[chuckalicious]

Thanks again. We are still at the ideas stage but it is.certainly beginning to sound like smallholding, assuming we can find good land and be allowed to.build a house on it, within budget, would be, as you say, more of a lifestyle choice than anything. To a degree I'm not sure if that's fair on our girls, but I wont know until we look into it more.

[Fleecewife]

Good point.

We held off getting our smallholding until our boys were through Uni, so they could go to both school and Uni in Edinburgh.  Travelling an hour each way every day is too much.  My school was an hour and a half away so until I got a bike it was a large proportion of time spent travelling.  I had no social life as a teenager either and that is even more important to the young.   We gave our children a love of the great outdoors by other means without imposing our values on them (which could well have had a negative effect)   On the down side our children did miss out on a farming childhood, which is a wonderful thing.  So pros and cons whichever way you decide.

While your girls are growing, could you change your career to something countryside orientated, say do a course in countryside management and be a countryside ranger.   There are all sorts of jobs out there in the big outdoors, in forestry, wildlife work, SSSIs, national parks, Rare Breeds parks such as Palacerigg.

[GuardianCroft]

Hey Chuckalicious

Your plan and dream sounds great and you are definitely in the right place for good advice and help. Having just set out on the same sort of road, I reckon this place is the best forum, of its type.

It sounds like you are getting lots of good advice already and I'm in no position to give any yet. But I can impart some of the ideas we have had (and are still having), for our place. One of which is tourism. We have a yurt, in the woods, on our croft, which I hope will bring in a few quid on a reular(ish) basis. I am also looking at doing a very small amount of the 'old career' work (graphic design), but only to give us enough money to keep the croft afloat and to invest in it, long term.

Another avenue, for a bit of extra money (especially with you having an IT background) is some kind of blog or web site, maybe with google ads etc. this is something else I am doing too. Basically trying to strike a balance of the 'old' and 'new', to allow us to live how we want.

Check out our story at www.offgrid-online.co.uk, if you like. May give you some inspiration or ideas. :-)

[clydesdaleclopper]

You could always broaden you search area by homeschooling so you don't need to be in the catchment area for a good school. Smallholding and homeschooling can work very well together - my boys know loads of biology   

[chuckalicious]

Thanks again for all the excellent advice. After more consideration, this may not be for us. We do need some sort of extra income and now that we have researched the actual build costs of a new home, it is way out of our budget.

Back to the drawing boards me thinks!

Thanks again

[Womble]

Back to the drawing boards me thinks!

As far as making a living goes, yes you're right.  However, what attracted you to the idea of smallholding in the first place?  Was it getting filthy rich  , or just filthy?  Was it living an honest life, providing healthy food for yourselves, etc etc?  If it was, you can do all of that and more with just a big back garden.

We have a few acres here (not far from Stirling at all - drop me a PM if you want to come for a visit), but the reality is that we could have done everything we've done so far with just a big back garden, and 60% of what we still plan to do.

If you can make enough money from a part time job to keep you going, but still leave time for running a smallholding for yourselves (i.e. not for profit), that can work well...........