The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Rhyan & Melissa on February 12, 2009, 08:04:06 am
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.........do for a job?
I'm just being super nosy here. we were wondering what the percentage split is of people running full time smallholdings, 1 partner working, both working as well as the smallholding etc.
Also, how does it effect your work life balance?
We both now live in Lincs after moving up from London. Mel still travels to London daily, I just go down once or twice a month, but we are both working full time at the minute and pursuing starting the dream!
Tell me I'm a nosy sod if you want though!! ;D
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Dan has his own company doing webby things (not ducks!) and works from home mostly, although he does travel sometimes (more than we like) and I work full-time for our local Council. My office is literally one mile from our house so it hardly counts as commuting! Actually, I don't work fulltime - I work 200 days a year, which is the 190 days the schools are in session plus an additional 10, generally at the start and end of the summer holidays. So I'm off for half term next week!
I really enjoy my job, to be honest, but there is a possibility that I will be made redundant this year which is kind of good news. You couldn't support a family on our smallholding but it could work harder than it does, so we'll see what happens over the next month or so.
I don't think you're nosey - I like know about my friends, what they're about and what's important to them.
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i work full time for a distance learning company and niels works as a full time nurse. we are looking into buying our first house together this year and then the plan is to move again in 5+ years to somewhere bigger for cows etc! ;D
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Both the OH and I are Litho printers. We both started out in agricultural jobs after leaving school, and I have also worked on Equine studs and hunting/showing yards. But sadly none of those 'nice' jobs payed well enough to sustain life in SE. He started his printing business in the early 80's and I joined him in 1991.
I work from my home office now, which gives me time to fit 'real' work around the livestock !! The printing world is very quiet at the moment - another reason to extend my veg patch :farmer:
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Ive worked in the UK music industry since i was 16 - was a manger of a record store fora high street name when i was 17 - when singles where 79p and a album was 2.99 And we would sell the albums straight from the boxers when there was a big one - No time to unpack was running one of the 7 largest turnovers for w h smiths record departments at 18!!- went and managed a chain of independent music stores and built it up to 5 stores in 5 years for the next employer - worked for a label and record company and run there label selling all around the world- did this for every long time - was lucky enough to get involved in the UK festival circuit and not many i haven't been to - - slept in a tent for 6 months of the year.
Went to many parties hundreds - met a great amount of people and woudnt change what Ive done - Still got my foot in the door - want to make the biggest changes - Nat my ex showed me what a great life there is out there being self sufficient and living a more chilled out existence - sadly shes moved on but 14 months later after the relastionship collapsed she still lives with me ...........but moved on as far as the relationship was concerned and still great and closest friends and i so much wish i could be now achieving what i am working towards with her involved as the love of my life - Shes made it clear shes doing things her way and independently and i am and have been so stupid to not acknowledge her reasons at the time of the split and i would do anything in the world to repair what i have foolishly lost. Shes one in a million (i know thats a cliche ) but i will always regret for the rest of my life that things went wrong .Love you Nat forever if your here reading this ever. (Nat's very prominent on many farming forums- I'm not aware of her being a member on here though. A few of you i know are aware of Nat from other forums....Everything in my work world is not important any more - The smallholding and a new start is the most important thing in my life and so so upset that i wont be sharing any part of that world with her - sorry Ive gone off the thread somewhat.... :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(
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I finished work 6 years ago due o my MS playing up a lot that year, was a manager in a gp practice. My husband broke hi neck & back in 1991 so he's been at home since - walking wounded - but still very determined and active. Since then my husband & I have worked together to build up a business (or several businesses) we own a 7 - 11 convenieence store and have flats and a joinery business - all run by managers.
BUT all of these were just to fulfill our dreams of having a smallholding, which we have finally achieved. Hopefully my MS will play the game and let me enjoy it for a long time yet. I cant wait to get started properly, we are quite lucky really because our joiner is making my chicken hut & run in log lap as we speak. (Whatever that is - he says it will look lovely) LOL
Anyway thats us.
