Hi Wattle, what a fantastic opportunity you have.

We have found it no problem at all. I have either been pg or had toddlers the whole time I have lived on the farm and wouldn't have it any other way. One thing I do highly recommend is a good fence around the house, so they can play outside and you don't have to worry about passing vehicles or them getting out and getting near a dam.

I do help DH with the administerial side of running things, as well as the hands on side too. During the later stages of pg I wouldn't be helping as much physically, but would still help where I could.

Having good time management helps too, and quite often I will do stuff around when the kids were sleeping, or just load them up and take them with me (depending on what I was doing). When we had been TTC, we did try to work it around our busiest times on the farm, so I can't have a baby from April-May (sowing) or Nov-Dec (harvest) I don't know what the peak times are for berry farming, but I imagine that like wheat and sheep farming you will have periods where there is not a lot of work on except the very general upkeep of the place. Although Erin being born in the middle of October meant that I had a 5 week old when we were harvesting, but I would still just load the kids up to take Doug's lunch to him and if I was feeding her, then he just waited a bit longer for it.

I think putting on a farm hand to do some of the heavier work for you will definately be a plus, because there will be times that will be impractical for you to do anything (ante-natal appointments and then feed times etc).

The kids love being on the farm and being able to help out. At the moment we have 17 poddy lambs and the kids love helping me with them, like feeding out their hay and stuff. Now that Lindsay is at school, I have to make sure either DH or I are around to get him off the bus, but that would be normal even if you lived in town anyway.

I would also highly recommend you get a Hug-A-Bub as I think it would be perfect for toting the baby around with you while you do jobs, I wish I had one when my kids were little.

I really think you should take this chance because such a great opportunity like this doesn't come along very often. If there is anything else you would like to know, just pm me.