16/12/2022
On Tuesday, 31st of May 2022, we moved our whole farming operation from a 1500Ha farm located 30km outside Touwsrivier, Western Cape, to the beautiful Riverstone, an 11Ha farm only 2km from the stunning village of McGregor. The reasons for this move were many, but the main thing we were excited about - we'll have water! When we arrived here, there were no boundary fence, let alone interior camps! Being sheep farmers, that was one of our first missions 💪
We fell in love with this small piece of land from the first time we saw it: the cliffs on the one side, the river on the other, nature reserve all around, hospitable neighbours, the enchanting bird calls echoing along the valley. There was work, lots of it, but this was OUR place.
The biggest part of the farm was covered in a magical forest of....port jackson trees 😖 Although it brought the sense of walking in a different world, these trees are invasive aliens from Australia and causes big problems in South Africa.
Shortly our first work started with implements, remnants, and bits and pieces of our previous place scattered about where there is space: we had to move into the house, get camps set up for the first lot of sheep and clear port jackson trees to start setting up a boundary fence. While trying to keep head above water, paddling upstream, losing production amongst the sheep and finances biting us in the butt, we still started dreaming about all the trees we want to plant, nurturing the already-planted trees (not port jacksons), having guests stay in the cottage, completely redoing the lawn and garden, swimming in the river, having fodder camps for the sheep, riding the horse (one at that stage), creating a beach, having an indigenous vegetation camp, building luxury tents, reopening the old dam, etcetera, etcetera. The list goes on and on (and gets longer by the day). We hope to share more of this journey on this platform with family, friends, guests who have visited, travellers still to come and anyone else who wants to follow the journey, see the growth, celebrate the milestones with us and hear the news. We are so happy to have you here (virtually) with us! 🌳🌿🐑🐎🐕🌾
