Hello From New Zealand.

[barefoothaven]

Hello all, my name is Leonie.

My Husband and 2 youngest sons, and myself live on our property of 60 acres in the Far North of the North Island of New Zealand. Mostly bush land with about 8-9 in grazing so far. We've been here for 4 years now.
We have off-grid power from a water wheel and solar panels and use a wood stove to heat our water and home and to cook on/in. We also use a gas oven.
Just finishing the milking shed build ready for our house cow Pepper who is due to calve for the first time any day now. And this will be my first time milking. I have a portable milk machine on wheels.
We have established veg gardens, small orchard, chickens, pigs. We have 3 dogs and 1 cat.
Our goal is to raise enough beef, pigs, goats, chickens for meat etc and grow, preserve, store as much as we can to save money and learn to live on what we produce as much as possible.
I love anything to do with homesteading, off-grid living, anything like that. And much much more

I joined this forum to learn and share and learn some more from like minded people

Thank you

 

[Denim Deb]

I've always been fascinated by NZ. It's one of the few places outside of the US I'd like to visit. I've read stories about sheep stations that have (or had) access by boat and/or air only and have wondered what it would be like to live on one.

 

[Denim Deb]

We don't have many people coming from Aotearoa. W/being in the north of the North Island, are you able to garden year round?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Welcome! And, of course, it's a requirement to post pictures!

 

[sumi]

Welcome to SS Your farm sounds wonderful! Please share pics and stories of all your goings on over there. We love to share and learn from each other here

 

[goatgurl]

welcome and as sumi said, we love pictures

 

[baymule]

Welcome from northeast Texas. Be sure to check out the sister sites to SS. For gardening, www.theeasygarden.com and for your animals, www.backyardherds.com lots of nice people on both sites that will be delighted to help you. off grid! I admire you for that!

 

[sumi]

My BIL lived in New Zealand for about 5 years, on the South island I believe. He told my DH he loved the country, people, climate, everything down there and would love to move back there. He is English and back living in England now.

 

[Beekissed]

Would love to hear and see more of your place and activities there! I too have always wanted to see NZ, from the pics it's a most beautiful and rugged place. I especially want to see your waterwheel setup....I've lived near a town that used to get all their power from a waterwheel/mill house and it's still in place, with the owners of the mill now the only consumers of the power generated there.

 

[barefoothaven]

Would love to hear and see more of your place and activities there! I too have always wanted to see NZ, from the pics it's a most beautiful and rugged place. I especially want to see your waterwheel setup....I've lived near a town that used to get all their power from a waterwheel/mill house and it's still in place, with the owners of the mill now the only consumers of the power generated there.

It is a beautiful & rugged place. I love it. So many little magical places tucked away off main roads. And no matter where you go compared to some countries, it's not really too far to drive till you're at a beach.
I have started my journal in the journal section & have a few pics there plus plenty to come.
I'll be posting more of the water wheel in the future
The wheel that was here when we moved in was almost done for & didn't give us enough power to keep a light bulb going. It was an undershot wheel.
The wheel we have now is an overshot. 2.4 m in diameter. The wheel itself is made from marine ply. When we first hooked it up we got a reading of 23 amps at the wheel but you lose energy with distance but we still run a chest freezer, fridge freezer, washing machine, vacuum, big screen TV, laptops etc. And our batteries charge overnight so it's great.
We are looking at hooking the hot water cylinder up to dump excess power into that. When it's sunny like today with the solar panels, the water wheel free wheels all day because our batteries are full.