Hi, my name is Helen and i live on the edge of the new forest near salisbury with my partner Glenn,my 3 teenage children and my mother, oh yes tollerance is the key here! We bought our 18 acre smallholding a couple of years ago and life has been on overdrive ever since. we both work, tho i have cut my hours considerably as the farm takes off. We have 2 OSB sows and 20 Wilts Horn ewes plus all their offspring and an ever growing selection of poultry. We've had birds for years but the larger animals are a whole new experience. The joy of helping out a newborn lamb or watching the piglets wriggle around the sow and latch on to her teats for me has been a truly wonderful change to my life. Last week we had our first autumn frost for this year and being out with the sheep early in the morning there's no better place to be. People ask me when i get me time, but this is me time! The down side to all this i would say is that i worry about whether our meat is good enough or if i will find homes for all the weaners and shearlings, i suppose that will improve with time and so far we have had good feedback and second orders for our meat so i guess i'm just a worrier! We had great fun with the pork from our first baconer and tried making parma style ham, salami, bacon, sausages etc, some successes others not so good.
Looking forward to exchanging views with all of you and hope to find a few people in our area.
Helen.
oh yes and my mother's name is Elissa, hence the username, which is our flock/herd name because without her none of this would have happened.