[Angie66]

Hi all.

I've jumped in at the deep end and it definately is completely by accident. I've taken on 8 acres as my horses were actually on some of it at livery but all of a sudden the farm tenants did a bunk and left leaving debts and owing the landlord bigtime as they have defaulted on their lease.

Anyway I have managed to secure the grazing for my horses but at the same time have taken on a yard and some further acres so that I can start my life long dream of having a small holding. The yard is in a terrible mess and is completely overgrown and has various rubbish and machinery dotted around. I've been trying to clear the nettles today to see what I actually have to work with and my arms are completely covered in stings and are throbbing like mad but I can't wait to get stuck in even more. I would like to keep to the rare breeds and hope to have sheep, pigs and poultry but may take a house cow as we go through milk in our house like its going out of fashion!

Although I would love to hear from any of you I particularly would like to find local small holders.

Angie66

[Rosemary]

Well, nothing like getting right in there! Well doen at taking the opportunity - sometimes these don't come again.

Welcome to the TAS forums - we'll look forward to joining in your adventures and offering what support we can and all the advice you want!

[stephen]

hey welcome to the forums im very excited for you, you must be grinning madly!! 

[Francis Bacon]

Hi Angie & Welcome,

Wow, you must be so excited, what a great opportunity to come your way.  Like the others I'm really excited for you.  Not anywhere near Bolton I'm afraid, actually across the channel  

Good Luck with it all & look forward to sharing all your news & views 

Best Wishes
Donna 

[kaz]

Hi Angie

What great luck. Hope you enjoy yourself getting everthing up and running, also welcome.
Kaz

[The Chicken Lady]

Welcome. Well done. I am just down the M6 in Cheshire.

[garden cottage]

Hi angie, very best of luck what great potential you have . all the best from gloucestershire
 
neil

[carole]

Hi and welcome, wow, what a fantastic opportunity for you, loads of work ahead, but enjoy!!!

Look forward to hearing your progress.
Carole

[pigsatlesrues]

Hi ya!  When you first start out it seems very overwhelming, but once you get stuck in and things start to move, you realise that anything is possible.

Welcome, and don't work too hard!!

Kate

[greenfingers]

Hi,
Welcome, we moved up from Burnley 2 years ago, originally from Preston but grew up in Kent, I know Bolton a little bit.
The nettles are a problem, we had 3/4 of our acre with them, but persevere with them and you will succeed.  Roundup is great for nettles, not organic as we wanted, but the results are good.  My garden is looking really good without them this year.
Enjoy building your small holding, it will become a great pleasure.
Elaine

[Angie66]

Thankyou all of you. I feel really welcome to the site and I look forward to having you all as friends. I am sure I will need plenty of help and advice over the next year as I start out.

I am clearing the nettles and brambles slowly but surely, by hand too, and it makes such a difference to look round and see how much is cleared. I have a lot of compacted mounds of earth to flatten out as for some reason the previous owners just banked it up into these 5ft mounds. They have been made from when the yard has been scraped and this has been done several times but it still isn't flat yet, it has large deep rutts in several places left from the digger tracks. The amount of rubbish (especially beer cans and bottles) and old fencing posts etc in the mounds is appalling and we have even found an old wood chipper and a huge tractor driven hedge cutter stuck in the mounds too! As long as I don't uncover any bodies I'm not bothered.

I bought a bargain livestock trailer today off ebay for £80 but its going to be some time before I put anything in it to bring home - too much fencing, tidying and building to do first.
 

[Rosemary]

Angie, reading "The Ark" RBST magazine today - "betty" an independent TV production company is looking for people for  C4 programme about folk starting out as smallholders of farmers. If you are interetsed call Rachel on 07930 550821. They want folk planning to have rare breeds.

Wouldn't it be great to see a TAS forum member on the box? They'd be guaranteed 400 viewers at least!

[Malc]

What a great opportunity - well done for taking it up! And you're very wise to do as much preparation as possible, but don't rule out a few hens or a couple of pigs as soon as you can - very good for morale when exhuming ancient machinery gets too much.

Can't wait for the documentary, especially as among Betty's previous efforts are 'Addicted To Boob Jobs', 'Diary of a Porn Virgin', 'My Breasts are too Big', 'Short Angry Men', 'Desperate Virgins', 'Let's Talk Sex' and 'Britney's Redneck Roots'!

Blimey!

[Fluffywelshsheep]

Well done a keep us posted on your events,
I don't think you can bet startting from stratch. AS you only have one lot of work (not really undoing other people work like removing the fence post etc) All you have to do is remove the weeds basically!

[Angie66]

No there is lots of fencing to do too!

We've been mad busy the last couple of days doing all the fencing which was missing from one of our paddocks. Its positioned directly off the main farm lane and unfortunately we have already had gypsies trying to park up on it this week. Fortunately my neighbour had recieved a tip off from another local farmer and he blocked the turning with his van so they couldn't get on to the field and then rang us. We think we will have detered them now but that would have been a really bad start to my smallholding experiences as I understand it can take a long time to get them off the land once they are camped.

I've finished the weed clearing too so now its down to building pens and huts etc, its all so exciting.

Ange.