The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: wendy on October 26, 2011, 07:52:29 am
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:wave: Hello everyone
I live on the north norfolk coast and have a 2 acre plot. I used to have horses and rode with my daughter
we also broke and drove ponies that she had grown out of so we could still keep and use them.
Now my daughter has left home over 6 years ago the equine have gone and the land fell quiet :-[
So in came the pigs and chickens :farmer: andI had a big learning curve ::) The pigs were raised for meat and that was a succsess although I did start to get attached to them and when the day came for them to go I found it very hard to take them....but I found a very small abbitour and got them in nice and early and they showed no sign of stress as I said goodbye. I have to say I have not had any pigs since though. The chickens on the other hand have taken over. I have Ixworths welsummers silver duckwing sussex (new to me this year)
and I am trying to get some silver sussex but not found a breeder yet. Anyone on here have them? Also a large flock of bantams that go broody at the drop of a hat and so let me breed without use of electricity :thumbsup:
I see a lot of you are up in scotland I have a dream to move up there what's it really like in those colder winters?
Bye for now
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Hi and welcome from North Yorkshire. :wave:
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Hi and welcome from Carnoustie, on Scotland's east coast :wave:
It's probably similar here to where you are - more influenced by proximity to the sea than latitude. It's lovely here - we just moved up from the Central belt last year.
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Hiya,
Do you have a breeding flock of Ixworths? I'm in Cambs and have been looking for some for a while!
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Welcome from north Cumbria :wave:
I moved here from Exmoor 5 years ago. I thought, being from Exmoor, I knew about cold and I knew about wet. I knew diddly squat.
I'm still here, and I love it. ;D
I really really really really really miss having a summer though. :(
But I am learning to cope with the winters. Long johns, hot water bottles, snowfire ointment, welly slippers, always always prewarm your clothes, burn as much wood and coal as you need; you reallly do need it - I am learning to do cold.
Getting wet through twice - or more - a day... is harder. And apart from old-fashioned oilskins like they wear on trawlers, nothing but nothing is actually waterproof - at least, when you are shepherding on a quad bike it ain't!
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Sally's on the west in Cumbria - east of Scotland isn't as wet ;D
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:wave:
Thanks for the hello,s
So its the east side of scotland then.
Poor Sally it sounds awful but the west side is very pretty (if you can see it through the rain ;D)
I do breed Ixworths but I only have my breeding stock left for next year I like to get numbers down for the winter and all the cock birds that are not good enough to breed with go in the pot. :yum: they are good layers and good table birds.
I have also got 1 bresse the table bird of France and she is an excellent layer I am trying to get her a mate but this year I crossed her with my best Ixworth and the chicks are monseters and growing fast so looking forward to seeing how they finish up. I will have more Ixworths next year so keep in touch :thumbsup:
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Hello and welcome :wave:
I started life on a farm in Norfolk and now live on a smallholding in Scotland, so I suppose I have done what you want to do. We were about 20 miles inland in Norfolk and back then we did have some very hard winters. My brother still lives there and it seems that Norfolk winters are now mostly fairly mild and dry, with the occasional surprise, and the summers very dry. We never noticed much wind, although it is reputed to be windy - ok the odd tree came down but nothing out of the ordinary. In Scotland we are much higher, at 1000', and about in the middle of the southern part of the country. Here it is definitely windy, fairly wet but not as bad as Sally finds it. There is something about annual rainfall decreasing by an inch for 30 miles as you head east (not sure of the precise figures). What we do get is lots of snow - deep snow which lies for ages with temps very far below freezing. Also recently our summers have been very wet and cool, with only the occasional lovely day.
Last and first frosts occur much closer together, so the growing season is shorter, but the days of summer are noticeably longer up here, and even more so the further north you go, so plants can do more growing in their shorter season.
All of these things can be dealt with - grow under protection, lay in stores for winter, own a 4wd vehicle, keep hardy animal breeds and try not to get depressed when the sun doesn't shine :D
I love the challenge of adapting to living here (I have been here for over 40 years ::)) and it is all worth it because this is a great country to live in. The people are friendly, the countryside is beautiful and the accents are music to the ear 8) ;D ;D :thumbsup:
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:wave: Hi and welcome from sunny Shropshire. I lived for 11 years on the west of Scotland and yes, it;s wet and yes, it's windy (never seen horizontal rain anywhere else) but it's milder than east Scotland so take your pick. :goat:
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Hello and welcome :wave:
I started life on a farm in Norfolk and now live on a smallholding in Scotland, so I suppose I have done what you want to do. We were about 20 miles inland in Norfolk and back then we did have some very hard winters. My brother still lives there and it seems that Norfolk winters are now mostly fairly mild and dry, with the occasional surprise, and the summers very dry. We never noticed much wind, although it is reputed to be windy - ok the odd tree came down but nothing out of the ordinary. In Scotland we are much higher, at 1000', and about in the middle of the southern part of the country. Here it is definitely windy, fairly wet but not as bad as Sally finds it. There is something about annual rainfall decreasing by an inch for 30 miles as you head east (not sure of the precise figures). What we do get is lots of snow - deep snow which lies for ages with temps very far below freezing. Also recently our summers have been very wet and cool, with only the occasional lovely day.
