[resistance is fertile]

We have a small farm in North Devon. 26 acres of old pasture, woodland and 4 acres of veg and ground for growing all of our fodder.

We have a small herd of pigs (tamworth boar, GOS and GOSxTamworth sows, chickens and sheep.

weve been building farm buildings mainly lately and drainage (heavy clay!) and fencing (pigs!!!) but will be building a new house this summer (presently in the barns hay loft!!).

Were completely off grid so no bills (hooray!!)

All the pigs live in the woods so we are always glad to hear of any new ideas for growing wild forage in the trees!

[Hilarysmum]

Hi and welcome.

[carole]

Bonjour and welcome from a very wet Brittany

Carole

[Dan]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

If there was a prize for best username you'd be in the running.   

Would be very interested in learning more about how you manage off-grid.

Dan

[stephen]

hey welcome to the forums! off grid.... are you solar / wind powered then? would be intresting (as dan said) to hear more! 

[MrRee]

Welcome...... and what a fantastic place in which to live!  I was brought up in N.Devon,went to Grenville College in Bideford and have made frequent visits back. Love the area and the people.

[Guy]

Welcome from East Devon!! - used to live in N Devon a few years back meself!!! had a small cottage in Appledore , and a stint in Torrington for many years as a wee child!!

[MrRee]

Guy,
  I was born in Appledore,our house was the last one out passed the lifeboat slip before Hinks' Yard...... The Old Limekiln.... loved it there,out the gate of the paddock,down three steps and onto the beach. I once took 3 geese,strung together (in a way I won't describe here) for a walk out to Westward Ho! beach before being spotted and told to go home and stop being cruel to geese.    Anyway,I digress,and hijack this thread too! sorry...... Ree

[resistance is fertile]

Good to hear so many locals!!!

Were about 6 miles from torrington, 9 from Appledore.

Managing off grid is fairly straightforward really.

For leccy we have a hybrid set up of Wind (1kw for more or less constant trickle charging and PV which is about to be upgraded to a new 'amorphous thin film, set up which will give us about 5kw much more cheaply than the rigid panel types.) We have Waste Veg Oil genny back up for heavy use stuff which also charges the battery bank when its on.This all allows us to run normal 240v stuff just as mains would. It powers my office, all the sockets and lights, the workshop, cold room, laundry etc (as well as our make shift house in the hayloft while we wait to build the main house!)

For hot water and heating we run 4 big vacuum tube panels running into a big thermal store which runs kitchen and a shower room.

Water is pumped from a borehole and all waste is either via a composting loo or the reedbed for grey waste.

Its been a good exercise as its all home made rather than getting in expensive firms and is so nice to be off the oil dependent merry go round.

[Fluffywelshsheep]

hiya from fws sound brilliant

linz

[Blinkers]

Hello and Welcome....and..........blimey   have you got it sussed or have you got it sussed   We move to South West Wales in about 3 weeks and the nearest we're getting to being "off Grid" is that our water is pumped from a 'spring' ......so at least no water rates  

[Fluffywelshsheep]

btw blinkers am gona come an visit with my tent lol
linz

[Townie]

Hi from me too 

[Rosemary]

Hi, from me, too.

Rosemary

[resistance is fertile]

Just a note to say how good the stuff on here is I only found you lot recently as had been visiting River Cottage, but that seems to now revolve largely around shopping(!?) of one kind or another.

Interesting to see so many people growing their own food this spring, things have been so wet here that its a real slow start, (we had heavy hail yesterday!)

All the beds are beginning to get going now but only just.

Took Five Pigs and Five sheep to the abbatoir today so at least we wont need so much fodder for a bit!