Please tell me stories about smallholdings

[UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername]

Im think I'm having a midlife crisis.

My job is utterly boring and unfulfilling but secure and I'm not qualified to do anything else. I can't find a hobby that holds my interest for more than a couple of weeks, except gardening. I love that.

I have an overwhelming urge to sell the house with its much-loved but tiny garden and buy a cottage on an acre ,and grow veg and chickens and maybe a couple of tiny goats.

Has anyone got a setup like that that they can tell me about, and maybe knock some sense into me?

People do this but they generally need a paying job as well. How are you going to make money out of it. Could you retrain as a proper gardener?

I have 4 acres with sheep, horses and chickens - apart from the chickens it is a money pit! My husband works and I work part time to cover the costs. I love my life but be aware that it is very restricting - holidays have to be planned with military precision to ensure animals are covered and it costs a fortune unless you have friends or family who will help out. Early mornings and late night feeds and checks in all weather. I have a constant slight aroma of 'the country' about me! But I love my life and wouldn't change a thing.

Being up all night during lambing is an experience not to be missed. Taking the sheep to shows is fun and a great day out. But it is time consuming and hugely expensive on a small scale.

To be fully self sufficient it is advised tou have an acre per person.

Can you go and help put on a small holding for a week or so to see how you enjoy it? Maybe a working holiday on a farm?

It's a great life but you do need an additional income to make it viable.

DH works full time and I do .73 days, so I could do very early (or slightly less early with help from the kids) mornings and then I'm there in the afternoon, after the school run.

I want it to be time consuming. I want to be consumed by something, not just autopiloting through life, bored.

We stayed on a smallholding in South Africa for a few days last year with veggie gardens, chickens and goats and honestly it was the nicest place I've ever been. Every aspect of it fascinated me. I've spend so much time lately reading about the whole idea, watching youtube videos of it, making pinterest boards of chicken coops. I was pottering in the kitchen yesterday making a crumble from apples from our tree and it made me so happy, I'd love to do more of that sort of thing.
We couldn't afford self sufficiency here, and the kids don't want to move school, which is fair enough. We'd be lucky to get an acre, to be honest.

I love it and on bad days it makes me get out if bed in the morning. There is something very calming about being round the animals - it soothes my soul. I am not a very sociable person so pottering about all day getting jobs done suits me.

If you get chickens get ex-battery hens it's amazing seeing them go from fatherless and scared to fluffy with attitude.

That should be featherless!!

Can you afford an acre and for you to give up paid work? If so, is your dh willing to support you all financially?

If the answers are yes than go for it! Cliche I know, but we only have one life.

I say go for it! I love my life, I have various veg patches, where there’s always something growing. I make all sorts of jams and wines and use everything available to me.

The trickiest bits are things like holidays, because you need someone to look after the chickens etc. As long as you don’t have sheep and horses you won’t have too much work from the livestock. Goats are great but eat EVERYTHING and are escape artists, so you’ll need good fencing. Chickens are pretty easy, but you will need a decent coop and to keep an eye out for foxes.

There’s something really fulfilling about growing your own produce. It does take a lot of time, but it’s time well spent if that’s what you enjoy. I love realseeds.co.uk for things to grow and instructions on saving your own seed. Have a think about greenhouses or polytunnels too, to extend your growing season.

I’m still learning, but it’s all so wonderful. I love wandering around the garden and finding what’s coming up.

We have a flock of 50 sheep. It certainly does NOT pay. We have enough land so no need to rent land. But feed, jabs, sprays, general husbandry takes time and money. But we enjoy it, and its a generational thing as DH’s family lived here for years. Our sheep are like pets. Oldest 4 we have are 13 yrs old. They don’t lamb anymore (well we had a bit of an accident last year when a frisky ram lam had its way) but what we have we sell on as stores.

No, I can't give up work entirely. It wouldn't work for now but it's the pension that would worry me as well. And I wouldn't do that to DH, if we could afford to lose a whole salary, then we'd both work part time.

Barnowl, you sound like me. I don't much enjoy being around humans. You know where you stand with animals. And a row of carrots is never going to be two faced or judgy.