The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Jas on June 15, 2016, 07:23:03 am
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How did you all get on in your first year from being newbies to fully fledged smallholders?
I'm sure there are tales to be told. Interested to hear :thumbsup:
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Not quite our first year, but close http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/diary/archive/2003/12/ (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/diary/archive/2003/12/)
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We have come to this from the other end to most people having downsized from a large dairy/beef/arable farm. The hardest part has been having to think small. We had to build useful livestock buildings as we only had a tin shed and a grain store as outbuildings.
Fencing seems a never ending job as what was a 12 acre field is now split into a lot more useful paddocks, 6 at the last count.
I have learnt a lot about sheep.
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The opposite to Buttermilk we had to learn to think large coming to three acres from an allotment
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Our 1st year was last year and we went from keeping chickens and bees in our back garden to having 3 acres to play with. The biggest challenge was keeping it manageable as the possibilities of what we could now do were too exciting. We managed to do a lot and luckily I had a full time job to keep the money coming in, but so much to learn and a lot of exhausting days looking after the animals, panicking about whether that was a bad sign or normal behaviour in various animals and a never ending battle with the weeds to convert the veg patch.
Our mission in the first year was to do some of the things that would take time to establish, like planting the orchard and mapping out where we wanted the separate fields for different animals as well as cracking on with the fencing to make the space secure. Although we also wanted some quicker rewards so got goats and pigs not to mention the adoption of 2 more dogs.
The most memorable things were the arrival of my new goats as kids, watching my OH so proud he had his own tractor, growing my first cucumber in the greenhouse and tasting/curing/producing food from our own pigs.
I can now never go back...... :farmer:
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To tell the truth I can't remember my families first year farming, I will say this though I remember my first year rearing the animals myself, I would say about 2 years ago? Calf feeding I started then, and lamb rearing since I was 3. The first year I really took charge was 2013, I reared my own flock of sheep and started taking over the flock of sheep we have now. Calf rearing really took off in 2014, end, and since then I have learn't a lot, especially how to treat scour and any upset tums or under weather calves. Isn't it amazing how much you really learn? I initially used to rear a few lambs and help my mum in the garden, but in 2008 she handed the garden over to me, so that was a big responsibility, then lamb rearing in 2012 and then calf rearing 2014, I now have the ultimate say with the calves about how I am rearing them. In a way they have been given to me to rear and we all share in the profits, so not bad, not bad, seeing as my parents pay for the powdered milk :roflanim: I was also given charge of the chickens about 7 years ago now, maybe more, and I have loved it ever since :)
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Wbf, by my reckoning that makes you about 10/11...... ???
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Wbf, by my reckoning that makes you about 10/11...... ???
Was thinking that! :roflanim:
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I dont understand [member=27351]verdifish[/member] what do you mean?
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Then I suggest you read your long comment on this post and take your mittens and socks off,because the maths don't add up.
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Let me put it another way. We all read your stories. And that's fine, but why lie about years in the job.? Or is it all just a mistake? I'm not sure hence why I asked.
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Hi Jas
We planned an escape from the demands of the day jobs when our 'children' left home and the big 60 was somewhat nearer than the more benign 50!! - but as we looked into it quickly realised that we still needed an extra regular income so did not burn all our boats. (We initially hought our main income would be from self contained holiday lets)
Our new hillside life involves juggling some work in the midlands with our 'real life' in Wales. It has not been easy but we have not regretted it. We did make an early decision not to have any 'animals' for at least twelve months whilst we got used to swapping 3000 square feet of walled garden and an allotment in Northamptonshire for an acre or so of garden and ( depending on exactly how you measure a very very rounded hillside) 2.5 -3 acres of steep grazing land.Having made that 'firm' decision we we were soon convinced a few 'chooks' were a good idea ( John and Helen that is entirely your fault!)
We very nearly weakend further and bought some sheep lawn mowers last autumn but tbh are glad we did not. We think the demands of animals and the current travelling is too much for them (and us) now but it is on the cards for the future. We have continued an allotment sized area for veg growing and are learning (the probably obvious fact) that what happily produced huge quantities in sunny Northants struggles in North Wales. Having said that we are experimenting with a poly-tunnel. We have planted some additional fruit trees
We had already managed a couple of holiday cottages from afar before the 'big move' but now we have been directly responsible for their day to day running understand how bl@@dy hard our caretakers and cleaners worked before we took over some of this work. We hope we have become wiser and less pedantic as a result! We have taken over an existing log cabin business in the grounds of the house and have found that most people on holiday are genuinely lovely - and we ignore the very few that we have had of a differnt kind.
What have we learned in a year? Probably this: Our friends support us, wish us well and come to visit us. Our best friends support us, wish us well, come to vist us and help us sort stuff out, bring veg plants, mend things whilst they are here and bring wine.
Our new neighbours are kindly, welcoming, interested in our story and keen to offer help, to show us the best local walks, how to prune roses, how to work to power tools, tell us who to ask for help with stuff, invite us to supper/ lunch and also bring wine (and veg, and cake and eggs)
In particular we have enjoyed the encouragement and genuine warmth of this site when we have raised issues as wide ranging as damp ingress, onion girth and hen behaviour.
In short Jas. That has been year one!
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Let me put it another way. We all read your stories. And that's fine, but why lie about years in the job.? Or is it all just a mistake? I'm not sure hence why I asked.
Verdifish please stop this; it makes it unpleasant for everyone. WBF has said in another post that she is 20. So, she has had lambs to rear since she was 3, as many children do, with parental help, and has clearly started looking after the larger animals and garden since she was in her early teens. Where's the lie?
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Verdifish please stop this; it makes it unpleasant for everyone.
