I come from a family of farmers although we have admittedly been some what watered down over the years. My grandfather had wheat, sheep and the odd race horse on large acreage. My father ran another career parallel and grew further into farming with orchards and cattle. I along with my wife own five acres, barely get time to manage it properly and derive our whole income else where.
So although I grew up on a farm and share many of the sentiments of my forebears I am under no illusion as to my farming credibility, safely saying that I am not a real farmer.
So why am I writing this?
While I come from a family of farmers they also seem to have been keen diary keepers. My father has kept and refers to his father’s farm diaries and while Dad still needs his for now I find they are an excellent source of information and contacts as I develop my land much as he did some 20 years before. At the end of the day why relearn something when someone else can share their experience.
This cultivated knowledge through the two years it has taken to renovate our land from a run down vineyard to a green field house block has been invaluable. As I drive around the district I see people much like me who come from a professional background but unlike me may not have necessarily grown up on the land or have farming relatives to draw knowledge from.
In light of this the ‘Not a real farmer’ blog is a personal diary for posterity, somewhere to store the useful information gleaned from my forebears and being a child of technology, any online resources I found particularly useful along the way. Well…that’s the starting premise anyway, it will undoubtedly change.
While moving forward I also intend to look back at the two years that have got us to the point of about to start construction on the house while I can still remember it.