[Rhyan & Melissa]

.........do for a job?

I'm just being super nosy here. we were wondering what the percentage split is of people running full time smallholdings, 1 partner working, both working as well as the smallholding etc.

Also, how does it effect your work life balance?

We both now live in Lincs after moving up from London. Mel still travels to London daily, I just go down once or twice a month, but we are both working full time at the minute and pursuing starting the dream!

Tell me I'm a nosy sod if you want though!!   

[Rosemary]

Dan has his own company doing webby things (not ducks!) and works from home mostly, although he does travel sometimes (more than we like) and I work full-time for our local Council. My office is literally one mile from our house so it hardly counts as commuting! Actually, I don't work fulltime - I work 200 days a year, which is the 190 days the schools are in session plus an additional 10, generally at the start and end of the summer holidays. So I'm off for half term next week!

I really enjoy my job, to be honest, but there is a possibility that I will be made redundant this year which is kind of good news. You couldn't support a family on our smallholding but it could work harder than it does, so we'll see what happens over the next month or so.

I don't think you're nosey - I like know about my friends, what they're about and what's important to them.

[stephen]

i work full time for a distance learning company and niels works as a full time nurse. we are looking into buying our first house together this year and then the plan is to move again in 5+ years to somewhere bigger for cows etc! 

[BadgerFace]

Both the OH and I are Litho printers. We both started out in agricultural jobs after leaving school, and I have also worked on Equine studs and hunting/showing yards. But sadly none of those 'nice' jobs payed well enough to sustain life in SE. He started his printing business in the early 80's and I joined him in 1991.

I work from my home office now, which gives me time to fit 'real' work around the livestock !! The printing world is very quiet at the moment - another reason to extend my veg patch 

[lordlonk]

Ive worked in the UK music industry since i was 16 - was a manger of a record store fora high street name when i was 17 - when singles where 79p and a album was 2.99 And we would sell the albums straight from the boxers when there was a big one - No time to unpack was running one of the 7 largest turnovers for  w h smiths record departments at 18!!- went and managed a chain  of independent music stores  and built it up to 5 stores in 5 years for the next employer - worked for a label and record company and run there label selling all around the world- did this for every long time - was lucky enough to get involved in the UK festival circuit and not many i haven't been to - - slept in a tent for 6 months of the year.
Went to many parties hundreds - met a great amount of people and woudnt  change what Ive done - Still got my foot in the door - want to make the biggest changes - Nat my ex showed me what a great  life there is out there being self sufficient and living a  more chilled out existence - sadly  shes moved on but 14 months later after the relastionship  collapsed she still lives with me  ...........but moved on as far as the relationship was concerned and still great and closest friends and  i so much wish i could be now achieving what i am working towards with her involved as the love of my life - Shes made it clear shes doing things her way and independently and i am  and have been so stupid to not acknowledge her reasons at the time of the split and i would do anything in the world to repair what i have foolishly lost. Shes one in a million (i know thats a  cliche ) but i will always regret for the rest of  my life that things went wrong .Love you Nat forever  if your here reading this ever. (Nat's very prominent on many farming forums- I'm not aware of her being a member on here  though. A few of you  i know are aware of Nat from other forums....Everything in my work world is not important any more - The smallholding and a new start is the most important thing in my life and so so upset that i wont be sharing any part of that world with her - sorry Ive gone off the thread somewhat....

[xxmillyxx]

I finished work 6 years ago due o my MS playing up a lot that year, was a manager in a gp practice.  My husband broke hi neck & back in 1991 so he's been at home since - walking wounded - but still very determined and active.  Since then my husband & I have worked together to build up a business (or several businesses) we own a 7 - 11 convenieence store and have flats and a joinery business - all run by managers.  
BUT all of these were just to fulfill our dreams of having a smallholding, which we have finally achieved.  Hopefully my MS will play the game and let me enjoy it for a long time yet.  I cant wait to get started properly, we are quite lucky really because our joiner is making my chicken hut & run in log lap as we speak. (Whatever that is - he says it will look lovely) LOL
Anyway thats us.
Milly xx

[Castle Farm]

My OH Jenny is a retired teacher and spends most of her waking hours enjoying herself with what women do..Horses..Book groups..walking..Usuall stuff.
I run this place..15 acres..LLeyn sheep..horses..and a couple of hundred rare and traditional breed chickens.
I work a few days a week as a consultant head gardener for Lord bla bla restoring a very large Victorian walled garden.
Poultry takes up my life..My OH says I'm obsessed with chickens,but after keeping birds for about 40 years you do get sort of..attached to them.

