John and I live near Feilding, in the Manawatu District of the North Island of New Zealand on almost 40 acres.  We farm sheep, the majority are white but I have a small hobby flock of coloured and spotted sheep.  Much more interesting than the white ones! 

Our land is quite hilly and we have a wonderful view of the plains below and hills in the distance.  Now that our trees have grown we don't get so much wind.  We've been here since 1978 and it was a bare block of land then with only a few fences and old gum trees to it's name.

John has to take credit for all the improvements here, and all the tree planting, which has really beautified the land.

Here are a selection of photos of our farm and animals.

And at the bottom of the page are some New Zealand farming links.

A photo taken in July 2000, great winter weather!  Our house is hiding behind all the pine trees in the middle.

We have got a lovely dam near the house which is home to quite a few Mallard ducks and also a couple of Kingfishers.  We hope to have some native pigeons visit some day, but that hasn't happened yet.  We do have quite a few Tuis who love the Kowhai flowers.

One of my spotted girls straight after shearing.  The fleeces are lovely, and interesting to spin.  And at lambing time you never know what is going to appear!

Here is a new brown and white spotted ram lamb, September 2000.

Because our land is so hilly it's impossible to fertilise by truck so we have to get a topdressing pilot to do it.

A recent acquisition is our second-hand Honda 4 wheel drive motor bike and trailer.  John wonders how he managed without them!  Here he is with his little mate, Katie, taking out fencing materials.

And here is some of John's fencing handiwork in our middle paddock, which used to be about 12 acres in size but is now 4 smaller paddocks which makes mustering much easier.

Our back paddock is also fenced up since this photo, which shows a little of our precious patch of native bush.  It is mostly Manuka, which is great firewood.  We have another dam in this paddock which is just visible down to the right.

I hope you enjoyed a short trip around our place.  More photos can be viewed on the farm gallery page.

This page last updated October 7th, 2000