Hello all, I live in the north of England and have just come across your website. The happiest times of my life were when I worked on a small farm. I intend to get back to that way of life eventually but it isn't as easy in this country. I'm into rare breeds, homeopathy, fresh air. I'd love to hear from anyone who runs a small holding/farm to keep me going until I can find peace and harmony in the wilds. Thank you, Anne

-- Anne Mather (a.mather@ntlworld.com), November 12, 2001

Answers

Hello from Maine, Anne! Please share with us your experiences when you worked on that farm. What kind of rare breeds are you interested in?

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), November 12, 2001.

Thanks for responding. When I was a teenager I used to spend the whole summer on a small hill farm on the North Yorkshire Moors. It was only 40 acres, 18 cows, some black face ewes and arrable for hay and swedes. My interest in rare breeds comes from my loathing of factory farming and intensive breeding programmes. I love pigs and goats,chickens and horses. Ideally I would keep Tamworth pigs, Anglo Nubian goats and large horses such as the Suffolk Punch or Clydesdale to work the land. I will get there eventually but at the moment I'm divorced, bringing up 2 boys and training to be a nurse. Animal wise I have 2 labradors, 3 rabbits, 3 cats, an aviary and a wild pond. I constantly annoy my neighbours by planting flowers to attract butterflies and bees and I quite often have injured birds and hedgehogs to look after, not to mention encouraging bats. In a few years I want to leave this area and find my haven in the coutryside but unitl that is possible I'll gather info from websites such as this! Anne

-- Anne Mather (a.mather@ntlworld.com), November 12, 2001.

Anne, out of curiosity, what are the land prices there? We measure by acres, 43,560 square feet or just a little under 5,000 square meters. Most of us do not understand your money system also.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), November 12, 2001.

Mitch, I don't know about Anne but the prices in the South of England are about £2000 - £3000 per acre, if you are buying over about twenty. It can cost a lot more for less acerage. I think that is about $3000 - $4200 an acre. There are quite strict laws here so I don't think it is very easy to buy land with no property in the country. Often farms aare sold off in lots. The first would be for small aceraage and the house and out buildings then maybe another two lots with options of the land.

Anne where abouts do you live? I am in North Devon. We have a 30 acre smallholding.

Alison in the UK

-- Alison Homa (alisonhoma@aol.com), November 12, 2001.

Hi Anne, I'm glad to hear you love the country and are trying hard to get back. I go to a web site in Wales; she has a smallholding with sheep,chickens,geese, goats and she just got a milk cow. It's due to calf in Feb. She writes a diary to keep us informed. There's a forum and a book store. We also share recipes. http://www.acountrylife.com I have a lot of web sites if you want to mail me. I have a small farm in Washington and we have a cow and calf now. We just put beef in to our freezer,so we are enjoying the fruit of our labor.

-- Jo (farmerjo@kvalley.com), November 12, 2001.

Anne, this is the forum for Countryside Magazine. Most of us are readers/subscribers. You might want to give it a look at www.countrysidemag.com

Welcome to the forum!

-- Joy F [in So. Wisconsin] (CatFlunky@excite.com), November 12, 2001.

OOh Jo I checked out A Country Life on your recommendation. Its very nice. i can never get enough homesteader info. thank you! :o)

-- Alison in N.S. (aproteau@istar.ca), November 13, 2001.