Kelvin Falls Family Farm in Elbow Valley, Queensland, Australia | Farm

Kelvin Falls Family Farm

Locality: Elbow Valley, Queensland, Australia

Phone: +61 7 4667 9204

Address: 300 O'Deas Road 4370 Elbow Valley, QLD, Australia

Website: http://www.kelvinfalls.com

Likes: 569

Add/Update information

Reviews

Tags

• Bed and breakfast
• Farm

25.01.2022 https://www.facebook.com/168359740303780/posts/1089871408152604/ Thanks for visiting our little patch of paradise ARISE with Jessica Carey ....and for the kind words

23.01.2022 Hello beautiful friends - I have been wanting to reach out to you all for a while in relation to the unfamiliar situation that the whole world is experiencing a...t the moment. At the Sage and Clover we support the Governments Corona virus (Covid 19) containment initiative and ask that our customers are mindful of this in the hope that we can minimize and control the spread of the virus. It is important not to allow the fear and panic to overwhelm us. When we are anxious and afraid our natural immune system is compromised which makes us more susceptible. During this challenging time lets all show an extra amount of understanding, respect and patience towards each other and at the same time be sensible and careful. Please take care and stay well. Love from Bettina & The Sage and Clover team

21.01.2022 Don't underestimate the power of faith. Thank you to my #UNSTOPPABLE podcast guests: Peter Crone - The Mind Architect Dr Vanessa Lapointe, R Psych... Dr. Shefali Dr John Demartini 10 Seconds of Courage with Nadine Champion Robert Hamilton Owens and George & Aaron from FitazFK See more

21.01.2022 WE’RE LIVE BABY.... You can now buy our products direct from our website (link in comments) and nominate to pick up from a pickup point (locations from Warwic...k to Brisbane) or given the need for many of us to stay indoors at the moment we can deliver to your door. We have designed a range of nutrient dense pasture based, chemical free protein boxes for your taste buds to go burko for . As we go along on this journey and fine tune this new distribution model we plan to add to these options with more wild and wonderful meaty goodness. So check it out and get some 4goods goodness. . #localfood #4goods #pasturedeggs #pasturedpork #freerangebeef #regenerativeagriculture #foodthatheals #csa #smallfarmers #paddocktoplate #staynimble See more

19.01.2022 Let’s really crack the egg It’s great to watch people on Facebook sharing the message about mental health with the egg challenge. Mental health is such a co...mplex issue and breaking down the walls of the social recognition that there are a lot of people in our community doing it a bit tough is an important thing. But it’s not actually about those that are doing it a bit tough. There are many in our community that are thinking that today is so bad they don’t want to have to deal with tomorrow. With respect, I don’t think that drinking an egg or chewing some sugar will really help someone who is thinking about taking their own life. I’ve lost 11 people close to me to suicide in the last few years. All of them I didn’t see coming. One of them, I spoke to on the same day he decided to end his life. He actually sounded pretty good and we were talking about future plans before he hung up with a - let’s talk later. The others I’d spoken to in their last month. To be honest all of them sounded pretty good as well. Yeah a few were a bit down with drought or family issues but I never thought they would decide to put a gun to their mouth or hang themselves in their shed. I’ve repeated those conversations in my head 1000 times to try and work out if there is something I could have said or could have done. The one thing I come back to is I wish I had told them I was struggling too. I’ll admit that you don’t want to hear your lawyer, the bloke you are paying over odds for to sort your problems out, is struggling also. I’ll admit it’s not the best marketing strategy to reveal to your clients you are having a dark day or a hard time. But for me - it’s really important. Winston Churchill named his depression the black dog. He said that as long as the dog was barking he didn’t have a problem. I’ve named my depression the long dusty road. It feels rough and never ending, you get bounced around and hit a few short culverts a bit hard. But it’s not the hurt of the journey that matters but the goal of the destination that counts. I spend a lot of my time on lonely dusty roads. My goal is to get to the end, do my job and then turn around and get home to my family. My challenge is to not worry about the road in between but just enjoy the time with my clients and people that support me and get home and be present with my family and those that love me. Everything in between doesn’t matter. I’ve actually found I’m a stronger person recognising my own weaknesses. I go into battle everyday for my clients and family without bullshit bravado but a genuine passion and love of what I do. When times get dark, I shine a bright light within myself and know that there are people around me that will help me out. It’s both a frightening and empowering process. I now find myself putting into conversations with people how are you travelling?. Once the bullshit answer is finished I follow up with how are you really travelling?. I then try and throw in a bit of my own troubles and it’s amazing the real responses you get. Bush people are hard by nature and environment. But we are all just people with the same fragilities and insecurities like everyone else. Maybe if we started talking about our own problems other people will open up theirs. Maybe instead of drinking an egg we should pick up the phone and ring a mate who we haven’t spoken to for a while and have a real conversation - we might achieve more. Like an egg, we all have a shell, and once we crack that shell we all have a soft centre. Depression isn’t a weakness. We all have dark times and doubts. We are all just human. If we all shared our problems and were willing to expose ourselves we can help those who are really struggling - just like us.

