The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: bealers on December 28, 2012, 10:29:49 pm

Title: Hello from North Shropshire
Post by: bealers on December 28, 2012, 10:29:49 pm

Hi everyone,

This seems like a nice friendly place.  :wave:

I'm Darren and along with my wife Cathie I escaped London in 2006. Since then we have been dragging our poor kids around the country whilst we were deciding exactly what we wanted to do and where we wanted to do it - to include trialing life at an intentional community, nearly setting up a housing co-op and 2 years on a hill in Wales (loved that one). Well, the tour is over and recently we ended up buying a house in Wem, North Shropshire. We're particularly excited that we've 'arrived' as we can finally start to put down both metaphorical and physical roots.

We have a south facing 70's home in town with just under 1 acre of gardens to include a huge pond, a small wooded area and a little orchard. It's currently mostly to (waterlogged) lawn with ornamental shrubs but our intention is to make it our own little micro-holding.

We're pretty inexperienced with last year seeing us fatten up four sheep at the last rented house (now in freezer) as well as usually having 10-20 chooks in the garden.

2013 will mostly be set-up and maintenance, particularly of boundaries as well as observation and planning.

We also have a 26 acre plot of land 10 miles away that we bought with our pensions. It is wet/scrubland with ~ 8 acres of derelict hazel coppice that I will over the second half of my life try and bring into some sort of productivity. The rest of the land we're pretty open to ideas on. One option is to use the Glastir money we 'won' last year and plant a few more acres of woods though we're now thinking it might be best left as wetland. Another option is to put a few cattle on it though that feels a bit scary and as we don't live on the land could cause us some hassle.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. Nice to meet you all. I'll try to keep the stupid questions to a minimum.

db

Title: Re: Hello from North Shropshire
Post by: ballingall on December 28, 2012, 11:40:58 pm

Hello and welcome from central Scotland


 :wave:


Beth

Title: Re: Hello from North Shropshire
Post by: Dan on December 29, 2012, 08:38:07 am

Hello Darren, welcome to the forums, great to see you here.  :wave:

Look forward to hearing more about your plans, sounds like a great setup you've got.

Title: Re: Hello from North Shropshire
Post by: plumseverywhere on December 29, 2012, 09:14:01 am

Hello from soggy Worcestershire  :wave:

Sounds like you have a very exciting and fulfilling life ahead for you and your children  :) looking forward to hearing more!

Lisa

Title: Re: Hello from North Shropshire
Post by: Sbom on December 29, 2012, 09:40:28 am

  :wave: hello from just over the border in Staffordshire  :thumbsup:

Title: Re: Hello from North Shropshire
Post by: Bionic on December 29, 2012, 10:01:13 am

Hi Darren and welcome from Carmarthenshire :wave:
It seems that everywhere is waterlogged at the moment. Still, the weather forecast is for something a bit drier in the new year  :fc:
Good luck with your new home and micro holding.
Sally

Title: Re: Hello from North Shropshire
Post by: Tudful Tamworths on December 29, 2012, 10:36:22 am

Hello from Caerphilly! Sounds like you'll never be bored in the near future! Good luck!

Title: Re: Hello from North Shropshire
Post by: Beeducked on January 03, 2013, 04:44:30 pm

Hello form near Oswestry.


Sounds like you have a great set up (and just need ducks!).

Title: Re: Hello from North Shropshire
Post by: darkbrowneggs on January 03, 2013, 04:54:11 pm

Hi from wet, wet, wet Worcestershire, though I must say it hasn't rained all year here  :innocent:

Title: Re: Hello from North Shropshire
Post by: Ina on January 03, 2013, 04:56:21 pm

Hi db, and welcome.

a) There are no stupid questions - keep them coming!

b) Wetland seems a pretty good option after this year... ::) You definitely need ducks!