Puzzling Gully

We have been trying to think of a name for the farm for a while now.

Whilst living in the UK we get to see a lot of farms and their names. Farms over here have great little names that are cute but don’t really relate to Australia.

Australian farms or properties usually have random names, often women’s names or place names from Britain, Ireland or Europe. In the UK the farms are often named after the owners, what the farm produces or just home farm or manor farm.

We could not think of any good names for the farm as we wanted something that related to the farm but was not too cutesy or too obscure.

Recently while looking on Google Earth we noticed that part of the map over our fam had been updated and that the dry creek bed that runs along one border of our property now had a name.

Thus we have decided to call the farm "Puzzling Gully".

Puzzling Gully

Friendly frogs

Here are some new friends that we met at the farm today. Rodger, Fred, Bob, Trevor and up the top you can just see Franks butt. We traveled out to the property which we now properly own (sort of, the bank owns 4/5 and we own 1/5) and checked all the sheds, etc. I checked out one of the float enclosures in a trough and found about 30 frogs shacking up together. We also went up the back paddocks and checked out a couple of the other dams and got some great views from the south-west paddocks. Whilst tracking down the dams I also came across a bunch of plump Quail rising in fron tof me and a lot of Hare sign, all very exciting for the future.

Looking south south west at Mt Davidson

A view of the House paddocks from the south west of the property, the highest area.

One of the somewhat minimal dams in the southwest of the property

Friendly frogs

Landed Gentry

As of 15:20 Australian Eastern Standard Time 24th March 2009 this toilet is ours. We also have a bit more house and some paddocks, bloody exciting really. The property was supposed to settle Friday last week but the Bore pump broke and we wanted to get that fixed before we got the place.

We are back to the UK this friday and will be back in 3 years time to settle on our farm.

Cheers

Landed Gentry

Sundry Farm Photos

Finally here are some photos that don’t fit in the previous blogs. There are a few different land types on the farm with different soils and flora. The hills have a sandy yellow soil and are mainly grassy while the flats have black soil. Along the creek there are some thick patches of trees, but not gums, more semi-rainforest from the old forests that were here many years ago. There are also sections of sandstone with a few outcrops of actual recognisable sandstone. We even have a few bottle trees on the property which is quite cool too.

Getting a bore water sample with an evil little mutt watching

The back paddocks

Looking down to the north east flat in the far right of the photo.

Some very old farm equipment

The flats in front of the house

One of the Dams, needs some more clay and less sandstone

A cactus making the most of a fertile log

One of the hills with a couple of bottle trees

The bottle tree near the piggery.

Sundry Farm Photos

The Farm House

G’day

Here are some pics of the House. The house is about 70-90 years old, no one actually knows but it has typical old styles throughout and those odd rooms in Queensland houses that are in the centre of the house without adjoining an outside wall with windows etc.

The house is situated on a hill and looks down onto some flats by the creek bed looking towards the Gate.

We are happy with the house and will do some work on it when we get back from the Kingdom in 2-3 years time.

Large Poinciana in the back yard

Three car port

The Farm House

The Farm outbuildings

Here are some more pics of the farm, concentrating on the outbuildings

The dog Shed, good for dogs

The old Dairy/Shed, next to the Antique yards.

The loading Ramp, well shaded and disguised with greenery.

The Hills with the hay shed to the left

The drive and a few horseys

The garden shed

The Hay Shed, a big ole fella

The ole car port

Antique tank stand with tank

The Chook Shed

The grain/feed shed

The dairy shed possum - Trev

The piggery, actually huge with room for about 10-15 sows.

The bore - a small crap shed that hides a good source of wet stuff.

The Farm outbuildings

The Farm

Hello to you all

Today we drove out to our property for the Building and Pest Inspection. This gave us the opportunity to have a really good look at the farm and search out all the nnoks and crannys and take a lot of photos so we can remember over the years while we are in the UK. Both inspections went well with no termite infestation and no impending house disaster.

Hans and Jan (Corinne’s parents) came out with us and helped us explore and took photos too. They both seeme dto be genuinely impressed and we all had a good time together. Hans and I even managed to walk all the way to the North East corner of the property through chest high grass and scrub. We checked out our large Hay shed and found a few more bits of antique farming equipment which hopefully will stay on the farm after settlement.

The photos say it all so here goes. We will start with some views of the paddocks.

The start of the 1 km drive with the building in the background.

Hills

The drive heading towards the gate

The house in the centre with hay shed in the foreground.

Upper paddocks

Coming close to the house along the drive. Some white brahmans in the pic.

The Farm

The Beginning

Hello and Welcome,

Last year in June while we were sitting in the beer garden of "The Stags Head" pub in Offchurch, Warwickshire, Corinne and I decided we wanted to buy a farm. We did not want to wait too long so we would try and do it soon and become self sufficient (as much as is feasible) and also attempt to make a living from "Boutique" farming. We had been inspired by the beautiful small farms and farm shops of the UK, the fantastic variety of fresh produce available and the challenges and changes that running a farm would bring to our lives. Since then we have been checking out properties on the internet and saving our pennies or pence as it may be. We actually set a timeframe for the beginning of 2010 which would put us in a good position financially to make a purchase. However, one afternoon, whilst bored at work I received an email from Corinne which started a real estate hyperdrive.

Corinne had found a 160 acre property 30 minutes from Toowoomba, good pasture, 4 bed house, fencing, bore, yards, old piggery, chook shed, more sheds etc. To top it off the property has undulating hills, no traffic sounds and is very private at end of a dirt road. The property photos and details fulfilled everything we wanted and had in mind for our future property and we suddenly became very excited.

We calculated how much cash we needed and what we needed to organise and got underway. After a lot of organising, some easy, some not, we found ourselves in a solicitors office in Toowoomba signing a contract on our dream property. The contract was signed by both parties on the 18th of February 2009 and will complete (hopefully) on the 18th of March 2009.

Tomorrow we will be back on the property for a the Building and Pest inspection, a bore water sample and a serious photography session. We are returning to the UK in 5 weeks time and will not be back for another year so we will need lots of photos for our memories and to shows our friends whilst we are away. Soon we will put up lots of photos of the property and then we will update again if all goes well with the settlement.

The Beginning