Old School Home and Lifestyle Block

Hi everyone, we are new to LSB, although we used it in the past to help us out...now we are members! We purchased the old defynct Ocean View School located out on the beautiful Southern Scenic Route south of Dunedin ( truly NZ's best kept secret spot ). It is a paradise of days gone by and an amazing place to raise the kids. They bike or scooter to their local school and have the lifestyle and freedom we were blessed with growing up in the 70's and 80's...so lucky. We opened the office end of the school as a backpackers, but have evolved into an apartment as it suits family life much better and we stuggled to advertise as a backpackers as we needed to be 15 beds or more or branded for the main BBH guide in NZ to allow us to market with them - their lose we say. It has worked out extremely well though and for the best in the long run and we have had many lovely people help us along the way. We live in the attached 3 classrooms and the 4th larger room is my husband, Mikes' furniture and building / design studio. What an amazing lifestyle we have! We were offered 3 bottle feeding lambs last spring and they are doing well and looking like a good roast - we will breed them next year so that will be an adventure..we won't eat them, but perhaps their offspring! We also have 3 alpacas for lawn mowing, 9 ducks for baking eggs ( we find the yolk bitter so only enjoy them this way at this stage ), 1 hen who has just hatched a duckling and is a great mother and a welsh pony currently off being ridden by another young local girl and finally Molly the cat who thinks she is a stock animal. Our children Cody 7 and Breane 9 play ice hockey ( sport of their dad as he is Canadian - don't hold it against him he is actually a bloody good bloke ) and are loving it. I would like to eventually return to study in the health field, however for now I am cleaner, mum, farmer and jack of all trades. I was always a tom boy and I do feel very privileged to raise our family in such neat conditions. They have learn't about life and death and recently a bottle fed lamb we were given this season died...that next morning we had 4 new little gorgeous baby bunnies arrive. Another time we lost our first two bunnies to RCD ( my vault as I had not vaccinated them and didn't think we were at risk ) only to have Alvin our boy bunny offered to us who is the most amazing bunny a kid could hope for ( he jumped up on Breane's bed in the middle of the night the other night and rubbed her with his chin scent marking her....very cute! And so they have learnt' that in life we must enjoy each day and learn from our experiences and in death there is always something new to look forward to. We will enjoy sharing and learning from the LSB website.

Sounds a great life alright. Look forward to seeing some pictures of your animals if you can, and hearing more about your lifestyle.

Welcome to the LSB

Welcome nickyobrien. Sounds like you really are enjoying the lifestyle. This is a great site and a wonderful, helpful community.
We only have alpacas, which we breed and show.
Ask any questions you want.

Hi and welcome nickyobrien. Sounds like a beautiful situation for all. Looking forward to more news and photos.