Author Topic: Hello from south Oxfordshire  (Read 6940 times)

Teapot

  • Joined Jun 2012
Hello from south Oxfordshire
« on: June 06, 2012, 12:33:47 pm »
Hi, I'm American but have lived in England, south Oxfordshire to be precise, for over 22 years now, after I married an Englishman.  (from Somerset).    We do not have a smallholding - would love one - but try to do the best we can with our back garden.  This year I also attained a half-plot allotment in terrible shape (just before the rains came in April) and we are doing the best we can this year with it.

We have several raised beds in our back garden and some other planting areas.   We have 10 chickens currently, and I sell eggs to friends and neighbors.   

I would love to be able to have more chickens and breed them.  I would also like Dexter cows someday. 

We have a 3/4 Lakeland Terrier puppy who I hope to work someday (above ground only).   A weird goal for someone as sissy as me, perhaps. 

I do a lot of food preserving - canning ("bottling") and did use to dehydrate although the last one broke and I am saving for a new one now.  I'd like to learn more about butchery and charcuterie, and have begun learning some simple cheesemaking. 

We home educate, attend chapel in a nearby village, shoot at the local target shooting club, and are trying to save for a radio (dh and I and one son are all licensed amateurs but have never got to really use what we learned!). 

I hope this wasn't too long!

Teapot

Bionic

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Talley, Carmarthenshire
Re: Hello from south Oxfordshire
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2012, 12:50:03 pm »
Teapot, welcome from Wales where the weather can't make its mind up what to do today  :wave:
Sally
Life is like a bowl of cherries, mostly yummy but some dodgy bits

Fowlman

  • Joined Apr 2012
  • Wiltshire
Re: Hello from south Oxfordshire
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2012, 01:33:13 pm »
Welcome Teapot from Wiltshire.
Tucked away on the downs in wiltshire.

tizaala

  • Joined Mar 2011
  • Dolau, Llandrindod Wells,Powys
Re: Hello from south Oxfordshire
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2012, 02:30:51 pm »
Welcome Teapot, from Mid Wales, I used to be a very active Ham ( G4YIO ) when I lived in Hampshire, let it lapse , now only swl on an old Yaesu , must re-apply one day. Busy with Arabians, goats , Castlemilk Moorit sheep ,chickens , geese , dogs and cats and the occasional pig or two. have fun :innocent:

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: Hello from south Oxfordshire
« Reply #4 on: June 06, 2012, 03:41:58 pm »
Hello and welcome from rainy Carnoustie  :wave:

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Hello from south Oxfordshire
« Reply #5 on: June 06, 2012, 09:35:30 pm »
Welcome from north Cumbria  :wave:

I lived for a while in South Oxon, between Henley and Marlow, southern tip of the Chilterns.  Beautiful countryside and very nice people.  Lots of wild deer though!
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

Mammyshaz

  • Joined Feb 2012
  • Durham
Re: Hello from south Oxfordshire
« Reply #6 on: June 06, 2012, 10:22:45 pm »
Hello and welcome from Durham  :wave:

Dans

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Spalding
    • Six Oaks
    • Facebook
Re: Hello from south Oxfordshire
« Reply #7 on: June 06, 2012, 10:31:25 pm »
Hello from Midlothian!

Dans
9 sheep, 24 chickens, 3 cats, a toddler and a baby on the way

www.sixoaks.co.uk

www.facebook.com/pg/sixoakssmallholding

www.goodlife.sixoaks.co.uk

Possum

  • Joined Feb 2012
  • Somerset
Re: Hello from south Oxfordshire
« Reply #8 on: June 07, 2012, 09:02:59 am »
Good morning from a stormy Somerset. :wave:



 Like SallyintNorth, I also used to live in South Oxon, in Thame. Lovely part of the country, but land is very expensive. If you want a smallholding perhaps you should come down here, especially if your OH knows the county. It is a fairly easy journey back to Oxon to catch up with family and friends

Teapot

  • Joined Jun 2012
Re: Hello from south Oxfordshire
« Reply #9 on: June 08, 2012, 01:05:20 pm »
Hi all, thank you for the welcomes. 

Unless something happens to prices or dh's salary or our income in another way, I believe we are going to have to move away from Oxon in order to have a smallholding.   The SW is my main choice, or Wales (or border).   This is already in my mindset.   

Our problem is though, that dh is tied to his work.    This leads to frustration on my part, because by the time he retires I think I will be too old to start doing something like smallholding.  I can start doing it in the next few years, and be continuing to do it when I am retirement age, if you see what I mean.  So I hope he will either change jobs (not likely) or be able to work more from home and allow us to move (not as unlikely, but not really likely).   

In the meantime I try to keep learning as much as I can, working on my health issues, and doing as much experientially as I can (i.e. keeping chickens, gardening, learning things like cheesemaking, etc).   

Thanks again for all the welcomes,  This seems like a very friendly and informative forum.

in the hills

  • Joined Feb 2012
Re: Hello from south Oxfordshire
« Reply #10 on: June 08, 2012, 02:45:30 pm »
Hello and welcome from a wet and windy Wales.  :wave:

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Hello from south Oxfordshire
« Reply #11 on: June 08, 2012, 05:29:53 pm »
I understand your frustration completely, Teapot.

It doesn't suit everyone, but for a lot of people, helping out on others' holdings provides great learning and a good bridge into having one's own holding later on.

You may be near to Braziers' Park and/or other WWOOF hosts and similar, where you could meet likeminded people and get a lot of experience, if that sounds appealing. :)
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

Lesley Silvester

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • Telford
Re: Hello from south Oxfordshire
« Reply #12 on: June 09, 2012, 10:50:54 pm »
 :wave:  Hi Teapot and welcome from Shropshire.  I am another frustrated non-smallholder with a large garden but I do manage to keep goats and grow fruit and veg.

Beewyched

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • South Wales
    • tunkeyherd.co.uk
Re: Hello from south Oxfordshire
« Reply #13 on: June 09, 2012, 11:38:19 pm »
Hi & welcome from West Scotland  :wave:
I used to work on a large beef cattle & sheep farm on the mountainside in South Wales as a teenager (many moons ago  ::)  ) & only ever had a big enough garden to keep a few chickens & grow veg for years ...
My OH had the opportunity of a posting here in the Bonny Land & we moved here 3 years ago, renting a smallholding with a massive garden, with a decrepid orchard (we are slowly replacing the fruit trees with younger stock), 2 acres of woods & some outbuildings. 
It's not been easy & some days it seems like we're getting no-where, but when the sun shines & we sit in the garden there's no other place we'd rather be.  We've made some great friends through our animals & the folk here on TAS are fantastic.
Your time will come Teapot ...
Tunkey Herd - registered Kune Kune & rare breed poultry - www.tunkeyherdkunekune.com

Teapot

  • Joined Jun 2012
Re: Hello from south Oxfordshire
« Reply #14 on: June 14, 2012, 01:56:06 pm »
Thank you all for the welcomes and encouragment.

 

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