Today we picked up five beautiful alpacas and their friend Ben the Sheep who are moving to Honeycomb Valley Farm to enjoy their retirement! here are some pics...but they're more magnificent in person!
Late last year we spent a fun day on the farm with the super lovely Mieke Buchan and the crew from Channel 10's Making Tracks. If you'd like to see some great close-ups of native Australian stingless bees, + some footage of solar ovens and our happy chooks, head to about 10 minutes 45 seconds into the segment here. Or watch the whole show here to enjoy learning about all sorts of cool things you can do between Port Macquarie and Port Stephens! Thanks Mieke and crew!
What a great gift on Christmas Day to be greeted by our latest gorgeous grass cutter and manure provider - Miss Minnie Ho Ho. She's a miniature galloway calf - and gorgeous to boot! Mum Fun Factory and dad Mickey looked ever the proud parents...though Mickey was a bit more interested in the congratulatory biscuit of hay than the baby!
Minnie Ho Ho is a beautiful example of the miniature galloway breed and we're sure she'll become a farmstay favourite!
Wow - massive week on the farm with all hands on deck to bring to life the Australian native plant section of the ethnobotanical garden we're creating. Wwoofers Oskar and Toni from Finland, Oliver and Lena from Germany, and Rod the Bee Man aka Bobcat joined with us and Luke and Elysha from Local Knowledge to begin planting. So great to see a bare paddock beginning to be transformed into an edible and useful area thanks to Elysha's great design! Big effort everyone. Thank you!
Day lilies are a most amazing plant - beautiful AND edible! Liz from Kinspirit Iris and Day Lily Farm introduced us to them some years ago and we love them! So they will be one of the many plants we have on display when the ethnobotanical garden opens next year. Some pictures below show Liz and her husband John in the planning and the planting of the day lily bed, just one of many special areas of the garden.
We had to keep checking Mira, Mirjam and Winja's back for sprouting wings, because they really were like angels...angels with attitude, stamina and a great sense of fun! These Austrian and French wwoofers were hilarious, smart, determined and wow - did they plough through the work...literally! . They leave us today to enjoy the rest of their Australian travels, and our NSW farmstay family will miss them mucho!
Here are some pics from 10 days in the life of Honeycomb Valley Farm, as seen through the eyes of Mira, Winja and Mirjam. These wonderful wwoofers (willing workers on organic farms) from Austria and France gave us lots of laughs and lots of memories....and when you see the other post we're about to do - you'll see they gave us so much more, pulling out all stops to help us create the cottage garden section of the ethnobotanical garden and Native Australian Bee sanctuary!
It's that time of year when we often whip out the plastic and buy lots of plastic...but why not try a different approach this year!?! This year we're focusing on giving our kids experiences rather than just filling up their toy boxes, and for the adults, why not check out ideas that make you more capable or reduce your impact on this big beautiful earth!
Here are some of our faves and they're all in stock right now:
You think QANTAS and their staff are having problems!?! Well pay disputes have well and truly broken out at the farmstay with fame going to the fur, feathers and foliage of some long time residents after they heard they'd been on TV!
A few months ago we had a lovely visit from the crew from Sydney Weekender (who joined us for a beekeeping course, breadmaking course and even a goat's milk & honey face mask from our "Farmerceuticals" range). So this Saturday afternoon we'll be heading in off the farm to see what our beautiful animals loook like in the lounge room rather than the paddock!
Honey Fix My Lips (in a wind up tube) is the lip balm we use on the farm in the windy depths of winter, and when summer scorchers leave us parched. This is the balm that even the toughest, ...
. They leave us today to enjoy the rest of their Australian travels, and our NSW farmstay family will miss them mucho!
