Our Welsh farm
Discussion
sfella said:
SunsetZed said:
Oh that looks amazing, will add Tresaith as a stop for next year!
Need to find a new place to stay now as the usual doesn't accept pets and we've just got a dog.
We're dog friendly Need to find a new place to stay now as the usual doesn't accept pets and we've just got a dog.
mikees said:
Lovely looking place fella. Might see you in the spring. Is 3 dogs ok? Lab cocker and border terrier?
Thank you, no problem. Think website allows 2 as standard but 3's all good.I was away from the farm today but the 'boss' was here to sort out with fencing contractor. I like doing my own fencing usually but we want 100's of meters running in and their big knocker just makes it easier.
First job has been fencing off the footpath from the 'top field'. This is our main hay crop field but also winter grazing if needed. The hedge/tree line was all trimmed back by us over the last wlfew weeks and a hedge cutting contractor came once we were into October to flail the rest back. Not a fan of hired in help but we simply can't buy every gadget and when hedge cutting came to £60 it's hard to justify a few k on a machine.
Evanivitch said:
More tractor and equipment photos, please.
When are the bee hives arriving?
And where's the solar power going?
As I said no huge gear and what we have is generally old but fixable and no electrics.When are the bee hives arriving?
And where's the solar power going?
Our main tractor is this 70's International, 70 odd horsepower, turns on a sixpence and uses hardly any derv. 1st isn't always there but it's been semi 'restored' so everything works, lights etc. Had this a few years and was brought down on a low loader.
Our old Massey is based on a 135, MF40 loader, not the biggest but lifts 90% of what we need shifted. Dynamo is currently shot but starts first time and mechanically brilliant. Needs some new tyres and tlc but for now a good buy, purchased here in Wales and been local for a very long time.
Not long bought this old girl, a fresh Japanese import JDM spec haha. Starts nicely and digs as needed, tracks and sprockets need changing and on the pallet ready for me to fit. Going from steel to rubber so a bit lighter on the ground and quieter for when guests about. She squeals like a banshee currently! Had this off a guy in Cumbria off Facebook, he deals in older agri and cheap cars. Had something off him before that I went to fetch and meet him and was happy to buy this unseen. Worked out well and delivered here to the door.
Our old tipping trailer, and said tracks for digger. Trailer isn't exciting but so useful for less thana grand spent. Again this came down on the low loader, filled with alsorts of farm rubbish. Brilliant and wouldn't part with it. We find it's not always the most expensive stuff that makes our life easier
Evanivitch said:
Good stuff! And for the most part a patriotic colour scheme too 
Do you foresee any extra equipment? I know you said the hedge management contractor is cheap, hard to justify new equipment.
Someone locally is selling their place,we've agreed of his tractor is to go I'll buy, nice machine and a particular model I've always wanted, had the model as a kid etc This is purely because it's a nice example of what you like rather than required.Do you foresee any extra equipment? I know you said the hedge management contractor is cheap, hard to justify new equipment.
We use a 6ft topper to run over anything we need, and transport box for small jobs etc For our current uses I can't say we need huge amounts more and back in the day they farmed lots of land with what we're using now. We sold our chain harrows when we moved as they were the basic drag type and with price increases we sold for what we paid a few years before, a nice folding set would be handy and a decent roller. We aren't keeping horses really so not as required. There's a local farm sale in a fortnight so who knows what gems will be there!
Aside from the holiday rentals, do you have a plan with your land? You mentioned coming from a smallholding background. do you sell produce, or aim at self sustainability, or something/nothing else? We have enough space to keep ourselves going i'd have thought. We will unlikely keep animals for meat (wife is veggie) so could grow most of what we would need for a year, but having played at it, its already clear how much time is involved. Do you do what you do for enjoyment, or is it more than that?
craigthecoupe said:
Aside from the holiday rentals, do you have a plan with your land? You mentioned coming from a smallholding background. do you sell produce, or aim at self sustainability, or something/nothing else? We have enough space to keep ourselves going i'd have thought. We will unlikely keep animals for meat (wife is veggie) so could grow most of what we would need for a year, but having played at it, its already clear how much time is involved. Do you do what you do for enjoyment, or is it more than that?
