Welcome to Hydeaway Farm, the home of Hydeaway Jerseys.

 Deep in the hills of the Highveld, South Africa, lies a small farm of 227 hectares. Pass by and the first thing you'll notice is a bunch of Friesland heifers. But don't be fooled.

Now this website could have been all sleek and proffessional, and in a few ways we are. We have over one hundred and forty stud Jerseys and we are busy raising Friesland heifers for another farmer; in the following two years the number will reach 360 heifers. We are a registered Jersey stud.

We're also the wackiest stud in Africa.

Most people nurture a private opinion that Jon and Dinki Hyde and their homeschooled kids, Firn (12) and Rain (10) are rather bonkers. And in many ways, we are. Though it is quite unprofitable, we let our cows do what cows are meant to do; graze free on pastures in a herd. They all have names, and all are beloved (some occasionally sworn at but when a 400kg cow treads on your foot, it is difficult not to.) The Frieslands also have names. Every individual in our flock of twenty mixed breed laying chickens are named too. The only animal not called by name is Twoie, short for 257, a Saanen goat who actually does have a name. She is the most infuriatingly mischievous beast on the farm and her name is Angelgoat.

Apart from the cattle and chickens, we have four horses (one of them pregnant), six dogs (one of them small), one cat (a barn cat) and one donkey (Benjamin). It was this donkey that started the farm. Benjamin was purchased as a pet for Hydeaway Plot, until Dinki, seeing the donkey mooch around in the woeful manner of teenage boys, confused puberty with loneliness and bought a cow for company. Nine years later, there are nearly three hundred cattle on the farm. We also still have the donkey.

We moved to Hydeaway Farm on April Fool's Day, 2000. We should have known. Currently, we are milking about sixty Jerseys, raising an increasing number of Frieslands, and getting quite ambitious in the showing line; though Firn has been to numerous youth shows, in April we hope to show our first actual calves - hopefully Hydeaway Bontrok's Bronwen and Hydeaway Baie Bly.

Occasionally we plough a few lands, forget about them and carry on trying very hard to Farm and succeeding only in messing around with animals and having a great time about it.

So join our trials and tribulations, tears and triumphs, joys and sorrows and I don't know what else on this little piece of paradise in the glorious hills of the Highveld.