Our love affair with the Granite Belt started about 20 years ago, when Nathan first began visiting with friends. They loved it so much, they eventually built a weekender in Ballandean.

But our real adventure began six years ago, when our careers gave us the freedom to work from home. We found ourselves asking a simple question:

“If we can live anywhere… where would we choose?”

The answer came pretty quickly.

So we packed up our lives with our cat Pascal in tow, and moved to our own little piece of paradise near Storm King Dam tucked into the bush. No bright lights. No traffic. Just peace and quiet.

"Heaven"

With 67 acres to call home, it didn’t take long before we thought: “Well… we’re on farmland… shouldn’t we have farm animals?”

That’s how we ended up with 3 alpacas, 4 chickens, and 5 kid goats. But before the goats arrived, we proudly built them a shelter and a fence.

Standing back to admire our work, we thought: “What an excellent job we’ve done.” Naturally, we celebrated with lunch and a winery visit.

A few hours later, we came home to discover… no goats.

“The Clever Kids” as we now call them, had escaped into the bush, and in doing so, proved that our fence-building skills left a lot to be desired.

Thankfully, this story has a happy ending.

After 48 hours (and armed with a box of sugary cereal—turns out goats have a sweet tooth), we found them 2km away on a neighbour’s property. A neighbour we had never met.

Trying not to advertise our city-slicker fence building skills, we attempted a quiet retrieval… but alas that quickly turned into us getting caught in the act.

Luckily, our neighbours were incredibly kind and welcoming. After a good laugh and a chat, they invited us to dinner at the Eukey Hall the following Friday.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a room full of warm smiles, and were promptly asked if we were the “Goat Boys.” Thankfully, that nickname didn’t stick… otherwise we might have had a very different winery name!

Over the years, that night was just the beginning. We’ve built friendships, found a true sense of community, and created a life we absolutely love.

So in a way, we owe it all to a questionable fence… and five very 'Clever Kids'..