Milly xx
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My OH Jenny is a retired teacher and spends most of her waking hours enjoying herself with what women do..Horses..Book groups..walking..Usuall stuff.
I run this place..15 acres..LLeyn sheep..horses..and a couple of hundred rare and traditional breed chickens.
I work a few days a week as a consultant head gardener for Lord bla bla restoring a very large Victorian walled garden.
Poultry takes up my life..My OH says I'm obsessed with chickens,but after keeping birds for about 40 years you do get sort of..attached to them.
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I'm a full time houses wife and mother to my three wonderful boy and my sisters little girl. i used to be a career in an old peoples home and totally loved my job but my middle son and little girl have specail needs (not suprising they all don't given the parents ;D ;D ;D ;D) so am at their beck and call now. My OH is a police man, he doesn't have the slightest intrest in the animals apart from the chickens. :chook: :chook: :chook:
I've been brought up around animals but when i got married and had the kid decided that they were to much work so most went. It was Jojo my middle son who got me back to them, he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 9 month and it was difficult finding something to stimulate him, he was locked in his own world. Pigs were the things that woke him up he had a small plastic pig and wouldn't let it go, the only toy he ever played with. :pig: :pig: :pig: So we got pigs for him and its gone on from there. Kids love being outside i love being outside, the OH would rather have a small garden with no mud or animals, but he put up with it for me and the kids!! ;D ;D ;D
One day would love to open the place up to allow people to come and enjoy the animals and being outside as much as we do, all the kids from Jojo's class have been over and they thoroughly loved the experience, so has given me a goal to aim for! :pig: :pig: :chook: :chook: :goat: :horse: :horse: :farmer:
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I retired at 60, was an accountant, latterly in Internal Control in the NHS, keeping an eye on dodgy doctors' expenses! I thoroughly enjoyed that and always came home to a well run and happy band of animals wonderfully looked after by my OH. Having been widowed previously, I was silly enough to lose my second good man in a mountaineering accident, :( so after struggling for a year very reluctantly gave up the 20 acre croft and substituted it with a new project - built a new house (project managed myself ??? 8)). Then the kids persuaded me it was warmer down near them in Central Scotland - which it definitely is! Only have an acre now - but it's a garden :o Would have preferred an older house and more ground but the money Lords in Edinburgh and Glasgow snap all of them up fast. With the current economic gloom I can't see me being able to move again, so I'm hoping to very quickly roughen up the 'garden'. I now have four ducks and 10 chickens, including a Heinz drake and a LS cockerel.
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Hiya all
the fluffster here
Never really had a 9-5 job but do plenty of odd jobs around the place (little job security) have done in the pass and now, Web-design,website management , gardening/landscaping,tree surgery (very small amount) Computer training/IT work, shop retail, Deliveries contracted and private, art and design.
Have qualitfications in environmental studies , IT, art and design, land management, just to name a few
I am planning in the not so far distant to own my own business but i'll keep that under my hat until it happens, Oh also helpmy parents out with their craft/wood business.
at the moment am attempting to learn javascript (very badly).
I would also love to own a smallholding but all i have at the moment is a bit of land next to the house.
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I had my accident (big car smash) in which I broke my neck, back , skull, cheek bones, jaw , sternum ,ribs, collar bones ,arms wrists ,hips legs and er other bones I don't even know the names of.....I was a wreck ,in 1983 . I had very bad head injuries which took forever to get better. After it all healed , I had to look at life a different way . I was unable to do things the same as before. So , anyway , over the years I built up to a level of ability that allowed me to do most of what I want to do , just not for as long or as much as I would like , but I get it done. I am setting up my little holding to supply me with all my food and to give me a life free of all the Cr*p that is todays way of life for most people . The smash made me look at things so differently. Nowdays the world does what it does, and do what I do . I couldn't live a normal 9-5 life , even if I wanted to, my body just wouldn't cope with it . It only just copes with what I do now !!! ::) Don't know how many years I can continue with the way I live ,I am 51 now, but I just live each day as it comes and keep everything crossed.
cheers
Russ
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wow - well done rusty - you keep going hun xx Sounds lovely for you now though in charge of your own life.