Last and first frosts occur much closer together, so the growing season is shorter, but the days of summer are noticeably longer up here, and even more so the further north you go, so plants can do more growing in their shorter season.
All of these things can be dealt with - grow under protection, lay in stores for winter, own a 4wd vehicle, keep hardy animal breeds and try not to get depressed when the sun doesn't shine :D
I love the challenge of adapting to living here (I have been here for over 40 years ::)) and it is all worth it because this is a great country to live in. The people are friendly, the countryside is beautiful and the accents are music to the ear 8) ;D ;D :thumbsup:
Thank you for this honest and complete answer
Its just as i thought x
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Hello and welcome from the central belt of Scotland- right slap bang in the middle between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Fleecewife has been totally honest, and I agree with much of what she says. the East coast if definitely drier- its even noticable here as I work in Edinburgh. It can be a lovely day in Edinburgh, drive home into the rain, and discover its been grey and wet all day at home! The last two winters have been bad, with prolonged spells of severe cold. The cold is probably worse than the snow when you have livestock, because its the constant battle of trying to keep water thawed. I swear summers have been worse over the past 5 years than they used to be, and August is rapidly becoming a "monsoon" month. But the longer days are bliss- I love the light in summer.
It is less busy up here, but the central belt is still quite hectic, as so many people want to live within commuting distance of Edinburgh and Glasgow. I'd love to live further north or south, (and smallholding prices there are cheaper too) but I have to live within reach of work, which just now is Edinburgh.
Beth
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hello and welcome :wave:
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:wave: Ok thank you for all the replies and for the information on the areas of scotland :thumbsup: It really has helped in my next big step as to where I want to live
....I love wales as well so anyone from wales who could give an honest answer to the area
of llandovey? llanddeilo to live in would be most welcome... i know it rains a lot there too... but milder winters....?
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Hello From the Derbyshire hills. We are hoping to move soon, and I think it would have to be somewhere with hills - big ones, as thats what we have here!! I feel strange if I am looking at the view with no hills. Can stand the cold and massive snow drifts - we are a few miles from Buxton, which has the dubious honour of always being cut off in winter.
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we are a few miles from Buxton, which has the dubious honour of always being cut off in winter.
.... and once having a county cricket match snowed off!!
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:wave: thanks again for the hello's..... nice site this :thumbsup:
Anyone from Wales?
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:wave: Ok thank you for all the replies and for the information on the areas of scotland :thumbsup: It really has helped in my next big step as to where I want to live
....I love wales as well so anyone from wales who could give an honest answer to the area
of llandovey? llanddeilo to live in would be most welcome... i know it rains a lot there too... but milder winters....?
Hi Wendy ,
I live near Llandielo and have been here for 6 1/2 years .( SA183BZ )
I used to reside at Guyhirn ( PE134BJ 0 near Wisbech on a small holding sort of set up , because of disabilities I have retired totally ,but perhaps this might be of some use to you.
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The weather , what I have noticed and undestood is that because of Wales being with water on three sides so to speak and the tiny hills the locals call mountains , the weather over the whole year can vary from village to village on a daily basis .
The wind direction has a big bearing on the weather , so does being on the sunny side of a hill so you get as much sunshine as is available.
We spent several months trying to find the such a place within our finances .
Where we are is reasonably high up on the Amman valley rim at 120 mtrs , often when the valley is cloaked in mist for much of the day we get sun .
Being on Amman valley protected side /rim of the hills sees weather pushed up, the rain usually drops down much heavier a mile or so away . But five miles away at Llandielo when we get summer rain here it is often sunny and warn .
Keep an eye on the national BBC weather forecast patterns and you'll soon start to see a couple of major patterns /lines of similar weathers
We used the on line Multi Map to look at the real cartography of contour lines , shapes /heights of things coupled with average & prevalent winds directions through out the year .
We also use the internet to try and find out annual rain fall patterns.
We aslo use some of the various birds eye views of places from the likes of google ( now google earth ) we had located as for sale so we could see what else was in the ara and learnt to avoid all sorts of things that would not be good for us or our new way of life..
Some friends of ours didn't do any such thing and have regretted it time and time again for they rarely get any sunshine on their 12 acre place as it is on the north side of a large hill that has tall conifer wood land either side of their homestead.
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Hi Wendy :wave:
We are new on the site as well. We live at the other end of Norfolk, near Diss, just north of the Suffolk border.
We have only been here for 18 months and so far have enjoyed it all. Very dry at the moment, but we do notice the winds!! 17 sheep, 2 cats and 5 dogs, so keeping busy.
Good luck to you ;D