The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: Pedwardine on February 25, 2012, 05:22:24 am
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Hello all, have a smidge over six acres in South Lincolnshire. The land is part of the old Medieval village with original village pond, village well and the old road running diagonally through it. It was very scrubby when we came but we've planted trees and native hedges and a willow crop on the boggiest bit (we're on heavy clay-very slippy slidey in the winter and great cracks opening up in the summer) for our wood-fired boiler.
We've got a large and currently very overgrown polytunnel :-[. The borage took over last year. We aren't very good on clearing it out before the winter sets in and seedling time always coincides with lambing so lots of things die. Our fantastic gardener of a neighbour always take pity on us and give us some of her glut of plants. We have a flock of some 61 pedigree British Gotland sheep :love: and are due 54 lambs this year. Also got five GotlandxTeeswater and three Shetland moorit. We do rent some other land in case you were wondering where we put them all ???.
My other half is a retired art teacher and (when he gets time-not often nowadays!) a painter in oils and mixed media. I was and still am occasionally, a picture framer.
We've got two donkeys, Matty and Monty. Matty has a dodgy sarcoid which is untreatable (I have talked with the lovely Derek Knottenbelt and my fabulous vet about it) but he seems chipper right now so we'll count our blessings.
We have free-ranging chickens :chook: which consist of ex-batt, white Wyandotte, Silver Grey Dorking, Welsummer, Black Copper Maran, Cream Legbar, Warrens, White Star (lovely chucks), Speckledy and Black Rock(ish). We have far to many cockerels as we haven't the gumption to knock them off. They're such sweet natured boys and they are crowing right now. Where did the fallacy originate from that they herald the dawn. They crow all the flamin' time!
Indoors we have six unruly, but loving, rescue dogs (Max, Murphy, Louis, Honey, Ella and Saffie, all allsorts apart from Louis the Labradoodle and Murphy the Westie) and four cats :cat: one of whom is meowing at me right now at 5am for some food. "No Maddy!". She's very old (17) and very deaf with a surprisingly greedy appetite and a REALLY LOUD MEOW. She and her friend Pixie (12 years old with no teeth) came to us fairly recently as their mum died and our mutual friend knew we were suckers...They're lovely cats and we don't regret it one bit.
Dunno what else to say really. We're on a continuous learning curve and I never thought I'd be doing this smallholding thing but I love it. It's very knackering but I don't need gym membership that's for sure! :thumbsup:
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Hello, welcome to TAS. :wave:
Sounds like you've got your hands full! Completely sympathise with the borage, it's a tremendous self-seeder and we could never teach it to understand boundaries at our old place. We haven't really started the garden at our new place yet, and if borage features (which I guess it will, being bee friendly) it will be a loooong way away from the veg garden. :D
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hi and welcome to the forum from central scotland :wave: :wave:
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Hello and welcome from Worcestershire :wave:
what a lovely introduction to all of your animals!!
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Hello from near Durham,
You just cannot beat a welcome of animals to share your days We are down to 2 dogs, chinchilla and 4 hens since children came along and other pets passed with old age, do miss not having a cat.
It sounds like a lovely picturesque village that you live in, and your garden with the original village features, great!
Welcome to the forum :wave:
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Hello and welcome :wave:
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Hi from North Yorkshire.
With us its nettles i swear i do not know where they all come from, think the pigs spread them by shredding the roots into little pieces that grow even more, be able to knit nettle jumpers this summer!!
Bestest Mandy :pig:
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hello and welcome :wave:
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Hello and welcome Pedwardine. Sounds like a really great place. Can't sleep at 5.00am ? Time to get up anyway ! Get most of the paperwork jobs done before the livestock needs attention. Willow is a good idea -can make useful stuff with it if it's the right type, which ours isn't ! Mind you we didn't plant it, someone else did 100 years ago.
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Hello! :wave:
Big welcome from sunny Aberdeenshire!
We've got ducks, dogs, sheep, goats, moles, a naughty cat, and a chicken.