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Both mortgage-slaves, working full time. Colin self-employed (house & garden maintenance) and I work part time 2 days a week as a medical practice manager and 3 days as a self-employed gardener. So we spend most of the week working on other people's gardens then all weekend on our own! January & February are quiet so this is our catch up time for our own projects. Both of us used to work long hours for a communications company but decided to have less stressful lives and go self-employed. Gives us much more flexibility and enjoyment. We only have a few chickens at present, other animals remain a dream for the future.
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Hiya,
I'm a qualified Interior Designer - though only really do that for fun ! lol!
My full-time paying job for the last 14 years has been as a dispensing optician. It's a bit different from the design side of things but I enjoy it too - just love dealing with the general public :P
Hubby is currently doing the house husband thang, looking after house, kids, animals etc (but not to my high standards obviously ::)) But that's all changing next week when my maternity leave starts and he'll be back in the working world (if there are any jobs!) He's really adaptable and does shot blasting & spray painting, building & roofing work and can turn his hand to most things so hopefully he'll be working VERY soon ! ;)
Karen ;D
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OH works for the local council, I work here. Serving Hilary et al. :pig:
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This is so cool - everyone is really diverse. I love it!!
Suppose I had better bore you with what we do.............
I started out as a music photographer and set designer for nightclubs. Moved to Miami, where I spent 7 sun drenched (and maybe alcohol drenched!!) years setting up & clubs, club visual design, managing DJs and events and DJing my own events!
Came back to the UK to manage Goldie and his Metalheadz record labels, toured with Goldie for 3 years then moved to Ibiza to take the post of marketing director at Amnesia for a year.
Life is a little calmer now! Still manage Goldie, still working on an album I started 3 years ago, still involved in the DnB scene, but I also have a property development business with my Father ( never work with family or friends????) Problem is there is no money in the music industry anymore and even less in property! >:(
Melissa is head of marketing at Box TV, a channel 4 thingy. She looks after 4 Music, Magic, Kerrang and all the other fun music TV channels. She has to travel to London each day still, so its a bit of a shlep - but she is coping well (and has learnt to sleep on trains like a pro!)
So, on top of all this we are trying to start a smallholding. We have a 250m2 plot for veg and the polytunnel (if we every get it built!!) and plan to fetch chickens for the back garden in the next few weeks. We also have a cat (so livestock on a small scale!) I go shooting most weekends for Rabbits and anything else (within reason) thats edible and Melissa bakes amazing cakes!!
Plan is to move out a little closer to Nottingham, maybe in the Vale of Belvoir (pronounced beever apparently!) get 3 acres or so and take it from there. Thats assuming we ever get the house finished to sell!
Now, assuming I haven't bored you all into a small coma............................ ;D
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Wow, Rhyan - all sounds very glamorous!
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I am not going to bother now ... mine is way too dull!!!
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Come on, Lu - they wear wellies like the rest of us!
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LUBOB!
Don't be soft!
I love nothing more than going shooting on a Saturday morning or going to the allotment with Melissa and crying quietly at the amount of work that need doing! Its not all sex, drugs and sausage rolls!
I don't even own a suit - except the one I got married in, but I have a sneaking suspicion I left that at the hotel on purpose!!!
I wanna wear wellies all the time and be self sufficient and everything!
Tell us
Tell us
Tell us
(Am i being annoying yet?)
Its not what you do or don't - its who you are and so far everyone on here has been way cooler than me and super friendly.
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okay okay ...
