As of 2011, there were 157,000 farmers in Australia. Although this number may sound large, it actually indicates a 11 percent reduction in the number of Australian farmers since 2006. If you or someone in your family is getting ready to sell the family farm, you may be feeling a bit sad or nostalgic. To alleviate these feelings, consider creating a memento of the old family farm to take with you and pass through future generations. Here are four ideas you should consider:

1. Aerial Farm Photography

As suggested by the name, an aerial farm photograph is a photograph of a farm taken from someone above the farm in an airplane. It can include the whole farm or focus on specific areas such as homes, barns, fields or pastures. Traditionally, these photographs are framed and displayed, but these digital images can be printed on blankets, coffee cups and other items as well.

When ordering your photographs, you have a lot of options. In addition to choosing which parts of the farm you want photographed, you can also choose whether or not you want the dust edited out of the shot or left in to create authenticity. For more information, contact a company like 3D Mapping Solutions.

2. Old Windows, Lumber and Hinges

Rather than just leaving the old home and the old barn with the seller, take a few pieces as mementos. Old window frames can be repurposed into mirrors, picture frames or standalone artistic pieces. If applicable, you may even want to salvage the old glass rather than the window frames, and in other cases, you may want to salvage an entire wall, floor or barn door.

Salvaged wood can be used to line the walls of a new home, or it can be used to build furniture ranging from headboards to dining tables. Even small pieces such as hinges or door knobs can be salvaged and integrated into a new space as a memento of your family farm.

3. Trees

Although the process can be tricky, you can take a living piece of your family's farm with you in the form of a tree. With the help of a trained arborist, you may be able to dig up the roots of your favorite tree on the farm and move it to your new home. Unfortunately, moving trees can be risky so you may also want to get a tangible memento such as an aerial farm photograph or an old door knob.

If you prefer to leave a mark on your land rather than taking a souvenir, look for a historic tree. With the help of groups such as Save the Historic Trees, which has been instrumental in saving historic fig trees, you may be able to stop the new owners from cutting down certain trees on the land you are selling. When you drive by the newly developed land in the future, you will be able to point out that tree and tell your loved ones how you saved it.

4. Tractor Parts

Finding something to memorialise your farm is nice, but you should also think about memorializing what you and your family did on the farm. Old gears and random internal parts can be used in art projects – they look great for instance on a shelf in a front of an old window frame. With a bit of welding acumen, old tractor seats can be turned into patio furniture, or truck beds can even be used as bed frames. The ideas for repurposing old machinery are truly endless, and they include using spades as table legs, adding glass table tops to the front of old tractors or turning steering wheels into accent tables.