Our Story
Urs von Arx
From my view, I was not meant to live in a suburb and that I always wished to go back to the land as I was mostly a farmer and studied agriculture.
We were looking for farms where Joan could also run workshops. This opportunity came up and we just grabbed it.
We had different ideas about the farm. I wanted a Swiss style farm with a variety of animals. But then the farm did not have any fences anyway. So the idea of having it as an event place suited us well.
I do love the land how it is. There is natural bush, fruit and nut trees. So we did not really have to grow new fruit trees. I love that. I got into gardening again. The gardens are my meditation space.
I wanted to make Joan happy. To make my wife happy that is the best thing I can do. Happy wife, happy life. I was looking for that.
This farm has two houses. So great to have them both. I’ve found I actually like to share with other people. To have an open place like this is what I always wanted, even as a teenager, to experience being in a community. In our house where I grew up it was always full of people. This feels like the perfect place for us.
Joan Carpenter
I grew up on a farm in North Dakota in the US and I didn’t realise how much being in nature meant to me until we moved to the farm.
As a child I would go down to the trees and hang out and play. I was always outside, more than inside.
And I lived my life and had a range of experiences, but it wasn’t until we have been at the farm these past few years that I realized how much I need nature around me.
So like Urs, I lived in suburbia, but I never really felt settled. It felt like a base camp place to live that was convenient to do life as I was raising children. I loved the Mt Barker area, loved where we lived. But over the years as I was running workshops and getting older, I got really sick of packing up the car and unpacking the car and going to this venue and that venue. I dreamt of a place where I could just be and be able to provide workshops for people. And I wanted to be part of a wellness Centre, which did happen when I worked at Unfold Yoga for a number of years and that was lovely.
Urs and I talked about getting a property together. And when my youngest children were in Year 12, we began to look at properties in the Adelaide Hills. We weren’t completely sure what we wanted. We knew we wanted land. If it had an established garden that would be fantastic with fruit trees and native bush.
A client was referred to me and one day she said, “Joan I’m thinking of selling my farm.” I said, “Well we are thinking of buying one.” Little did I know what was going to unfold from that.
When I walked onto the property for a look I just felt so at home, and I just kept getting a yes, yes!
It was an older property that needed some work and Urs was not so sure. But he too loved the land. It was the land that really drew us in. The property had a lot of character and it had two houses. So we could live in one and I could run workshops in the other, and welcome other people to come and run workshops.
And that was really exciting.
We moved in here in June 2018. In the first year, I think we had 30 events, it was amazing, maybe a one day workshop or half day workshop, and also weekend retreats run by myself and other people as well. I could do the Wise Woman Within You program from here.
Wise Woman Within You
And we have continued to grow! It is so wonderful to be able to provide this for others, and for ourselves, but what I love most is the most common thing I hear. People feel so relaxed when they are here. Some people say when they get out of the car, they feel like they have just come home. They feel the peacefulness, hear all the birds, see all the green of the trees and the grass and bushes and fruit trees and they just love it.
Urs and I are very casual and very welcoming, so when people come into the venue, they actually come into what feels like a home. The Wellbeing Centre is a former dairy farm house and so going into the kitchen, they feel like they have come home to grandma’s. It is just wonderfully comfortable, and cosy and they can just relax. They can sit down and have a cuppa, go out wander around, be in nature, meet our chickens. Our little dogs jump up into their laps and make them feel welcome.
People can stay here too. It is like, well, we call it the Farm for Wellbeing. My daughter rightly said, “Mum, it’s not a farm so much, it is a sanctuary.” And it is that. It is a sanctuary for people to come and get away from busy crazy lives.
Some of our events are device free, so that people can really unplug and get what they need, which is coming home to themselves and connecting with the land and feeling the nurturing by nature that is all around them here.
I really, really love this land and this place, and feel extremely fortunate that we can offer this to others, and that we get to live here as well.
