[Wrennaggle]

Hi all, I'm Wren and Hubs is Adrian, we have had the notion to have a smallholding for about 10 years now, and have never managed to do it for one reason or another.  Well now we have decided to take that leap, are getting our house ready for the market, and looking to rent a place on a long term let.

We want to grow fruit and veg, keep chickens, ducks, geese, pigs and goats, preferably rare breeds, and bees.  We've had two allotments for 10 years up until this year, when work got in the way of quality time there and we gave them up.  We now want to get off this flipping hamster wheel and do what we want in our own time, hubs will still hopefully, work at least part time.  Well that's us, nice to be here. 

[Rosemary]

Hello and welcome from  Carnoustie 

[Wrennaggle]

Hi Rosemary, from the other end of the country to us then eh?  At the moment anyway, goodness knows where we'll end up though, I don't mind as long as we can get to do what we want. Nice to meet you. 

[Bionic]

Hello and welcome from Carmarthenshire 

[MAK]

great to hear that you are making the leap and getting off the hamster wheel - you will love it - even the cold winter mornings and the long summer evenings.
There are some real experts on this site who share their knowledge. You may not reply yo a post of chat to them but I bet you have a good read and gain confidence and knowledge.
Cheers from the Limousin France.
Martin

[holmecrofter]

Welcome aboard from sweltering North Wales. 

Good luck with your search

[Wrennaggle]

Thanks ALL, OH never fear I shall be asking a fair few questions once we find our place.  I really want to have rare breed goats and pigs, am hoping to get Mangalitzas and possibly some Kunes as well.  Also, Bees, we'd LOVE to have at least a couple of bee hives and know next to nothing about beekeeping, so watch out all you bee keepers!

It's all very exciting at the moment, thinking about taking the leap has gone on for so long, that I can hardly believe we have got to the point where hubs has said, "RIGHT, we ought to go for it NOW"!! Oh and I AM bonkers you know, totally, as you will all find out with time. 

[Lesley Silvester]

  and welcome from  Shropshire. If you are bonkers you've joined the right forum (note my name  ). I keep pure Sanaans which seems to be turning into a rare breed judging by the problems there are finding a male for stud. Fortunately, there is one in reasonable distance of us but only one.

[Pedwardine]

Bonkers fits in very well here as you will find 

[Bert]

Hi from the Isle of Mull 

[Wrennaggle]

What lovely welcomes from you all.    Hopefully we won't have to wait too long to find our place, finding it quite difficult to find somewhere to rent to be honest, but we won't have enough from the sale of our house to buy outright, and it's the escape from the mortgage we want.  Catch 22, if we get another mortgage then at least one of us has to work full time, so will limit time to spend on the land.

We'll keep looking though, one will turn up, sometime, hopefully. 

[Small Plot Big Ideas]

Hello from the currently very warm and beautiful North Pennines!


Good luck with your search and we're not that far ahead of you having just bought a place with 15 acres in May this year.

[Wrennaggle]

Hi to you up there in the Pennines!  Hope everything is going well for you in your new place, I'll be sure to let you know as soon as we've caught up!  I've put a couple of inquiries in on a couple of places for rent on Greenshifters, but no replies to either as yet. 

[Possum]

Hi Wrenaggle, and welcome from a scorching Somerset


Lots of us started with an allotment or two. It's a really good foundation for smallholding. Also, reading all the diary entries on TAS. Start at the begining and work your way through to the present day. It gives you an excellent insight into the cycles of smallholding. Not to mention the unexpected problems caused by by animals and the weather!

[Factotum]

Hi from Moray - sunny today - hurray, we need the hay to keep dry for baling.

We jumped from being wage slaves to being slaves to the land a few years ago - it was a huge decision but we've not regretted it - despite the midges in the summer, the cold and snow,  the dark winter days and the tough times when things don't go right.

The compensations are wonderful - the midges bring the house martins and the swallows, the wildlife is amazing, the mountains and the sea are within a 30 minute drive, the cold crisp winter days are beautiful and we can cope with the snow. We've grown a small starter herd of 4 Shetland heifers to a nice group of 24 beasties. We've sat outside a pub in Feb, in shirt sleeves,  watching the heat haze rise from the road, seen snow in late May, life is never boring. Sometimes it's sunny at the front of the house and raining on the field out the back...

We moved from the SE of England to the NE of Scotland - we rented a house up here for a year whilst we found somewhere with land. We 'thought' we wanted about 10-15 acres - but we discovered that quantity is popular (= more expensive) and found that properties with more land were more cost effective. We found a lovely small farm outside a very friendly village in Moray - and we've lived here happily for the past 7 years.

Where ever you find your dream home, have fun and enjoy the freedom, I'm sure you won't regret it.

Sue