I work in a School Office and Bob works for Cable and Wireless. We would both love to spend more time living the 'Good Life' but that doesn't pay the bills, anyway we are just starting out and who says were going to be any good at it?! I am chitting enough potatoes to feed Scotland, where I am going to plant my other veggies I have no idea!!! Anyway, not going to sleep tonight, collecting my Black Rocks tomorrow - hooray! Everyone at work thinks I've gone mad!!
OK we have all got wellies ....
:D
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So lets see:
Your getting your chickens tomorrow - we are getting ours ASAP
You have no idea whether you will be any good at being Barbara and Tom - neither do we!
Not enough land - nope us too!
Wear wellies way too much? Yep!!
Everyone thinks your mad - Yeah, sounds familiar!!
Think we are all very alike!! :o
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crikey not quite the rock star lifestyle here. Im now a surveyer for the gas industry been in it for 20yrs plus,started out on the gangs putting in mains and services to houses also on 24hr standby for leaks which thank god im out of now. Anns a community nursery nurse ie going round checking on new babies dangling them by there feet and weighing them or something like that. Eldest daughter is at harpury college doing veterinary nurse course works down the local pub waitress......................neil
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I'm an IT Geek (networks & telephony systems) for an Insurance Company. The boss is a Nurse in the local NHS Hospital, she works two 12 hr shifts a week and so is effectively the farm manager as well (I'm the weekend & evening farmer).
I worked for BT in England and took redundancy in 1998. We swapped our 3 bed semi in Croydon opposite a bus stop for a farm outside Enniskillen in N.I. - there's still a bus but only once a week !
Cheers
Gavin
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Gosh! What a lot of diversity.
I am a Blacksmith when there is time and work enough. Like to do more artistic stuff but Gates and Railings pay the bills.
Jane is a Complimentary Therapist and does relief catering work for the local council.
We both run the Croft (4.5 acres) and in the summer run our house as a 3 bedroom B&B too.
Busy Busy
Dave
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I'm a self employed smallholder... no really... I'm paid to run a smallholding... **smug smug**
Paid to look after ducks, hens, sheep, 3 acres garden, 30 acres woodland, 30 acres grassland
Its a tough life
**smug smug**
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We all hate you! :P
No we don't, but we are all very envious! :-[
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So hex tell us more
(Dan where is the green smiley???)
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30 acres of wood and grassland. Sounds like you need a pest control officer.
Let me present - Myself!!!!!! ;D
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... hey up ....
I'm a Landscape Gardener ...(seems to be alot around, huh....!!!) and have a small nursery, specialising in plants that will survive in the Highlands... (I'm deep in the Trossachs.... beautiful...) and in the wet weather I do some Picture Framing.... and carpentry projects...
.... enough to keep me out of mischief... ;D ;D ;D
Polly.... my significant other half.... is a District Nurse... and hates this cold and snowy/icy conditions, as she works in a rural area...
:) :) :) :)
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I run our B&B which has been very busy for the last two years but to get me through the quieter times I do some care work and I am going to do some youth work, that is what I qualified in although I did all forms of Social Work with children and families and child protection. My partner works with homeless in Glasgow, we were both at colledge together and both went on to do a degree in Youth and Community work so have very similar interests, working with peoples emotions is hard!!! but I must admit, I realy enjoyed it. Running the B&B is great, it's brill when we are full as we have some very interesting guests, often I apply my counselling skills, I trained and worked with the Alcohol and with the Drug advice service so that along with assessing parents caring abilities, Fostering, working in children's homes and mental health etc I have heard some very harrowing stories, so, moving here and doing this has done me the power of good, my partner would love to be here all day but we cannot both live of the B&B income as most money goes back in, now I am rambling but I love our home the chickens and we both really enjoy the garden and our dogs and are going to breed "DOG'S" soon......hope our happiness continues!!!
