Well - It's been a very long time since we've been on here. Mainly because there just hasn't been anything to report. We've been desperately trying to pull things together so we can begin the lifestyle we want - and suddenly in the last few weeks it's all been falling into place.

So I am delighted to be able to tell you that as of 1st September we will be renting 4 acres of land (although we already have access to it now). We picked up 14 rescued battery chickens this morning and put them into their new home. It's horrific seeing the state some of them are in - but satisfying knowing that we will give them a great new start.

In fact - only 2 hours after putting them into their new home we had our very 1st egg!

We've also got a tractor! It's a compact Ford tractor in very good condition. It's already stored up at the farm so there's loads of plans to use it.

Anthony finishes work next week (redundancy) so launches his new business officially after that (property maintenance / handyman). The idea is that the business will give us some initial income which will go back into the farm for now, and the recycled wood business will be in the background for now while we get established.

On the farm we're planning to get a couple of pigs and a couple of goats to start with, along with the chickens, and grow a ton of veg / fruit. Eventually we'd like to add in more chickens that we breed ourselves for meat (rather than these battery ones which are just for the eggs), geese and bees.

And although we're not living up at the farm, it's only 3 miles away so easy to get to each day.

So finally - things are coming into place. All we need now is for me to find a way out of the day job while still being able to cover living expenses and we'll be sorted! :-)

We're not too good at updating this, are we?! Never mind. We've been busy though - Anthony's just finished his prototype for a new product, and I'm busy designing him a proper website. (I'll let you know when I've finished so you can have a look and comment if you like.)

He's decided to diversify from just wood products (although the wood stuff is definitely still ongoing). The principle behind everything he makes though, is that it's all recycled from what others have discarded as waste.

So here is the prototype chiminea that he's done this weekend.

The gas bottle on the left is to show what the chiminea was a few days ago! It's really good - it kicks out so much heat it's going to be fabulous for those long, late, spring & summer evenings in the garden.

I'll let you know when the website is finished.

Happy new year everyone. We're on a real mission to get our lives how we want them this year. We wanted to share our almost perfect evening last night with you as it really felt like an achievement to us - it's exactly what we're trying to do.

(This picture looks a lot brighter than it actually was - that's the camera flash at work there!) We spent the evening cooking over the open fire, by candlelight. It was great. No electricity (apart from the things like fridge freezer etc) - just candlelight. Heat and cooking source was from the wood which was all free - discarded pallets that someone didn't want. Anthony made the stand in the fireplace from some old chair legs, a few bits of box section he had in the garage left over from another bigger job, and an old cooling rack welded onto the top. Entertainment for the evening was provided by a combination of cooking the vegetable casserole in the pot on the fire, watching and playing with the dog and cat, and chatting over a glass of home-made apple wine (made from windfalls).

Sadly the veg weren't all home-grown but we're getting there!

It really was what we're aiming for in life - getting back to basics. It was so satisfying doing everything like that. We both got a real sense of achievement from the evening. Cooking was an event that we both shared. Not using electric was also great - it really shows if you need to it's actually quite easy to live frugally but still eat well and be happy. In fact happier.

Here's to even more of the same. (I'm wondering whether wind-up laptops exist...!)

Us x

Box pics

OK - this is a quick low-tech version of a photo of this larger box (taken hastily on living room floor!). It isn't quite finished - there's no lining yet and a catch is optional if wanted.

Well - I've joined the Transition Helston group this morning at the farmers' market. Met a few interesting people, and will hopefully get quite involved. I've no idea yet specifically what I'll be doing, but apparently there's lots of things going on so hopefully I'll find some things that excite me. They have 2 sub-groups at the moment - food and energy. I can see me on the food group and Anthony on the energy one.

We've planned our growing for next year as well. There's some work to do before we can start - clearing out and reinforcing an old kennel shed & run to convert it into a chicken run instead, digging out and fencing in the veg area, building a polytunnel etc etc. All good fun though - we're hoping to be really ready to start doing things in february sometime, so we've got til then to do the preparation work.

Christmas preparations are underway - while walking the dog I'm taking note of the nice evergreen sources to make my wreath and garlands. I'm really looking forward to it this year.

Sonia

A progress update

I've just sat and read through what's on here so far - and it's all about the negative things we're trying to escape, and very little about the positive things we're actually doing. There are a couple of things I can't post about yet - but I thought I'd put an update on what we're getting on with.



I think it's safe to say that we've been in a planning phase since we moved in September. And suddenly, it feels like some of those plans are coming to fruition. With fingers and toes crossed, and the wind in the right direction, there is a real possibility we are on the edge of a fairly significant change in our lifestyle to become the way we want it. It's small steps for now - but that's probably the best way.



So - the bits I can tell you about for now. We absolutely love this cottage. Long term we want our own land so we can be proper smallholders - but apart from the land this place is just perfect. If the landlord lets us we'd like to stay here until we can actually do the full land thing (maybe 2 or 3 years). However we do know someone only 3 miles away who has land. That land was a smallholding until personal circumstances changed for the owners, and is currently pretty much unused. However we are now planning a bit of a co-operative operation. The owner would love to restart doing things on a small scale but is unable to cope with it on her own. So we're going to do it together! We're off up there on Sunday to have a day of of planning - where the veg patch will be, what we're going to grow, do we need a polytunnel, how do we get the chicken run set up etc etc. It's really exciting.



Plus our dog gets on really well with hers (all 4 of them!) and they can run round together in the fields and use up some of that endless energy - a definite bonus!



I've discovered that helston is a newly set up Transition Town. I'm hoping to get involved with that as well, once certain other things have fallen into place. In my ideal world I'll be quite a key member but we'll wait and see about that - I'll tell you more when I can. Positive vibes for Monday afternoon would be good though... ;-) If that idea doesn't come off I'll certainly get involved in some way anyway.



That's enough waffle for now - but I thought I should post and let people know that the dream continues even though we're not online as often now. Our ultimate goals haven't changed - and we're definitely moving forwards right now.



Sonia x

Here's Blue

Just for you Kath!!

His left eye is a normal brown colour - his right is a piercing blue colour. He had his 2nd jabs today so in a week we can get out and about with him properly - and run off some of that energy!! (phew!)