Backyard goodlife

Hi everyone

I've been reading your posts for awhile now - everytime I do an internet search to solve a problem with my chooks I seem to end up here - so I thought it was about time I joined up.

At the moment I live in town on a reasonable size section but with 9 year old twins, a large dog, 3 cats, 11 budgies (my daughter is breeding them), 9 chooks (plus 4 eggs about to hatch!), a big vege garden and a husband (who insists on storage room for all his tools) we have decided it is time to take the plunge and move to the country. With the decision finally made 3 months ago (it has been a long time dream) we are now in the position of having an offer conditionally accepted on a 10 acre block but have to wait till Monday for the previous offer to expire (its a nervous wait!)

While waiting I'm keeping myself distracted reading old posts on here to get ideas on what we should (and maybe more importantly, shouldn't ) try. So please if anyone has any pearls of wisdom for me pass them on.

Mel

A big welcome Mel , I am sure you will benefit from the collective wisdom we have on this site.
All the best for Monday, it could be the start of an amazing adventure or a life of hard work, awesome fun either way.
Ask away, we will do our best to confuse you []

Welcome MJR
Good luck for monday , fingers and toes crossed here for you

Wecome and Great news for you on Monday, I would say main thing is only do thing that you enjoy or they interest you not because others say you should. good on you. God bless

Hi Mel and welcome to lsb

It's not long until Monday - even if it does seem so to you now!

Cheers
Kate

Ohhhh everything crossed here for you Mel [:0] Monday is getting close by the day :rolleyes:
Welcome and God Bless
Cheers

so how did it go? Monday came and went?

kathyp;295465 wrote: so how did it go? Monday came and went?

Hi kathyp

Sorry I put my update in the 'your place' area. We got it! We are now the proud owners of a 10 acre lifestyle block - possessions not till mid Jan though so we have some time to prepare ourselves for the new adventure!!:rolleyes:

Cheers
Mel

An adventure it will be! Very happy for you. My advise as a very old timer on this thread and as a 30 year veteran of LSB farming on various blocks is to sit down and write a list of priorities. Water for the animals being number one! Fencing being number two (hopefully only repairing!) and then everything else has a place on your list.

DO NOT try to do everything at a million miles as hour to achieve your ultimate dream asap as you will only burn yourselves out and start finding reasons to resent each other for one not doing "your" share of the jobs. I will warn you that on most LSB's especially if hubby is in the workforce (also or not), that you will be doing the majority of jobs IF you don't start as you intend to continue. Communication and shared responsibility being the operative words and work to make it work!

Hugs and all the best for your future on your LSB.

Great news I agree with DiDi remember enjoy your block from the word go and get things done,do not get things done so you can enjoy your block one day, that day may never come God Bless

DiDi;295555 wrote: My advise as a very old timer on this thread and as a 30 year veteran of LSB farming on various blocks is to sit down and write a list of priorities. Water for the animals being number one! Fencing being number two (hopefully only repairing!) and then everything else has a place on your list.

DO NOT try to do everything at a million miles as hour to achieve your ultimate dream asap as you will only burn yourselves out and start finding reasons to resent each other for one not doing "your" share of the jobs. I will warn you that on most LSB's especially if hubby is in the workforce (also or not), that you will be doing the majority of jobs IF you don't start as you intend to continue. Communication and shared responsibility being the operative words and work to make it work!

Thanks DiDi, thats exactly what we plan to do. We have two units of water so I thought the first priority should be to work out the best use for this and to put in extra storage (at the moment there is only 1 tank that holds 1000L). The fences seem to be in reasonable condition but once we move in we will do a more thorough section by section check. I must admit my list also has an ambitious list of animals and gardens on it but we plan to tackle these one at a time and make sure we have one project going well before starting on the next!:rolleyes:

My husband and I have already sorted out our roles and as I will be working from home (I do homebased childcare) the primary role is mine but as long as I keep everything organised he's more than happy to get stuck in as directed (his words!)[}]

Remember that you are not allowed to use supplied water for irrigation. It can only be used for household, animal supply and a regular sized garden. If you think about going into commercial sized vege or flower growing you will need consents. Thus, I wouldn't prioritise water storage unless you know/are certain that it runs out in summer.

Hi Mel - oh that is sooooooo exciting for you. Congratulations. We look forward to pictures and regular updates, OK?
Cheers, Mich.

DiDi;295555 wrote: An adventure it will be! Very happy for you. My advise as a very old timer on this thread and as a 30 year veteran of LSB farming on various blocks is to sit down and write a list of priorities. Water for the animals being number one! Fencing being number two (hopefully only repairing!) and then everything else has a place on your list.

DO NOT try to do everything at a million miles as hour to achieve your ultimate dream asap as you will only burn yourselves out and start finding reasons to resent each other for one not doing "your" share of the jobs. I will warn you that on most LSB's especially if hubby is in the workforce (also or not), that you will be doing the majority of jobs IF you don't start as you intend to continue. Communication and shared responsibility being the operative words and work to make it work!

Hugs and all the best for your future on your LSB.

Wise words! Being in a droughtprone area (you should see our lawn now LOL!) made me think again about a flower garden - it uses so much water to keep it going so I just forgot about flowers! My old species/rambler/rugosa roses do OK but the modern ones just give up.

As my husband is in end stage renal failure ALL the jobs get done by me with my sister's partner doing the really heavy stuff - he's a wonderful man! In winter it can get a bit stressful but hey - life's good, my goats are happy & talk to me when I go outside, the dogs love it here, I just slow down & watch the grass grow...

Enjoy your new place in Timaru - it's a great way to live your life, taken slowly!