Timesaving to have the tap in the workroom.

When we started Gough Hill Farm we did it on a shoestring budget. Really we did spend a lot of money on the hothouses, the plants, the irrigation system, the water tanks, the cold room, and all the nutrients. And more stuff that I can’t list. At the time we seemed to be buying lots of things.

The menfolk who were quite able to do much of the work that perhaps others would have brought tradesmen in to do, they did themselves. Of course to save further. Some electrical, plumbing, roofing etc. they did themselves.

We housed the workroom as we call it in the stables. The previous property owners had horses, so had some really good stables there were not being used. We just used one of the three stables. We had some guys deliver and put down the cement floor and our guys put in the shelves, and did some of the electrical work. (Supervised by a qualified electrician friend).

But for the first few years we did not have easy access to water. There was a tap on either end of the stables, and we ran a hose from one of them. We’d fill the buckets from the hose, and run like mad back to the tap to prevent water from being wasted.

Eventually the guys got around to fixing the plumbing, and ran some pipes from the tap into the work room. So now we have a tap in the workroom.

We still laugh about how much time (and water) it has saved us by having the tap in the appropriate place.

The Entrepreneur

Little Miss A, our granddaughter saw her little school friend with a digital camera on New Year's Even and learned how she had saved up for it herself. Miss A decided to do the same. Pocket money is now $4 a week but she worked out that it would take a long time, so negotiated to sell the seconds from the farm gate.

She created a sign which says "Flowers $3 a bunch", got her fold up chairs, and buckets of flowers and set up. She did a roaring trade in an hour and made nearly $60. She'd done it several times since, and I think the camera will be purchased next week.

What a clever little girl! It's rather funny, as we had discussed doing the farm gate sales some time ago, but her mother didn't approve of us doing it. She didn't want people knowing we had the flowers there.

We will discuss it again - as we knew it would be quite financially rewarding, and if we made an extra $100 week, which is quite reasonable it equates to $5200 a year.

It will be on the agenda for the next farm meeting.