Our journey started with a desire for a hobby farm.  Anticipating the searching process would take some time, and we'd have a hobby farm in a few years for our retirement.  Who was to know, the first farm we looked at we'd fall in love with!

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The location, in the rolling hills of Mount Pleasant won us over.  There's paddocks for livestock, paddocks for horses, and of course, smack bang in the middle of it all is the near 8 acre shiraz vine vineyard.  We never in our lives thought we'd be wine producers.

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The paddocks of our farm are leased to a local farmer.  He's a man of the land, unlike us city folk, and his assistance with the vineyard has been so appreciated.  We have hand picked roughly a tonne of grapes each batch and transfer them to a winery in Nairne, where they do their magic and have produced The First Batch,  The Second Batch and The Third Batch.  Our first "tonne" was only 656kg, and we managed to produce 581 bottles of wine.  Our second and third "tonne" was around 970kg with both batches producing 800 bottles, so we're slowly getting there, to actually reach a tonne of picked grapes one year.

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We're learning as we go, and oh there is so much to learn, not just about wine.  Who knew there were so many grasses, good and bad?  Who knew when horses lay down they are not sick, but extremely happy in their environment, and just having a very good rest?  Maybe some know those things, but we certainly did not.

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The purchase of the farm has kept us busy, and probably gotten us fit along the way.  It's a journey we've enjoyed, and hope to enjoy for many years to come.  Retirement might not be on our radar any time soon, and maybe it will just turn out to be retirement from office life to farm life.