Hiya!
Hopefully this is the right place to put this on this forum of other accidental smallholders! So please let me preface this as no judgement on those who do this, so please do not judge me for not wanting to! But I believe there will be some on here who can identify with this, and I'd love a way to deal with this - gently, firmly, diplomatically.
So we procured a small piece of land (just 2/3 of an acre) 1 year ago, we do a lot of work on it, gardening, goats, chickens, a dog, a cat - and the occasional wildlife rescue! This is apart from both of us working from home, actually doing employment as the farm isn't our livelihood, and unlikely to be so.
So we sell our eggs to locals, and we're often outside, so chat to people who pass by and are interested in what we're doing and generally we're happy to talk about it (sometimes it can be mildly challenging as we're trying to get things done and a few are unable to understand we're trying to actually do something and need to do it while we're not working, and it's dry enough to work outside). But that's manageable mostly - but we have the occasional passer-by who will think we want to be the next petting farm/community project. Sometimes when people come by with their children, we'll try to take them up to see a few animals, interact with them a bit. This is mostly fine - with the occasional inconvenience. What goes too far is that some will say - oh I have a Boy Scouts group that would love to come! We don't even know them, much less this group, we don't have time to manage these things, and don't want to. Or they say, my child can come help a bit, or my Aspergers child would love to spend time here and help you. All of these are wonderful things, and ideal for those who want us to become the next therapy, child-minder, community project - and it can be nice for people who choose to do those wonderful acts within the community.
But we're not it. We're two people - making the best of this land but it is work, a lot of work. We're learning, always, about goats and hope to kid them, milk them - but that means care and time to learn and know what we don't know yet! We have pets that - for me is the primary concern, and will always be my reason for everything - I need to care for them. I spend a lot of time managing my husband to make sure he closes gates (lest the goats decide to destroy our neighbours' cars, or eat something poisonous and get sick), we are building things and have nails, broken wood, a river, sharp things and I cannot watch all of this, nor do I want to. I work, manage land, animals, and whilst their children may be a real boon to the work - I'm not really seeking this, and don't want that job of managing it.
I am sure that there are others on here that can identify? I have to imagine a lot of vets, farms, zoos, etc get well-meaning people who want to 'help' but it isn't help if it's actually more work, and that's not what someone set up the zoo, vet, farm for - at least not in all things. Vets, decide to work to help animals health and well-being, they don't want to have a child-minding area when they have surgeries and animals sick and possibly aggressive. Farms, choose to work hard on their land and with their animals, but they don't necessarily want to become the next teaching facility in farming, especially if they are just 2 people, and this is their private home and they work full time as well, and zoos, whilst being a teaching facility and open to children, cannot allow children to feed and interact with those animals for both parties well-being. some of those examples have multi-staff and people to make decisions at the high above level, away from public, and those on foot to administer it - and say 'it's the rules here!' We unfortunately don't.
So now that the rant is over a bit, I am sure that many of you have this - i know from buying chickens that many on websites say 'don't just drop by, we're a home here!' and can put some rather firm things which I suspect comes from public thinking private homes, with farms, are just waiting for visitors, kids, etc to visit, help, buy, whatever. It's well-meaninged of course, but like trying to walk an elderly person across the street - they may not want it, or need it.
So again I preface, no judgements on those who joyfully choose to do this, and make their land into a welcome respite for others. We do as well, just that we've got limits too! And no judgements on those who ask - they believe this with good intention! But how does one deal with this delicate situation? We don't know them very well and they aren't always getting the picture that we're not child-minders, we can't be - and care for everything else, we don't have the time to be, we may not want to be, and - sorry to be indelicate - we didn't get this land, so that we could make this a regular visit for groups, whilst - possibly we pay for vet visits because a goat gets out, loss of work time (££), loss of work time on the land as it needs clearing, building of infrastructures like fencing, sheds, and let's face it - with a small farm you are always repairing, and making it more secure or better built -
it's a lot of work to manage it - while we manage groups we can't manage on a volunteer/community basis.
Sorry for all of this hope you guys can help with this difficult situation! I'm happy to be welcoming and neighbourly - just cannot take on that sort of job of free work, whilst our lives and livelihoods are held. We need our jobs, and we need to maintain this land and the animals needs.
I am sure that many of you know this, so I understand that I may sound ranty as a preach to the choir, it's for those who may read and not understand why this isn't a welcomed idea.
help??!!??
Topic: private land/smallholding/community (Read 4269 times)
