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Small holdings

Have not seen this section before.
Yes we have a small small holding of 3.5 acres, we have just been offered the adjoining field which is sevenish acres. We can't make up our mind on it though, we owe nothing to anyone right now, if we bought the other field it would either involve a small mortgage or taking funds out of our savings which is our pension.
Anyways, that aside we keep sheep, chickens, ducks etc.
We have put down a good deal of the ground to orchards, a mixture of cider, juice, eaters and cookers, some plums, gages, damson and pears.
We have a poly that is about 35' X20' which we just had to have recovered.
There are 15 12'X6' raised beds and a 12X6 greenhouse.
Last year I paid for a builder to create a block built cider shed which is about 18'X12?
We bought the place with the intention of being as self sufficient as possible, in reality we struggle to keep on top of it as we are both self employed and generally work six days a week.
At the bottom of the field we are bounded by a subsidiary of the river otter, this is full of brownies, but I never get the time to try for them. We have got a large pond but don't stock it as when the river breaks it's banks the pond becomes part of a raging torrent.
Oh, forgot to mention we have quite a bit of soft fruit when we can keep the chickens etc off, gooseberries, Logan berries, raspberries, blueberries, tayberries, all colours of currants and of course strawberries.
 
mole trapper said:
Have not seen this section before.
Yes we have a small small holding of 3.5 acres, we have just been offered the adjoining field which is sevenish acres. We can't make up our mind on it though, we owe nothing to anyone right now, if we bought the other field it would either involve a small mortgage or taking funds out of our savings which is our pension.
Anyways, that aside we keep sheep, chickens, ducks etc.
We have put down a good deal of the ground to orchards, a mixture of cider, juice, eaters and cookers, some plums, gages, damson and pears.
We have a poly that is about 35' X20' which we just had to have recovered.
There are 15 12'X6' raised beds and a 12X6 greenhouse.
Last year I paid for a builder to create a block built cider shed which is about 18'X12?
We bought the place with the intention of being as self sufficient as possible, in reality we struggle to keep on top of it as we are both self employed and generally work six days a week.
At the bottom of the field we are bounded by a subsidiary of the river otter, this is full of brownies, but I never get the time to try for them. We have got a large pond but don't stock it as when the river breaks it's banks the pond becomes part of a raging torrent.
Oh, forgot to mention we have quite a bit of soft fruit when we can keep the chickens etc off, gooseberries, Logan berries, raspberries, blueberries, tayberries, all colours of currants and of course strawberries.
Click to expand...

Sounds like living the good life Mole but in your situation hard work. Mother in law has about quarter of an acre a third of which is veg plots and 2 12x8 greenhouses. The plots and greenhouses provide pretty much year round produce
 
Sound like a lot of hard work, you say you're both self employed, is that working as well as the free hold ? Do you use the river in any way as a power source, could be a viable option, if you don't need the extra land then it's an expense you don't need, having said that it could be a good investment for your retirement, either way, sounds idyllic even though hard work :)
 
One glaring fact stands out mate, all the fruit trees and bushes but no beehives. Likewise the 7 acre plot. Free range pork is always going to give a good income although my personal choice would be wild boar
 
Good price for wild boar, would be my choice also
 
Cheers for the replies folks.
Firstly, bee hives, Mrs is a bee keeper, we have generally around eight hives here, also a few on other people's land. This in itself though is massively labour intensive if you do it as it should be. I pick up many swarms a year through the business that we rehome if she doesn't want/need them. I never kill a swarm, rather walk away from the job.

We have looked into hydro electric, it's possible, but we're undecided. Next priority is a borehole, top of the list.
Pigs, she's keen, but she's also never worked in a slaughter house! I used to dread Thursday's (pig day), sheep, goats, cows no problem, but pigs, hmm.
It could be because I grew up on a large pig and poultry farm where we killed our own animals to sell at the gate.
If I'm honest, I will probably stick with lambs as they can graze in the orchards and I have no issues processing them.
The field next door is affordable but it's 2/3 sloping (sw facing) 1/3 level but wet all winter, so good for orchards, vines, which we are considering, or more sheep or possible milking goats.
We have a small wood chalet thing with decking out front that everyone who sees it wants to sleep in it, so we're now considering using it for airbnb as a bit of extra income, but again, hmm not really sure I want to.
We also grow willow which to my utter amazement sells like hot cakes, personally I wouldn't have it as a gift!.
Our businesses are totally separate to the property, we bought it in the main to escape the herd, secondly to provide for ourselves, and lastly as a income provider later on.
It totally stretches us physically and emotionally as we only have evening and Sunday's, evening's, well summer time we don't get back till 6/7, winter 4/5 so you get the idea.
Sometimes we could throw in the towel and bugger of to France which was the initial plan, but generally we love it. However we always laugh inwardly when we're told how lucky we are, yep it all just does it by itself!
 
I know how hard it is because my uncle had a small holding just outside Hastings. He was a self taught master Thatcher so from late spring through to mid autumn he was working sometimes 7 days a week but he mainly worked for barter. If a farmer needed corn stacks thatched then Fred would do it in return for something he needed
 
Great reply with lots of info, I take my hat off to you both, lots of hard work in utself let alone on top of other work
 
I agree with you on the pigs, they're big, powerful and not scared of humans. A lot of people seem to forget that. They also cost a bomb to feed!
Sheep are a lot easier and cheaper to keep. You can feed a lamb/sheep for £20 a year, whereas our pigs cost us at least £100 just for 6 months. Home reared pork is lovely but is it worth all the money and effort?
 
