer, reverse the trailer as close as possible to the 3x3 meter cage, then lift it kind of half on, because it was never going to fit on the trailer (this was the 'not physics' part that pivot guy was referring to).  Since Kristian had returned to the chaos we were poised and ready once again to move this thing.  So after pivot guy had to hook up the trailer and carefully manoeuvre it in reverse to get it where we needed it to be we were ready to once again, 123 lift. We tilted it up on its end, then reversed the trailer back slowly into position then carefully let the cage down so its front end rested on the trailer.  Mum then hopped in the drivers seat, I was standing on the trailer ready to balance the cage and the boys lifted the back end and walked along as mum started to drive slowly forward.  Yes this made much more sense than our original plan, not that any of that mattered anymore as I was just happy to be actually getting something done.  We tilted the cage back up, mum drove off and we lowered it over the smaller coop. Hooray! Success! 

Fast forward a week and mum and I  found some chickens that we liked and would you believe it, acquiring the chickens was just as funny as moving the cage!  When we arrived at the mans house to get them I should have known things were going to be weird.  The creepy long and overgrown driveway and the chicken man who we will call Gonzo gave it away! Now don't get me wrong, he was lovely. Really lovely..to his chickens I mean. Ok so he was nice to us too, but man did he love those hens! He had at least 200 chickens; some free range and others in cages around the back of the property.  Sure, we'll follow you Gonzo - around to the back of your property, all the while I'm thinking I'm pretty sure mum would have warned me about a scenario like this growing up!!!  At one point when we were waiting for him, I turned to mum and said "if he comes back out with an axe, run for the car and lock the doors"!  Anyway I chose the chickens I liked and even though we thought we were almost outta there, we were soooooo wrong! Every chicken he caught he would cuddle, stroke and whisper sweet nothings in their ear (do chickens have ears??). Mum overheard him tell one chicken how much he was going to miss her in the morning!! Really?? Then he gave each one a pedicure - every claw, and a beak trim and a worming tablet, oh and a spray on the backside (whatever that was for!?). We packed them in their boxes and we were finally out of that place and could actually lough out loud (I think there were tears) at how bizarre our last hour and a half was.  As Mum said, that will be a forever hilarious memory that only we can share:) Ah, long story, cut only a little bit short, I got home that afternoon and put 6 happy hens in their new cage much to the girls delight.


Have a look at this youtube video for some more of our happy chicken moments.  
https://youtu.be/hb6aF95E0zI

Eliza xx

This was the night we let them out, just before the big storm rolled in.

   

Homeschooling...

A few of you have been asking me how our homeschooling journey is going, so I thought I would update you on this. It's going great, and by great I mean, we have enrolled the girls in a beautiful local school about 8 minutes away.

How did we arrive at this decision I hear you ask?  I want you to imagine 4 kids and 1 teaching parent in a hot tin shed, with little to no internet.  I mean, really what was I thinking!?  I can see it now, what you were all thinking, and so graciously let me explore.  BUT, and I know you're not supposed to start a sentence with but, (see I could have taught them some things...) but, homeschooling was something I had talked about with Kristian for ages and now that we were out in the sticks it seemed like a perfectly sensible and logical idea.  That was until I began to try.  Very quickly I could see it wasn't going to work the way I had imagined.  You know when you picture something in your mind, where the kids would sit, how I would manage keeping Alaska occupied while trying to teach a prep child, grade 2 and 3.  I would imagine doing maths in the garden using natural materials, Missy would be smiling as I taught her how to add 2+5 using 2 leaves and 5 little rocks.  Meanwhile, the older girls would be working independently on a wonderful story they were writing for their english component of the day.  How 'little house on the prairie' of me! Anyway, it was more like Alaska crawling all over me trying to breastfeed, while the 5 of us sat around the table and me trying to bounce between all of them with their varying levels of work, trying to talk above the high powered fan blowing hot air on us.  Anyway, there was lots of reasons that led me to check out a couple of the schools close by. I felt like I was cheating on my homeschooling dream but never the less, we visited 3 schools, and decided on the first one we visited.  I had feelings of failure as we we tossed up what to do, but ultimately the decision to put them in the school felt really right.  We actually felt really blessed that a school like this was so close to us now.  It has a total of 61 children and 3 multi-age classrooms. It really is a lovely school, and for now we know its exactly where the kids should be.  We don't know what the future holds and perhaps when we are more set up on the property  we may consider homeschooling again.  Maybe. 

