The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: wannabesmallholder on January 20, 2017, 11:10:14 pm
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Hello - can I introduce myself as I'm new :)
I am mother to two small children and part-time children's physiotherapist, living in rural Hampshire within the South Downs National Park with an acre of land to play with. Last year, when my youngest was waking at 4am every day, I developed an inability to get back to sleep, so put the insomnia to good use and got out in our (much neglected) paddock and created a substantial veg patch, which was pretty productive last year, considering I had absolutely no idea what I was doing with veg growing ;D
From this, I've developed a passionate (some would say obsessional) love of our little patch of land and dream of creating a lovely space that we can enjoy as a family and hopefully instil a love of the outdoors and appreciation of land, animals and food in our children. I planted an orchard in half of the paddock just before Christmas and am just waiting for someone to come and fence it. Then the fun starts and I have just paid a deposit on 3 pedigree ouessant sheep, 2 of whom are in lamb :love: from whom I plan to breed and create our own little multicoloured friendly flock! I have dreams of chickens, pigs and more from our little plot and am not afraid of hard work, adverse weather and early starts. Of course, I'm sure like so many people my ultimate dream would be to find something on our plot that would make me enough money to give up the day job, but I appreciate this rarely happens…. Am married to a singing and organ-playing solicitor, who loves animals and country living, but is not very practical and doesn't get his hands dirty much ::)
Anyway, that's enough about me. Thanks for reading if you got to the end!
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Welcome to the best site around! You sound as if you have got off to a good start with your vegetables etc. Good luck with your venture and we would love to see pictures of your Ouessant sheep when they arrive, you will get lots of good advice on here... :thumbsup: :excited: :thumbsup: :excited:
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:wave:from north lincolnshire
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Hello and welcome form a former Hampshire person now living in Carmarthenshire
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Welcome, sounds like your youngest did you a favour, now just have to get husband to discover the satisfaction of getting his hands dirty and see a job well done ;D
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Hi and welcome to the forum from Ceredigion! Sounds really lovely what you're doing and your children will definitely benefit from what you're doing too. All the best with your new venture and it is exciting isn't it?
:thumbsup:
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Hi! I'm on the Hampshire/Wiltshire border and I've managed to give up my job as a Nurse by becoming more self sufficient, don't give up the dream!!
We are lucky that we inherited a farmhouse with land and my husband has always been in agriculture, it's lovely getting the children involved, good luck xx
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Great intro! Welcome to TAS, from Carnoustie :wave:
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:wave: and welcome from Shropshire. I'm another one who's OH isn't at all interested in the practical side but enjoys eating the veg I grow.
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:wave: and welcome from Shropshire. I'm another one who's OH isn't at all interested in the practical side but enjoys eating the veg I grow.
Don't they all LOL
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Hi there,
We started about two and a half years ago, also with no experience/clue, and got three Ouessant sheep who are absolutely lovely! We then progressed to chickens, pygmy goats and donkeys as well as a vegetable garden.
I'm sure you're going to be delighted with your sheep!
We're in Buckinghamshire, and this forum has been such a great help, you're in safe hands!
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Ah [member=42266]laurelrus[/member] - your place sounds lovely! I fancy some Pygmy goats, but I think they'd eat our fruit trees (as may the sheep....) :innocent:
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Amazing [member=167899]KatyWfarmerswife[/member] - I won't give up the dream yet then!! I just need to find "the thing" that will make some money..... I just "passed" my Band 7 interview at work, so have officially got a promotion - got my offer letter through and worked out it will earn me an extra £10 per month!!! Wasn't worth the stress of the interview!! Definitely need a career change!
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Will your new fencing be around the trees, or just the outside of the orchard? You will need to protect those new trees from your new sheep. They can't help themselves when it comes to nibbling young growth on small trees ::) .
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Will your new fencing be around the trees, or just the outside of the orchard? You will need to protect those new trees from your new sheep. They can't help themselves when it comes to nibbling young growth on small trees ::) .
[member=24439]Possum[/member] thank you! Yes, I am getting the trees fenced off until they are a bit more robust - exactly how to do this is the subject of another thread!! And then of course still have a grass control problem in the orchard until then, which is a bit of a pain, but less of a pain than having our newly planted trees eaten I suppose :D