10 Must Haves For Hobby farming

1. ⭐️Be an Early Bird no snoozing till 10am, the beasts will be awake, need tending (Every. Single. Morning)

2. 🐮Have A genuine love of animals in all their glory, Its a big responsibility.

3. ⚡️The Ability to embrace chaos, even with the best management, animals escape, storms wreck planting, equipment breaks down

4. ⭐️The Ability to embrace mess, formal gardeners look away! Free- range chickens and neat garden beds don’t go together.

5. 🍀An Appreciation for nature and the outdoors, enjoy being outside, in all weathers

6. 🐓Barn and chicken coop cleaning skills, those cute photos on social media of animals snuggled in clean straw, eating from shiny clean dishes? That takes work, there’s a lot of shit shovelling behind the scenes.

7. ⏰Time! Don’t under estimate how much time and energy it takes to keep it all functioning well. Are you up for it?

8. 🏠Reliable Pet/House sitters on speed dial or you’ll never go away

9. 🧑‍🌾An ability to ask or pay for help, can’t do it all on your own, you just can’t

10. ⭐️Energy The jobs are never ending. If you find yourself exhausted or resentful maybe time to rethink this lifestyle or embrace number 9!

Arachnids, Reptiles and Many Small Beasties

Things i’ve learned.

In addition to the usual plasters, crepe bandages and antiseptics, Australian first-aid kits need tick removers, anti-histamines, Stingoes and a snake bandage. 😳

It’s ok to scream like a banshee when a Huntsman spider runs up your arm or turgid leech falls ‘splat’ at your feet (it did) having sneakily attached itself an hour ago as you walked innocently through the rainforest.

Teeny weeny Scottish spiders will seem cute compared to their large Antipodean cousins.

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