Countdown to Freedom

gallygirl · 27 November 2014 at 1:38PM

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

I'll PM you with more questions as I don't want to drive people mad with my inane questions.

Doesn't usually stop you :rotfl:.

Another vote for keeping it on the thread - this can be my vicarious smallholder thread

.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS · 27 November 2014 at 3:48PM

What a random, mad collection of people we are - I'll keep all the questions on my diary

Apologies up front Eager Elephant for driving you mad

Best wishes Tilly

JimLad · 27 November 2014 at 4:18PM

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Are you set up as a business to sell?

Hi Tilly,

Long time reader of your diary and noticed your question about eggs! I dont personally do it, however my mum has chickens and sells them from a dispenser at the end of her driveway. My step dad built it out of old aldi shopping trolleys (for the £1 latches that chain the trolleys together) and wood.

They sell about 10 boxes of 6 a day, so its a very profitable side business!

unhappy_shopper · 27 November 2014 at 9:23PM

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Out of interest, if anyone who reads my MF diary keeps a small holding, I'd love to hear from them.

Thanks, Tilly x

Tilly, there is a daydreaming thread in the Greenfingers section. They do talk about smallholding and other related stuff

Eager_Elephant · 28 November 2014 at 7:36AM

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

Morning Eager_Elephant, thanks SO much for stopping by.

How many acres do you have? we have about 4 acres which is split into 2 fields, 1 we keep for grazing the lambs and one for everyone else
Have you felt the need to be organic? Sorry if I upset anyone but I'd just be happy to say free range to people.We have never felt the need to be organic, the feed is much more expensive and not easily sourced in our area so we just buy normal feed. It doesn't seem to put people off.
Are you set up as a business to sell? DH is registered as self-employed as selling free range eggs and meat. If it's just a hobby you don't need to be registered as self-employed unless you make loads of money.
We are also registered with Defra for all our animals so we have a CPH number which means we can move stock (you must have this for goats/sheep/pigs/cattle etc) on and off our land. We are also registered for the birds even though we are now under the limit of 50 so we get updates same day for issues like bird flu and other things that might affect us.
Do you find geese eggs sell well? That's just me being nosy, unlikely to have any They sell really well, they fly off our little stall. The problem is that geese only lay a few eggs a year - the season is very short, usually March - May or June. And they won't lay everyday, we get between 15 - 30 per goose over the laying season.
They are utterly delicious but so filling, it is mainly yolk with hardly any white. They are brilliant in cakes (as are duck eggs). 1 goose egg equates to 3 hens eggs.

We didn't mean to have as many geese as we have (21), it started off with 2 which my DH and DB got me for my birthday - it wasn't really but they went to an auction and accidentally bid on 2:rotfl:
Then we thought we might do geese for Xmas (along with the turkeys) so we brought some from a supplier and let them breed but the geese are so lovely with quirky personalities that we couldn't bear to kill them and gradually we have brought more or they have hatched their own. Just recently we got 3 more as rescues and a few years ago our population increased by 2 overnight (we think someone dumped them on our field:mad:)

I'll PM you with more questions as I don't want to drive people mad with my inane questions.

Many thanks Tilly x x

As JimLad said about selling, we have a stall at the front on the house which we put our eggs on and we have an honesty box - it's usually fine and we get our money.

The meat we sell to friends and family and we keep a lot for ourselves. We have the meat slaughtered at the abattoir and butchered by a great guy who also labels etc so we conform to current regulations.

We sometimes breed chickens for meat - this is for our own consumption so DH kills them and I help pluck.

I follow a blog - Frugal in Suffolk - her and her husband run a campsite and sell chicken eggs, she has hundreds of chickens at various ages to keep her egg stall fully stocked. They make thousands every year just from eggs.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS · 28 November 2014 at 8:57AM

Morning, payday shuffle no. 2 is here :dance::dance::dance:

Mortgage is down to under £128k :T

All savings pots are being topped up each month again and offsets against the mortgage.

Car maintenance
Fuel
Household bills / insurance, repairs
Clothing
Dental
Kids birthdays
Our birthdays
Holidays
Christmas
Subscriptions
Portugal
MOS
Entertainment
Animals

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS · 28 November 2014 at 9:03AM

JimLad wrote: »

Hi Tilly,

Long time reader of your diary and noticed your question about eggs! I dont personally do it, however my mum has chickens and sells them from a dispenser at the end of her driveway. My step dad built it out of old aldi shopping trolleys (for the £1 latches that chain the trolleys together) and wood.

They sell about 10 boxes of 6 a day, so its a very profitable side business!

Thanks for delurking and feel free to delurk more often, although my diary seems to roam around multiple topics, not just mortgage freedom

Sounds like your dad may be more practical than my lovely Mr T, although saying that he has performed marvels in the garden this weekend.

I have realised that I have a ready market for my extra fruit, veg and eggs when I move abroad and that's quite tempting.

Pigs are really tempting me and I'm going to see if I can find a smallholder with experience and speak to them. With the power of the WWW that must be possible

Drop in whenever you're passing.

Tilly x

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS · 28 November 2014 at 9:13AM

Morning Eager Elephant, thanks for replying, I have the feeling you may be receiving a lot of interest

On average per year, how many vet call outs do you have, and if you don't mind sharing, what's the average cost per visit?

How many animals do you need to keep your family and friends in meat? I'm thinking here of the sheep you keep occasionally. I'm going to investigate how much meat a pig yields - now I need to find a butcher to talk to. Goodness, this MF journey certainly spans multiple topics :rotfl:

More questions to come - I have the same amount of land and its split into sections, which would enable me to have a poultry area, my fruit and veg, then around a 2.5 acre field for something else.

The fruit and veg area needs a lot of work, although the trees are well established now, the whole area needs more work but as we are not there it is tended twice a week on average. We will definitely be picking fruit and veg 12 months of the year once we move:)

I'm looking at some courses for us to consider - as we are planning ahead here, we have time on our side to learn and explore.

Best wishes Tilly x x

Poppy_Golightly · 28 November 2014 at 8:06PM

I've thought about a smallholding too. I couldn't raise any animal to be slaughtered as I am an animal lover and vegetarian. So I would probably keep sheep for wool. Knitting is big business these days and British wool is making a well deserved comeback. I know they would all end up with names too

. I also suppose I'd have to learn sheep shearing as well!

Also free range chickens for eggs.

Karmacat · 28 November 2014 at 9:32PM

An online friend of mine on another forum breeds rabbits for meat - not on a commercial basis, so the output isn't as high, she likes to "rest" the does who give birth. She keeps the skins to work too

I'm vegetarian too so its quite hard to hear sometimes, but its definitely doable, she only started up about 6 months ago.

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