Westie out of Water

Hey folks,
My name is Mike and I am on the final stages of my 10 year plan, that took 12 years, to move out of the wilds of West Auckland and into the Waikato wilds.
:cool:
Bought a 32 acre block, about 8 pasture and the rest bush and scrub. The land, house and everything else is very run down, which helped it fit my buget but will take a fair amount of work to get sorted.
I am not sure what to do with the land, the main aim is to preserve the native bush and put as little environmental impact as possible whilst still striving for semi self sufficiency.
To get the land I have had to do 2 house renovations and am still a bit jaded from all that, and still have about a month or so before I can actually move there.
I have 2 Bull Mastiff dogs, 6 classic bikes and no idea what I'm doing relating to much else.
Hope to bounce around a few ideas with you folks in the future

Regards,

Mike.

Hi Mike and welcome to lsb

It sounds as if you are good at planning and hard work so you'll be fine with an block

Does your self sufficiency include raising livestock for meat? A few cattle, one to eat, the others to sell might be an idea. Same with sheep, goats and pigs.

We have just bought a block with bush and hope to be able to convenant it with QE11 national trust. QE11 help landowners with ongoing support and advice. Not sure if it's appropriate in your case but it might be worth looking at?

Cheers
Kate

Thanks for the welcome Kate,
There are no covenants on the land whatsoever, I have investigated a little about the QE11 and have found support for free possum bait which will be needed. There is about 1 acre of mature bush with a couple of 2m trunked Kauri and the rest is about 60 year old regrowth. A true slice of heaven which I intend to protect, especially from the disease that is attacking the Northland Kauri at the moment and has spread to the Waitakere Ranges- hence my shiny new tractor*, ute, bikes and stuff will be squeaky clean before I move.

*It is neither shiny, nor new, nor does it have any brakes... yet[]

Good on you look at having fun as well on it then it aint so hard:)

Westie;295480 wrote: Thanks for the welcome Kate,
There are no covenants on the land whatsoever, I have investigated a little about the QE11 and have found support for free possum bait which will be needed. There is about 1 acre of mature bush with a couple of 2m trunked Kauri and the rest is about 60 year old regrowth. A true slice of heaven which I intend to protect, especially from the disease that is attacking the Northland Kauri at the moment and has spread to the Waitakere Ranges- hence my shiny new tractor*, ute, bikes and stuff will be squeaky clean before I move.

*It is neither shiny, nor new, nor does it have any brakes... yet[]

Sounds good [8D] but stay OFF the tractor until it has brakes, for goodness sake [}][}]

Cheers
Kate

Agree with Kate didn't see that bit

Westie;295480 wrote: *It is neither shiny, nor new, nor does it have any brakes... yet[]

I have a horse like that[]
Welcome.

I can vouch for the QEII covenant process. We have 4 out of our 11 acres in Covenant. We are very lucky in Taranaki. I contacted the Taranaki Regional Council, who drew up a Land Management Plan (free) with advise of what should be planted where. They also referred me to the QEII people, and then the Taranaki Tree Trust.

Basically, QEII arranged for the fencing - the whole area is fenced off, and they paid half the cost, and arranged for the work. Then they did a survey and arranged all the legal stuff. Then the Taranaki Tree Trust gave me (free) 1500 trees to fill in the edges of the bush area, through the TRC riparian planting scheme.

I'm not sure what Waikato are like, but the whole covenant process could not have been simpler (except for the planting of 1500 trees!! lol!)

Both TRC and QEII regularly visit to monitor and give advise if needed. I would strongly recommend contacting your local rep to see about getting your bush protected, planted and regenerating.

After only one year, we can see the increasing numbers, not only of birds, but different species of birds. The bush is regenerating at an ever increasing rate, and I feel we have really achieved something special. It is well worth it.

Ha, yes thanks I am well aware of safety. My job was SHE-Q (Safety, Health, Environmental and Quality) before all this and with limited cell coverage on the property help is not exactly close at hand. So anything I do will have to be carefully considered from that perspective.

The tractor has one wheel that has brakes now and should be enough to get it moved onto a truck and out to the site along with all the attachments it came with, then a workshop manual is on order because this thing has the most complicated hydro system I have ever seen:rolleyes:
Still, it was cheap and has a bucket and a few other rusty looking attachements. Should be able to figure it out and a mate works for the local dealership so parts should be trade rate hopefully.

Steep learning curve ahead. Becoming an 'internet expert' at the moment, studying all manner of farming related stuff. Bought that Trisha Fisk book second hand on small farming and will read that when it turns up. But will reserve any big decisions until I learn what I want and will suit the conditions and my buget.

