I am a baby farmer...         

I have worked for 25 years for the state government in land administration. A land tenure specialist, I am the only person in the world who does what I do, so by definition I am the best at it :-)

Not so with farming. We purchased Oaklands in 2009 and now farm dorper sheep, dexter and lowline cattle and chickens. All in a very small way. Four cattle, twelve sheep, twenty chickens, two geese and five cats.

28 acres of sandy ridge, ironbark country. About 10 acres is still bush, and the cypress pines are working hard at taking the rest back.

Studying pasture management, animal husbandry and self sufficiency has been a learning curve of epic proportions and every step has merely revealed how much I have yet to learn.

But I will learn and I will become a competent farmer. One of those laconic souls that know you need to drench when the moon is yellow on a Monday and the rain came from the north, but not if the swallows are carrying coconuts.