[Anke]

Hi, I have been reading the forum for a while now, and recently got round to register and reply yo a few topics.

We stay in the Scottish Borders, have a 9 acre holding and rent another 7 acre field next door for the sheep. We bought our land as a building plot with adjacent field and it took us two years to build the house. WE have now beeen going for three years.  My OH works full time in Edinburgh, so I manage the holding and look after the children. We have three goats (two GG's and a BT type, two hopefully in kid), about 25 sheep (Shetlands, Bowmonts and a number of different crosses) and around 25 chickens (RiR, Lt Susx and Marans, and crosses thereof). In the summer we usually rear a few weaners. We have a large Polytunnel and are developing a vegetable/fruit garden. I also keep about three to five hives of bees, but am certain that they will not survive these harsh temperatures...

We got here from a "normal" life in Edinburgh, and it all started with HFW and the Rivercottage series, then led onto John  Seymour... and hey presto 5 years later the smallholding is going well, very hard work and the best job I ever had... I have been reading the TAS diary and website for about 7 years or so, it sustained me through a few very unhappy months until i decided that i really didn't want to work 12 hour days (incl a two hour commute each way Mon-Fri) and decided to leave... It all came together in the end!

[Fergie]

Hi Anke,

welcome from North Lanarkshire.  We're in similar circumstances to yourselves, keeping sheep & chickens on about 19 acres.  I'm hoping to keep bees too, but failed to get a nuc last year.  I also work in Edinburgh, although fortunately I'm home based much of the time.

Apart from the snow right now, it's a wonderful life.

John

[ballingall]

Hi Anke,

We have a very small smallholding- just over an acre between Falkirk and Livingston. I too work in Edinburgh, and we currently have 16 goats, plus dogs, cats, chickens and ducks.


Beth

[molly2]

Hi Anke
am also in the Borders, you place sounds lovely 
Nicola

[sandy]

Living and working with and on the land is so rewarding, we just have a Garden with loads of chickens and now loads of doggies....Welcme from Clackmannan, "the Wee County"

[egglady]

hi there from snowy fife.  we have a 6 acre small holding, moved here 3 years ago and it has just got better and better each year! harder as well but like everyone else i wouldnt change it for the world.  currently we have 4 shetland sheep (hopefully all in lamb); 11 chickens; 4 horses and a couple of pigs to come soon.  also developing a vegetable garden and doing well with feeding the family for much of the year from it

[HappyHippy]

Hello from me in South Lanarkshire 
I'm living on my families semi-redundant farm and slowly trying to get it back to full production - but kids just seem to keep getting in the way of my grand plans 
Look forward to hearing more from you.
Karen

[Hilarysmum]

Hi and welcome, interesting that you read Dan's diary I found it very inspirational too.

[Rosemary]

Hi and welcome!

WHO'S diary, HM?

[Daisys Mum]

Hi and welcome from another Scottish Borderer, I have Shetland sheep too, I did think of crossing them this year but decided against it, 

would quite like a couple of goats too but I have to be careful and not get too ambitious with numbers as some of my land floods and if we have

too many animals it would cost a fortune to feed. Have been lucky this year and am renting an ajoining field till May, will just have to wait and

see if I can get it again next year, at the moment the horses and the ewes are in it as my own fields are very steep and icy.

[Hilarysmum]

Hi Rosemary, sorry yours and Dan's diary. 

[Anke]

Hi Daisysmum, goats don't really need much grazing, but need lots of fairly good hay, so can be quite expensive if you have to all buy it in. And they need a house (my sheep are lucky if they get under cover for a day or two after they had their lambs - i am using my by then very empty hayshed for lambing pens), which also ups the intial cost/requirement. But I find the goats are very funny animals that you need to treat on an individual basis, much more than sheep (where I have a couple of INDIVIDUALS in my flock, but they are usually known for the wrong reasons!)

[little blue]

Hello and welcome from Derbyshire

[Daisys Mum]

Anke I would be promoted to the best Granny in the world if I got a goat as my Granddaughter is mad about them especially Gobo in Big Barn Farm ( she is only 2 1/2). May consider it in the summer before I order my hay for the winter but I would have to get 2 as I am sure that like most animals the will like to have company. Need to get a few lambs away as I have more than I want, I had 3 which were ordered and it fell through when the woman found that she was pregnant.This year i had 9 and 6 of them were girls when i really wanted boys, I always feel guilty sending the girls to the butchers

[Anke]

Yes two goats is the minimum, and I found that when I only had two (goat number 3 arrrived a few weeks later) they were not really all that happy. However they are fine now, and BBC2 is on in the goatshed, which I find also calms them down quite a bit (well they like it, and I do get the traffic news when I'm there and am usually just pleased that I do not have to commute anymore!)

I kept all my female shetlands this year, although one is quite small and therefore might not be that good for breeding. But the crosses all (bar one, she would have been No 13 and that was just unlucky) went just before Xmas, when the local mart had a lightweight lamb sale on. I can't keep them longer, like to get my fields rested a bit. But the "runts" - two males that didn't get castrated by mistake are still in a separate field, and unfortunately the weather has meant I have not been able to get them done for our freezer yet...