The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: My Way 2020 on April 28, 2020, 02:21:32 pm
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Hi All
Our first post and in some ways a first step.
My wife and I have been looking for a new life challenge and a small holding appears to fit the bill.We are not in the first flush of youth and are aware this path will entail a steep learning curve but we are both very adaptable.
Our intention is to keep small numbers of sheep,pigs,chicken and a kitchen garden ,self sufficiency is not a particular goal but quality of life is.
The danger of a little knowledge is the questions it posses such as “five or fifty “acres ....five prime grass acres sounds manageable but so does an upland holding with more?
We need more information...can members recommend any definitive reading be it internet or paper our first priority is the land and it’s management.
Lastly we are in the extremely lucky position of not necessarily needed to farm commercially so our options are open.
Preferred areas Wales or Southern Ireland but we are flexible.
are in the extremely lucky position of not needing to farm commercially.
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Join WWOOF and go get some hands-on experience
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https://wwoof.org.uk/ (https://wwoof.org.uk/)
The pics on the website are all very jolly and the sun always shines, but that's not real, nor is it real on your own smallholding either. You don't have to have long hair and you don't have to be young. The quality of accommodation varies greatly so check it out first. As a way of seeing smallholdings great and small, poorly or well organised, successful or not, WWOOFS can be a good first step.
On the other hand, there are many holiday cottages on farms where you can see what goes on and talk to the owners, without committing yourself to an amount of work. Either is worth trying, or both, although we can't know when travel and distancing restrictions will be lifted enough for the WWOOFS scheme to continue. Nor can you go to look at areas and properties just yet.
Use the time for your research. In fact there are people here on TAS from all over Britain (and some from overseas) who may be happy to share information about their areas and how they work their smallholdings. Some might even invite you to visit.
For me, my circumstances sound fairly similar to yours, in that we are older, our children have left home long since, and we do not have to make our smallholding turn a profit. We moved here in our mid 40s, 25 years ago, both still working, but each of us was hit by sudden severe ill health and we have had to adapt our smallholding and our dreams to accommodate the changes caused. Fortunately we have both survived, so far, and we were able to be flexible, but as a caution, remember when choosing where to live, not to be too far from medical services! Also remember that smallholding is a whole lot of hard work, especially in the set-up stage, so I always advise to start slowly and learn how much work is involved in each area, bit by bit, rather than diving straight in, buying in animals willynilly then becoming exhausted.
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Thanks both...lots to do...