Eliza xx

 

Naughty Snake

It was a Thursday afternoon, the kids were home from school, had eaten afternoon tea and I had even already made their lunches for the next day.  I decided we should would walk over and have a look at the new chicken coop that was patiently waiting for our chickens.  As we walked past a piece of tin on the ground I reminded the girls to never lift up a piece of tin by themselves to which they said "because their might be a snake". Proud of their growing snake awareness we kept walking toward the chicken coop (Missy and I, hand in hand) when Missy screamed, "SNAKE!" I looked down and saw it around my ankles and jumped in the air and it slithered off very quickly into the safety of the long grass.  Heart beating very heavy I tried to calm the girls and said, "its ok, its ok, no one got bitten".  Then I heard the words that I never wanted to hear. Little Missy through her tears said, "Yes, I did mummy, it bit me on the foot".  I looked down and saw the bite marks and blood droplets.  Now in total inward freakout mode but outwardly I'm totally calm and know exactly what to do in this situation, so as to not scare the children mode, I scooped up Missy and brought her inside and tied her foot up with a tea towel, while I went outside (we don't have phone reception inside the shed) to ring the ambulance. I had also told the two older kids to run over and get the neighbours who arrived within seconds on their quad bike carrying a massive first aid kit.  I had been fumbling with a pressure bandage while still on the phone when Katie (neighbour) arrived so she took to bandaging Missy's foot and all the way up to her hip, as per the instructions given over the phone.  It seemed like forever waiting for the ambulance to show up and during that time my biggest concern was that she would start deteriorating right in front of me.  She was so amazingly brave and really only got upset a few times- one of which was actually getting in the ambulance to go to the hospital.

It's almost too sad to look at her little face..

I had barely any battery left on my phone, but quickly made the necessary calls and before long, Kristian was on his way home, and my mum and dad were also on their way up to look after the other kids who had gone with the neighbours.  Watching her in the ambulance was so sad and not knowing what was awaiting us was awful but as we were arriving at the hospital, which was another 25 minutes, the paramedic said to me that it was a pretty good sign that she wasn't already showing signs of deterioration.  Once we were in the E.R they were straight to taking swabs, and putting in a canula and again Missy was so brave, albeit a little apprehensive about such a big needle.  They took her bloods and we just had to wait for the results to see whether they could detect any venom or not.  The whole time she was hooked up to all the monitors in case anything in her condition changed.  Thankfully she remained stable throughout the whole process.  Her bloods came back clear of any venom but we were told that her muscle...something..(can't remember the medical term) was elevated which can be a sign of something wrong, so we now had to be in for a little longer than planned as they needed to take blood every few hours and make sure those levels were coming down. Given she was stable, I made the hard decision to go back home to relieve my parents who needed to get up for work the next day and because Alaska still feeds in the night.  Kristian would stay overnight with our baby, and on some level I'm pretty sure Missy thought that was great. I left, torn between staying and needing to be at home, exhausted and drained but confident in the doctors reassurance that she would be ok. Not long after arriving home I got the news from Kristian that more blood results had come through and that muscle thing they were watching was coming down! A wave of relief washed over me.  Kristian and Missy arrived home at around 7am the next morning and I hugged her so tight, feeling very thankful to God, that she was totally fine but also feeling very sombre that it could have been very different.
It was an absolutely awful thing to happen and now we are a lot more cautious and on the look out when outside.  Missy is great and once home from hospital, loved all the attention, including getting into the local paper and the chocolate treat the next morning after dropping her sisters at school.

Eliza xx

Took it to school to show her teachers.

Still smiling.

All strapped in for her ambulance ride.

 

The stubborn stump.

When we first moved onto the property one of things I really disliked was the dilapidated fence surrounding the shed. It's wasn't functional and it felt like it was boxing us in. Anyway, we decided to pull it down and you may have seen my original exploits here. http://youtu.be/hcSi-1R_Y-U

Fast forward a week where most of the fence has been pulled down and now we are left with the big stumps. We plan to either re use these somewhere or chop them up for fire wood. 

Yesterday my parents where here delivering a few things on the trailer and after we all completed a number of jobs and a few shenanigans -including dad trying to teach me how to ride the post bike (epic FAIL btw), we thought our working bee had come to an end. 

"That will come straight out" she said. "That will be easy" she said. "Just do it " she said. That was my mum talking about one of the posts we really wanted dug out.   Let me tell you, it did not 'come straight out' and there was nothing easy about it.  I must say, it did look like it had a decent wobble to it and the hopeful part of my brain said that together we would indeed be able to get it out and it would be fairly straight forward....WRONG!
It began with my dad and I just trying to yank the thing upwards and straight out.

Yep, this was never going to work!

and neither was this...almost, but not quite. 

We thought perhaps we should all have a go.... You know, team work and all that.....

Then I got to it with the crow bar digging in around the edges of the pole and trying to loosen it and pry it out that way.  The only thing that did was send me flying a meter back and landing on my bum. Painful, but hilarious.  

So this moment here, is not my dad reaching out his hand to help me up, no that is him reaching for the crow bar to take back over to the stump and keep working.

The sensible one of the group.

Clearly we weren't getting anywhere with our detailed and sensible plan of 'just pull it out' so we resorted to much more drastic measures.  The chainsaw.  Yeah, take that you old stubborn stump.  We were praising our efforts and thinking this was the best thing we had thought of since 'use the crow bar'.  So Kristian got his chance to be all macho and get out his chainsaw and chop that stump where it hurts.  I was saying things like "yeah, and now we can just pull the small piece of stump out".  WRONG again.  

We even got rope and tied it around the stump and used dads 4w drive to try and drive it out. The rope broke.  So, now, instead of a tall post sticking out of the ground, we have a small one sticking out, oh, and very sore backs. 

Eliza x

Ps: thanks to my mum for being such an encouraging force on the sidelines and offering her wonderful words of advice.  I'm also really glad you captured the hour long process so well.