The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: tobtob_79 on August 20, 2010, 07:09:10 pm
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Hello everyone! I've been working on a story almost entirely based on a small-holiding - the idea, though not the plot, is the character is making an attempt to live 'off the grid' (as she will also be trying to harness solar energy amongst other things). She does not particularly succeed.
I've got a pile of books that leap straight into enormous detail. What I'm really looking for (as deadlines are closing in) is more of an idea of day to day life! If she were to have a reasonable sized vegetable garden, a chicken coup, possibly two cows, and a half-acre orchard with two or three types of fruit tree how might the structure of her day work?
The character needs to be run off her feet, she's alone and can't really handle what she's trying to do. It might be worth adding she's supposed to have been building this up for 3 years now, the solar panels being her current obstacle (or wind turbine as an alternative).
Any help or advice - even superficial - would probably be quite useful at the moment!
Thanks in advance! - Tobias
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is she to be practical with her actions, looking at what she can and can't keep ,
or is she the sort of person that would cram a pig in a small town garden, is she knowlegable about small holding, or a complete novice starting at the deep end.
remember to keep things realistic, remember the changing of priorities as the months come and do.
not much help, but it might prompt others replies
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with the exception of your character being single handed, your story sounds like my life - especially the run off her feet bit ;D
I think Cameron mentioning changing work load as seasons vary reflects smallholding in my own life - currently all the plums are in and our life is chaos!
I know my mood swings from happy and pleased to be living this life style to complete "what the heck are we doing?!" depending on how exhausted we are!! not sure if this helps at all!
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Ha, sounds like you have a fun active life though!
Thanks for those quick responses and good points. As of 3 years ago she was a complete novice - she will have started with very little (though she bought up a nice plot of 3 to 4 acres possibly in Cornwall, not too far from the coast... I'm still exploring locations) and grown it over time; first vegetable patch, which itself would have grown in variety and size, then one group of animals - the easier - then the other... she trades locally for meat so animals are for dairy only.
The story is set over one week in late spring - so fortunately it's a very contained stint. Though you're right that it needs to be realistic whilst still dramatic (but based on plumseverywhere's response the drama might just flow naturally!). It is one short period of time, but it would be great to have indications that her life does vary season to season. Obviously there'll be one big batch of research between script and shoot - so everything needed at this stage are the day to day things that will directly affect her over this week: what time she's up, what she does first, last, bed time (roughly) best way to store things, how quickly she might need to get rid of things (as in traded on versus kept for another time) and so on.
This is how the story starts - it's completely disrupted and, as I say, it's not about the running of the small-holding, but it does take place whilst the plot moves us forwards.
I hope that paints a slightly better picture of the character and her life!
Thanks again! - Tobias
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MAybe what you need is a few of us to give you a list of things we do on a daily basis, perhaps with an add on as to how it changes between summer and winter.
Right now I have 5 dogs, a cat, 10 hens, a duck, a drake and 6 eggs in the incubator. I only have an acre and it's mainly garden just now, but trying over time to make it look less cultivated and more loved.
My routine is get up, shower, feed house dog and cat, feed fish, have breakfast, tidy up kitchen, take house dog out(she had an op not long ago so still being kept away from the others to avoid being bumped), let outside dogs out and feed,open up hen houses and duck house, feed birds, clean duck run (hosing down), check for eggs, surface clean inside sheds, replace fresh straw, remove old wet straw form run, replace with straw for sheds, take dogs for a run. Lunchtime. Half an hour training with youngster, top up training with older dogs that also work, come inside for coffee time, check forum, make bed and hoover bedroom, check for eggs from late layers, box up all eggs ready for neighbours to collect, chat to neighbours. Also fit in phone calls, reading mail, shopping, cleaning etc - doesn't sound a lot when typed out like that! I'm retired so no timetable to adhere to.
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spring time you wouldnt' expect much happening in the orchard - most tree fruit would be summer/early autumn (at least it is here - plums apples and pears as well as berries)
she would be planting a fair bit in the veg patch I would think (early potatoes, beans, brassica's - maybe would need a green house/polytunnel or 3?!)
chickens just starting to lay again after having a bit of a break over winter.still need to do the daily care - water/feed/clean out on certain days.
she could still have quite a bit of food left over in storage (chickens in freezer? maybe having bartered a lamb or 2 from a neighbour, preserved jars and bits from last years harvests.)
if she had goats instead of cows you could have them escaping every other day like ours do lol ;)
Lisa
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Spring time is more of the prep time, getting everything done, all the fix it jobs unable to be done over the winter.
