[Barnowl]

Hi all, what an amazing site - found it by accident this evening and had to register instantly!
We are hoping to become a smallholder in the near future - planned for when the last kid finished A-level, which was a few months ago - yippee!
House is on the market - no offers yet, but fingers crossed it sells, we then hope to be able to purchase a small holding maybe 5-10acres and ideally - become self-sufficient! Not a small ambition given we are both townies! But where there's a heart....

[Q]

Hi [member=213646]Barnowl[/member] - nice to see a new member with an outline of a plan.  Its great to see how these plans develop over the years so I'd love to see how you get on in the future.

I have allotments and chickens and I like the cycle of using what you have ie chicken poo and weeds to be composted and fed back to the land.

I also like to be productive with a minimum of effort.
I don't like letting land get wasted by leaving it to overgrow with brambles!!

[Rosemary]

Hello and welcome from  Carnoustie 
You'll find lots of good help and advice on the forums but do go and look at the website articles and diary too.

[LizRH]

Hi Barnowl,  :wave:and welcome from Upton upon Severn.

We're very new to smallholding (when the kids moved out, the pygmy kids moved in...  ) and I can remember that feeling of hope in trying to find something with a few acres.  We're lucky enough to have 14 but some of it is used by a lovely local sheep farmer.

This is indeed an amazing site and I have found the responses incredibly helpful as I learn about things that crop up (a lot) with our sheep and goats.  We also have rescue donkeys and a few chickens. 

One thing that has made a huge difference in our confidence levels is having a great local farm vets who don't make me feel stupid if I ask a basic question occasionally.  They will discuss queries on the phone, as well as coming out for anything we really need from them. I switched from a vet that I lost faith in, and it was a good thing to do.

Good luck with your search, Liz

[Possum]

Liz makes a good point about farm vets. We got our first lambs from another local smallholder and asked them which vet they used. Although it was a bit further away than other farm vets, it has really paid dividends. In the last 9 years they have been unfailingly friendly and helpful and I have never given us a bad bit of advice.