Inception

Hi Folks, So I decided to start a new blog after a few suggestions from some people around me. I have been blogging for some time about climbing, but it has been recommended that I should do some sprouting about some other aspects of my life.
I am a city boy originally, born and bred in Melbourne with no real experience of living on the land, gardening, hunting, cultivating or any of that stuff. I have been rock climbing for over 20years and a desire to do more of this led me to move out of the city and join my country brethren out near the Grampians, a unique and wildly beautiful part of Western Victoria. I spent a year living in Ararat, where I grew my first veggies. What a great idea, I planted a bunch of seeds, did a bunch of watering and weeding and a few months later I had fresh, organic veggies. Awesome. And even better, I now had an excuse to start buying tools.

My first veggies

 I really enjoyed my year in town, I climbed lots and made heaps of new friends and lots of my city peeps came to visit, but if I was going to stay in the country I would need to buy a place of my own. I wanted space, peace and quiet and to create some sort of attachment to the land. Plus, renting is a mugs game out here, where prices are relatively cheap, but rent still pretty high. So, the search began. Ideally, I wanted a hobby farm type arrangement. A max of ten acres with a house, not quite a renovators delight, but not out of house and garden either. Somewhere I could practice using my new tools, grow my own produce and rear some animals. Sustainable and attainable. I quickly lucked on to a 5 acre plot, ten minutes out of town, cool house in need of a few improvements, massive amounts of shed space, a wood burner and some chooks thrown in for good measure. That was about 18 months ago. In coming blogs I will try to share some of the more interesting, challenging and hilarious moments of my time 'on the land.'

Sunrise over Arnie Acres

My new country abode

Finally I had an excuse to drive a ute...

Please follow the site and feel free to comment or post any experiences or questions that you may have. I have managed to do lots of really cool things since moving, but have made some crazy errors as well, which you should feel free to point out too... 
Enjoy...