Weekends At The Farm…

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Our weekends now are spent in full renovation mode, now that we have moved to our old 1900’s farm. I thought I would give you a glimpse into our weekends spent so far.

Mic and I have spent every weekend for the last month cleaning up around the property and beginning the work that is needed to turn this old farm into the Old Dame that is hiding under layers of paint, ply and cement.

There are, well there was, a lot of old out buildings, like this old chook shed, that had to come down. It was filled with 3 hot water cylinders, two ovens, a gym, an exercise bike, chairs and numerous other bits and pieces…junk, but I did find an original Bentwood chair from Sicily, that was hiding under layers of padding – score!

As you can see, Mic has taken to farm life like a duck to water and we both now have a wonderful weekend uniform of reno approved apparel, leather gloves and our trusty gumboots.

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We have made numerous trips to the dump to drop off the massive amount of rubbish that was left behind from the previous owners…32 years of it actually. It took us a full day to clean out the garage! We have a few massive bonfires built, ready to go and have made a few little ones like this one we had on Saturday while cleaning up around the veggie patch.

One thing our new home has lots of is food. Besides the numerous veggie beds there is a full orchard, which we learnt from a book we were given on the full history of the house, was once the biggest orchard in the Southern Hemisphere, before the owners sold off parcels of land to leave us with the 6.5 acres we have now. Some of those fruit trees are original ones, still producing fruit in abundance.

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This is the orchard entrance. In here are pears, apples, nectarines, lemons, fig, plums, hybrids and some I’m yet to find out until Spring. I love being in here. They have needed a lot of pruning and we will eventually have our chickens roaming in here to help scratch up this ground and add to the rich dark soil.

There is also a full berry orchard, that last summer apparently produced 32 kilos of raspberries alone…I’m looking forward to that!

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We also have an ‘exotics’ orchard, which has plumicots, loganberries, gooseberries and some that I can’t remember the names of. There is also Kiwi fruit…3 of them and right now they are bursting with fruit. While the boys are outside climbing trees and exploring the paddocks and bush, they will stop by and grab one or two to go…fast food!

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In our hothouse there is even pineapples! This needs a good clean out too and I’m hoping to get that done this weekend so I can get a jump start on Spring crops. We also have cherries, passion fruit and some heritage varieties at the front of the property. We will never be short of fruit that’s for sure, so I am on the hunt for a good jam making pot and some recipes!

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We did find a gem in our sheep paddock though…this original Sunshine gate. It’s in great condition and they are quite hard to find in good nick these days, so you can imagine me in my Hunter boots, covered in reno muck, doing a happy dance in the paddock when we found this! We will be using this as our main entrance gate soon. It just needs a clean up.

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You can see here, on these two rungs, where the sheep have rubbed up against it, the iron is in great condition, so that’s what the rest of it will look like. I love it!

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I also gutted the studio, as we had to have the electrician install the kiln room and I needed to get back to work. It was quite weird not making while we moved, so it was lovely to start again in this new space. I took out layers of old carpet and crazy draperies and started adding my own things….

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Eventually we will be re lining the walls and ceilings and will install new flooring and of course a fresh coat of paint, but for now it’s workable and I have loads and loads of room. Our plans will be to have some open studio days here and possibly some workshops in hand building etc. I’m looking forward to that!

We also finished ripping out the kitchen…and a wall in the kitchen. We are having a new roof put on tomorrow (weather permitting), our new oven has arrived and we have new wall linings ready and waiting

…but I will post about all of that soon. I hope you liked my little update. We are thrilled to be here and I can’t wait to share what we are doing as we go along, worts and all, because all of these weekend adventures are what will make this house our home.

~Ness xx

Comments

comments

Comments (4)

  • Wow wow wow!!!!! That v special Old Dame was meant to be owned by your gorgeous family. So many fabulous finds already – the orchards sound amazing – wish I was closer so I could gift jars for all the preserves you’ll be whipping up. Meant to be Ness – so you to a t as well as the rest of the alphabet!

    Reply
    • I’ll be swimming in preserves soon. haha! It’s such a beautiful spot and we all love it xx

      Reply
  • Fabulous Ness, Looking forward to seeing it all come together.
    What an amazing place to bring up the boys! x

    Reply
    • Thank you. It was the best move we’ve made yet xx

      Reply

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