The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: NortheriIslesPigs on January 03, 2013, 02:54:16 pm

Title: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: NortheriIslesPigs on January 03, 2013, 02:54:16 pm

Hello from Shetland

Where to start.

We have a smallholding in the north of mainland shetland with a number of saddlebacks and tamworths, geese, chicks and an assortment of ducks, one day we may even add some cows and a goat or two.

We've had pigs for just over a year and love every minute of it, apart from the possibly the current knee deep mud.

If anyone wants to know more just ask :)

cheerio

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: SallyintNorth on January 03, 2013, 03:24:49 pm

Welcome!   :wave:  Shetland is on my list of places I want to see.  Need guidance on which islands / bits will be most of interest - basically we will want to see anything agricultural, do like to see a few neolithic sites etc, and love to see anything to do with use of wool as well as sheep farming itself.   Not a fan of the usual tourist trail stuff; hate gift shops although do love genuinely handcrafted things.   I will probably try to sneak a Shetland (or Orkney) spinning wheel into the suitcase...  ;)

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: Bionic on January 03, 2013, 03:51:39 pm

Hello and welcome  :wave: from a damp and dreary Carmarthenshire
Sally (the other Sally)
 

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: Ina on January 03, 2013, 04:10:30 pm

Quote from: SallyintNorth on January 03, 2013, 03:24:49 pm

basically we will want to see anything agricultural, do like to see a few neolithic sites etc, and love to see anything to do with use of wool as well as sheep farming itself

Sally - you know they have a wool week in October?

I'm a Shetland fan myself... Didn't make it last year, though, and unlikely this year, either.  :(

Hi, and welcome!

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: Hermit on January 03, 2013, 04:17:33 pm

Hi from the Westside!!!! There are a few of us here from Shetland.

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: darkbrowneggs on January 03, 2013, 04:55:09 pm

Hi and welcome  :wave:  - from a long way away in Worcestershire

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: Orinoco on January 03, 2013, 10:36:20 pm

Hi and welcome from East Yorkshire

Just getting started ourselves so only useful forTax and IT stuff at the moment, but happy to help were we can.

K

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: SallyintNorth on January 04, 2013, 04:37:28 am

Quote from: Ina on January 03, 2013, 04:10:30 pm

Sally - you know they have a wool week in October?

I do...  ;)

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: Rosemary on January 04, 2013, 10:00:36 am

Hello and welcome from Carnoustie  :wave: We breed Shetland cattle and I was on Shetland for the first time last August with the Shetland Cattle Breeders Association. Loved it - absolutely beautiful.

Sally, the Trondra Croft Trail ( Tommy and Mary Isbister) is well worth a visit. They are devoted to Shetland culture - keep Shetland cattle, sheep, geese, poultry and grow native barley. Tommy builds boats and makes fiddles. Remarkable couple and really lovely too.

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: happygolucky on January 04, 2013, 10:05:55 am

 :wave: :wave: :wave: :wave: Not been but would love too, we moved up to Scotland 5 years ago and adore the place, I even like the cold!!!! My husband has now realised how wonderful it is here and we both would love to see all over, we love the idea of Shetland but a bit too far up north for work......so we will stay in the Central Belt!!

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: Ina on January 04, 2013, 10:28:03 am

Quote from: SallyintNorth on January 04, 2013, 04:37:28 am

Quote from: Ina on January 03, 2013, 04:10:30 pm

Sally - you know they have a wool week in October?

I do...  ;)

TAS meet up in Shetland next October?  :innocent:

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: Lesley Silvester on January 04, 2013, 12:10:02 pm

 :wave: HI and wlecome from Shropshire.

I've not been further north than Orkney but would love to visit Shetland.  I love island life, having lived on Arran for eleven years, where I worked as a handloom weaver and knitter.

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: Wendy@blueborage on January 04, 2013, 09:30:45 pm

Hello from a waterlogged Essex  :wave:


Wendy


blueborage.blogspot.com

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: SmallTimeSmallholder on January 04, 2013, 09:44:46 pm

TAS meet up in Shetland next October?  :innocent:



Ooooooh really??... When??  ;D


Welcome from the south east (hoping for a holiday)  :excited:

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: goosepimple on January 04, 2013, 10:00:21 pm

and welcome from the Scottish Borders, it's less windy here but I'd rather be where you are.  We used to live almost in the sea when we lived in Edinburgh - a couple from Orkney bought our house there and said they had come full circle - can be hard living close to the sea all the time, but country living just doesn't have the same smell or quality of light and I miss that.
 
Welcome and give us all of your island news Northerislespigs, we're all listening. :wave:

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: Carl f k on January 04, 2013, 10:05:24 pm

Howdeedoodee

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: fiestyredhead331 on January 05, 2013, 12:51:30 am

hello from the wet & windy northwest of Sutherland  :wave:

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: SallyintNorth on January 05, 2013, 04:53:45 am

Quote from: SmallTimeSmallholder on January 04, 2013, 09:44:46 pm

Quote from: Ina on January 04, 2013, 10:28:03 am

TAS meet up in Shetland next October?  :innocent:

Ooooooh really??... When??  ;D

Shetland Wool Week (http://www.shetlandwoolweek.com/)

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: NortheriIslesPigs on January 05, 2013, 06:41:44 pm

yeah we have wool week..

we have tamworths and saddlebacks and some oxford sandy and blacks on the way to add to the mix. Everything is a bit of a bog at the moment, think thats the joys of pigs, they rotovate and create mud but they are marvellous :)

We're in northmavine, with any luck we'll have more ground at the end of the month, so will be thinking on cows I should imagine. Other projects are our vintage trawler, diving (for food), fishing, shooting, tanning and revamping an old building.. :D

I have been here 4 years and himself was born here, there are days when I wonder why, but I remember more why I came here when I go south so it makes up for it. That said NW Sutherland is a favourite of mine :)

Title: Re: Hello from the Windy North
Post by: ballingall on January 06, 2013, 11:06:41 am

Hello and welcome from central Scotland  :wave:


Beth