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Author Topic: 1st year of smallholding  (Read 4625 times)

Jas

  • Joined May 2016
1st year of smallholding
« on: June 15, 2016, 07:23:03 am »
How did you all get on in your first year from being newbies to fully fledged smallholders?
I'm sure there are tales to be told. Interested to hear :thumbsup:

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: 1st year of smallholding
« Reply #1 on: June 15, 2016, 08:14:16 am »

Buttermilk

  • Joined Jul 2014
Re: 1st year of smallholding
« Reply #2 on: June 15, 2016, 08:19:34 am »
We have come to this from the other end to most people having downsized from a large dairy/beef/arable farm.  The hardest part has been having to think small.  We had to build useful livestock buildings as we only had a tin shed and a grain store as outbuildings.

Fencing seems a never ending job as what was a 12 acre field is now split into a lot more useful paddocks, 6 at the last count.

I have learnt a lot about sheep.

DavidandCollette

  • Joined Dec 2012
Re: 1st year of smallholding
« Reply #3 on: June 15, 2016, 09:01:18 am »
The opposite to Buttermilk we had to learn to think large coming to three acres from an allotment

Caroline1

  • Joined Nov 2014
  • Cambridgeshire
Re: 1st year of smallholding
« Reply #4 on: June 15, 2016, 12:41:33 pm »
Our 1st year was last year and we went from keeping chickens and bees in our back garden to having 3 acres to play with. The biggest challenge was keeping it manageable as the possibilities of what we could now do were too exciting. We managed to do a lot and luckily I had a full time job to keep the money coming in, but so much to learn and a lot of exhausting days looking after the animals, panicking about whether that was a bad sign or normal behaviour in various animals and a never ending battle with the weeds to convert the veg patch.

Our mission in the first year was to do some of the things that would take time to establish, like planting the orchard and mapping out where we wanted the separate fields for different animals as well as cracking on with the fencing to make the space secure. Although we also wanted some quicker rewards so got goats and pigs not to mention the adoption of 2 more dogs.

The most memorable things were the arrival of my new goats as kids, watching my OH so proud he had his own tractor, growing my first cucumber in the greenhouse and tasting/curing/producing food from our own pigs.

I can now never go back...... :farmer:
________
Caroline

waterbuffalofarmer

  • Joined Apr 2014
  • Mid Wales
  • Owner of 61 Mediterranean water buffaloes
Re: 1st year of smallholding
« Reply #5 on: June 15, 2016, 02:47:49 pm »
To tell the truth I can't remember my families first year farming, I will say this though I remember my first year rearing the animals myself, I would say about 2 years ago? Calf feeding I started then, and lamb rearing since I was 3. The first year I really took charge was 2013, I reared my own flock of sheep and started taking over the flock of sheep we have now. Calf rearing really took off in 2014, end, and since then I have learn't a lot, especially how to treat scour and any upset tums or under weather calves. Isn't it amazing how much you really learn? I initially used to rear a few lambs and help my mum in the garden, but in 2008 she handed the garden over to me, so that was a big responsibility, then lamb rearing in 2012 and then calf rearing 2014, I now have the ultimate say with the calves about how I am rearing them. In a way they have been given to me to rear and we all share in the profits, so not bad, not bad, seeing as my parents pay for the powdered milk :roflanim: I was also given charge of the chickens about 7 years ago now, maybe more, and I have loved it ever since :)
the most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, loving concern.

verdifish

  • Joined Jan 2013
  • banffshire
Re: 1st year of smallholding
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2016, 03:14:21 pm »
Wbf, by my reckoning that makes you about 10/11...... ???

Jas

  • Joined May 2016
Re: 1st year of smallholding
« Reply #7 on: June 15, 2016, 03:42:46 pm »
Wbf, by my reckoning that makes you about 10/11...... ???

Was thinking that!  :roflanim:

waterbuffalofarmer

  • Joined Apr 2014
  • Mid Wales
  • Owner of 61 Mediterranean water buffaloes
Re: 1st year of smallholding
« Reply #8 on: June 15, 2016, 10:02:36 pm »
I dont understand [member=27351]verdifish[/member] what do you mean?
the most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, loving concern.

verdifish

  • Joined Jan 2013
  • banffshire
Re: 1st year of smallholding
« Reply #9 on: June 15, 2016, 10:45:24 pm »
Then I suggest you read your long comment on this post and take your mittens and socks off,because the maths don't add up.

verdifish

  • Joined Jan 2013
  • banffshire
Re: 1st year of smallholding
« Reply #10 on: June 15, 2016, 10:48:48 pm »
Let me put it another way. We all read your stories.  And that's fine, but why lie about years in the job.?  Or is it all just a mistake?  I'm not sure hence why I asked. 