[pegusus pig]

I'm a full time houses wife and mother to my three wonderful boy and my sisters little girl. i used to be a career in an old peoples home and totally loved my job but my middle son and little girl have specail needs (not suprising they all don't given the parents ) so am at their beck and call now. My OH is a police man, he doesn't have the slightest intrest in the animals apart from the chickens.
I've been brought up around animals but when i got married and had the kid decided that they were to much work so most went. It was Jojo my middle son who got me back to them, he was diagnosed with cerebral  palsy at 9 month and it was difficult finding something to stimulate him, he was locked in his own world. Pigs were the things that woke him up he had a small plastic pig and wouldn't let it go, the only toy he ever played with. So we got pigs for him and its gone on from there. Kids love being outside i love being outside, the OH would rather have a small garden with no mud or animals, but he put up with it for me and the kids!!  
One day would love to open the place up to allow people to come and enjoy the animals and being outside as much as we do, all the kids from Jojo's class have been over and they thoroughly  loved the experience, so has given me a goal to aim for!

[doganjo]

I retired at 60, was an accountant, latterly in Internal Control in the NHS, keeping an eye on dodgy doctors' expenses!  I thoroughly enjoyed that and always came home to a well run and happy band of animals wonderfully looked after by my OH.  Having been widowed previously, I was silly enough to lose my second good man in a mountaineering accident, so after struggling for a year very reluctantly gave up the 20 acre croft and substituted it with a new project - built a new house (project managed myself   ).  Then the kids persuaded me it was warmer down near them in Central Scotland - which it definitely is!  Only have an acre now - but it's a garden    Would have preferred an older house and more ground but the money Lords in Edinburgh and Glasgow snap all of them up fast. With the current economic gloom I can't see me being able to move again, so I'm hoping to very quickly roughen up the 'garden'. I now have four ducks and 10 chickens, including a Heinz drake and a LS cockerel.

[Fluffywelshsheep]

Hiya all
the fluffster here
Never really had a 9-5 job but do plenty of odd jobs around the place (little job security) have done in the pass and now, Web-design,website management , gardening/landscaping,tree surgery (very small amount) Computer training/IT work, shop retail, Deliveries contracted and private, art and design.
Have qualitfications in environmental studies , IT, art and design, land management,  just to name a few

I am planning in the not so far distant to own my own business but i'll keep that under my hat until it happens, Oh also helpmy parents out with their craft/wood business.

at the moment am attempting to learn javascript (very badly).
I would also love to own a smallholding but all i have at the moment is a bit of land next to the house.

[rustyme]

   I had my accident (big car smash) in which I broke my neck, back , skull, cheek bones, jaw , sternum ,ribs, collar bones ,arms wrists ,hips legs and er other bones I don't even know the names of.....I was a wreck ,in 1983 . I had very bad head injuries which took forever to get better. After it all healed , I had to look at life a different way . I was unable to do things the same as before. So , anyway , over the years I built up to a level of ability that allowed me to do most of what I want to do , just not for as long or as much as I would like , but I get it done. I am setting up my little holding to supply me with all my food and to give me a life free of all the Cr*p that is todays way of life for most people . The smash made me look at things so differently.  Nowdays the world does what it does, and do what I do . I couldn't live a normal 9-5 life , even if I wanted to, my body just wouldn't cope with it . It only just copes with what I do now !!! Don't know how many years I can continue with the way I live ,I am 51 now, but I just live each day as it comes and keep everything crossed. 

cheers

Russ

[xxmillyxx]

wow - well done rusty - you keep going hun xx  Sounds lovely for you now though in charge of your own life.

[Helen]

Both mortgage-slaves, working full time.  Colin self-employed (house & garden maintenance) and I work part time 2 days a week as a medical practice manager and 3 days as a self-employed gardener.  So we spend most of the week working on other people's gardens then all weekend on our own!  January & February are quiet so this is our catch up time for our own projects.   Both of us used to work long hours for a communications company but decided to have less stressful lives and go self-employed.  Gives us much more flexibility and enjoyment.  We only have a few chickens at present, other animals remain a dream for the future.   

[HappyHippy]

Hiya,
I'm a qualified Interior Designer - though only really do that for fun ! lol!
My full-time paying job for the last 14 years has been as a dispensing optician. It's a bit different from the design side of things but I enjoy it too - just love dealing with the general public 
Hubby is currently doing the house husband thang, looking after house, kids, animals etc (but not to my high standards obviously  ) But that's all changing next week when my maternity leave starts and he'll be back in the working world (if there are any jobs!) He's really adaptable and does shot blasting & spray painting, building & roofing work and can turn his hand to most things so hopefully he'll be working VERY soon !
Karen 

[Hilarysmum]

OH works for the local council, I work here.  Serving Hilary et al.