[Caznpaul]

Hi everyone

We are Caroline and Paul from Suffolk looking to join the smallholding world. We are both coming to the end of successful careers in the public sector (yes -  we know - a pair of old buggers!) and want to realise our longstanding dreams of having a bit of land and some livestock to look after. We both know just enough to realise that we don't know anywhere near enough - you might have to read that a couple of times.............!! In short any advice and guidance would be truly gratefully received.

We have both fallen in love with Scotland and would love to start our new venture there. We are writing this as we relax over a glass of red wine having spent the day at the Scottish Smallholders and Growers festival in Lanark. We would like to thank Rosemary and all who were involved in the organisation of that event for a truly friendly welcome and an informative day. Trouble is it was so informative our minds are completely boggled!

We look forward to an enriching and fulfilling future as smallholders - eventually

Paul and Caroline

[Lesley Silvester]

  and welcome from sunny Shropshire  . Sounds like you are at the start of an exciting new phase in your lives.

[bloomer]

 


welcome


we were there today helping out...


shattered but great day catching up with people and learning stuff...


if i ever get land i want guard alpacas but mrs. b says no...

[happygolucky]

  ...We are old social work  bod's from Leicestershire and we took the bull by the horn and left a wonderful lifestyle to move  up to central Scotland, not a small holder, I do still have some chickens and fruit but giving that  up now to move...follow your dreams, you will never ever regret it but if you don't ,  you will. We have a very successful B&B, that was our dream and it worked....now on for a new dream! not too far away and not too different!

[lachlanandmarcus]

Hi everyone

We are Caroline and Paul from Suffolk looking to join the smallholding world. We are both coming to the end of successful careers in the public sector (yes -  we know - a pair of old buggers!) and want to realise our longstanding dreams of having a bit of land and some livestock to look after. We both know just enough to realise that we don't know anywhere near enough - you might have to read that a couple of times.............!! In short any advice and guidance would be truly gratefully received.

We have both fallen in love with Scotland and would love to start our new venture there. We are writing this as we relax over a glass of red wine having spent the day at the Scottish Smallholders and Growers festival in Lanark. We would like to thank Rosemary and all who were involved in the organisation of that event for a truly friendly welcome and an informative day. Trouble is it was so informative our minds are completely boggled!

We look forward to an enriching and fulfilling future as smallholders - eventually

Paul and Caroline

Ooh that's really exciting! And I think you are quite right to consider Scotland. We moved to Aberdeenshire (near Aboyne) and its the best thing we did! Lovely people. Fab countryside and tho we do get some weather over in the north east here it's not so much rain as snow and I don't mind snow at all.


Will be looking forward to hearing how your plans develop for the new life. I remember the excitement ESP as you head north in the 'this is it' journey !

[plumseverywhere]

Welcome from Worcestershire 

4 years into our dream now - I left behind a career in nursing and then counselling to launch a soap business using milk from our own goat herd.  Enjoy our journey, good chance you won't know exactly where it will take you until you are already heading down that path! exciting stuff

[EcoGypsy]

  hello from Cambridgeshire fens!

We are running a stud and a smallholding here, soon to be moved to eastern Europe (well Scotland was my dream once, long time ago!)

[Rosemary]

Hello and welcome from  Carnoustie 

Our story is on the website - and we're still on a journey. Dan's on a journey to Bankfoot, taking back the pig pens from yesterday 

Glad you enjoyed the Festival - maybe next year, you'll be showing at it - either way, you'll be welcome here and at the Festival. Lot of lovely properties in Scotland - location, location, location and buy as much land as you can afford - you can always rent it out if t seems too much but chances are, you'll grow into it 

[Mammyshaz]

  hello and welcome from Durham. Still  looking for property but hopefully one day will have somewhere to start up. Guess the hard work then begins 

Good luck with your venture

[marka]

Hello there from soon to be Moray.

What part of Scotland have you decided on ?

Regards

Mark

[devonlad]

 

[Hamish Crofter]

Good luck and welcome. We both took early retirement from the public sector and have done the same. We have a croft on the isle of skye and are on a steep learning curve. I can assure you it's fun and beats public sector work any day!

[kelly58]

Hi, we moved to bonnie Scotland 13 years ago, renovated a steading that had no gable ends and holes in the roof !
Best thing we ever did, we are now in our 50's and its the getting up every morning to see to the animals that keeps us going. We now have the steading and a CL campsite with land for sale if you fancy the Highlands ?
Our latest adventure is building a new house a few mile away with more land, who says when your too old to try something new ? Life is an adventure, live it ! Good Luck

[Shropshirelass]

Hi & welcome the best bits of advice I can offer are look into what sort of land & livestock you want to keep & what you want to use them for for example goats & sheep may look similar but are actually very different & have different requirements & ducks & geese are both waterfowl but geese also graze a lot & can be aggressive & ducks tend to be more skittish but lay more in the year. With regards to the land you'll find flat land & hill land is farmed very differently & for example if you fancy growing crops will have different soil types in different parts of the country.

 There's loads of different regulations for each species as well so looking on the dreaded defra website is always good.Also go to the library & look out for good books - there's also great mags out there like Smallholder, practical poultry & country smallholding for good reads.

The 1 thing that you may not want to hear but I feel all newbies should is slaughtering & culling of stock & selling them - It's not nice but if you wan't to eat your own meat you have to work out how you are going to deal with this & with sick stock or stock that are no longer breedable & excess males & related animals are always issues - many can't afford to keep them as pets ( just something to consider)

If you want to live up in the hills of Scotland here's a few things I'd be doing especially if I wanted livestock as big as sheep & pigs ect:

Buy a 4X4 even if its a small one as their great for towing & getting unstuck in winter & trailers but you may need a trailer licence.

Buy a big chest freezer - great for when you get snowed in or too busy to go to town plus you can fill it with home grown grub  - also when they die their great as rodent proof food stores.

Back up generators are always great ideas as are waterproof trousers as your going to get messy!

Right after all that good luck I hope I haven't scared you off x