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me and the OH both work full time 9-5, I work for a computer manufacturing company as a planner (but i largely work from home - not that my boss knows as she is in the US) and Karen works for HBOS
I've got a number of properties i let out and before that i started my own company which was a bit of a rollercoaster - but managed to come through the other side OK.
i'm hoping the property/credit crisis is over soon, i'd like to sell up the properties and be "retired" by the time i'm 45. (8 years to go) then i can devote a suitable amount of time to "the good life"
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I hear you on the property front - we are sat on a bunch just waiting for the turn around.
It will come, it always does!
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I have 6 children ranging in age from 23 to 4 yrs old. I have always worked fitting in jobs around the children. I got married when I was 18 and had my first daughter at 19. my husband a year older than me then went to Bristol University, I had a young baby and also worked nights when he came home to support the family. Then I became pregnant again and had 2 young children whilst he was still at Uni. I Still worked nights to support us all. He was at uni for 5 years, when he left and got a job I was able to take on day work (the girls were at school and nursery then) finishing at 3pm to pick them up and starting again at 6.30 and working for 4-5 hours in the evenings.
I ran a successful Internet company up until last summer when my son started school in september. Everyone said to me, 'you can get a proper job now'!! but I stopped work and have pottered around ever since. I decided to take 2 years off, I needed it and deserved it! Now believe it or not I am making a decent part time wage from the smallholding! We cannot keep up with demand!
It seems there really is no rest for the wicked!
ps well done Russ, an inspiration x
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Well......we are both based on our holding. Pete runs a countryside management business and is a fully qualified ecologist and tree surgeon, spends a lot of his time locally doing surveys and chopping up peoples trees! We also have a 7 acre wood where we base our charcoal making and provide wood for the house. Pete used to be an ecology officer, then a sustainability officer for local councils before becoming self employed. I have been involved in agriculture and smallholding all my life and run my own business The Woolly Shepherd, based on my sheep and the wool of sheep of the west of england. I process wool into knitting wool, felt and now starting down the insulation route. I also do countrysode management consultancy........and run and facilitate courses in countryside skills and livestock management. So we both base what we do around our holding.....and we work long and hard.....and have 2 out of 5 children still at home (aged 6 and 15)
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Great idea for a post!
Here goes .... we both work full time, I work in Financial accounting and my OH is an electrician.
We would love the house in the country etc... but just cant see that happening for a very very long time *sighs*
On the upside, we do what we can, with what we have... and although overlooked by several neighbours, our reasonable sized back garden allows us to have 3 raised beds, a greenhouse, our eglu, 2 big chooks and 3 little pekin bantams.
I make all my own cards, sell them at work for extra income.. next step perhaps.. selling them online. My OH takes on extra work in the evenings and weekends to help boost the coffers ;D
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Still manage Goldie,
Dan was looking at the forums this morning and noted the above. The fact that he knew who Goldie was just shows our diversity!! Goldie to me is the Blue Peter retriever... Oh dear, I'm a bit out of touch with popular culture, I guess.
I bet a few others out there din't know either, though?
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Awww and there was me not liking to ask :-X :-X
But ok then who is she ?
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with all these people on here we could create a Lets group (for all the locas that is)/me thinks that bartering is better than money
Linz
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Goldie's a bloke! Good start to our knowledge of popular culture!
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I remember his Golden teeth, not sure if he was a singer or actor first.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIcMolthnX0
ye gods...... I have turned into my dad !!!!!! "you call that music" ? .... NOT my sort of thing at all really ....Still, to each their own ... The nearest I get to getting down with it is 'The Gypsy Kings'. Oh god .....just thought , they are getting on a bit now too...and I remember their dad/uncle ,'Manitas De Plata' . Yes there is a recuring theme in there , the guitar. My all time favourite piece of music is 'Recuerdos de la Alhambre' by Francisco Tarrega .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIzKsNIRrV4
Some may remember it as the theme tune to 'Out of Town' With Jack Hargreaves, what a truly lovely old man he was .....It was he who started my whole love of things country and past crafts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CVmeDWqJpE&feature=PlayList&p=61A47A4E02D91306&playnext=1&index=23
Still , no disrespect to Goldie !!!! Just not my sort of music.