The sheep flock Will grow if all goes to plan, between buying in breeding stock and some ram rotation. We then sell on ewe lambs that we don't need for other people to breed with. We keep the boys, castrate and they are for food. We have enough demand from people that know us and that makes its way quite quickly via word of mouth. We're lucky also to be only a few miles from the mart so excess stock can easily be sold. Things like chickens and ducks is a 'nice to have' and the feed is more than the eggs produce in money etc
Likewise with the goats, that's just an interest rather than money spinner.
When we are happy to increase acreage we'll have a few cattle, we don't need many to provide a good amount of beef a year but cattle need a fair amount of ground and I don't want to trash what we have just to have them sooner.
The pigs we keep are basically to provide food,the sow will stay as mother pig and the piglets will be sold at 8 weeks or fattened. This is done 'naturally' in that they live out, eat decent food at a reasonable pace and fatten naturally rather than being force fed to get them to weight.
Why we do it....honestly we love it, that's the first reason
Secondly it's us trying to live by our own terms, more control over what we eat etc, less reliance on society and a supermarket. I'm no eco warrior, I love my cars etc like 99% on here but want to do what we can in our own way to not massively impact the world.
Time as you say is easily taken by this life and there are sacrifices. As a couple we've never had a foreign holiday, we rarely go away anyway but if we do it's a military operation. It's hard being away as you know if there is a 'animal' disaster your too far to do anything and you wonder by knowing our animals could we have spotted it 12 hours earlier etc. Sounds daft but you have to get to know your animals. We know which sheep are likely to try die etc
It's a lot to put on someone, there are people who offer it as a job but that adds to the cost of hols and the cottages would probably need to be closed so a weeks holiday suddenly gets that expensive it looses its appeal.
But 95% of the time it's heaven, just out in a field feretting about with some stupid job laughing at the fact we're pi55 wet through, stood in s
tsfella said:
craigthecoupe said:
Aside from the holiday rentals, do you have a plan with your land? You mentioned coming from a smallholding background. do you sell produce, or aim at self sustainability, or something/nothing else? We have enough space to keep ourselves going i'd have thought. We will unlikely keep animals for meat (wife is veggie) so could grow most of what we would need for a year, but having played at it, its already clear how much time is involved. Do you do what you do for enjoyment, or is it more than that?
The sheep flock Will grow if all goes to plan, between buying in breeding stock and some ram rotation. We then sell on ewe lambs that we don't need for other people to breed with. We keep the boys, castrate and they are for food. We have enough demand from people that know us and that makes its way quite quickly via word of mouth. We're lucky also to be only a few miles from the mart so excess stock can easily be sold. Things like chickens and ducks is a 'nice to have' and the feed is more than the eggs produce in money etc
Likewise with the goats, that's just an interest rather than money spinner.
When we are happy to increase acreage we'll have a few cattle, we don't need many to provide a good amount of beef a year but cattle need a fair amount of ground and I don't want to trash what we have just to have them sooner.
The pigs we keep are basically to provide food,the sow will stay as mother pig and the piglets will be sold at 8 weeks or fattened. This is done 'naturally' in that they live out, eat decent food at a reasonable pace and fatten naturally rather than being force fed to get them to weight.
Why we do it....honestly we love it, that's the first reason
Secondly it's us trying to live by our own terms, more control over what we eat etc, less reliance on society and a supermarket. I'm no eco warrior, I love my cars etc like 99% on here but want to do what we can in our own way to not massively impact the world.
Time as you say is easily taken by this life and there are sacrifices. As a couple we've never had a foreign holiday, we rarely go away anyway but if we do it's a military operation. It's hard being away as you know if there is a 'animal' disaster your too far to do anything and you wonder by knowing our animals could we have spotted it 12 hours earlier etc. Sounds daft but you have to get to know your animals. We know which sheep are likely to try die etc
It's a lot to put on someone, there are people who offer it as a job but that adds to the cost of hols and the cottages would probably need to be closed so a weeks holiday suddenly gets that expensive it looses its appeal.