Update, the weekend just gone was wet and busy!
I was fretting about getting the apple trees pruned, but I did the lot on Saturday, also cut some very nice scions from some of the juicing trees (johnagold, Katy and cox) I am picking up 30 mm106 root stocks next week, I had already collected a handful of scions last week from a couple of my customers trees, possibly Spartan and a couple of other pink juice sweet varieties.
We had the epic job of cleaning out all the chicken and duck sheds, I will be very glad when the restrictions are lifted!.
We moved all the raised beds so that they are now 5' apart so that I can easily mow between them on the ride on, the real downside is, I've got to break the new ground they have moved onto (groans inwardly).
That pretty much covers this week's work here, not sure if much will be done this coming weekend as the moon will be gone so I will weather permitting be on nights at the rabbits, and already the mole work has gone potty.
 
mole trapper said:
Update, the weekend just gone was wet and busy!
I was fretting about getting the apple trees pruned, but I did the lot on Saturday, also cut some very nice scions from some of the juicing trees (johnagold, Katy and cox) I am picking up 30 mm106 root stocks next week, I had already collected a handful of scions last week from a couple of my customers trees, possibly Spartan and a couple of other pink juice sweet varieties.
We had the epic job of cleaning out all the chicken and duck sheds, I will be very glad when the restrictions are lifted!.
We moved all the raised beds so that they are now 5' apart so that I can easily mow between them on the ride on, the real downside is, I've got to break the new ground they have moved onto (groans inwardly).
That pretty much covers this week's work here, not sure if much will be done this coming weekend as the moon will be gone so I will weather permitting be on nights at the rabbits, and already the mole work has gone potty.
Click to expand...
Certainly a lot of mole activity this winter Jamie but I haven't seen many rabbits
 
The rabbits are there Joe! Well, most areas anyway. Their numbers always seem to be a bit cyclic, some years there's none and then a couple of years later , BOOM they are everywhere.
Moles, unless the powers that be invent some hideous new virus, or poison, are going to increase in numbers year on year. Since they did away with strychnine (a good thing imo) every year we get more and more calls. We have for the last four/five years turned away all agricultural work, only instead doing domestic and commercial as it is impossible to keep up with the work load.
The crux of the matter was that almost all the blokes doing moles relied on the worm as it was known, most couldn't catch a mole if their life depended on it. There are many guys getting in on the trapping now, but unfortunately they are not up to speed.
There is literally ocean's of mole work out there, I have guys down on training courses a lot more now than I did ten years ago, but we're going to need a hell of a lot more.
 
mole trapper said:
The rabbits are there Joe! Well, most areas anyway. Their numbers always seem to be a bit cyclic, some years there's none and then a couple of years later , BOOM they are everywhere.
Moles, unless the powers that be invent some hideous new virus, or poison, are going to increase in numbers year on year. Since they did away with strychnine (a good thing imo) every year we get more and more calls. We have for the last four/five years turned away all agricultural work, only instead doing domestic and commercial as it is impossible to keep up with the work load.
The crux of the matter was that almost all the blokes doing moles relied on the worm as it was known, most couldn't catch a mole if their life depended on it. There are many guys getting in on the trapping now, but unfortunately they are not up to speed.
There is literally ocean's of mole work out there, I have guys down on training courses a lot more now than I did ten years ago, but we're going to need a hell of a lot more.
Click to expand...
I used to have a Labrador who was and expert, I wouldn't see any movement of soil but she would dive in and 9 times out of 10 rake a mole out of the ground. Along the river where I walk the girls they are almost at plague levels
 
What do you do to break in the new ground for the raised beds?
Have you tried lasagne gardening? (I just wrote a post about it on the other thread). I can highly recommend it.
 
Ian said:
What do you do to break in the new ground for the raised beds?
Have you tried lasagne gardening? (I just wrote a post about it on the other thread). I can highly recommend it.
Click to expand...
I've put them in position on the existing veg plot and I'll look up lasagne gardening
 
The Mrs does that when she has set up New strawberry, asparagus beds.
These big boys I've just moved will be turf off, dug, mucked, dug over again then forked and raked, or rotavated and raked before planting.
Obviously no root crops will go in these this year as they will have been mucked.
 
It's a good way of no-dig gardening, let the worms do the work.
I didn't know anyone still did rotovating, I must dig my old one out of storage and see if I can sell it.

The last larger scale veg gardening client I had, who I gave up just over a year ago, started no-dig gardening a few years ago, it really improved his soil, not to mention making my workload a hell of a lot easier! The only thing we ever used to dig was the potato bed, and that was just a small trench about a spit's depth.
 
Joecole said:
I've put them in position on the existing veg plot and I'll look up lasagne gardening
Click to expand...
If they're on an existing bed that's relatively weed free, I'd just fill them with what you need and crack on, remembering if you're short on made compost, put some unmade stuff lower down and top it off with the better stuff. You can probably skip the cardboard layer on the very bottom, although it wouldn't hurt.
 
What, no rotavator! What? We have one of those stupidly light mantis ones, they are the danglies, I totally abuse the thing, season after season and still it does what I ask.
We even use it in the poly to fluff it up before planting the tomatoes, chilli's etc.
 
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