yo bro
Russ
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Hi everyone, remember me?. I used to contribute on here quite a bit, upto @11months ago.However, i have had a technology problem( bad bt connection and worse advise from techy friend). so I have only been able to look at the forum and not contribute. I am clinging on to a carreer in engineering/ manufacturing, while slowly increasing my smallholding activity. i still work 40 hours plus a week in the family business but for a diminishing return, ( it's more like being a curator in a museum for British industry).Luckily my wife is in a strong position to support us financially, but it has meant selling her soul to the devil, and is hampering our desire to add to our family of one son, at junior school. I had no luck last year with veg or fruit, but we have an abundance of meats and eggs which i sell or barter locally. I hold a dream of starting another web based business, selling our own manufactured products and similar on to end users. ( as our distributors are scared of commiting cash to stock,so end users are having trouble sourcing it). i probabley need someone like dan to hold my hand through the techy stuff, as my skills are a bit rustic and blacksmithy. i'm also very good at shifting neighbours excess fertiliser from by their stables, a much underrated task.(ok also underpayed). Old age has also seemed to catch up with me as i have had a couple of ailments which have held me back. An impingement in my shoulder, which was very sore and restricted some activity, and has now finally been treated by a specialist ( local anesthetic and manipulation) and also the dreaded back and neck pains from overdoing it. I had dreams of retiring early , but the dreaded credit crunch put paid to selling up my shareholding, and some property. My OH is definitely more a Margot than a Barbara, and she has a habit of giving away my produce for free, but will never help me with anything outdoors( this christmas she gave her hairdresser a turkey which i could have got £30-40 for). but i love the outdoor life and would love to be self sufficient ( as long as my wife can still provide the goodies from waitrose etc ;)). I am so glad i can now actually use this forum again without my overzealous internet security system, and dribbley connection c*cking it up for me. i have followed you all avidly and am still in awe of some of your efforts, especialy russ.Also best wishes to my piggy friends in france, and to flluffywelshsheep. I don't wear the wellies much, i prefer fur lined riggers, they are more pig proof and cosier?. whatever we do, or did do, however successfully or glamorous i bet we all get the same buzz fromm home produced stuff, like eggs, fruit, meat, veg , craftwork or even heat and power. up to our necks in debt and fertilliser, but always willing to laugh at ourselves and keep trying. ;D :pig: :chook: :cat: :horse: :paw: :sheep: :turkey: :&> :farmer:etc.
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Not very glamerous jobs here I'm afraid! I work full time 9-5 for the Royal Bank of Scotland (waits to be lynched now) in the fraud department. My only consolation is that we save the bank money! My other half needs to find a job- he inherited some money from his grandad, and when he didn't like HSBC's working practices he quit. However he can't live on that money forever, but right now, having never lived on a smallholding before (he moved in in January) he's enjoying the novelty of the animals and garden etc etc.
My mother also lives with us (we all share a house), and she is a qualified vet. She never practiced for long because having a family and their own nursery business got in the way- but believe me you have no idea how useful it is having your own personal vet!
My sister also qualified as an animal nutritionist (specialising in pigs!) Sadly she doesn't have enough room to keep even chickens let alone pigs- so if anyone knows of a place with land within the Linlithgow academy catchment area... ;)
Beth
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;D Thats made my day, the replies about Goldie! ;D
I can assure you, its not whats on my stereo! But it keeps the cat in cat food
FYI: He is an actor, musician and artist. He was in Snatch, Bond - The world is Not enough, Eastenders and a few other things. These days he concentrates mainly on his paintings and DJing. Not a bad life I guess!
Anyways, this is so cool, getting to know what everyone does and how they balance the muddy side with other things!
