Farming the web

A specialist site for lifestyle block newbies has produced a rich harvest.
Setting up a booming web business was never part of Kate Brennan’s big-picture plan.
“It’s almost as though I was led down this career path,” says Kate, or ‘web goddess’ as she is known now by thousands of website members.
Back in 1999 Kate and her husband Geoff had just fulfilled a long-time dream, buying five acres of Waikato real estate for their first ever lifestyle block. Then reality quickly set in ... the thousand and one things a person living off the land needs to know.
“And we didn’t know them,” Kate laughs.
In a maverick response to her dilemma Kate and a friend Kay Swann drafted out what a website devoted to lifestyle farming issues might look like. Then they got busy making the plan a reality. Kay had previously worked at the Waikato Polytechnic and had some sterling agricultural experts.
They launched the site (www.lifestyleblock.co.nz) in April 2000 with a budget of a few hundred dollars and started making small waves. Then in August that year the two women found their venture a sudden hit when a roving TV crew at the Hortenz agricultural show interviewed them.
The item made the 6pm TVNZ news and a flood of lifestyle block farmers across New Zealand began visiting the site. In 2004 Kate bought the venture outright. Since then she has run the site alone, apart from some backup help from Geoff.
Today the website has 8000 members, 40,000 unique visitors each month from 196 different countries and a panel of paid experts and writers. The site has almost a thousand information articles on line.
The community power of the website is a force to behold says Kate. Across the empty country miles, lifestyle block owners share the triumphs and heartbreaks that living off the land can bring.
One compelling story was a member who had a terrible time when a favourite mare died while foaling. “She had to hand rear the foal that became very ill. People checked in from all over New Zealand every day for updates on his condition and some donated money for his treatment. When the foal didn’t improve and she had to have him euthanised, people all over the county were distraught.
“It’s an incredible community,” says Kate. “Last summer someone was worrying that they had to get home and get in the hay before the rain came, and another online member said “don’t worry, I’ll be around in 10 minutes”. That kind of thing happens all the time.
“A lot of these people live in very isolated places with no immediate community. Or they may work in an office where the daily conversation is about what was on TV last night ... and they come on line to talk about being up at 3am to lamb ewes or how they are worried sick about a failing animal.”
Members swap stories about the best time to cut hay, recommended contractors, recipes for a bumper crop of lemons, all the while cross pollinating their own expertise, be it computer professionals with software advice or university lecturers posting a comment on a thorny land block issue.
Even those who have since moved off their lifestyle block still participate because they love the community. “There are so many skills you need when you are on a lifestyle block,” says Kate. “It’s a very hands-on life.”
While they may masquerade as teachers, solicitors, doctors, accountants, office workers, IT people and even ex-farmers during the day – these are the Kiwis who go home to wrestle with birthing cows, fixing fences, making hay, dealing with infected hooves and saving sick horses.
Among experts sharing their knowledge are Dr Clive Dalton, a specialist in interpreting science for practical farming application, renowned vet Dr Marjorie Orr and fencing maestro Peter Gregory.
Such is the quality of information that Kate has a stack of letters from polytechnics, universities (including in the UK), MBA students, Landcare Research, Australian businesses, animal humane societies (including American), night class tutors, media and private publishing ventures wanting permission to use material from the site.
From the surveys that Kate regularly runs, she knows exactly why people choose to live such lives: the space, the freedom from neighbours, and a better place to bring up kids and control the quality of food they eat.
It’s mirroring the bigger societal picture of a return to simplicity, sustainability and self sufficiency.
These days, Kate, who was born in Penny Lane in Liverpool, and Geoff, originally from Glasgow, are incredibly passionate country people.  Their first foray into rural life from big city UK was to Cumbria. They found themselves so charmed by rural life they packed up and eventually moved to New Zealand.
Now the couple are transitioning to even deeper green – they’ve bought 200 acres in Northland where they plan to go off grid, farm angora goats and keep growing and improving the website for the growing global demand.
“There is no official definition of what is a lifestyle block,” says Kate. “We’ve got people on half an acre with some fruit trees to others with 200 or 300 acres. It’s wherever a block land is productive, but not on a commercial scale.”
The site is helping people to relearn skills once common to our grandparents or great-grandparents. “There are a lot of people keeping house cows; once you have milk, you can make cream, ice cream, butter and cheese. People share their recipes and techniques online.
“If New Zealand ever had a really major catastrophe that wiped out supermarkets and modern living, lifestyle block owners would be in a really strong position to not only survive and thrive – but teach others what to do to live,” says Kate.
Kimberley Paterson
www.soulpr.com