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Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

LIFE IS NEVER DULL ON A TROPICAL FARM - It sounds idyllic and yes it is. Our family of four left suburbia to live our dream...A life on a Tropical Farm.   

There were no pictures of the house but it sounded beautiful and out of our price range.  We arranged an inspection and it was certainly within our price range although with one of us commuting to the city everyday, that would be the test.  We drove out and loved the look of it as soon as we drove into the driveway.   

We sat outside the house and the creek was running and the birds were singing.  We got into the car and decided that we didnt care how far the commute, is it was worth coming home to everyday..and so the dream was born.    

I had wanted a vege patch of my own for so long.  I had been saying to my husband that I would love to some day have some acerage and some goats.  Well I haven't got the goats as I have heard they will ringbark the fruit trees, but we have chooks and geese and we have learnt so much.   

We knew nothing about starting vege patch or growing vegetables and had no idea what the trees were that we had.  It has been a thoroughly enjoyable learning curve so far and we still have so much we need to learn and would like to know about.  

A few weeks after we moved in, we purchased 6 laying hens and all were given a name by the girls.  They are Harmony, Rhapsody, Sally, Rosie, Chook Chook and Charlotte.  They lay the most beautiful tasting free range eggs all day.  They are well loved and fed.  They have a lovely mash of a morning including soya bean meal for their protein and sometimes apple cider vinegar in their water to keep the nasties away.   

Every full moon they have a delicious mash with molasses, garlic, sulpher, dolomite, seaweed meal mixed in with their normal mash.  They have lots of lovely scaps and have access to mixed grain all day and of course fresh water.  They only get locked away at night because we have some lovely resident scrub pythons that would enjoy them if they had the chance.   

Since we moved in we have some other lovely additions to the family including 4 anconas and 4 australorps (we are trying to have some pure breeds as well) and also roosters, Henry and Passionfruit. Passionfruit is a a very handsome silkie rooster as well as Whitey and Snowy - 2 white silkie chickens that the girls received for their birthday.  The girls love nothing more than picking up the chooks to nurse them in the backyard.   

One of the girls who is 4 nursed Henry the rooster for 45 minutes one day and he fell asleep in her arms.  We also have 12 Geese which graze all day and keep the grass down a little bit.  They are wonderful pets to have as they are low maintenance and are generally very happy if they have a little bit of water to have a swim in and access to grass.  We give ours a little bit of mash and grain of a morning and also melon skins and bread to keep them friendly.   

Most of the geese have been named as well and our latest additions are George and Millie who are both about 13 years old.  George loves the ride on mower and you can generally find him sitting beside it.  We have had some casualties with the geese thanks to the resident pythons.  That is one of the sad sides of living here, the pythons occasionally manage to get hold of the geese in the early hours of the morning. 

More soon...