Hi all. We have been living on 10 acres in South Gippsland for 20+ years on which we grow veg, fruit and nut trees, and raise some chooks and a few bees under a Biodynamic/organic philosophy. We have a reasonable sized dam which did not entirely dry out during the 2005-2006 drought, though at times the water level gets too low to consider growing vast amounts of veg. We have grown veg for a veggie bag supplier - overall this does not remunerate the effort and outlay involved, especially once you factor in the inevitable losses due to the highly variable spring/summer weather here. We have grown our own dexter beef for on farm butchery in the past, and it is very delicious, but we have recently decided to eat quite a bit less meat in the future. Was planning a small sheep herd, now wondering what to do with the acres! I have joined this forum to fossick around for some ideas!! I think a house cow might be in the future somewhere, but it would have to wait until we are retired from full time off farm jobs.