Author Topic: why are you an "Accidental Smallholder?" (Read 13348 times)

chickenfeed · « **Reply #15 on:** December 11, 2010, 08:18:48 pm »

;)born and brought up on a farm, dad has always worked in farming so a village life i fell into when i left home,now the kids have left home we have started keeping a few animals on my parents smallholding 12 pigs, 1 dexter steer and the labs and goats have all been rehomed (in the freezer) for 2010, my chickens all live here along with my very expectant BT. i could not imagine living anywhere but the country raising animalsand growing our own veg its all i have ever known. yes i know i am lucky.

waterhouse · « **Reply #16 on:** December 11, 2010, 11:30:04 pm »

Born and brought up in London in an animal-free family. Commuted into the City for nearly forty years with the last ten years spent travelling around Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. There really isn't anywhere I want to go so the family has nobly been taking care of over a million air miles. I've slowed down now and don't travel but I really am very good at what I do: trouble is do you really want to understand what's happening out there?

My wife always had animals so we gradually accumulated cats, dogs then horses, chickens, bees and sheep. They all seem very rational compared with the economy.

Sylvia · « **Reply #17 on:** December 12, 2010, 02:33:16 pm »

Quote from: HappyHippy on December 11, 2010, 06:57:04 pm

My Dad was a farmer (Beef and arable) up until I was about 12, they diversified into elderly care, but kept our 'pet' sheep, goat (the one that used to wear cardigans when it was cold ) and shetland ponies.
Growing up, I wanted to distance myself from the 'green wellie brigade' probably thinking myself far to cool and sophisticated to be involved in farming. (I had arty farty ideas back then !) But after living in a very built up area in Westhill, Aberdeen(for all of a fortnight) I decided that country life was for me after all Once the kids arrived, and especially once I moved back home (the care home was still running) I knew I had to return to farming. The loss of my granny a few years ago made me even more determined (she had a very good reputation as a stockperson apparently) and I hope to continue her legacy of farming at Yonderton.
It's a long process and it's not always easy, but I love it !

And what colour are your wellies?

ballingall · « **Reply #18 on:** December 12, 2010, 10:36:15 pm »

It didn't really start with me but my parents. My mum was a townie- bought up in Edinburgh, but animal daft. So when she left school, she went to The Dick to train to be a vet. During her training she saw practice in Kirriemuir, and then Kinross, where she met my dad. My dad grew up as a gamekeeper's son, but when he was 12, his dad had to go into a wheelchair due to an accident. As they lived in a cottage tied to the estate, someone had to work on the estate, so my dad had to leave school at 12, and he became an apprentice gardener. I don't know if chose that, or if just so happened, but it definitely was his love. He opened his own business by the time he met my mum, a nursery producing veg. They got married before my mum qualified, and by the time she did qualify she was already pregnant, and thereafter she helped with the business (and raised 4 children, and a pedigree herd of goats!)

Initially after they got married, they lived in the town (Kinross), and despite his cajoling, my mum refused to walk 2 miles twice a day (with a toddler whilst she was pregnant) to our strip of land to look after a couple of goats which my dad wanted to get. However, when my sister was 3 months old, they bought the old fever hospital which sat alongside our strip of land, plus an acre of field, and my dad got his wish to get some goats.

I grew up with us keeping goats, ducks, chickens, rearing calves, orphan lambs, and once pigs. We still had the nursery, and had things like 1/2 acre of purple sprouting broccoli, an acre of raspberry's, and produced 2 tonnes of tomato's (in greenhouses) a week. We had a fruit and veg shop- a proper one. To this day I can still smell a proper fruit and veg shop smell, and if I do find a shop that has "the smell" it can nearly bring me to tears.

My dad died while I was still quite young, and we stayed at the old fever hospital for another 10 years after he was gone. But it was a lot to look after, and I was only young so it was too much. We moved here 6 years ago, only have just over an acre, and now of course, I wish I had more land. I guess my mum is really the "accidental smallholder" as opposed to me- I'm just a second generation smallholder.

Beth

Hilarysmum · « **Reply #19 on:** December 13, 2010, 09:52:08 am »

So many years spent listening to the Archers

Helencus · « **Reply #20 on:** December 13, 2010, 10:18:51 am »

I was brought up inBirmingham by parents who wanted to be smallholders and were avid good life fans. They desperately wanted to up sticks and attempt sef sufficiency at one point we nearly ended up in the shetlands but it never happened.
So I grew up with the dream in my head too and after taking the plunge and going self employed I finally earnt enough money to buy the dream home, 250 yr old cottage with 4 acres. It's darn hard work when I also work full time but hubby helps alot so we now have 1 horse 1 pony 3 pigs soon to be a few more when girls farrow, 21 chickens, 2 dogs and a hamster! Sheep next year maybe :-)

mab · « **Reply #21 on:** December 13, 2010, 11:21:24 am »

Well, I grew up on the north side of manchester on the edge of a small town, in a family that likes animals but never went beyond dogs, rabbits and the odd hamster.

My best friends' grandmother had a farm (mostly arable - only cats and dogs) very near where I lived and we spent much time there, haymaking, chopping firewood, potato picking, sacking on the back of the combine harvester (it wasn't like the 'modern ones with a hopper for the grain - it had a sacking station behind the driver where a 'crew' could bag up the grain produced and stack the sacks on a platform at the back), or just wandering through the wooded valleys.