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Hello and welcome from Carnoustie :wave:
Lovely post - I feel like I know you already. I'll look forward to hearing more about you and your smallholding. :)
I had hoped the British Gotland Sheep Society would come to the Festival and promote the breed, but they don't have any owners up here. Catch 22, I suppose :)
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Hi from Powys.
Corrrr ......you must be busy!
We have a very mad flat coated retriever, a cute cat, a house bunny and a budgie.
Also a small flock of soay sheep, quail and an ever growing collection of hens. These include our new ex batts, RIRs, Friesian Fowl, bluebells and various colours of pekins. We also have too many cockerels but the last four are in the freezer! Needs must ....they do start to cause problems as numbers increase.
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Another hello from Worcestershire. I love the sound of your land with it's medieval pond etc.
We have sheep (mainly Wiltshire Horn), Toggenburg goats (kids due any day now) , loads of chickens, ducks, quail and one ancient cat who also has a very loud and imperious miaow. Our lovely old cocker spaniel had to be put to sleep a few weeks ago. We're holding out so far but there is a gap.
Anyway, nice to meet you!
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:wave: from cambridgeshire
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Welcome from Clackmannan in Central Scotland :wave: - sounds like you have a beautiful village. I feel I know you too - I think it has been suggested on here to have TAS get togethers - we had one in Glasgow a couple of years ago which was very successful. Looking forward to hearing more about your beasties. I don't have any animals (except my dog, cat, chooks and dooks), not suitable land formation, so I rely on others for my supplies of pork, lamb, and beef.
I sometimes wake early but had a long busy day today so off to bed early with my kindle and a hot chocolate ;D
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:wave: Hi and welcome from sunny Shropshire. What a lovely lot of animals you have although I did notice a distinct lack of goats. Mine is a micro-holding aka a back garden but I grow fruit and veg and have my three (soon to be two) goats. Two are Sanaans, and are mother and daughter. The third, called Curry, is a SanaanxBritish Alpine, son and grandson of the other two, and is 8 months old so won't be around much longer.
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Blimey what alot of lovely replies and welcomes!
I'm afraid the law of sod dictated that it wasn't my turn to get up when I couldn't sleep t'other night. It was supposed to be my turn for a lay-in. Typical huh? Usually up around 6-6:30 to light the fire, get the kettle on and let doggies out for a widdle before chook, donks and sheep duty and finally a cuppa to wake the other half with.
I have too many nights when I just lie there willing myself to sleep, having internal conversations and thinking 'don't look at the time'. It's fatal when you look at the time. It's just countdown mode then.
A goat called Curry hey? Bet he hasn't grown up feeling paranoid! We do have a distinct lack of goats. I'd love goats but all our animals are ill disciplined, don't goats have a head start on being cheeky? We've also not got enough land for what we've already got and are in the reluctant process of scaling down our lovely flock of Gotties. So hard to choose who goes and who stays.
Some of my lot look to be moving to Aberdeenshire come Autumn with one of you lot. Three of my girls now live in the Borders (see Tweedside Jacobs blogsite for their progress). Damara, Dew and the very naughty Dorrit went away with their new mum and dad last August and are due their first babies sired by the very splendidly named Cornelius any time soon. Dorrit was a tiny tiny thing but a proper kick-ass feisty girl. She did nazi kicks to be precise to get your full attention. Her Aunty Bronte who is still with us does the same thing-just the left leg, a full in the shins straight kick. Bloomin' hurts! Dorrit and her new mum have sneaky cuddles whilst the others are eating. She's in good hands. Three little 'uns have just moved to Shropshire, and more are in Derbs, Essex and other bits of Lincs so I'm trying to spread the breed about a bit. We Gotland breeders are a bit far flung I do admit. We had to travel down to Somerset to get our starter flock and I've been down to Devon twice for rams and unrelated ewes to bring new blood in.
Keep meaning to find time to do creative and practial stuff with the willow. Got loads waiting for me to make baskets, hurdles and wigwams for beans to climb around. I want to do a big wigwam down by the pond. It'll remind me of making dens when I was a kid. Anybody else do that with bedsheets and the dining chairs?
I look forward to more chattings...