OakhengeFarm;295502 wrote: Both TRC and QEII regularly visit to monitor and give advise if needed. I would strongly recommend contacting your local rep to see about getting your bush protected, planted and regenerating.

After only one year, we can see the increasing numbers, not only of birds, but different species of birds. The bush is regenerating at an ever increasing rate, and I feel we have really achieved something special. It is well worth it.

Sage advice, it is very special for any patriotic Kiwi to be involved in any project like that. Yes I will look into it, the bush is really dense and in wonderful condition, 10 fantails were following me through it the other day
The forrest floor is covered in baby rimu, kauri and totora so planting is probably not required. It is regenerating like crazy

What type of tractor is it and what bits came with it?How steep is your place

Westie - I kind of agree with the QE11 advise and I don't! You have bought 32 acres and I love your passion for regenerating and preserving your native bush. I did too but by paying myself to fence off my own bush 20 years ago it had no covenants on it.

Now the reason I am saying this is that if I had Covenanted it then, I would not have been able to get a subsivision off my 15 acre property based on the original preseved native bush I had protected.

In an ideal world, life does not change and we will all be enviromentalists with pure dreams but my marriage broke up (after 18 years on this property) and having land available to be cut off simply because I had protected the pristine original bush (with glowworms) enabled me to get a five acre subdivision instead of 3000sq M which would never have worked with the topography of my land.

It was an amicable situation and probably more so because of the $'s the subdivision brought in that enabled us both to move on with our lives unencumbered. I still have the property and I still love the bush and care for it. I love the Tuis, the Native Pigeons etc that are thanking me also for enabling them - not just me. Just something for you to think about.

sod;295544 wrote: What type of tractor is it and what bits came with it?How steep is your place

Gidday sod,
It is an International 484 51hp 3 cyl diesel, one of the early full hydro models- approx 1974. Bloody complicated hydro brakes and steering. Needs r/h brake working ( I think it may need more than just a bleed, but will try that first) and the two front tie rods, which I might get rebuilt.
My place has flat paddocks with the bush in the middle, but the transition between the front 4-5 acres and the rear 4-5 is fairly steep as the front of the property is on a ridge and the back meets a small river.
I intend using the bucket and scraper to make a graduated track from front to rear.
I don't really need a tractor but there will be a bit of work for it initially then I will fix it up and sell it. It owes me 4 grand and has a tray, bucket for the rear, seperate scraper and scraper that goes under the bucket, plus a 3 blade mower that needs work. So I figure- fix it up, make it work and when the big jobs are done I will flog it off, maybe for a small profit...

I wanted a quad, but knowing me and my love of motorcycles and hoonery (graduate West Auckland V8 Academy[]) - I would buy the most powerful one (or power up one) and wrap myself around a tree with it. So a humble tractor will do for now.

DiDi;295564 wrote: Westie - I kind of agree with the QE11 advise and I don't!

DiDi,
I will manage the bush myself.

While I like the whole QE11 principle- and will use any freebies like bait stations etc that I can get- the land will remain as is as far as title and no covanants. Luckily I have no other interested parties in the land, bought it myself, put it in a trust with me and my accountant as trustees.
Besides, I still need to pump water for the house from a natural spring in the middle of the bush until I get some spouting sorted out.
Did I mention this place is a bit run down?
Bathing is pretty old school- bath in the bush, bucketing from the spring fills it up and then you light a fire under it and hope it heats up before the mozzies drain all your fluids. Ah.. the country life circa 1900

Ohhh I can post a picture...
This is the evil intrusive Mr Google's ariel view with the red outline approx land but with a bit more river on my place- that is the house tucked in the bush on a ridge looking out over the river etc. Very private. And a shot from the deck.
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/picture.php?albumid=2529&pictureid=37649

Attached files

[IMG]http://app.lifestyleblock.co.nz/images/converted_files/295569=4245-Naikepondand river.jpg[/img]

The main reason we happily went with QEII was that the area protected couldn't be used anyway. It's basically just the steep banks either side of the 2 streams.
When we bought the land, we knew we'd have to fence off the stream banks so we could use the paddocks - the previous owner just let his bulls make tracks down to drink out of the stream. There was no understorey at all, just slipping banks and deep ruts. Now it's all ferns, small trees, and bush regenerating like mad.
So when QEII offered to pay for half of the fencing, I thought "why not?". Being a new subdivision, we can't subdivide further anyway, so we can't see any down side. We had built into the convenant document that we have the right to take water from the stream for animals or power generation (we want to put in a micro hydro system), we can put tracks in for maintenance (although most of it is pretty dodgy to even walk in, let alone drive a quad), and have marked out the only flat area for a pretty picnic spot.

I guess it all depends on your exact situation, and what you want to do with the area.