Monday, August 8, 2011

Organic Certification and wombats

So back to the grind this week, the first thing we need to address on our farm is organic certification. Have been going through the different certifying bodies, to determine what separates them from each other and the truth is not much. They all routinely do random assessments, and have the same rules...so its fair game. The OGA certified organic Australia, will be our badge of choice....look out for it peoples, will be completing the forms this week...tooo exciting.

Prior to purchasing the property, we became aware of the fact that we have wombats residing under the buildings on the property...awww cute yes...not so good for structures though and our pets (supposedly they lure cats and dogs into their lair and intentionally do harm).... So after consultation with the local wildlife group, we have found out that you cant actually move wombats, because if you do they will try and find their way back home and usually end up as roadkill or having a fight with another wombat over territory...ouch... So the only way is to encourage the wombats to move to another one of the homes (yes quite the entrepreneurial spirit, often having 2-3 unrenovated homes). This will be undertaken by setting up a low grade electric fence around the perimeter of the buildings, placing sand around the burrow and waiting until they have left for the evening. The electric fence is then put on, once they receive the gentle persuasion, they immediately go and renovate another one of their dens... Amazing , think we will miss the huge pot holes around the buildings and the idea that another beautiful creature wants to share the space, but we have located their other dens and know that they will only be a couple of meters away....Till next week on the farm