The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: Ina on February 27, 2012, 08:59:22 am

Title: Another newbie
Post by: Ina on February 27, 2012, 08:59:22 am

I feel a bit of a fraud - I could only, really, call myself a very, very small holder... The accident that could turn me into a proper one hasn't happened yet!

Anyway, I'm Ina - live in the southern part of Aberdeenshire, on the coast, with a small garden, a cat and a few house spiders. Would love to have some land and livestock - had a couple of goats in the past. but circumstances don't allow anything like that. Particularly hard to take at this time of the year, with lambing going on...

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: Rosemary on February 27, 2012, 09:06:32 am

Hello and welcome from drizzly Carnoustie :wave:

Off to the dentist  :(

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: plumseverywhere on February 27, 2012, 09:08:32 am

Hello Ina

we are in chilly Worcestershire and keep some goats (first ever kidding due in March, eek!) we are very new to sheep and have a few hens.

HOpe you enjoy TAS, its a lovely place to come and chat and I have my breakfast and lunch breaks here every day  :D

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: Ina on February 27, 2012, 09:30:52 am

Thank you for your prompt welcome!

Quote from: Rosemary on February 27, 2012, 09:06:32 am

Hello and welcome from drizzly Carnoustie :wave:

Off to the dentist  :(

Hope the dentist goes well.

And it's drizzling here, too...

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: in the hills on February 27, 2012, 09:47:45 am

Hello Ina and welcome from a grey and cloudy Powys

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: chairmanphil on February 27, 2012, 01:22:03 pm

hi Ina, cloudy and warmish in Oxford! welcome in!

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: FiB on February 27, 2012, 07:45:55 pm

Hi Ina , re smallholder - I think its an ethos rather than a number of acres!  You are here so you must be one!

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: lill on February 27, 2012, 07:55:49 pm

Hi Ina and welcome to the forum from central scotland :wave: :wave:

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: Pel on February 27, 2012, 08:01:01 pm

Hi, welcome from west-wales, I don't have a smallholding either, just occasionally breed rabbits and try to have a veg patch (I can grow seedlings well but the next stage is a bit harder esp. when my husband forgets to water them when i'm away).

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: Ina on February 28, 2012, 08:04:53 am

Thanks for all your encouraging words!

Oh, and I'm good on the seedlings, too. Have already started some off.... And it's only February! But then I don't have a husband to blame for not watering them.  :D

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: Lesley Silvester on February 28, 2012, 11:41:43 pm

 :wave: Hi Ina and welcome from not so sunny Shropshire.  I'm a back garden smallholder.  What sort of goats did you have?  Mine are Sanaans.  :goat:

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: Ina on February 29, 2012, 12:19:35 pm

Cashmere. Had to give them up when I had to give up country job and the house that came with it. And I still have a few bags of the fibre in the cupboard somewhere, which isn't getting any better... One of these days - ha! - I'll have time, space and energy to do something with it! (So I've been saying for a few years now.)
 
I worked with dairy goats in the past, though (long time ago, in France). Would love to have some again and make my own cheese! Well, I'd love the full range of livestock, if possible... Hens, for a start.

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: Lesley Silvester on February 29, 2012, 11:19:30 pm

Hope it works out for you.  And try the spinning - it's very relaxing.

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: bigchicken on February 29, 2012, 11:53:57 pm

Hi Ina and welcome from Fife

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: Mammyshaz on March 01, 2012, 10:07:29 pm

Hi ina  :wave:
 welcome from Durham area.no smallholding either I rent allotments adjoining house as  i don't even have a garden but  permission from council allowed a few hens last year. It's a start but desperate to get my own land.
It seems on this great site that it doesn't matter whether you only own a single potted plant or a large farm everyone has the same interests,

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: Womble on March 02, 2012, 04:25:04 pm

Welcome Ina!

Nobody slagged me off when my 'smallholding' consisted of a cold frame and two hens, so they're not going to have a problem with you being a small scale spider farmer either! So, don't feel a fraud, just do what you can with what you've got, and stay happy  :wave:.

Cheers,

Womble.

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: Lesley Silvester on March 03, 2012, 11:30:20 pm

Don't like the thought of a spider farmer.   :o

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: Mammyshaz on March 04, 2012, 08:32:57 am

No, me neither!!
Rather be up against a lion than a spider any day.

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: Ina on March 04, 2012, 10:20:09 am

Quote from: Mad Goatwoman of Madeley on March 03, 2012, 11:30:20 pm

Don't like the thought of a spider farmer.   :o

Ergh - I don't actually actively farm them. They just seem to be there all the time...  ;)

Thanks for all your warm words.  Yes, I think the council might even allow me a few hens in the garden; I just never thought I'd be here in this place for as long as I now have been - not worth setting anything up for a few months. And now I have a new neighbour, who probably wouldn't mind, either, but she has a dog who, in her own words, isn't very friendly. I don't think chickens would take very kindly to being jumped and barked at on a regular basis. The garden isn't all that big, either, so nowhere else to move. Problems, problems... An allotment would be nice, but there aren't any around here.

But I have got some parsley into a seed tray this morning, so I am feeling very virtuous!  ;D

Title: Re: Another newbie
Post by: Lesley Silvester on March 04, 2012, 11:21:30 pm

Parsley's a start.  :D