December 2021

After over 5 years of discussion, we finally made the decision to learn all we can in 2022 with a view to buy our own little piece of the good life in 2023 and set up our very own smallholding!

Signed up to various courses, binge watched Clarkson's Farm, got a Twitter account, ordered soooo many books on smallholdings, goats, sheep, chickens, cheese making.... Even bought a Farmers Weekly!

January 2022

We have started reaching out to local farms and market gardens for volunteering opportunities.

Signed up to Norfolk Smallholders Training Group (https://www.nstg.org.uk/index.php) and booked various courses covering subjects such as making rustic furniture, servicing small engines and starting a smallholding.

Planning to start volunteering at Cherry Tree Farm (https://cherrytreefarmmethwold.co.uk/) before month end, getting stuck in with all elements of caring for livestock, mending fences and so on, as and when we can.

Toying with ideas even this early in our journey - partner wants a petting farm rather than a produce farm, says he would be veggie or vegan if he could be, then asked for a bacon and egg sandwich! 🤣🤣

20Jan: Looking forward to starting to volunteer this weekend and get a real taste of what we will be letting ourselves in for! Been a bit slack at reading this week and not sure binge watching Farmers Country Showdown counts too much towards research, so will be great to get some hands on experience! 🤣

22Jan: Spent about 5 hours in training (volunteering), learning how to hang hay nets and mucking out horses, sheep, pigs, chickens, llamas and goats. Good day was had, but we were both shattered for the rest of the day! We need more practice and less time in front of computers! Looking forward to going back next weekend.

28Jan: Been busy putting a chicken coop together this afternoon, ahead of volunteering again tomorrow and (eeek!!) planning to rehome some ex-battery hens on Sunday! Haven't even met them yet, but they are called Mabel, Evelyn, Edith & Betsy 🥰 So excited - the best taste of the future we can have at the moment in our back garden! Looking forward to seeing them adapt to a more natural way of life for their retirement years! 🐔🐔🐔🐔 If they give us some 🥚🥚 this will be an added bonus!

31Jan: Chooks arrived yesterday and seem happy with us, as they have already gifted us 2 eggs! They arrived in much better condition than expected and seem to be pretty well versed at being chickens, scratching around, finding their way home, sitting on their perches and so on. Looking forward to having them free ranging in the garden after "flockdown" lifts.

February-March 2022

Things have been pretty quiet through February and March. Chooks are great and giving us eggs most days, but plenty enough that we have not had to buy any this week! We attended a course early February and became a "journalist" with a write-up in the training group magazine! Really excited to be going to an alpaca course on the 26th March! Life has been getting in the way of volunteering, so hopefully get back to that in April...

26Mar: Had a great time on the alpaca course, helping with herding, routine health checks, took them out for a walk, and met some great people too!

31Mar: Caught sight of a fox in the garden on our trail cam, which was fascinating, but now super stressed about the safety of our chooks! 🥺 We do close them in their coop each night, but have not got any other precautions in place. Luckily no sign of digging around the coop or run though, so hopefully worrying for nothing 🤞

April 2022

02Apr: Spent some time on a local smallholding owned by someone we met at the alpaca course. Lovely couple, who showed us around their land and introduced us to their chickens and sheep and were really willing to share their experiences and give us a number of pointers and food for thought.

03Apr: Record day for eggs - our wonderful hens gifted us a whole 3 eggs! Poor things are so eager to get out though to explore the garden, I hope the avian flu restrictions lift soon...

05Apr: Another record breaking day - 4 eggs from 4 hens! 💗

May-December 2022

Well - not really sure where all that time went - must get better at updating! Difficult to recall now what we have been up to.

We had a fabulous holiday over the summer, had a pretty good harvest from the veg patch (bumper year for tomatoes and beetroot!), have been enjoying having our chickens who are still gifting us way more eggs than we can eat (but not enough to bother selling), so we just give them away to friends and family.

We have continued to attend lots of different courses in Devon, Lincolnshire and Norfolk, learning all sorts of new things. Connecting with more folks and had opportunities to help with some sheep jobs, including vaccinating some lambs, helping with installing wind break fencing and so on. Learned about woodland and wildflower meadow management, and green energy and bought even more books on even more topics!

I also became a member of the Norfolk Smallholding Training Group committee and sub-editor of the quarterly magazine, "The Harrowing Times"!

Also gave bacon and sausage making a try!

As time has gone on, we have gained a clearer picture of the direction we want to take in terms of livestock - likely more chooks, some ducks and turkeys, pigs and then more likely sheep rather than the goats we originally thought we were going to go for, but perhaps still a little more debate to be had there. We have not narrowed down specific breeds as yet, but makes sense to go with rare breeds. At least with the pigs, we can try a few different breeds (as weaners) over a few years and see which we want to take forward.

And... we put our house on the market and are on the lookout for our smallholding for 2023! 👩‍🌾👨‍🌾🤞

January 2023

First signs of an issue with the chooks almost a year since having them - one with vent gleet. Interesting experience giving a chicken an epsom salt bath and applying thrush cream but hoping it will do the trick soon!

Exciting news to round off the month - we have a buyer for our house and we have had an offer accepted on a lovely house with about 2.5 acres - smallholding starts here!!

🥳

March-August 2023

So, most of this year seems to have been a bit of a rollercoaster....we were expecting to get our smallholding around May time, but sadly our buyer pulled out in March which meant we could not proceed. Unfortunately, the knock-on effect of Liz Truss as PM then made things pretty tricky with the subsequent effect on interest rates, meaning more caution in the markets and no new buyer ☹️

Anyway, time has ticked along, a few viewings here and there without positive outcomes... In the meantime, decided a slight career change was in order, but as it as not possible to apply to a new role in same company on the same site, the result was to apply for a role in Sweden!

A short trip was arranged in May to check out the area and it was AMAZING! Within just 30 minutes of the office, you can be at the coast, by a lake or in a forest/nature reserve! Plus, much larger country with much smaller population = more land for your money compared to the UK! Smallholding potentially could be scaled up... 🥰

Official job offer has come through and so will be working through visa applications and so on, but hoping to make the move before end of 2023!

Lots to organise but ultimately smallholding dream is relocating!