But 95% of the time it's heaven, just out in a field feretting about with some stupid job laughing at the fact we're pi55 wet through, stood in s
tAlso, based on my limited experience of sheep, they're all likely trying to die, don't beat yourself up over it
sfella said:
Absolutetly no idea if there is any interest in this but....
This year we sold our smallholding in the Midlands and moved 200 miles to West Wales. We didn't know anyone here, wasn't particularly an area we knew but it offered everything we wanted.
We had looked long at hard at Scotland,very far north Scotland but the prospect of indy ref was a concern that I could shake. We knew we wanted rural and near the coast would be a bonus so we starting looking everywhere. The place we bought wasn't what we thought we wanted but being here we felt at home and could see a future here, others that were on paper what we wanted didn't offer that.
The move was always planned in so far as we wanted to be more remote and wasn't influenced by anything like covid just the right time. We've watched too many people hold off and die/get too old before doing anything so have jumped and gone. It seems a much nicer environment to raise children and home schooling here is much more mainstream which is what we intend to do.
We have been very much welcomed, have made friends and couldn't ask for anything else from people locally.
The place we've bought needs work but that's all we've ever known so am happy doing that. The first issue was evident on day 1, no hot water. Tank and boiler were/are ancient ,tank replaced and old boiler still chugging away for now.
If there's interest I'll put some more on, here's our pace anyway!
[url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/pWzjcT1y[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/ikB4CgrQ[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/KEi5TXbd[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/mUTWrHdP[/url]
I could almost have wrote that! Substitute midlands, for south east, and west wales for mid wales. Just more recent. Like last week!This year we sold our smallholding in the Midlands and moved 200 miles to West Wales. We didn't know anyone here, wasn't particularly an area we knew but it offered everything we wanted.
We had looked long at hard at Scotland,very far north Scotland but the prospect of indy ref was a concern that I could shake. We knew we wanted rural and near the coast would be a bonus so we starting looking everywhere. The place we bought wasn't what we thought we wanted but being here we felt at home and could see a future here, others that were on paper what we wanted didn't offer that.
The move was always planned in so far as we wanted to be more remote and wasn't influenced by anything like covid just the right time. We've watched too many people hold off and die/get too old before doing anything so have jumped and gone. It seems a much nicer environment to raise children and home schooling here is much more mainstream which is what we intend to do.
We have been very much welcomed, have made friends and couldn't ask for anything else from people locally.
The place we've bought needs work but that's all we've ever known so am happy doing that. The first issue was evident on day 1, no hot water. Tank and boiler were/are ancient ,tank replaced and old boiler still chugging away for now.
If there's interest I'll put some more on, here's our pace anyway!
[url]|https://thumbsnap.com/pWzjcT1y[/url][url]|https://thumbsnap.com/ikB4CgrQ[/url][url]|https://thumbsnap.com/KEi5TXbd[/url][url]|https://thumbsnap.com/mUTWrHdP[/url]Will be following with interest.
Day 1 for us was no hot water, no heating oil and a hot water feed tank with thousands of flies in it. That was fun!
monkfish1 said:
I could almost have wrote that! Substitute midlands, for south east, and west wales for mid wales. Just more recent. Like last week!
Will be following with interest.
Day 1 for us was no hot water, no heating oil and a hot water feed tank with thousands of flies in it. That was fun!
Congrats! Where in mid Wales?Will be following with interest.
Day 1 for us was no hot water, no heating oil and a hot water feed tank with thousands of flies in it. That was fun!
sfella said:
.......I love my cars etc
........But 95% of the time it's heaven, just out in a field feretting about with some stupid job laughing at the fact we're pi55 wet through, stood in st
Love what you're doing and a local event to you may be of interest https://www.raliceredigion.co.uk........But 95% of the time it's heaven, just out in a field feretting about with some stupid job laughing at the fact we're pi55 wet through, stood in s
t.....and talking about rallying - your second sentence there reminded me of marshalling
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