Smallholders Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Bonjour from Normandie, France  (Read 2182 times)

Verdant monach

  • Joined May 2023
Bonjour from Normandie, France
« on: June 05, 2023, 04:25:20 pm »
  :chook: :goat: :sheep: :farmer: :bouquet::horse: Good afternoon fellow smallholders. I am not sure if this forum is meant for smallholders overseas, cannot see for looking, apologies to admin if it's not.

I am a shall we say, a seasoned gardener living in Calvados, Normandie, France with my husband who is a Landscaper/farmer by trade but pretty good at most things (except housework!) thank goodness as he saves us a fortune! We took a property guardian's job in Tuscany Italy but the management style was not for us shall we say, so himself returned to his previous job in Surrey and I got stuck in France with my 3 Jack Russell's due to rabies protocols at the time, the only other choices being euthanasia or rehoming, neither of which I wanted for them as all of them had come from 'broken' homes already and were all too young to consider the alternative. Homeless and jobless I used a network called HelpX.net to earn my keep and board, it saved us from destitution. I eventually ended up in Normandie where I was working at a kennels and had use of a vehicle to explore this lovely region. House prices then were daft so I decided that one day would like to live there. I sold my lovely live aboard boat bought a cottage in North Wales, him indoors couldn't;t get work up there so after 2 years we sold up and moved to France, risking another property Guardian's job which would allow us to be near our own place which would take years to renovate.
That was the state of play, only after 7 years of reliable, hardworking service the owner of the property we worked at was found to be pocketing the cotisations (UK equivalent of NI) instead of paying them to the French government and it took 2 years and a lot of frustration but we got the delightfully honest man to pay up and now we are leaving to live full time on our smallholding. I can't wait.

Over the years husband Ed has been rescuing the old, lame and injured Ouessant sheep from our employers flock - they would have just been left to meet an unpleasant end otherwise - they are now healthy, happy, rotund bundles of black fluff decorating the field. I say decorating because all they do is eat, we don't eat or breed from them. He started off with 6 that the previous Guardian left behind and ended up with 32 !!!! for goodness sake. Cute as they are, 32 is too many!
I have recently acquired a horse, fully functional and only 11. We have 3 rescued terriers, one deaf and apparently unmanageable, one escaped from a chasse and hours away from euthanasia and one form the refuge at Cabourg. All 3 have turned out well and are adorable, however, quiet and un-excitable they are not!!  I expect to add 6 or 7 chooks to our menagerie once we move as we eat a plant based diet and eggs are good for protein. We are not vegans, though I fully support anyone who is, and our chooks will get the best of care, protection and food (as do all our animals) so I don't feel guilty about eating their eggs.

Husband Ed is a real grafter and he's given up hope of trying to find a decent employer and is branching out on his own doing garden & paddock maintenance, fencing, landscaping etc etc. I work as a Gardener on a stud for one of the Princesses in Dubai. The friends we've made here are lovely, a mix of French, Dutch and English, and I never miss a chance to make new ones.

Keeping sheep has been a steep learning curve for us, Ed had taught himself how to shear them and trim their feet and I keep Prince's (the horse) toes trim in between blacksmith visits, he's a barefoot horse and needs trimming more regularly. The dogs toenails are another matter, copious treats and persuasion are required!! As for him indoors, well..... 



SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Bonjour from Normandie, France
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2023, 09:44:55 am »
Goodness, what a journey!  Congratulations on making onto your own holding at last.

By far the majority of TAS members are in the UK but we welcome all comers, and do have other overseas members, including at least one active one in France (though rather more southerly than yourselves).  He keeps chickens too, hopefully he'll drop in and introduce himself in due course. 

Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Bonjour from Normandie, France
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2023, 01:37:37 pm »
Hello and welcome  :wave:   I love hearing the stories of people's smallholding lives and the joy the life brings them. I am in Scotland while my brother lives in France.  He has land but he doesn't use it as everyone here would  :o . Incomprehensible to me  :D
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

chrismahon

  • Joined Dec 2011
  • Gascony, France
Re: Bonjour from Normandie, France
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2023, 07:24:39 pm »
Hello from the Gers [member=227348]Verdant monach[/member] and welcome to the forum. Sounds like you have had more than your fair share of bad luck. It's a lot quieter than it used to be, but there is still an active wealth of knowledge here. You have some advantages over us up there- plenty of water, cooler Summer temperatures and UK satellite TV can be received on a small dish. Our reception is very poor now and our two options are a fibre connection or a new 1.5 metre ground dish (our preference as zero overheads).


If you are not practical, living here would be a nightmare, so well done Ed. It's not just the cost of getting things repaired, but all the messing about arranging it. We had a tiny leak from a brake pipe I couldn't reach and the car was in the garage for a month!


A lot of land down here is useless [member=4333]Fleecewife[/member] .Too hot and dry to grow anything now- the climate has changed dramatically here in the last 5 years.


Our last chickens came from the meat farm. Six were saved from slaughter at 14 weeks. Only three are great layers, but they were only €5 each and their poo is invaluable- transformed this place from a near barren wasteland to a decent plot. Of course we didn't realise how bad it was until we lived here.

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: Bonjour from Normandie, France
« Reply #4 on: June 06, 2023, 09:48:56 pm »
Hello and welcome to TAS  :wave:

 

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