18.01.2022 Update on the rain...140mm and still counting ...which turned our little creek into this. #droughtsandfloodingrains

18.01.2022 The Quiet Farmer ponders a question "How does he share what he does?". There is often no greater frustration for our producers than the simplification of "what ...they do" combined with the "how they should fix it". Decisions out here can last a lifetime, even generations. Something as simple as choosing a bull to go with a cow, three years later, we find out if it really worked. We make daily decisions about land management, when to move a mob of cattle, placing a new watering point, they are all decisions that impact us long term, but trying to judge whether the decision was right or not on a scientific basis is nigh on impossible. Every year is different, different rainfall patterns (not just the amount) different insects, the different little native herbs that pop their heads up. Where is the baseline, ever? That is why it is beholden on us to have these conversations, to share our challenges and our successes. This isn't simple, it isn't easy and not one of us gets it right every time. What we want to share is that we make these decisions based on a number of things, on the information that we have available, on our individual circumstances at any given time but most importantly we make these decisions using our gut and our heart. You see our gut has been fine tuned over lifetimes of experience and our heart, well it's just connected to this land and our animals. Nature isn't a perfect science, she's not even a perfect partner at times but she is our constant companion, she can break our hearts but most of all she can reward us with her beauty and her bounty. So I challenge you all to share The Quiet Farmer, share it again and again, if you are a farmer it's a way to reach out, to share a little piece of you, if you are not a farmer, sharing this story promotes deeper thought, it promotes conversation, it promotes understanding and it promotes connection to our food. What could be better than that? We all came from a farming background, some of us just moved away. This one is for #thequietfarmer inside all our hearts. #atruestory. See more

17.01.2022 In case you missed it Part 2 (cause we were distracted by the wallabies getting one back on the all blacks ) We were happy to support a partnership with regional tourism Australia and Airbnb in encouraging more visitors to our beautiful region. ... & should also mention that we are not taking any more bookings for this year, but look forward to hosting new (and our regular guests back) in 2021.

14.01.2022 Often it’s difficult to get a sense of numbers when talking about drought and rainfall. so we thought this is a powerful image when you see the reality of rainf...all side by side. The bottle on the right shows our rainfall at Echo Valley for 2019 so far.... 182mm (117mm of this fell in the month of March). The bottles on the left is our average rainfall. A hell of a difference hey . This years rainfall came on the back of a very low rainfall year in 2018 also, which leaves us a long way short of soil moisture. Think of your farmers this weekend folks, maybe get out to a farmers market and buy direct from those who are doing their best to grow your food in a less than ideal season. #onedayclosertorain #regenerativeagriculture #workingwiththeseasons

14.01.2022 Going....going....gone After experiencing perhaps the driest 2-3 years on record, we've made the tough call to completely destock our property as feed supply has depleted and spring storm season failed. This mob was sold to Tambo (800km), and our final mob will head to Sale, Vic (1600km). We are comforted by our desire to care for the land which has provided for many generations before us, and by spelling the landscape in times like these it will continue to do so for generations to come.

12.01.2022 Christmas holidays are not complete without a trip to emergency dept. One broken door and 21 stitches later.... All is well, thanks to paramedics Jimmy and Anna, and awesome ED crew ( especially Johanna) at Warwick Hospital. Very grateful #insafehands @ Warwick Hospital-ER

09.01.2022 What do you think of this method? These grain growers are producing more than in previous droughts, thanks to new research and technology. They say they've le...arnt valuable lessons from the past and have changed the way they farm. More: https://ab.co/2LjGn4u

09.01.2022 Who'd have thought that watching grass grow and water flow could be such an enjoyable pastime. Now if I could just remember where I left the quad bike... #inaseaofbluegrass #leakyweirs #timetobringsomecowshome

