Owning a part time farm

Before we made a permanent escape from the city, we dipped our toes in the alluring waters of country living, by purchasing a farm as a weekender. When it comes to getting away from the rat race, owning a part time farm can be a wonderful escape but it can also be an antithesis of relaxation. It is also a very expensive investment in a weekend getaway. Yet despite its pitfalls, our weekends spent at the farm, in the mid-late 90s, were some of the most memorable times we have shared. We loved the farm so much that we finally took the plunge and moved out of the city permanently in 2003.


Looking over our young vineyard

Our busy Sydney life was balanced by weekends at the farm in Gundaroo. Every Friday we would head down the M5 toward the Southern Tablelands for a weekend of relaxing, some work and to talk to our newly planted grapevines.

Our accommodation on our part time farm was pretty Spartan. We converted the old shearing shed into a weekender.


The shearing shed nestled under a stand of old elms

Our first ever weekend at the farm was spent camping in the swag on the shed floor. It was a very cold night and we woke up the next morning with frost in our hair. Each weekend we would do a little more to make the shed habitable.


Inside the shearing shed

The first job was to get all the sheep poo out from under the shed. We limed the timber floors to try to take some of the smell out. It never left, but strangely the smell of sheep yards reminds me of those wonderful weekends we spent in that shed.



Our first ‘bathroom’ was a camping shower hooked up to our toyota troop carrier. A hose was put in a tub of water and the shower head was hooked onto the UHF aerial on the bull bar. The heat of the car engine warmed the water. Showering outdoors in the thick of a Canberra winter was not that pleasant; you had to hope that whatever body parts were not in contact with the warm water wouldn't drop off with frost bite.

Of course the central focus of our weekends at the farm was our young vineyard.


The newly planted vineyard

We would spend all day working on our vines. In those early days, the work was mainly on training the vines onto the trellis and the usual non-stop maintenance that is involved with irrigation and farm machinery. We would finish the days with our bodies aching from the vineyard work and as we were not yet acclimatised, we would usually be frozen to the bone.


Our young vines mulched with sugar cane

In the evenings we would light a large fire to keep us warm. We would also enjoy lots of Canberra wines and dinner cooked by Ned. Ned is an 1860s IXL double oven large black wood stove. I found him at a junk shop and we lovingly restored him and installed him in the former shearer's smoko room in the shed. I named him Ned because his flue looks like Kelly's armour. I have never had a roast that tastes as good as the ones cooked in that big old wood stove. A lamb roast takes about 4 hours to cook and the meat is always so perfectly tender and moist.


Handsome Ned, the best lamb cook in the country

Those early days at the farm were our stepping stones to move out of the city. To this day, I love arriving in Gundaroo and smelling the damp, earthy, country air; I love slow cooking and our fireplace accompanied with a glass of wine in winter. I love the memories that led us to our new rural existence and a frost free indoor shower.

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