As well as the "Touch and Feel" nursery, the tour will take us right around the farm. This is a working farm, so walking shoes are strongly recommended.

90% of the farm is wheelchair accessible. There are concrete ramps to the majority of places around the farm. For those of you who don't feel able to cope with a steep slope or are wheel chair bound, we have built a viewing platform which is undercover and glass fronted with an audio commentary which will inform you of what is happening as the rest of the group travel past pens stocked with animals such as turkeys, geese and coloured sheep. You can view the surrounding hills where our ponies graze with their new foals and the ducks and geese swim lazily around the man made lake.

We don't have any cattle due to their size. We would hate to see any one getting squashed; after all they are much bigger than we are.

Of course the farm will continue to grow and develop as time goes by. Animals will be added and exhibits will change as animals come and go. This is the norm on any farm.

Moving on, we will visit our pet pig Wilma. She weighs in at around 250kg! She is always more than happy to say hello to you, particularly if you've got food!

We then travel down a gentle slope to our dam, which has a capacity of about 56 million litres and in all likelihood has about 100 ducks and geese on it at any one time. Wild ducks also like to make it their resting place and you'll often see their brilliant colours winging into the afternoon sun. We will have some food for you to give to the birds, so you will be able to get up close and personal with them too! The ducks and geese will quickly be joined by hundreds of hungry chickens as well. From here you can usually see our ponies grazing on the hills in the background, and the flocks of guinea fowl scouring the hillside for any stray insects.

Half way up the hill we will stop to say hello to our Welsh ponies and any foals they may have with them. The tour is nearly at an end as we make our way ip the grassy bank past my other passion, a long bed of old world roses. There are over 1000 roses scattered throughout the garden both in formal beds or naturalised amongst perennials and other shrubs. David Austins, hybrid teas and the like are there in every colour.

Finally, turning a corner you will find yourself at 'The Clucky Chook Café'. My wife literally carved this out of a piece of the garden. It's an English style building with vaulted ceilings building and Tasmanian hardwood floors. In fact we have put as much Tasmanian material into it as we possibly could. It is about 115m2 in size, a third of which is given over to a verandah.

The views from the verandah are spectacular. Visitors look out over the lake towards Mount Barrow and the ranges beyond. It's a constantly changing scene, with the horses and their foals, the sheep next door often with lambs at foot, and the myriad of poultry on or around the lake below. In spring and autumn the colours are a sight to behold and just sitting out on the verandah enjoying a cup of tea is sure to raise the spirits. In fact we often have trouble getting people to leave!

We plan to have a limited liquor licence in the near future, which will allow us to provide you with tastings of award winning premium Tasmanian wines and beer. In the mean time you can enjoy real leaf tea, freshly made coffee, and choose from the menu with such delights as homemade cakes and biscuits, scones with jam and cream through to light meals like quiche, home made pies, focaccias and Tasmanian tasting plates. Children's dishes will also be available. A range of quality souvenirs is also available for purchase as a memento of your visit.

Guests will in the future be able to take advantage of a guide we are preparing which will reveal hidden treasures of the Esk Valley in a compact tourist route that includes cottage industries such as glass-blowers, a leather shop, local wineries, stained glass window manufacturing, a rose garden and a sauce and jam factory. >> next