Fifteen years ago I bought my farm. I called it Shantron Farm after the ancient family farm on Loch Lomond. I have nurtured cattle, a goat, chooks, ducks, aviary birds, dogs and cats, mostly hand reared. All of them had their own special habitats - all purpose built. And all have been happy living here. I planted over 200 native trees/shrubs for the birds, butterflies and anything else that wanted to make use of them. The bird life around my gardens is amazing. My most common residents or visitors are galahs, rainbow lorikeets, eastern rosellas, yellow-tailed black cockatoos, magpies, kookaburras, fairy wrens, noisy miners and lots of tiny birds. I can always hear birds of some description from dawn to dusk and even some at night. My resident swamp pheasant has just started noisily looking for love. One dam was reserved for the red bills and water lilies. I have watched many generations of red bills thrive. My frog habitat pond is well used and the green tree snakes are happy as are many other animals that I rarely see. A jabiru visits regularly. Then I started planting fruit and nut trees. I have dozens of different types from citrus to macadamias to lilly pillies to fejoyas to different mulberries to pecans to olives to guavas to tropical apples - whatever Ive been able to grow. I planted hundreds of Spring bulbs which pop up all over the place. The veggie patch was very productive for years, my worm factories have been working for 20 years and the herbs and weeds in the lawn gave been plentiful. I am self sufficient in electricity with my pv system and solar hot water. The house and both chook sheds have water tanks. My house is full of my colours and my magnificent collection of Top End art which I love. The dream I had over twenty years ago when I left Sydney almost worked. I was just in the wrong place.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 06:07:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015