Sooo much pooping

[eggmayo]

Hi,

Our long term plan is to move to a smallholding in Pembrokeshire (OH's homeland), but existing work commitments mean it will be many years off before we can make the move. We'd like to have a smallholding sooner if possible.

 

We're wondering if we'd have enough free time to have a smallholding,as we'd both still need to work full time. OH is away from home on average a couple of nights a week, so most of it would be left to me during the week. I'm off to work about 8am each day and normally get home about 6pm ish at the latest and we have no other major commitments. I work flexitime, so do have some flexibility as to what time I start and finish each day. Clearly in the winter all week day jobs would have to be done in the dark. I realise that I'd have to do work before leaving for work in the morning and then as soon as I got back from work. We already have a dog, cat, hens, are about to keep bees and already grow veg on a small scale, but all in a small garden. We're thinking of a maximum of 5 acres and would like to add pigs, sheep, poultry for meat and an orchard to the list, as well as growing more of our veg.

 

I'd love to hear your experiences if you're already doing something like this.

 

Please also let me know if we're completely bonkers for even thinking about doing it and working full time.

[Lesley]

You're totally bonkers - but then, so are we!

 

We took the plunge 4 years ago and bought an 8 acre smallholding. OH was working full time but I had just changed to part-time and was carrying a knee injury which made life awkward and still does at times. OH has now changed to working mostly from home - still full-time but none of the travelling to a job 25 miles away makes a big difference. As well as all the obvious problems with the work involved we took a big financial risk and had a bridging loan for 15 months which nearly sunk us and the recent recession nearly sunk us again.........

 

Today I've been out at 5.30 but my back is complaining so I've come in while painkillers kick in........I physically can't do things I used to do and need help from OH who is younger than me..........he'll be desperate to get to his computer to keep juggling all the balls but wanting to be out working on the farm.......I'll need him to do some of the heavier jobs so that I can continue with the rest of it while he works indoors.......we often don't eat until 10pm at this time of year and go to bed at midnight...........but we wouldn't want it any other way

 

It is hard work but very rewarding. If you are generally fit and healthy then I would say go for it - none of us know what is around the next corner. My knee injury had made me well aware of that - one minute I was walking mountains and the next I was immobile and had to learn to walk again, carrying far too much weight which is proving hard to shift despite always being on the move.

 

The main thing we have learned is to say 'No' - It took us a while to realise that, friendly as the farming community are, they can spot newbies and see their chance to offload ancient sheep or even more elderly cows! We managed to say 'No' to the 20 year old cow with no passport Plan exactly what you want to do, learn as much as you can before taking on animals, sort out systems for managing and go for it!

 

PS - don't forget to have a Plan B in case you need a short break or one of you becomes incapacitated for any reason..... I'm resisting OH's plans for a house cow as that ties you to the farm so much.....we can find a farm sitter but finding one that wants to milk a cow at 6am would be far more difficult!

[chickenanne]

Rather than thinking int erms of "smallholding" (anyone have a definition for that anyway?) how about thinking in terms of "can I look after 5 acres and work full time?". That way you could try and figure out which bits will take you too long and which would be manageable.

You can always take it one step at a time - you already keep hens, so keeping some meat birds isn't going to be ALL new (on larger scale), at least after the first few weeks of hatching. So you could figure out from that how long it would take you each day, and if you would enjoy it.

Similar, you already grow some veg, so growing far more is the same work /skills but on a much bigger scale. Again, you could figure from that very roughly how long it would take, how much work it will be, and how you feel about the work, too!

An orchard, once established, will entail pruning at the right time, thining fruit at the right time, etc, but not a lot of daily or even weekly work (at least, the very few fruit trees I have get left to their own devices much of the time and produce good crops). I'm ignoring fencing, tree guards, etc in that though.

Pigs for fattening over the summer could be realistic, as they could be away before the worst of the dark winter evenings come round. I don't know much about pigs (my uncle used to keep them but I was never allowed to take the littlies home, EVEN THOUGH we had a wendy house they could live in!!! How mean are my parents??? ).

I know nothing about sheep at all. I imagine lambing would be pretty incompatible with having to go to work, though.

You could always start with one or two of the easier thins nad work your way up to adding more responsibilities as things go on.

[Redwing]

As well as having our long garden we rent the 3 acres and stable block behind our house

 

Apart from breeding bantams we have a meat bird flock and some sheep, we also grow veg down at the house

 

I work full time in London (160 miles a day commute) and my husband works shifts

 

I am up at 5am every day and do the majority of the work before I leave the house as I am frequently home from work late, its all good fun and surprisingly relaxing too and we are in a good routine - we didnt miss a beat over the cold winter and all the snow

 

We did consider pigs but as I leave for work straight from the field (changing my top on the way to the car ) we decided that as they are quite smelly we couldnt really get away with having pigs!

 

We have just bought two Rhea though, these are more pets than anything else

 

I'd like some turkeys next and we do plan to lamb the sheep next year - the lambs will be sent for meat

 

We are always making plans and its been great so far

 

One thing I would say that its pretty impossible to take a holiday without getting a proper smallholder sitter in unless you have someone in your family that can take care of everything for you

 

In saying that we enjoy the time we spend with the birds and animals so much we arent that inclined to want a holiday (so far )

 

Having done what we have so far I can see that we could move away and handle a bigger affair one day however I would have been worried about going in to such a venture not having done it small scale to start with

[eggmayo]

Thanks for all the comments. It's great so see that I'm not the only one who's totally bonkers and that some of you out there are doing it already. I guess if we take it one step at a time and gradually build up it should be OK. I'm not concerned about not being able to go away on holiday, as I'll probably rather spend time with the animals anyway.

 

The one other thing that does concern me is what we'd do if both of us were ill at the same time. How difficult is it to find someone to help?