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Author Topic: Hi from Hampshire soon to be Devonshire!  (Read 1143 times)

Koojie

  • Joined May 2018
Hi from Hampshire soon to be Devonshire!
« on: July 13, 2018, 12:51:46 pm »
Hello everyone.

This is our dream finally in the makings.  A few set backs above and below us but also hoping to be in before the end of August.  We are changing from our large garden (with room for veggies, big greenhouse and chickens) to a total of 4 acres.  The house and garden I think possibly is around half to three quarters of an acre and the rest is a big field.

I have had chickens for over10 years - I have previously hatched under a broody resulting in 3 chicks and one was a girl until he crowed.  Then we had to do the deed.  Can't say I enjoyed doing it, but we did eat him and by the time the feathers were off it wasn't the same bird so much easier to process.  We aren't allowed roosters here.  So over the years I introduced 2 new girls to carry on as I anticipated the old ladies to dwindle to zero.  As it happens the 2 newbies have gone and I have a 10+ year old pekin and the last remaining chick buff Sussex that is a cranky old ratbag at 9 years old.  They are currently at a friend's field while we tidied up and sold the house.  We have had Orpingtons, marans - cuckoo and wheaten, pekins and a silkie in that time.  Now I'm making a list!!!

We are also impatient to move, but in the meantime doing lots more homework.  We have decided on a large Rhino greenhouse.  Very impressed with them.  I can't see any polytunnels in the area via Google satellite but we would like one of those - a little exposed so will have windy weather at times.

Once we exchange we will join the Devon Association of Smallholders and we need to go on a few more courses.  We have an old orchard that hasn't been touched in over 10 years - same for the rest of the land, although the farmer trims the hedges and cuts and bales the hay.  Hoping to make lots of apple juice and cider!  But we'll take it as it comes and enjoy it all while we can.

Getting my chooks back is my main priority - I see them almost daily and it's always a wrench to leave the old fogeys.  Meanwhile friends are hatching chicks and I shall be having a couple (brahma and Swedish flower) and then I'll be getting more!

Homework also includes deer prevention!  But just in the growing area and garden.  They can play as much as they like in the part of the field we won't be using just yet!

Other interests are patchwork and quilting - I've found Bampton has a quilt group whaheyyy!  I'll be giving them a ring soon!  I also enjoy nature studies - something new and I'll be in a book or on the internet trying to find out what it is!  And I'd better stop before this turns into a novel!!!

RCTman

  • Joined Mar 2017
  • Rhondda fach
Re: Hi from Hampshire soon to be Devonshire!
« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2018, 04:03:50 pm »
Hi and welcome :wave: :wave:

Koojie

  • Joined May 2018
Re: Hi from Hampshire soon to be Devonshire!
« Reply #2 on: July 13, 2018, 06:28:07 pm »
Thank youuuuu!  :wave:

Lesley Silvester

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • Telford
Re: Hi from Hampshire soon to be Devonshire!
« Reply #3 on: July 13, 2018, 09:01:56 pm »
 :wave: and welcome from Shropshire where we had  :raining: today.

Koojie

  • Joined May 2018
Re: Hi from Hampshire soon to be Devonshire!
« Reply #4 on: July 13, 2018, 11:06:52 pm »
Thank you - yes thunderstorms around and localised flooding here too!  Just been watching a family of hedgehogs in the garden - counted 5 which is the most ever here.  I shall miss them. :(

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Hi from Hampshire soon to be Devonshire!
« Reply #5 on: July 14, 2018, 12:11:54 am »
Hello from Scotland where we had our first heavy rain for it seems like forever today  :gloomy: :raining:  Not like Scotland to see old smallholders dancing round naked chanting to the rain gods!


It sounds as if you're going about things the right way Koojie, finding out as much as you can, above what you already know, before you move and start getting animals of all shapes and breeds in.  So many really keen smallholders jump in at the deep end, but you sound very sensible.  Good luck with the move and the new life  :hshoe:   :farmer:
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Koojie

  • Joined May 2018
Re: Hi from Hampshire soon to be Devonshire!
« Reply #6 on: July 14, 2018, 09:36:05 pm »
 :roflanim:  Um, I'm glad I haven't witnessed the nuddie rain dancing!  Although there'd be lots of sunburnt bits that would be rather oochie!

Thank you.  I had been following TAS a long time ago, but as things happen I forgot what the name was when the old computer decided to smoke and die - thankfully accidentally found it again recently and goodness how it's grown! 
A lot of valuable info already absorbed into the old grey matter!  I think testing things out on a smaller scale has been a good thing so can build on that. 

Recently discovered a local farm has been found with bovine TB - at least I think that's how it reads.  Not sure exactly what the indicators mean.  I won't be keeping cattle, but alpacas, having been on a course to test the ground a couple of years ago - I feel I can't put them at risk.  So I need to see how things go for the first year at least.







 

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