From Dot’s Perspective…

So my dad came up with a crazy idea about 10 years ago to buy rural land in Yankallila. No one in my family was sold on the idea at the time, I was too busy partying, my brother didn’t want to know and my mum is not a country person… then things calmed down for me… I found a fantastic boyfriend, we settled down and bought a house together. We started discussing our ten year plan of moving to the country “at some point” and then my dad’s retirement loomed ahead.

Around September / October 2016, my dad came to us with an idea of buying land more towards the north-east side of Adelaide and would we come on board… I jumped at the chance this time, my dreams coming true but not really believing it would amount to anything. I first looked at this land in Tungkillo with my dad in November during those “worst storms in 50 years” that Adelaide had but he had already fallen in love with it. It was a short-lived debate between 112 acres of nothing but rocky land with a creek, or 54 acres with a mostly-built house already on it, connected to power, running water and all facilities. My dad’s heart won us over and we started signing paperwork… oh so much paperwork. I still didn’t really believe this would happen… MY retirement dream… happening now!?!?!? Who would have thought the bank would lend us the money, who would have thought this would all work out… but it did.

On January 27th 2017 we were handed the keys to the padlock on the gate and now we are the proud owners of Dotted Hills   🙂   112 acres of rocky ground set amongst beautiful river red gums and a creek.

The plan moving forward is to become as fully self-sustainable as possible and build a house completely off-grid to accommodate Trent and myself and a self-contained unit for my parents. This website is to keep our friends, family and my family in Poland up to date with the happenings at Dotted Hills    🙂

One thought on “From Dot’s Perspective…

  1. Dorota & Trent,
    Thank you for your hospitality & friendly friends who joined us at your Dotted Hills farm on Saturday. Your dream to make your farm self sufficient & sustainable is a big bold challenge!
    Andrew Dezsery worked for me in 1980’s as a young man, keen on starting aquaculture career. Together with Søren Pedersen, a young Dane who managed a kibbutz fish-farm in Negev Desert, Israel, produced 400 tonne fish a year!
    We set-up a trout hatchery & grew out 50,000 fingerlings. Later, we sold fresh & smoked trout to hotels & restaurants. Lots of hard work & trout is a cold-water fish not suited for SA.
    Søren manages Salmon farm in Tasmania now & 1aquaponics.com is Andrew’s biz. near Gawler. Recycling water to grow vegies, fish & rabbits (they eat all nutrient lettuce roots) is also popular with schools & NDIS groups who pay Andrew $280/hr to enjoy hands-on fun & learn all about aquaponics. (Gov’t $$ for such excursions.) Why not consider growing truffles under hazelnut shrubs & oaks as top cash flow produce? Next time we meet we can chat about permaculture options.

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