09.01.2022 We need to stand up for our land ethic I’ve grown up in bush and in hard wood eucalypt forests. Growing up in the bush, you take for granted experiences that... 99% of the population will never get the privilege to understand. That smell of a eucalypt forest after an afternoon sun shower. Seeing a platypus pop up in the river when you are fixing a flood crossing. The shrill of bird life in the cool pastel light of a slowly setting sun across a horizon as long as it is wide. But life in the bush is no rose coloured stroll through an open grassy forest. It’s hot and dry and hard and unrelenting. It’s a continual phase of flood to drought to fire. It’s dust in your eyes, it’s grease on your hands, it’s long days and sleepless nights. People often ask - why do you do it? What’s the point? Farmers know that it’s a strange unsaid connection to family, community and land. In 2018, my family’s property and forests were destroyed by bushfire. A fire that could have been avoided. It still pains me to venture out to our forests burnt and gnarled. Proud blue gums now a shattered mess on the forest floor being swamped by thick eucalypt emergents. I’m sad for the forest but it has also taken a bit of me and my family. Our land and forest will never be the same and neither will we. When I went to University in Brisbane, I felt out of place. A school teachers and graziers son from Gin Gin surrounded by asphalt and sand stone. But the best thing I found, in the dreary neon shrouded library shelves, was a book that changed my life. It’s a book called A sand county almanac written by Aldo Leopold. I strongly suggest you find a copy and read it. I have 6 copies in my office and another dozen at home if you can’t track one down. I’m happy to send you a copy as long as you sign it and send it back. Leopold was an American author, philosopher, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was also a professor at the University of Wisconsin. Leopold was influential in the development of modern environmental ethics and in the movement for wilderness conservation. So here was a boy from Gin Gin who paid his way through uni by tordoning wattle bushes and harvesting spotted gum trees reading a book from some left wing greeny. But it was worth a few credits in my English literature course just to read it so I begrudgingly sat down at a lonely alcove and read it. And I thank to this day that I did. Here are some of my favourite Leopold quotes: There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace. We shall never achieve harmony with the land, any more than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations, the important thing is not to achieve but to strive. Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching- even when doing the wrong thing is legal. We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. But my most favourite quote of all time that sits with me everytime I venture out into our hard wood forests: I have read many definitions of what is a conservationist, and written not a few myself, but I suspect that the best one is written not with a pen, but with an axe. It is a matter of what a man thinks about while chopping, or while deciding what to chop. A conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke he is writing his signature on the face of his land. Leopold was no airconditioned Chardonnay sipping fake green. He understood that the environment isn’t best managed by a pen but by getting your hands dirty. Aldo made me realise that my own connection to land wasn’t an illusion. It is real. As I watch fires still rage through millions of hectares of unmanaged native forests, I can’t help but feel that we have lost our connection to our land. Like the first Australians were displaced by the early Europeans, modern day landowners and forest managers are being displaced by those that think the environment is best managed by a pen. In all the loss, destruction and chaos - it’s now a time for us to rethink our land ethic, our own connection to land and what’s really important to us and our communities. I’m happy for people to talk about doing more for climate change. As I ride out through my managed forests, absorbing the carbon and cleaning the air for my inner city brethren, I know we are already doing our bit. I’m happy for people to want more solar panels and wind turbines as long as we get our forests back. I believe it’s time for us, as the true environmentalists and the real land and forest mangers, to take our land back. And put our own land ethic stamp back on it. It will be good for the bush, good for the wildlife and good for the climate. I reckon old Aldo would be proud if we did.

08.01.2022 They say it never rains...until it pours We've just had 70+mm the past couple of hours... On top of 30 in the past few days... On top of the 107mm in January.... Dams are overflowing.... Creeks are running. And it's still raining... That'll do Huey that'll do See more

06.01.2022 JUST LISTED TODAY RARE 25 ACRES - Old Stanthorpe Road - half an hour from Warwick - $245,000 DONT FORGET THE GOVERNMENT IS GIVING YOU $$$$ TO BUILD https://www....warwicklifestyleproperty.com.au/new-homes Call Craig 0455 45 9966

06.01.2022 90mm in last 24hrs and still coming down #blessed

06.01.2022 Everyday battles

06.01.2022 Kids doing what kids do.... while their responsible adult supervisor wanders around lighting fires #kelvinfalls #farmlife #hazardreduction #bushregeneration #mountainfig

03.01.2022 So here's one of our latest projects... These gabion baskets are strategically placed to repair the incised creekbanks and designed to create #leakyweirs - and rehydrate the adjacent floodplain. We're hoping they will create small chains of ponds and micro aquatic habitats for native wildlife and prevent further erosion in the next flood...which could be any day now Big shout out to Dusty @dustbagelsom who did most of the heavy lifting - quite literally. About 15 ton of lim...estone rock have been hand placed in and around these structures. #naturalsequencefarming #southerndowns @ Kelvin Falls Family Farm See more

02.01.2022 Our thoughts and prayers to friends just down the road battling horrendous fire conditions over the past few days. It is last thing this district needed right now, but we will fight on. Emotions and spirits are being being pushed to the limit, and we appreciate the support and concern from near and far.