Ghdp

  • Joined Aug 2014
  • Conwy
Re: 1st year of smallholding
« Reply #11 on: June 15, 2016, 10:59:03 pm »
Hi Jas
We planned an escape from the demands of the day jobs when our 'children' left home and the big 60 was somewhat nearer than the more benign 50!! - but as we looked into it quickly realised that we still needed an extra regular income so did not burn all our boats.  (We initially hought our main income would be from self contained holiday lets)
Our new hillside life involves juggling some work in the midlands with our 'real life' in Wales. It has not been easy but we have not regretted it. We did make an early decision not to have any 'animals' for at least twelve months whilst we got used to swapping  3000 square feet  of walled garden and an allotment in Northamptonshire for an acre or so of garden  and ( depending on exactly how you measure a very very rounded hillside) 2.5 -3 acres of steep grazing land.Having made that 'firm' decision we we were soon convinced a few  'chooks' were a good idea ( John and Helen that is entirely your fault!)
We very nearly weakend further and bought some sheep lawn mowers  last autumn but tbh are glad we did not. We think the demands of animals and the current travelling is too much for them (and us) now but it is on the cards for the future. We have continued an allotment sized area for veg growing and are learning (the probably obvious  fact) that what happily produced huge quantities in sunny Northants struggles in North Wales. Having said that we are experimenting with a poly-tunnel. We have planted some additional fruit trees
We had already managed a couple of holiday cottages from afar before the 'big move' but now we have been directly responsible for their day to day running understand how bl@@dy hard our caretakers and cleaners worked before we took over some of this work. We hope we have become wiser and less pedantic as a result! We have taken over an existing log cabin business in the grounds of the house and have found that most people on holiday are genuinely lovely - and we ignore the very few that we have had of a differnt kind.
What have we learned in a year? Probably this: Our friends support us, wish us well and come to visit us. Our best friends support us, wish us well, come to vist us and help us sort stuff out, bring veg plants, mend things whilst they are here and bring wine.
Our new neighbours are kindly, welcoming, interested in our story and keen  to offer help, to show us the best local walks, how to prune roses, how to work to power tools, tell us who to ask for help with stuff, invite us to supper/ lunch and also bring wine (and  veg, and cake and eggs) 
In particular we have enjoyed the encouragement and genuine warmth of this site when we have raised issues as wide ranging as damp ingress, onion girth and hen behaviour.
In short Jas. That has been year one!


Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: 1st year of smallholding
« Reply #12 on: June 16, 2016, 12:14:08 am »
Let me put it another way. We all read your stories.  And that's fine, but why lie about years in the job.?  Or is it all just a mistake?  I'm not sure hence why I asked.

Verdifish please stop this; it makes it unpleasant for everyone.  WBF has said in another post that she is 20.  So, she has had lambs to rear since she was 3, as many children do, with parental help, and has clearly started looking after the larger animals and garden since she was in her early teens.  Where's the lie?
« Last Edit: June 16, 2016, 12:15:59 am by Fleecewife »
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

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Dan

  • The Accidental Smallholder
  • Administrator
  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Carnoustie, Angus
    • The Accidental Smallholder
    • Facebook
Re: 1st year of smallholding
« Reply #13 on: June 16, 2016, 07:17:42 am »
Verdifish please stop this; it makes it unpleasant for everyone.

It is stopped now permanently. I'm sorry the topic was hijacked. For future reference, systematic bullying of other members is completely unacceptable on here. A previous short ban clearly had no effect, so a permanent ban has been imposed. Please do not comment on it any further on this thread, either PM me or start a new topic if you want to discuss the detail.

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: 1st year of smallholding
« Reply #14 on: June 16, 2016, 07:46:40 am »
<Ooops, cross posted with Dan - better delete my comment then!  ;)  >

To get back on topic, in our first year of smallholding, we limited ourselves to one new animal, so went with ducks. I spent many hours watching them wibble about, and also telling them jokes. This wasn't always worth it, but just occasionally one would crack up and shout QUACK! Quack quack quack quack, so I know they found some of them funny.

We also raised some Hubbard chickens for meat. The purpose of this was really to see if we really had it in us to rear cute fluffy things, then kill them, gut them and eat them. That first time was HARD. I drank several shots of whisky before killing the first one, then promptly threw them up again whilst gutting it. I'm happy to report that I've developed a harder head and a stronger stomach since then, but those first hubbards were important as 'proof of concept' that we had it in us to actually do this.







We also planted a little bit of everything in the polytunnel, to see what worked. Most of it didn't. However, much to my surprise, some did. In year two, Mrs Womble declared me useless at gardening and banned me from the polytunnel. She's far better at it than me, so I now organize the meat and she provides the two veg!



After year one, we resolved to do less and take it easy in year two. Ditto years three, four and five. One day we intend to jack it all in, retire to the country, relax and live The Good Life - you know, quit all this busyness, just grow our own veg, keep a few hens, maybe some sheep. <sigh> One day Mrs Womble, One day.
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

 

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