We spent the weekend getting bogged down in the car, trying to dig it and the tow truck out for 4 hours, had a cut a neighbouring plots tree down to get out and now generally hiding from the allotment for a day or 2!!!
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just seen this
i have followed you all avidly and am still in awe of some of your efforts, especialy russ.Also best wishes to my piggy friends in france, and to fluffywelshsheep.
Thank you Carl
i must admite i am 28 and had no idea who Goldie was but i do know who 'goldie looking chain' is lol, They came out of newport,south wales that same time i did !!!!(i moved up here). but as far as i am understand they move from pile (rough as F**k to Goldtops just like the milk!!!) lol
Linz
/me just spend the day recyclng old jumpper for wool for knitting and now has wool bit sticking to her
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I'm currently a full time teacher ... but have taken the brave step of handing my notice in .....eeeek! I will be unemployed at the end of August (can't wait!). My OH was made redundant last October and, despite a big mortgage and two kids at Uni, we have decided it is the prompt we needed to change our lifestyle for the better... scary but exciting!
We have one and a half acres, 16 chickens and grow lots of fruit and veg. We are using these next few months to sort the finances out (it's amazing what you don't actually need to spend!) and todecide on the next "next step".
Carole
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Wow that is a brave step, maybe a bit of supply teaching to subsidise your income eventually or possibly some private tuition. Me and my partner were on good to reasonable wages and hardly had a mortgage at all, then we packed it all in and moved to a higher mortgage and for a while just managed on the B&B but we need one good wage in order to maintain the house etc. We both live very frugally and are OK about it but sometimes you could do with a pot of money for repairs and emergencies and sometimes the odd treat. Good luck anyway
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weelllll ! I am an 'anaesthetic and recovery' nurse which means I am at the beck and call of the anaesthetists.... and then my patients. Sort of explains why it is soooo good to get home, don the wellies (ahem, I have half a dozen pairs) and dash out to the horses, sheep chickens and dogs. It is fab just to think my own thoughts and be in my own space!.
A few moons ago...I used to be a stained glass artist. I owned a studio in Alloa (Aurora Glass) and did loads of windows for houses churches and businesses throughout Scotland.... that was the old life....now I am happy grubbing about here in the mud.
My OH is a lecturer in Marketing and International Business at both Sirling uni, and Aberdeen Uni, he also does freelance stuff. Spends a lot of his day on the computer in his 'porta-potty' in the back garden - at least he has a fab view from there.
Cheers Emma aka Pikilily
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Hey, Emma, was your studio at Cooperage Way?
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My work was horses, breaking schooling then onto stud work. Never thought of it as a job more as a way of life. I gave up riding about 7 years ago due to a back problem and started breeding Shetlands which I loved. Sadley gave up the breeding last year, I had lost my job and health problems. My horse has been out on loan for a while now but is getting on in years so I expect she will be home in the near future to retire. All through life when things have happened i have picked myself up and thought of what now, so now we have chickens, veg plot, the pollytunnel, still three Shetlands to break to drive when they are of age, weaners due in April and a way of life that I love to bits. My job now is only if and when needed being a domestic at the local hospital but I enjoy that and the rest of the time I am just too busy to be bored. :)
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Well , as with most other people our "real work" is less than exciting ,
Linda works in a solicitors - she runs the Home information packs area - although for how long we dont know :-\
i work for everyones favourite retailer!!!!!!!!! ;D yes the "T" word , am a stock control manager ( dont blame me for everything) and no - i do not know hugh f-w !!!!
but it pays the bills and lets us do what we want at home ;D
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Hi rosemary...no the Studio was in Broad Street in Alloa. from 1985 until 1993, that was when we moved up here to Kirkinch
Emma
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Hi Emma - you wouldn't recognise Broad Street now. The new Alloa Academy has been built down there - opens on 23rd Feb- an dall the old trees have been replced and it's been landscaped. Looks fab.