Despite the absence of animals on the farm I really loved the countryside itself and always wanted to spent most of my time there. I wanted animals myself but as we didn't have the space for any other that the afore mentioned dogs, etc, I had to do without.

I think I would have gone to be a farmer, but that wasn't encouraged as a career path at my school (or by my parents) at that time, so I "followed the path of least resistance" and trained as a physicist (that's what I was good at at school), and had the vague plan to get a good job and buy a house with land where I could keep animals as pets rather than for a living.

And ended up working in a lab in southwest london - alas the property boom had started and I was limited to a studio flat.

I stuck that out for a few years, then got a job in devon with a telecoms company... just before the dot.com crash in 2000

. Got made redundant 8 months after I started, and slunk back to my old job in SW london - and the very same rented studio flat. Stuck that out for a few more years then decided I'd wasted enough time and that I needed a job which could be done anywhere.

So I've re-trained as an electrician and am looking to find my own place (I'm currently in a house in Suffolk with an acre of land, that I get for a very modest rent - thanks to a good and sympathetic friend) and I'm preserving my deposit (that I built up whilst working in SW london) and learning how to build up and run my own business. When I find a place with land and at the right price (probably with a ruin and PP to restore), I'll be ready... I hope.

It's my ambition to be a fully qualified shepherd - though my physicist friends think I have an odd notion of a career path

- yet they always seem envious when the come and see my acre with it's sheep and chickens and veg patch

.

mab

Cinderhills · « **Reply #22 on:** December 13, 2010, 11:27:26 am »

I've always loved animals and used to want to marry a farmer when I was little. Had lived in towns and cities but have always dreamt of having a place in the country with lots of animals. Luckily my husband was also keen on the idea. We were living in New York City but he wasn't too happy in his job and wanted to move back. I said on one condition, that we don't move back to our one bedroom flat in London. So we started looking for our dream home with some land.

I feel very fortunate that we found where we are now with two acres. Sheep and hens were always on the cards but it wasn't until I spoke to someone from the RSPCA who said she may have to rescue a goat but wasn't sure how to rehome him. The rest is history and now we couldn't imagine living without goats.

Of course I would now love some more land to keep some piggies too but for various reasons we have to stick with what we have and enjoy the fantastic animals we keep - goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl, dog and cats.

HappyHippy · « **Reply #23 on:** December 13, 2010, 02:18:50 pm »

Quote from: Sylvia on December 12, 2010, 02:33:16 pm

Quote from: HappyHippy on December 11, 2010, 06:57:04 pm
My Dad was a farmer (Beef and arable) up until I was about 12, they diversified into elderly care, but kept our 'pet' sheep, goat (the one that used to wear cardigans when it was cold ) and shetland ponies.
Growing up, I wanted to distance myself from the 'green wellie brigade' probably thinking myself far to cool and sophisticated to be involved in farming. (I had arty farty ideas back then !) But after living in a very built up area in Westhill, Aberdeen(for all of a fortnight) I decided that country life was for me after all Once the kids arrived, and especially once I moved back home (the care home was still running) I knew I had to return to farming. The loss of my granny a few years ago made me even more determined (she had a very good reputation as a stockperson apparently) and I hope to continue her legacy of farming at Yonderton.
It's a long process and it's not always easy, but I love it !

And what colour are your wellies?

Ah ha - they're actually Doc Martin boots, I'm a rebel at heart

Soon to be replaced with pink tartan muck boots as soon as I get the chance

Sudanpan · « **Reply #24 on:** December 13, 2010, 07:18:20 pm »

Born and brought up in central London, but always knew I was a transplanted rural type - loved animals from the age of dot, we finally got a dog when I was 18 (!) Spent the summer after A levels working on a farm outside Exeter, then worked on 2 farms during Uni summer holidays in Germany (was studying Pure and Applied Biology). Had intended to train to be a Land Agent (figured it was the closest I could get to being a farmer as I wasn't born into a farming background) but got sidetracked by international sporting duties for 15 years which meant I was pretty much required to be in London. Finally managed to persuade my OH that he really really really wanted to live in Cornwall with a few acres so we are now here, with 2 dogs, 6 hens, pork from 4 pigs earlier this year in the freezer, and wanting to expand to veg growing, more pigs, poss some sheep and just enjoying the rural environment

Tish

ukag0972 · « **Reply #25 on:** December 13, 2010, 07:49:37 pm »

I always wanted to be a vet, but major amounst of attitute and truancy curtailed that! Met my husband at the Highland Show, (I was a bouncer at the Herdsman), and moved up to the sticks where I was allowed to have my own pure Jacobs. I then wanted goats, then came the pigs, hottly followed by the highland coos and I'm now looking for a clydesdale horse!

He, on the other hand, is a REAL farmer!!( So he tells me)!!

Rhodie · « **Reply #26 on:** December 14, 2010, 09:44:07 pm »

Grew up in the middle of nowhere in Africa, grew our own veg, kept a mixture of poultry, milk cows, pigs, goats etc, made our own bread butter jams etc, so it has been a way of life I have maintained ever since!