I'll post most later, but I still have fencing to finish...
Saturday 5 March 2011
Milk Sheep are coming....
After an unsuccessful attempt to convert the family to drinking goat's milk last year, we have finally found a way of providing our own dairy produce - milk sheep, in particularly Frieslands. We have 4 ewes and a Suffolk x Texel ram arriving today. All the ewes are in lamb so we should be producing our own milk by April.
Monday 28 February 2011
A Bit About Us
Before we get on to the exciting stuff, let me introduce ourselves and some of the animals we already have. That way everyone knows who I am talking about in later posts.
First let me introduce myself, Alex Feltwell. I am 32 years old and have worked for over 10 years as a consultant in the financial services industry. I initially started out as an actuarial trainee, but as family came along, studying became too much to balance. For the last 5 years I have owned my own company Analysis 21 Limited who provided independent consultancy services. Last year Analysis 21 launched its own website content management system CMS21, primarily with the aim to allow me to spend more time at home with my family.
With my roots in Norfolk (my Father's family herald from Southery which is not far from our family named village of Feltwell (most of the residents seem to look like my Dad!), I have always been drawn to farming and livestock and in 2009 we managed to achieve that aim by moving to our current home, Champions Gate, a smallholding in Thornton Curtis, North Lincolnshire. Last year was very much a year of settling in and now as a family we now feel ready to embark on an attempt to become self-sufficient.
Next is my long suffering wife, Lara. Lara is 35 years old and we have been married over 10 years. She is a full time stay at home mum, who does not get the credit or recognition she deserves for running our household. She is one of the best managers I have ever come across and without her support we would not have achieved a quarter of what we have to date. Lara is currently pregnant with our sixth child. Although less attracted to the farming side of things, Lara is attracted by the cooking, baking and crafts aspects of adopting a self-sufficient lifestyle.
Our five children Xanthe (9), Nikolas (8), Gregory (6), Dennis (4) and Hebe (1) all help out to varying degrees. They are particularly helpful when it comes to collecting eggs and bottle feeding though strangely are often nowhere to be found when the animals need cleaning out.
We already have a few animals on the smallholding: our imaginatively named goats (Nanny, Nancy and Billy); our Kune Kune pigs (Pepper, Princess and Bernie) along with a couple of chickens and ducks. Inside the house is madder still with our 9 dogs, 6 cats, 3 guinea pigs, fish, hamsters, rats and gerbils.
As you can see it is a bit of mad house, but life would be a bit dull otherwise!
First let me introduce myself, Alex Feltwell. I am 32 years old and have worked for over 10 years as a consultant in the financial services industry. I initially started out as an actuarial trainee, but as family came along, studying became too much to balance. For the last 5 years I have owned my own company Analysis 21 Limited who provided independent consultancy services. Last year Analysis 21 launched its own website content management system CMS21, primarily with the aim to allow me to spend more time at home with my family.
With my roots in Norfolk (my Father's family herald from Southery which is not far from our family named village of Feltwell (most of the residents seem to look like my Dad!), I have always been drawn to farming and livestock and in 2009 we managed to achieve that aim by moving to our current home, Champions Gate, a smallholding in Thornton Curtis, North Lincolnshire. Last year was very much a year of settling in and now as a family we now feel ready to embark on an attempt to become self-sufficient.
Next is my long suffering wife, Lara. Lara is 35 years old and we have been married over 10 years. She is a full time stay at home mum, who does not get the credit or recognition she deserves for running our household. She is one of the best managers I have ever come across and without her support we would not have achieved a quarter of what we have to date. Lara is currently pregnant with our sixth child. Although less attracted to the farming side of things, Lara is attracted by the cooking, baking and crafts aspects of adopting a self-sufficient lifestyle.
Our five children Xanthe (9), Nikolas (8), Gregory (6), Dennis (4) and Hebe (1) all help out to varying degrees. They are particularly helpful when it comes to collecting eggs and bottle feeding though strangely are often nowhere to be found when the animals need cleaning out.
We already have a few animals on the smallholding: our imaginatively named goats (Nanny, Nancy and Billy); our Kune Kune pigs (Pepper, Princess and Bernie) along with a couple of chickens and ducks. Inside the house is madder still with our 9 dogs, 6 cats, 3 guinea pigs, fish, hamsters, rats and gerbils.
As you can see it is a bit of mad house, but life would be a bit dull otherwise!
Tuesday 22 February 2011
In search of self sufficiency....
Due to a complete lack of interest (and help) from our parents and living in the middle of nowhere, Lara and I have decided to share our efforts with the digital community!
This Blog will document our efforts to make our ever-growing family self sufficient from the produce of our own smallholding in North Lincolnshire. For those of you that know Lara and me, you will realise that this is quite different from how we have lived our lives to date.
Our strive for self-sufficiency has three main aims:
This Blog will document our efforts to make our ever-growing family self sufficient from the produce of our own smallholding in North Lincolnshire. For those of you that know Lara and me, you will realise that this is quite different from how we have lived our lives to date.
Our strive for self-sufficiency has three main aims:
- To provide our children with a happy and healthy lifestyle
- To produce the majority of the food we eat ourselves
- To reduce unnecessary outgoings in our lives
Now don't get me wrong we won't suddenly be becoming hippies, start living in trees or dressing in clothes made from twigs. This is all about making a change that will sit alongside our existing life. We have no idea how successful we will be or even if the children will still be speaking to us by the end of the year, but we are going to give it a go and see where we get to!
Hopefully lots of people will follow us and we might even get some help along the way!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)