Winter 2011-12
So we have this plan to live a relatively self sufficient, low carbon life and hopefully showing people how this can be done on just a few acres.
We are currently living in 2nd floor flat, in a South Oxfordshire village which is predominantly housing association.
A trip through mid Wales confirmed this was the sort of community we were looking for, plus the Welsh Assembly were more advanced with the One Planet Planning attitudes, that is to aim at using only 1 planets worth of resources instead of 3 which we are currently doing.
South Wales was also vaguely inbetween our respective families. Our search narrowed.
After one and a half years we found 14 acres near the Brechfa forest, mostly pasture with lots of overstood hazel. Not exactly what we were looking for but time felt like it was running out. This was last summer.
Some months and several visits later we have found it
infested with ticks and noticed glow worms at night and rare lichens on the trees, this is an isolated spot with just 3 neighbours. The more we looked at it, the less likely permission to live here seemed likely.
In the mean time a piece of land which was exactly what we were looking for (8 acres of pasture & 5 acres of woodland, on the edge of a village with a train station) came up for sale near Builth Wells. Using up the last of our savings we bought it.
Now the land aint great, poorly drained and too much soft rush and so it will need lots of work, that's all do-able but the logistical problems of making this happen started to hit us. It's just cannot be done from Oxfordshire and so we started to look for temporary accommodation over there.
Then a very cheap house came up for sale in our favourite village. Families pulled together to lend us what we needed (I even did the conveyancing myself to save a few quid {quite proud of that, you may notice}) and we were able to get it.
Now we need to sell our Berinsfield flat and the first bit of land and pay people back.
In the meantime, we have planted 194 trees and coppiced some of the overstood hedges.
I have spent months researching the myriad of hoops we will need to jump through, planning policies and preparing a proposal.
We know we will need an income and we have identified a niche agricultural business - ethical Angora wool. This is quite a labour intensive business with low profit margins and so hasn't developed in the UK, but it's ideal for our situation where we are not looking to make a fortune, just pay our way.
So more research and contacts made, Janet learns knitting and spinning (the later proving difficult) and also goes on a bee keeping course. We both learn hedge-laying as this may provide some extra income in winter months.
May 2012
Some months later and the flat still hasn't sold, we decided to bite the bullet and go. Janet handed in her notice and it is now her last day of work. Within 2 weeks we will be living in Wales.
It 'aint easy
Before we've even got to Wales, the problems are mounting up. Trying to bring 8 acres of neglected pasture back into shape on a shoestring with one eye on how much oil you are burning to achieve it, aint easy.
Unfortunately newish utility vehicles of usefulness all seem to be big gas guzzlers so we bought an aging Ford P100 pick-up truck with a number of 'issues' but an economical 1.8 diesel engine. This needed lots of attention.
Then we got a trailed flail mower, with a Briggs & Stratton 16hp engine. But it keeps cutting out, some sort of fuel problem, then it shredded the drive belts.
And the rain just keeps coming and preventing us from doing very much, and the bracken is still spreading, I think we're going to have to call upon a neighbouring farmer with a big tractor and mower. Hopefully we'll be able to achieve more once we're over there, I'll keep you posted.
