The very first improvement we made to our land was to plant an olive grove - 63 olive trees and 7 citrus trees were planted in May 2008. Electricity was brought to the grove, a bore put down, tank and pumps installed and irrigation pipes laid. A 1.8mtr high fence protects the area from kangaroos and most other wildlife. Lots of research was done to decide on the 4 varieties of olives planted, how far apart to put the trees (low rainfall, ability to bring in machinery when needed), which trees to plant in which rows eg pendolino help leccino flower. So the first investment was substantial and the aim was to one day produce our own olive oil - not commercially, but enough to perhaps sell some as a hobby.
As we did not move to the property until February 2010 we would visit every weekend and as novice farmers we had so much to learn. First our baby trees started going yellow so soil tests were done. Then I didn't know how much water each tree needed (and this varies at different times of the year). Then there was the matter of which fertilizer to use - our choice was sheep manure. Finally some of our trees started to die. In April 2009, we replaced 10 dead olive trees with 4 olive trees, 2 apple trees (planted in the same hole), 2 avocado trees, a walnut tree, a macadamia tree and a fig tree.
There is a plan of the layout of the orchard which has recorded the progress of every tree - if it died, when it has lost leaves, when it flowers, when it fruits and ultimately how many olives it has produced in the three years so far - 08,09,10. In 08 and 09 two thirds of the trees flowered, while in 2010, 75% flowered. The conversion of flowers to olives has also improved. However during the last year even though I now live here, I did not watch carefully what was happening (too much time spent with the camelids and playing with the new grape vines!).
At the end of September one third of the trees had an abundance of flowers and at the end of October the slower trees were also in flower. At this stage irrigation was twice a week. Everything was pointing towards our first good crop of olives. Then during November we had very strong winds and absolutely no rain in the previous 3 months. When I checked each tree at the end of the month, we had massive loss of flowers and olives. (*Point to note for next year.) However, it wasn't all bad news as some trees had kept substantial fruit. I spoke to a major olive grower and she suggested that next year I put on more irrigation in September and add boron to help the fruit set.
Then as a lazy farmer not wanting to go out in the heat, I didn't go back to the olives till the end of December. Devastation had truly struck. The trees which I was counting on for a crop had been annihilated by the birds. You could see all the seeds under the trees where the birds had taken the olives and in many cases the seeds were cracked open. In previous years, the birds had just picked some olives and left them to rot. I had some netting which was used on the citurs trees the previous year, so wrapped this around 8 trees which still had just a few fruit.
Yesterday I went up to pick our crop - only 160 olives - not even one big jar to pickle. The only olives left were those hidden under the nets.
So the lessons learnt:
Pruning - I had followed the practice of heavily pruning the canopy in winter to open up the trees. This year I am going to break with tradition and just cut the top off the trees to keep them of a size to enable picking the fruit. I am going to (against all advice) let the canopy stay thick as I believe the more open the canopy, the easier it is for the birds.
Irrigation - Change from twice a week to 3 times a week in September and change back to twice a week when it rains(hopefully) in Winter.
Fertilizer - With the abundance of camelid poo, I will use this instead of sheep poo and I will add boron in September to help the fruit set.
Wind - there is nothing I can do about this, but maybe the tighter canopy may help.
Netting - I will select the best trees to net in October and then monitor the loss of fruit from the others.
Even though we had experienced loss of fruit from the birds in previous years, this year was noticeably worse. In December 09 a bushfire destroyed a well developed olive grove of about a thousand trees and a new olive grove of a similar size, both quite close to our property. It has also been a record year for low rainfall. So I am presuming the birds have slim pickings and have found our place. It is not the black cockatoo or galah I have mentioned in a previous post, but a green bird - very pretty, but a pest all over the wheatbelt which is the area in which we live.
On the upside the trees look incredible - they haven't had to bear fruit and have put all their energy into developing into strong trees. I also don't have to go through the laborious process of changing salty water every day to pickle fruit - though it would have been a delight to see how they tasted. Instead I have one lonely jar sitting there with about 40 bottles from last year which still haven't been eaten.
So it is onward and upward, lessons learnt and hopefully a smoother ride on our olive roller coaster next year.
Our alpaca Top Deck came to us by default. We went to purchase a grey alpaca called Scrumpy and as Toppy was his best mate, he had to come along too. The breeder named him Top Deck presumably as he is chocolate colour and has white front feet. 
When Toppy was shorn last September, he was not quite 2 years old. The shearer told us it was a very good fleece, so I have savoured the idea of spinning it for the last 6 months. Recently I spent a couple of days cleaning the vegetable matter out of it and then gave the fleece to Jenny (who has a wool mill) to process into bumps ready for spinnng. I used some of the necks/legs part of the fleece to also try felting it. See pic of the 5 beautiful balls of wool and a square of felt. The white patches in the felt are the result of randomly dropping pieces of silk in the wool during the felting process.
