No T Words mentioned at all - a fresh start

Aww thank you Kate, Candlelight and MLW.

We are going to look at a first property this weekend - it's right on the edge of an agricultural town and has about 3 acres. The house is smaller than what we have now but has several outbuildings, and also animal shelters in the paddocks. The outside looks pretty unloved, but the inside does look nice. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

Kate - ducks are high on the priority list!

Hoglet x

thank you for your support Candlelight!

There will be much veg and fruit growing, we would love chooks and ducks and would need something to eat the grass to keep it down. We would probably let a neighbour graze some sheep on the fields as we would need to learn a bit more about them before taking on some of our own (I would love goats, but I spent yesterday learning about their escapology ways so I would need to have more time to dedicate to them I think ;-) )

love hoglet x

I think goats are so funny but I would think a bit of a handful.

When the grandchildren were younger we used to take them over to Hatton Country Park at Warwick and the goats would be climbing all over the place, I may be wrong but they do seem to be good natured. I am sure someone will come along now and tell me they are not

Candlelightx

Ducks are great characters, they learn what certain sounds mean so they hear the garage door opening (where their food is stored) and all start quacking because they think they are going to get fed At our old house it was the sound of the gate opening because they used to hear that when we got home

We have friends who have 5 acres - they don't work full time and have quite an unusual set up but they manage to look after it all and it's very productive.

Grazing is a great idea if you can't use all the land at first. Our friends did have a couple of dexters one year but that was too much for the land; they have been very successful with pigs (we bought some meat off them and it was amazing) and had sheep for the first time last year, unfortunately they didn't sell any of the meat.

ETA, I know what you mean about the land / house balance. When we were looking we would have been happy with anything from 1/4 acre to 10 acres but the area we were looking in is so expensive that anything with more than a postage stamp garden goes for silly money.

Our house has 1/3 acre (although it doesn't seem that large). The only reasons we could afford this are that it's an hour away from most major places of work and that it was empty for a year and needs loads of work doing to it. That said, it's such a lovely feeling looking out at the fields around here and the hills in the distance, we do have a great view.

Ducks are, unfortunately, very destructive around plants. They ate the tops of all my onions one year :eek: They're great for dealing with veggie scraps though - the only things that so in my composter are onions skins, tea bags and egg shells!

They are also very good to put on a veggie patch to fertilise and clear any weeds before you plant it up though

They do like to dabble in the soil for insects, they take a beakful on water out of the bowl, drop it on the ground to soften it and then make a hole - the duck pen ends up with some huge craters and holes in it and can get really muddy when it's wet so it is good to be able to move them around!