Barefoothavens Journey - Everything Starts Somewhere.

[barefoothaven]

Hi all I'm new to this forum and have posted an introduction post but I'll do this from the start

My name is Leonie & hubby & I along with our 2 youngest sons of 3 live in the Far North of the North Island, New Zealand.
We are born & raised "kiwis" & our property is a 60 acre bush plot. We have about 8 - 9 acres in grazing.
Hubby & I both come from a country up bringing & always wanted to get back to that way of life.
I was 7 months pregnant with our youngest son Hunter when we moved in here. No proper water system or good power supply. The surrounding land was a mess & the house needed a good weeks worth of complete sanitising to say the least.
We fell INLOVE with the land & could see the potential & quality of life so, we went for it.
In the first few months I was here by myself. Lugging buckets of water up from the stream behind the house to wash, clean, flush the toilet. I also stored my perishables in a chilly bin in the stream for a few weeks which worked great.
There was no landline phone or cell coverage near the house & I walked half a mile (exaggerated pregnancy memories lol) to get coverage to call my husband who was still working down in our home town which was a 6 hour drive one way.
He worked 4 days on, 4 days off shifts & drove home every 5 days.
It was a hard time being alone & pregnant without the comforts I was use to, but I kept going day by day.
Now, my husband works closer to home. We have a water wheel & solar panels for power. A wood stove to cook on & heat our home & hot water. A landline phone with basic internet. Vegetable gardens. Orchard. Green house. Pigs, chickens, 1 house cow, 3 dogs, & 1 cat. A 3 bay garage with a nearly finished milking barn. Annnnd a good water pump. We collect rain water off the house roof into a big tank which goes through a filter before entering the house.
We also have a water line feeding from the stream up river which supplies water to the gardens, animals etc.
In order to reach our house area you need to cross 2 river crossings first. But they are level & easy.

I enjoy anything to do with homesteading, gardening, off-grid, etc etc.

Oh & the baby I was carrying, Hunter, is going to be 4 next year.
Our sons are Hunter - 4, Brayden - 18, & Damian - 23 who lives down south.

Don't worry. I'm going to post lots of pics

This was our home when we first moved in.

 

[barefoothaven]

More Pics

This is our water wheel being built. Our neighbour who is an engineer on the left and my Husband Mike on the right.


Here is the water wheel in place and free wheeling. It has a header pond feeding it. This was during a major flood. We've learnt to shut the wheel down in floods.


Here is my baby, my wood stove


And thanks to our neighbor, this is how we got our wood stove into the house. First onto the porch then on skates into place.


My green house


The Bigger Vegetable Garden


My husband building the milking barn. We used timber from our property and recycled goods that we came across for free like roofing iron, windows. It's nearly finished.





And this is the milking machine I'll be using once I start milking.



And this is My dear husband Michael & I. We've been together almost 25 years now.


We only got married this year in March. Just a short engagement lol. The ceremony was held over in the water wheel paddock. This pic is of Michael & I with our three sons Damian, Hunter, and Brayden.

 

[barefoothaven]

Wohooooooo! DH had some pics of our first attempt at milking

Tempting Pepper into her stanchion with some oats.

Transferring the milk before clean up.

Pepper munching after milking under the watchful eye of Hunter while I clean up.

 

[barefoothaven]

Glad DS is doing well enough to keep watch of the cow. Good job for him!

Pepper is a lovely girl....but, we need pics of the calf, too. Do you bottle the calf or share time with cow & milk 1X day? Always wanted my own milk cow -- still do!! I love to do butter & it's great from cow milk. But, being only one here to use it all, I have milk goats. Great milk!! 1-1.5 gal day from one is a lot for me to use. Can't imagine what I'd do with the amount a cow gives.

Guess I will find out soon as 3 goats kid late Jan & 2 more in Feb. I make cheese, yogurt and use some for animal feeds. Have made butter but need to buy a separater to get enough cream at one time to make it worth the effort. Procrastinating because they are expensive but, feel it will be purchased very soon now.

Thanks Mini Horses

Peppers calf was separated from her a few days after calving. Our neighbours who gave us Pepper kept the calf.
I milk her once a day around 10am. But she got mastitis in one udder not long after we got her home so I was hand milking that one twice a day till clear. And still am as that udder is a bit slower than the others.
She gives around 12-13 Litres of milk per day at the moment. She should get to the 15 Litres a day mark soon.
I use to have a lead on her halter when I fetched her in to her stanchion/stall but now she runs straight out the paddock when I go to get her, & into her stall (she gets oats in her feed bin during milking) lol.
I have always wanted milk goats too! Maybe one day.
I am considering buying a cream separator also. Yes, they are rather costly but well worth it I think.
That was one of the reason we got a milk cow, so we could make our own butter & cheese & just have fresh milk.
New Zealand is a HUGE dairy country. Most of our dairy gets shipped over seas. But we are still charged ridiculous prices for butter & cheese.
One day in the supermarket I saw a New Zealand companies butter at $7 for a pound. The cheapest is an average of around $4 a pound.
And 1 kilogram of cheese is around $9-10 at the moment.... Mad, mad, crazy!
So this & just having a healthier, fresher, product is what's pushing me towards making our own..... It's very exciting

 

[sumi]

Welcome to SS Wow, I can see why you guys fell in love with that property and decided to take on the challenges and pregnant too! It looks and sounds absolutely amazing...

 

[Denim Deb]

I am so going to enjoy reading your journal. Years ago, I found romance novels by a New Zealander named Essie Summers and realized that why I really liked them is because so many of the stories were on remote properties by people basically living a SS life style.

 

[Denim Deb]

I've heard of Waitangi in at least one of the books I read, not sure about Whangaroa. And these books weren't strictly romance. They had bits of NZ history as well and also some Maori words.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Welcome from Texas! Can't wait to hear more of your adventure.

 

[barefoothaven]

Here are some more pics of how our property looked when we first moved in (PIC HEAVY)






And this is what it looks like now

 

[Denim Deb]

What a difference all the work made. And, that's a nice pic of your family.