It is stopped now permanently. I'm sorry the topic was hijacked. For future reference, systematic bullying of other members is completely unacceptable on here. A previous short ban clearly had no effect, so a permanent ban has been imposed. Please do not comment on it any further on this thread, either PM me or start a new topic if you want to discuss the detail.
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<Ooops, cross posted with Dan - better delete my comment then! ;) >
To get back on topic, in our first year of smallholding, we limited ourselves to one new animal, so went with ducks. I spent many hours watching them wibble about, and also telling them jokes. This wasn't always worth it, but just occasionally one would crack up and shout QUACK! Quack quack quack quack, so I know they found some of them funny.
We also raised some Hubbard chickens for meat. The purpose of this was really to see if we really had it in us to rear cute fluffy things, then kill them, gut them and eat them. That first time was HARD. I drank several shots of whisky before killing the first one, then promptly threw them up again whilst gutting it. I'm happy to report that I've developed a harder head and a stronger stomach since then, but those first hubbards were important as 'proof of concept' that we had it in us to actually do this.
(https://anoutdoorlife.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/chooks.jpg?w=500&h=455)
(https://anoutdoorlife.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/hubbard.jpg?w=500&h=525)
(https://anoutdoorlife.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/img_5291.jpg?w=500&h=375)
We also planted a little bit of everything in the polytunnel, to see what worked. Most of it didn't. However, much to my surprise, some did. In year two, Mrs Womble declared me useless at gardening and banned me from the polytunnel. She's far better at it than me, so I now organize the meat and she provides the two veg!
(https://anoutdoorlife.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/vegman.jpg?w=500)
After year one, we resolved to do less and take it easy in year two. Ditto years three, four and five. One day we intend to jack it all in, retire to the country, relax and live The Good Life - you know, quit all this busyness, just grow our own veg, keep a few hens, maybe some sheep. <sigh> One day Mrs Womble, One day.
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Love the photos womble!
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Thank you womble - we love you ;D Always there to make us smile :sunshine:
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I think I am entering my last year of smallholding, anno domino, tempus fugit (my spelling is dreadful) and all that, so am feeling a bit envious and nostalgic.
Waiting for the old sow to go and someone to fall in love with my geese (small hope!) and my dear, good neighbour will help Charlie, my autistic grandson, with his sheep.
One thing I will advise, take time to plan, a thing I didn't do. Stand on your land, more than once, and get a vision for the future. And read John and Helen's threads and Rosemary and Dan's diary!!
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We also raised some Hubbard chickens for meat. The purpose of this was really to see if we really had it in us to rear cute fluffy things, then kill them, gut them and eat them. That first time was HARD. I drank several shots of whisky before killing the first one, then promptly threw them up again whilst gutting it. I'm happy to report that I've developed a harder head and a stronger stomach since then, but those first hubbards were important as 'proof of concept' that we had it in us to actually do this.
(https://anoutdoorlife.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/chooks.jpg?w=500&h=455)
(https://anoutdoorlife.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/hubbard.jpg?w=500&h=525)
(https://anoutdoorlife.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/img_5291.jpg?w=500&h=375)
/quote]
Does that mean you can now drink more whisky? :innocent:
My story is slightly different in that I am more of a micro-holder, ie I have a largish back garden. We moved here 10 1/2 years ago just after Christmas. My first job was to erect fences to keep the goat confined to one area, the dogs to another and leave the rest for me. It was already laid out with paths, little walls, lawn and flower beds together with a concreted area that had been a vegetable bed at one time. The next job was to get rid of the concrete. Lesson number one: when the vendor says that an area is slabs laid over plastic sheeting, don't believe it. The concrete was about a foot thick in places. Fortunately for us - me, rather, because OH is not at all interested in what goes on outside - we had a lodger who loved to dig (he was an archaeologist) so offered to clear the concrete. It took a lot of drilling (burned out one drill) and belting with a pick-axe but he got there in the end. He even paid us rent while he was with us. Great lodger. I was sorry to lose him.
Meanwhile, I was digging holes to plant some fruit trees in the flower borders.
Once the concrete (and the lodger) had gone, I used some of the concrete slabs to make a sunken path across the exposed area to make sort of raised beds, dug all the soil out, covered the subsoil with the product of cleaning the goat shed out, then replaced the soil. I also built low raised beds on the lawn. These again were filled with the contents of the goat shed. It had rotted down somewhat by the time I got to planting out the veg that I had started on window sills so I dug holes in it and filled them with potting compost to protect the plants from any risk of root burn. The greenhouse had a path down the middle and gravel either side and, with no time to deal with it and not much money left, I bought some builders buckets at just under a tenner for ten, drilled holes in the bottom and used them as large pots to grow tomatoes in. The gravel, etc was dealt with at the end of the growing season. I also had veg planted in the previously concreted area.
The harvest wasn't wonderful but better than expected. I also found a nice billy for my goat and she was soon in kid.
Through the winter, every time I mucked out to goat shed, it went straight on the garden to allow the worms to do their bit. I also built a row of five manure/compost bins from pallets I scrounged, tied together with baler twine.
When I became disabled five years ago, I had the low raised beds built to a sensible height to enable me to sit and garden. I have a student who works for me for a few hours a week, who cleans the goats and does the jobs I can't manage in the garden. The three original trees have expanded to be eight and the ground everywhere is very fertile, due to the copious quantities of manure that get added every year.
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I have visited MGM's place ..... amazing what can be done in the back garden of a semi! .... very inspiring for any would be smallholder who is waiting for the future..... Jas!
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I have visited MGM's place ..... amazing what can be done in the back garden of a semi! .... very inspiring for any would be smallholder who is waiting for the future..... Jas!
Unfortunately only a smallish garden but used to the full with fruit trees veg patches and ducks.Will have to wait :-[