Hi,

We're late 20's/early 30's, have 5 sons and we've just gotten our first bit of land in Boyup Brook, SW WA. We currently live in a small town in the hills of Perth and love it here, on a 1/4 acre so not tiny but not big and we wanted a bigger area for our boys to go wild in and us to escape to. We dream of have some animals, fruit trees, veg and the like and keeping it all disconnected from the mains etc. Currently it's a block empty of buildings but we plan on building an eco friendly chalet or similar and running it as a farmstay / small wedding hosting location to bring in some income and cover the mortgage basically.

It's about a 2.5 hour drive so it won't be a daily visit, so we wanted some advice; are there any livestock suited to a weekly visit? We would like a couple of sheep to mow the lawn, possibly a cow or two for meat. We have chickens already here and I know they aren't fussed about being left alone with fresh water supplies rigged up and ample grain access. There's a creek that runs almost all year round (a puddle in summer) and lots of shady trees, solid fencing round.

Also for anyone who's built a house from scratch with the goal of being self contained (composting toilet, solar with a battery, bottled gas, built to be enviro friendly and highly insulated etc) do you have any advice on building materials, layout, things to avoid?

We are looking forward to our new chapter!