My name is Graeme and I have just become the owner of a smallholding in Perthshire.
My property extends to 11.5 acres which is currently all pasture but I have big plans for the place – don’t we all before the reality sets in. The house and non-green bits take up about an acre so still plenty left to keep me fully occupied.
We moved in to our new home on 6th June and moved out again on 25th June as I am committed to working in India until the end of the 2016/7 tax year when I will retire from industry, so big plans are all I will have for the time being.
9 months of planning must amount to something when I hit the ground running next April so look out for lots of ideas/questions/nonsense/etc.
I’m not completely raw. My experience is that I had an allotment some years ago so the veggie bit is covered - almost covered as my allotment was in warmer climes down south and about 170 sq m. But since I was in school, I have always wanted to be a farmer and now I have 11 acres which qualifies in my book as a proper non-commercial farm. In this space I can have a little bit of everything and I fully intend to stretch the limits and actually have a little bit of everything. I’ve never kept livestock before but they, of all different shapes and sizes, are going to arrive thick and fast hot on my heels next year.
We are right on the edge of town so we are not remote nor are we ‘hippies’, off-gridders or ‘preppers’ as the yanks would call them (plonkers to me), I’m more leaning towards Tom and Barbara and the comical Good Life and as a retiree with a youngster, I hope having my hands full, all day every day, will keep me young. “We” is myself along with my wife Sarah and son Iain who is currently 3.
I have not lived in Scotland for 35 years and during the last 25 years I have been working mostly in Asia. This means, I will need to get acclimatised to the weather and familiarized with what things cost along with where to find/buy everything, so look out for some specific questions in the coming months.
This concludes my long general introduction to the forum. If you see a posting from me from now on, you’ll be able to judge whether or not to open it – but why not, it should be good for a laugh at my expense.