I too would say goats are a better choice than cows. The cockerels may also be twitterpated, and the hens turning broody, early starters may allready have chicks.
What sort of winter was it (hard/mild), is she under financial stress due to high winter feed bills, is she getting new stock
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sorry to go off topic (!) but Cameron what is twitterpated? what a fab word!!
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Hey, guys, I think it's us that should be writing this book - will we get any royalties for helping you out, Tobias? ;D ;D ;D
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Maybe
twitterpated
means using twitter too much, maybe the Cockeral is techno minded!!
Anyway, if she is anything like me, I think on the spur of the moment and usualy get into a mess, if I had not got a man around I would take ages to do stuff. I have chickens and a pair of DUcks but as I run a B&B, thats enough..and of course our 4 labs, mind you, they are very little trouble, back on track now, I get myself into messes and do several jobs at once, rarly do I take egg boxes to collect eggs and usualy put them in my pockets and mess up the phone that is also in the pocket, I walk buy plants and prune them and the bits also go into my pockets and on walks, my pockets get filled with treats, weeds for the chickens and berries......I would hazzard a guess that a lot of us work like me...unplanned and multitasking!!! I never get bored as I don't evenknow whats comming next ;)
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;D thanks for that Sandy!! a techno cockeral!!
I'm like you with the eggs - they are usually in my fleece pocket and the amount of times Ive got inthe kitchen , leant on the work surface and heard 'crack' - oh yuck!!
I think if I was running a smallholding with out hubby or my 4 children I would be spending more time with my animals - chatting to them etc, I can really see myself doing that.
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I would too, I use to sit and talk to the chickens all the time, we have a very fat ex battery and I call her BIG SANDY!! I am soo much into muti tasking, thats OK if I am not distracted but I do jobs everywhere I go and sometimes leave them half done, like leaving my polish and bucket in a guest room or leaving the pan from boiling rice, up with the chickens...the pups, now 8 mths, keep me on the ball as they chew things up if I leave them around.......I think a lot of TV shows portray someone doing a job and focusing on it, I rarely do that!!!
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This plot sounds like you are writing the life story of my boss, margaret. granted she inherited the land recently but she grew up on it and she is gutsy and willing to try her hand at everything
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i was meaning the twitterpated, from Bambi ,where all the birds are falling in lurve ::)
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Ah!! Cameron I should have guessed that!!! Scarlett my 3 year old watches bambi almost daily - still a fab word!!
When I think of a woman on her own trying to manage the land I keep getting flashbacks to that bit in 'Gone with the wind' when Scarlett O hara is trying to plough her land by hand against a red sky "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!" cue box of tissues and large box of chocs as I go dig that dvd out and make my 4 girls sit through it!
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Thanks for the tips and discussions everyone! The eggs collection-problems is a nice anecdote too. Doganjo thanks for the daily routine, getting a better sense of it - though she won't have dogs it still helps with other bits.
At this stage I'm just writing off my own back - but it I'm lucky enough to get a sale I'm sure you'll find me back here with lots of thank-yous! Realistically I won't even sell it (the film world is as sticky as anyone's at present, particularly UK with the scrapping of the Film Council) but I'm a writer-director so hope to raise just enough finance to get it made myself.
And back to Cameron's new questions: to keep it as simple as possible it would have been a mild winter, and she won't be building livestock up. However, she is in financial trouble and she's only really just been managing for the last three years (at the time she set up there was plenty to by up the house and land with enough left over to get started - but the enterprise is more costly than she imagined, on top of making mistakes and losing a lot of potential product along the way).
At the opening of the story a machine, something like a satellite, crashes into her orchard destroying almost half of it (so probably a good thing they haven't started producing just yet) - though the characters who turn up to deal with this crash offer her a nice sum of money to hire an outbuilding of hers for a few days to reassemble the machine before taking it away.
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not being a downer but
something like a satellite
, doesn't it make it slightly less believable??
fair enough financial stress, but the chances of a satellite landing are slim, and i doubt it (even should it fall) it would be quite as impacting, by destroying half the land, makes it seem like a huge explosion.
personally i wouldn't buy it
sorry, just voicing a concern :-\ :-[
{tell me if i'm being to picky ::) }
personally i wouldn't buy it
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Ha, fair enough! It's not a satellite, and the story is entirely revolved around the mystery of what it is that does crash into her orchard. It brings people, technology and disruption to her peaceful world!
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we have gliders circling our land - oh and hot air balloons. loads of them have crashed into fields locally over the years blinkin things. sorry, just digressed somewhat there.
does this lady have family? do they come and help with fencing, financially, etc?
