[Castle Farm]

I'm 68 and work part time to put money into our smallholding. It's a lifestyle not a way of maKing any money unless your a TV celeb 

Get a check list made up starting with fences, as whatever size place you get they need to be stockproof and replaceing them is expencive.

Stay well clear of turning your place into a rescue center for clapped out animals.

You can usually sort out a house, but making bad land into good land will be more difficult.

Start small and stay small and in control.

[doganjo]

Ellie has made a number  of excellent points, well catalogued.  I would. add that being 69, and having bad knees, I really appreciate my raised beds - I have 6, all 2 and a half feet high.  At the moment I don't have a perch seat on them but might do in the future.  They are one meter wide and four are also one meter in length with the middle two being 2 metres. They are a metre apart with weed cover down, and mulch about to be laid between them, all enclosed by 4 inch deep planks to keep the mulch in place.

As Ellie says, grow what you enjoy eating and is not readily available in supermarket.  I too only have a few potatoes, but I also have carrots, beetroot, dwarf beans, mangetout, and fruit bushes and strawberries.  I don't have room for anything bigger than hens, except in my front paddock where I could have a couple of sheep but I'd worry they'd grow extra legs and walk in this area.  So that's another thing to consider, choose your area well.  When I was looking to move down here 5 years ago I made a mistake.  I only looked on the big house estate agent sites not the specialised country ones.