[stephen]

Im just wondering why everyone on here has become or aspires to become a smallholder? nosey.... well yeah but never mind!

do you do it for the enviroment, a better life, better up-bringing for your kids, animal welfare issues etc?

Our main reasons for aspiring to become smallholders are:

* we breed cats and have some wild cats (soon to expand), we want to give them as much space as possible in as natural an enviroment as we can provide to give them the best captive life we can.

* breeding of rabbits / hare, chickens etc for food. the wild cats have a very expensive diet and we would prefer to breed our own food for them raised on a natural diet to keep them in the best health possible.

* we want to know exactly what we are eating and where it came from.

* we are fed up of the noise etc living in suburbia and want a peacefull life!

* we both want to become more green / sustainable, using solar pannels maybe a wind turbine etc

* my OH has an unexplanable love of all animals (poisinous or not!)

they are our main reasons. would love to know what everyone elses are! 

[Blinkers]

The HUGE satisfaction of rearing and producing one's own food is such a buzz...whether it be vegetables or meat.  Also, no matter what the weather, I can work all the hours god sends outside with the animals (and to a certain extent - the vegetables) and can settle down indoors in the evening with that wonderful feeling of contentment.   To 'grow' our own pork or turkeys to finish weight and then see it 'on the table' (with the most fantastic cracking!!) is priceless.   And not forgetting those wonderful new laid free range eggs......let alone the chicks hatching out under a broody bantam......I could ramble on for hours.   

[rustyme]

hello Stephen,
                 I have had my smallholding for 5 years now, it is the culmination of 30 years of doing bits and bobs, all towards what I am setting up now.   Why do I do it? Well a few reasons, in no particular order:
 
    food grown by me, with no added extras ....
 
    animals allowed to live as good a life as possible....
 
    re-cycling as much as possible .....   
 
    growing my own fuel (coppiced willow/hazel/ash ) for all sorts of different uses...
 
    living a life free from all the hassle of modern madness....
 
    being in control of my own life.....
 
    trying to live a life that has as little impact on the world as possible....
 
    although self sufficiency isn't really the main aim of mine , it does apply inadvertently. But I don't want to make everything that I need in life, there are some things you just have to weigh the balance of ....That being said , if the world/society as we know it stopped today....I would get along very well ,without to much of a change in my way of life. I suppose I am looking for a balance of modern life tv/pc/electricity/WELLY BOOTS , and a number of other things, but without the mad rush of darting here there and everwhere for very little real reason. I had better stop there , as I really could go on forever......I sometimes dooooooo
 
cheers

Russ

[Hilarysmum]

Because I am addicted to pigs.

[MrRee]

I could cite the new catchphrases and sound bites of being eco-friendly,low impact,low carbon footprint,animal loving,organic,tree-hugging new age type but they don't really apply. It's all about being as self-sufficient as possible,and not just in food and fuel,more of a state of mind. I don't particulary like people,I socialise and entertain when the OH says I have to,but generally,I like my own company,and being on my own land with endless projects to do is the sort of life I enjoy most. Self-sufficient,self-reliant.

[carl]

I think it is a bit of all those. I have been brought up in the country, working on farms and stuff untill i as 18. then after sixth form i went into industry and after 28years i am fed up of the grime and grit. although i have always lived on the edge of suburbia, i still wanted more fresh air, more sky and more earth. now i am up to my neck in it so to speak. having toyed with agriculture before industry i know i cannot do intensive farming, so i am just dipping my toes into the water. It's like a hobby with good payback. It also has something to do with the survival instinct gained from reading and watching such as robinson crusoe, swiss family robinson, my dads old seymour book( the fat of the land i think it was called) and even the goodlife( felicity kendall and her effect on teenage boy). also it is nice to forget your weekly grind and focus on the needs of your stock and your plants. the eco stuff is also in there with a bit of the solitude. it is also doing my family a lot of good. I gues i just became an accidental smallholder.

[Guy]

What more do i need to add??
All the above and more - For us its all about spending quality time together my OH and myself didnt get together until later in life and want to spend as much time together in our own environment living life in our own way.
The chance to live life on our own terms, knowing what we eat is natural , and the animals we rear have had a good and happy life. Making our own decisions about what we do in life without impacting upon anyone else , or anyone impacting on us. I guess in essence to be free from the constraints of the modern world being contented.