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At the opening of the story a machine, something like a satellite, crashes into her orchard destroying almost half of it (so probably a good thing they haven't started producing just yet) - though the characters who turn up to deal with this crash offer her a nice sum of money to hire an outbuilding of hers for a few days to reassemble the machine before taking it away.
Sorry, I'm with Cameron on this - it's not a science fiction story so better to stick to something that could happen in real life. A juggernaut or a bus full of pensioners or tourists if she is fairly near a road. Driver collapses and it all goes haywire - hey I could write a story too ;D ;D ;D My cousin is a well known writer, and a free lance film and TV director (directed some episodes of Corrie, would you believe ::))- she did a university degree in both the UK and USA - you may have heard of her - mostly crime novels I think, Annie Ross (that's not her full name, but me and my two cousins were all called after our grandmother by that name - got a bit confusing when we were kids and all playing together ;) ;D ;D)
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I should have mentioned the genre at the start - it is actually a mystery sci-fi. I've chosen this out of the way self-efficient base as the technology and chaos that descends on the poor woman is a nice contrast to her need for a natural and quiet way of life. The crashed machine is the subject of the film, as are other minor incidents that occur at the same time the crash does - the characters around it drive the story. The small-holding is the setting - which helps the story and plot in a number of ways.
Plumseverywhere sadly she doesn't have family (she lost her family, the key incident that drives her into this new independent way of life) so the fencing and financing are all down to her, along with everything else! She will have built have a small network of acquaintances, locals to trade with and so on in the area over the last three years. But the character herself wouldn't even think about asking anyone for help, even if it means destroying her own chances at success!
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Aha, makes sense now! Good luck.
Here's a list of my cousin's books on Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Annie-Ross/e/B001KDGX3E/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
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You should base it in Clackmannan, lot's of strange things go on here!! the locals wouldn't notice but only ask if the alians were Celtic or Ranger supporters ;)
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Now Sandy, I am born Clackmannan... ::) :P 8)
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Hi,
Sounds like an interesting storyline. In terms of rountine, we have no cows but we do have dairy goats, so this might help give an idea.
Up in the morning, let out dogs for a wee, give cats biscuits before the dogs come back in, Go up to the goats to check in case one is kidding. Let out poultry (2 hen runs, 2 duck runs, 1 little hen house). Back inside for a cup of tea. Then go back outside with the dogs, up to goatshed. Milk all the goats (by hand or using machine), weigh each goats milk. Prepare all the goats concentrated food, if they have recently kidded chop them some veggies up as well. Give the goats their food. Feed any kids, whether newborn or a month or so old with the milk. Check goats water, if any need fresh, or more water then complete that. Check they have hay, top it up if necessary. Take milk down to the house, give some to the cats/dogs. Filter and strain milk, put in the fridge to cool, or into freezer if there is spare to freeze.
Prepare a hot mash of poultry food, and go round the runs dishing it out. Check water is clean and replace if necessary. Collect eggs.
Back to house for breakfast.
After breakfast, time for your character to hit the veggie garden (I would normally be going to work now though). Sowing seedilings, and bits to be dug over no doubt. Then there are other jobs like cleaning out the henhouse, filling their hoppers, mucking out the goats, routine worming and vaccinating, foot trimming etc etc, collecting hay or straw from a nearby farmer. Our goats get fresh hay in early afternoon, then another feed at 5pm of chopped veggies or beetpulp or alflafa. Goats need to be milked, watered and fed again in the evening. The poultry get some grain scattered in the afternoon, and all the poultry shut away as it gets dark.
I would agree if it is early spring your setting is then a greenhouse/polytunnel would be good.
Hope it does go well for you.
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Think groundhog day.
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Cheers Ballingall! Blimey it sounds like hard work, don't know how you all do it. Making films is tough, but you only really shoot for a few weeks out of every six months or so (the rest is all sort of office based)!
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James, sorry!!! [quoteNow Sandy, I am born Clackmannan][/quote] I am referring only those who stay here in Clackmannan, the place has even effected me, I do the stranges of things without the influence of chemicals!!!!! Moving out frees you so you are now safe ;)
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James, sorry!!! [quoteNow Sandy, I am born Clackmannan]
I am referring only those who stay here in Clackmannan, the place has even effected me, I do the stranges of things without the influence of chemicals!!!!! Moving out frees you so you are now safe ;)
[/quote]
Sandy I was only teasing, I know exactly what you mean. ;) :)