A mum-of-three has converted her home into a hobby farm with picture-perfect orchard and herd of miniature horses, for her tots to grow up on. Nicole Louise Powell, 30, and Benjamin Connally, 40, turned their 15-acre property on the Sunshine Coast in Australia into a farm with chickens, ducks, horses and dogs. Nicole gets up at 5am every morning to bungle her kids onto a buggy where they go round the farm feeding all the animals before it's time for school. She said: “I love looking out the windows of the house and seeing all the animals running around and the ducks swimming on the dam. “Our animals aren’t technically used for anything like on a traditional farm. “We are a hobby farm, meaning that our animals are pretty much just a big collection of pets, and very loved members of the family. “We get a lot of joy watching everything around us grow; our animals, plants, trees and projects that we work on.” Their three children - Maxwell, nine, Sonny, seven, and one-year-old Zara – all get involved with farm chores like feeding the animals and picking fruit from the trees.  In 2017, Nicole and artificial rockwork business owner Benjamin received a notice to move out of their rental home with their children as the owners wanted to move back in. Nicole said: “This came as very unexpected news so it was a big shake up in our life at the time. “However, looking back now, I am so thankful for this nudge because it is the very thing that brought us to where we are now. “We had two dogs and a mini horse, so it was not an easy task finding another rental that could accommodate all of us.” They found what is now Fig Tree Farm online advertised as a six-month rental, however after moving in they knew they had to make it theirs. They purchased the property in 2018 for $930,000 AUD. Both animal lovers, Nicole and Benjamin dreamed of giving their children a rural upbringing of fishing, horse-riding and swimming in creeks. They already had their mini pony, Tony-Ted, and Rottweilers Hank and Coco. “When we moved to a bigger property the first thing I was dying to do was get more friends for Toby-Ted, and from there it snowballed and the animals began to accumulate,” said Nicole. In May 2021, three years after moving in, they converted their 15-acre property into a hobby farm.