About
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Farm Layout 2019ContactEmail; ian.clark8@bigpond.com Mobile; (Australia) 0418 887 511 Amaphupho farm is at Witta in Sunshine Coast Hinterland, Queensland Australia Google Map Follow on Instagram HERE Follow on Facebook HERE Follow on Youtube HERE Qld Government Blue Card Holder 2065874/1 
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Where did I start? Well I did have some experience at farming - I had dreamed about it for years, that's all. Amaphupho is a Zulu word that basically means - to dream.
The reality is until the age of 12 I lived on a dairy farm and like all farming kids we had our chores to do and we worked in the paddocks alongside our parents from dawn until dusk. By the age of three I could set my own rabbit traps and went trout fishing with my older brother. Each morning and night we helped milk cows and feed calves and when not at school we helped with fencing and clearing scrub. Watching my dad work and how he worked was the greatest lesson in life - with hard work you can achieve anything.
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| Clearing Amaphupho farm of lantana weeds 2014 |
I purchased the property in July of 2013 and lived in the only structure there an old shed until the house was complete in February of 2104. That first winter was so wet and bitterly cold. I had a fire in the shed but it didn't warm anything given the size of the shed which was once a ginger factory. I slept in a chair most nights as the shed leaked and the floor was wet and then when it was dry out came the red belly black snakes which was exciting watching something pass bye that could kill you. My old dog I brought up from the city died within the first few months and I felt so alone after that. No running water, no sewage, the electricity got connected but was intermittent at best and the toilet - was a hole in the ground. I was living the high life.
I changed my corporate work and became a freelance marketing consultant which allowed me some flexibility to try to manage starting the farm and still having some income. The company car went and was replaced with a ute and the inner city house with the backyard spa bath went and was replaced with my big empty shed. I started at 4am every day clearing bush, then after boiling the jug 6 times had enough water for a quick 'bird bath' and then travelled to my marketing job by 7am. I'd get home around 5pm to do more bush clearing usually well into the dark of night. Most nights I just fell asleep with my dog out of exhaustion, stinky and covered in mud so it was no wonder I lost 10kg's in the first 2 months. I'm not whinging, I loved every moment of it. Three trips to the doctors and one to emergency at the local hospital didn't deter me but boiling the jug 6 times every morning to have enough warm water to have a wash in an old cattle feed dish just about did.Forward to 2019
Some Learnings
Pride is a terrible thing in the country, lesson number 1 I learned quickly is that UTube will show you most things but there are some things you just need to go and ask the neighbours about. once the power got connected the old pump wouldn't turn on and UTube didn't offer and help. I rang the pumps supplier from the rusted old label and they asked if I had primed it? yes of course I said but I'll give it another go then ring you back for a service call. I figured "priming the pump" would be on UTube, nnaaaarrrrr. Another couple of days of poking and padding and cleaning things then I asked the neighbour. "Oh" he said, "easy just unscrew the bung on the back, let the air out and put it back in and it will fire up". sure enough a 3 minute job and it was running. Priming the pump simply means like syphoning the air our of a hose with your mouth unit the water starts coming through.
Killing Roosters - It wasn't until I had to cull the roosters did it really hit home I was becoming a farmer. Catching and eating ells from the dam well that was ok, but cutting the heads off roosters, gutting them and then plucking the scrawny bastards really turned my stomach and still does. The farming gig seemed just like physical work, no mental strain at all before the roosters. I had purchased an incubator and hatched chickens no problem, sold the hens like there was no tomorrow and did a little rain dance how easy it had been to make some cash. Then I looked around and saw 22 roosters and just 6 hens and a whole world of pain. The roosters gang rapped the hens so they no longer laid eggs and each morning the chorus of 22 roosters at first light was deafening. I procrastinated for weeks until the hens were left bleeding and rooster warfare had become well beyond a spectator sport. A lesson in the reality of life on the land had been thrust upon me, I accepted the challenge, put each roster in and empty feed bag with his head sticking out and swung the axe truly. On the land you just do what has to be done. Servicing your own mower - When I first moved to the farm I brought a second hand ride on mower a Cox 16HP and you can't kill it. I've pushed that thing through the roughest bush, I've had to uninstall all the safety switches to ride it sideways across the hills but the bloody thing just keeps going. At first I used to load it on the trailer and take it for a service every 100 hours of use, each time I'd pay $300 or $400 dollars so I decided I'd service it for myself. Change the fuel filter, spark plug, oil filter, air filter and generally wipe it over and fix the leaking tyres I always had from running over rusted star pickets. Each time it started to chug along and go at half pace I'd change the spark plug, fuel filter and clean it, add a little oil and off we would go again.
However I finally met my match. I think I started the issue with too much oil or maybe I started mowing with the choke on full. I got about 50 meters from the shed and all hell broke loose, smoke seemed to come from ever orifice of the bloody machine. I couldn't breath so I dived clear and let the beast have it's moment. Once the machine had settled I re-mounted and proceeded to only find it going at half pace (major clue) so back to the shed to yet again go through what I now understood was a service of my mower. Each day as I drove through town I'd get a new element - spark plug, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter but to no avail each day the result was still a mower at half pace.
You see the side you put the fuel in has all the other stuff, oil filter, fuel filter, spark plug and air filter. Surely this is all I needed to change. I've seen my mower from the city and the whipper snipper and they have all have just one of those each. Such frustration, I'd have to admit defeat and take the bloody thing to town. For some unknown reason I decided to walk around it and see whats on the other side, this is not a big mower and 4 steps covers the distance. A year and a half and I had never walked around it with the bonnet up before.
The bloody thing has two spark plugs - F&#K Me.
Change the second spark plug and the dam thing takes off without me, its half way across the paddock before I catch up. Why didn't I think it had two sides (cylinder or what ever you call it)? simply because in the city your used to little garden tools with one spark plug, in the country you have bigger things and more spark plugs.
Love the dunny photo. Can so relate to that. Had five acres in Reefton, and used a goat shed for a dunny, but cheated by having a caravan for starters, and only weekenders.
ReplyDeleteHad a mixture of animals, everyone else’s animals, cos I wasn’t game to own any. However someone gave me chooks, then a baby goat, and I got the chooks to rear the goat for starters. They used to cover it with their wings on cold nights. One thing I learnt, don’t bother having ostriches. They are more trouble than they are worth. That’s a story for another time. Oh, and I do like sheep, they have character. Goats are hilarious, and they loved their playground equipment, tunnels and sheds. Some were excellent fence jumpers, and others preferred to go through them whichever way they could. Many a time went into freeing a goats head from a fence.