Overwhelmed with city life? Need an escape? Let us take you on a journey to Freshwater Farm and keep you updated with all our new and exciting news about what’s been happening around the Farm.
The Farm has been a great place for our family to getaway to amidst the pandemic madness! We are truly lucky we have somewhere nearby we can visit. It feels a little like a holiday, that we have all been craving!
Being a family owned and run business gives us the liberty to be able to combine both worlds. We value our family time and have strived to make the farm a place of tranquillity, that we are able to escape to whenever the city gets the better of us. We now have a new Pontoon on the dam! Grant and Al both worked very hard to put this together, so that the kids and everyone who visits the farm can swim safely…and for those don’t like to touch the mud!
Next we wanted to start building up the ecosystem at the Farm by adding some Freshwater Yabbies & Glass Shrimp to our creek. We want our farm to be a wildlife sanctuary where the the kids can learn more about the animals and the animals will be safe!
Freshwater Yabbies enjoy muddy water because it offers protection from predators, they can be found in a variety of habitats including swaps, farm dams and billabongs. Whilst they prefer warmer waters, Yabbies can actually survive in vast range of temps from freezing to around 35°C. If drought occurs then Yabbies will bury themselves underground for many years until it passes – they are true Aussie outbackers! Interestingly, Yabbies are not well understood by scientists, often a dry empty lake that is again filled with rainwater will become richly populated with Yabbies in a short period of time and no one seems to know how!
Some other new additions to the Freshwater Farm ecosystem were some gorgeous baby ducklings! These ducklings and their Mum are Chestnut Teal Ducks native to Australia. They were also enjoying the serenity of the dam when we snapped this adorable shot! Interestingly the breeding season for ducklings is usually between July & September however due to the changes in weather with slightly warmer temperatures, this could be why we are seeing many duckies about now!
Ducks are said to return to the same nesting spot year after year so long as the conditions stay suitable for nesting, so with a bit of luck we might be seeing some more little fellas this time next year! Ducks for their nest love somewhere private and safe often amongst tall grass or bushes, so we can see why they love the farm for raising their babies!
Ducks aren’t the only babies we will be seeing either…some other friends that will be joining us at the farm are Baby Water Hens. Our recently harvested Tea Tree Plantation has been reshooting and Al very cleverly spotted amongst the new regrowth these eggs! Typically the habitat of a Water Hen involves well-vegetated lakes and marshy environments, so the Tea Tree plantation must have seemed a perfect fit for our soon to be mother. Water Hens are omnivores surviving on a diet of both plants and small animals like insects or even frogs. We can’t wait to meet the little ones!
We hope you enjoyed this fortnights farm update! Let us know what else you would like to hear about on the blog! We will be sure to keep you updated when the Water Hen eggs hatch, take care!
Freshwater Farm xx