PowerSwitch

Well, we have done it !

We have really done it this time!

No more half measures, no more just talking, no more just surfing Peak Oil sites and contemplating navels with other peakniks.

Now we are in the proverbial it up to our necks! In more sense than one.

This is the story of a perfectly respectable professional man with a grown up family who one fine day went bonkers, sold his and her perfectly respectable new suburban show house and bought a smelly old farm in deepest Cornwall. And the story of our struggles with the realities of rural life, the machinery, the stock, the wiring, BT, and drains, one must not forget the drains.

For those, who don't know yet know about our little adventure, we have bought a 60 acre farm near Bude in Cornwall, including the 150 resident sheep, farm and sheep dog, rusty old tractor with numerous attachments, the function of which is mostly mystery to me, cavernous 'cover yard', cow shed for about 25 animals (but no cows, yet) and lots more besides, which mostly looks like a pile of discarded rusty old prison cages ...


First day in - moving

Well actually about three days before moving I am setting out to transport my logs! Well, I am not about to leave my 2 year old logs behind, about a ton of them, from two large trees from our old garden. And the removal guys wanted an outrageous ?600 extra to take them.

But trusty old eBay comes to the rescue. For ?250 I get a truly enormous trailer (12x6 foot), load up all the logs, which just about fit, and here I am driving at 50 to 60 MPH rescuing my logs. (anything over 60 and the trailer starts to snake around something crazy, so at least I feel smug at saving all that oil at such a low speed).

But disaster is never too far away, as every pessimist knows - about a mile away to be exact, a mile from the farm, all kinds of noises coming from behind and trailer swings widely around as if I drive through a herd of wild boars, and yes you guessed it, tyre has blown and by now its torn to shreds and the trailer, including a ton of wood, is riding on the rim.

Frantic phone calls summon farmer Andy in his 6 seater pickup truck, where consumption is measures in gallons to the mile, turns up to assess the situation. Don't worry, just drive it to the farm and I will get it fixed tomorrow.

So off we go again, this time at about 3 miles per hour, Andy behind me with blinkers on. On the way I cave up several prize winning front lawns in my effort to keep off the hard concrete road, but to my surprise, we do arrive at the farm without the whole thing coming apart in the narrow lanes leading to our destination. True to his word, next day a local repair-all-man arrives, trailer, fully laden is lifted by the tractor, settled on a improvised ramp made of concrete slabs and a wheel taken away with a promise of early repair.

I know it can't be mended, but cowardly I keep quiet. I have tried to get a spare wheel in Kent and been told by at least five garages that is quite impossible, nobody uses this size of wheel any more!

Nevertheless, two hours later the wheel is back, banged into roughly round shape and a new tyre fitted! Unload logs, wave good bye and off we go back to fetch the garden stuff (which also a little too much for our removal company).

So first lesson of farming safely learned: everything can always be repaired.
Not a bad advice for a Post Peak life!

If you would like to know how we get on, do let me know and I'll keep you posted.

Congratulations! it's always good to know that someone made a move like this one. I wish I could give you a hint about country life but I grew up in a city, I guess it's going to be harder for city people.. but not impossible.

So many questions I would like to ask, like, what food are you going to grow? did you thought about hunting? Fishing? Are you going to use machinery? Sell animals? Do you have guns? Did you quit your job? Was it easy to convince your family? How did you got to take that decision?

So as for me, please keep posting your evolution.

Yeap, keep posting. No chance of some pics somewhere?

Congratulations Paul! Also, I think this is blog worthy!

good stuff Paul - will be following your progress with interest. Later this year we will be moving to New Zealand and doing something similar (though not quite as much land - more like 10 acres). Would be very grateful to hear how you get on.......

Paul, that's fantastic! Keep posting - the big stuff and the small, the good and the bad. As and when you can, 'cos you're going to be *busy*...

I wish you the very best success in every way.

Fantastic news Paul.

PowerSwitchJames wrote:Congratulations Paul! Also, I think this is blog worthy!

It would be nice it you'd consider keeping your updates here?

I think we should have a "The Good Life" or "Living the Good Life" forum section.

Bandidoz wrote:I think we should have a "The Good Life" or "Living the Good Life" forum section.

I would second that


And yes, please keep posting ^_^

Thank you all for your interest and support. It is a leap into the unknown for us, so sharing our experiences with people who appreciate what we are trying to do is helpful and encouraging.

Not much time in between unpacking and herding to blog, but here are a few answers and explanations:

No chance of some pics somewhere? ? could be, but I don?t know how to post pictures here. How do you do that?

What food are you going to grow? ? just grass I think, later probably some vegetables and potatoes. The whole farm is down to pasture, so its mainly animals that just eat grass ? like sheep, cows and geese

did you thought about hunting? ? 60 acre is too small for hunting, unless perhaps it was all covered by woods. We might shoot the occasional pigeon, but I can?t see it really


Fishing? - well, maybe, we hope eventually to construct a 100 foot pond on the site. One of the fields appears to have a spring as the that part of the field is always very wet (so wet in fact that I already managed to get the 4-wheeel drive tractor stuck there right up to both axels and sheepishly had to call for help, which was happily provided by our neighbouring farmer. Mind you I bet they had a laugh about that down the pub!)


Are you going to use machinery? ? definitely, for now. I decided that in the first year I would do everything exactly as the previous farmer, Andy, used to do. Only later, when I have learned something, will I start changing things. Otherwise I will be in deep shit right from the start)

Sell animals? ? definitely, that should be our main income. We will be selecting old breeds, that are suitable for this area and hopefully need minimal veterinary attention, such as the Devon Reds (or Ruby Reds) cows. They tend to grow more slowly, but do not need supplementary feed and are very hardy. The sheep are Suffolk, which seems to be a kind of bog standard, but we may slowly change to Dorsets, which have better wool and as good meat.

Do you have guns? ? Not yet, but I intend to apply for a license. Not really as means of defense, although it may come in handy under extreme conditions, it is more for shooting stock that is injured and in pain. ? and maybe foxes if they become too much of a pest

Did you quit your job? - I run a small business from home, so I was able to take that with me. Hopefully that will provide us with extra income, because farming at this ?small scale?, I am being told by everyone, does not pay. But then I do it for other reasons

Was it easy to convince your family? How did you got to take that decision? ? - My son (19, Uni) brought it to my attention around October/ November last year. Whilst initially (2 months or so) being skeptical, by December I was convinced, spoiled my wife?s Xmas, but by mid January she was also convinced. Anyway, she always fancied living on the coast somewhere in Cornwall, so she is happy to move even if, she tells herself, Peak Oil turns out not to be a serious problem. And both my sons are keen surfers, so I had no resistance there. From then on it was just a question of a bit of decorating and quick repairs, Estate Agents to sell the house, trip to Cornwall every couple of weeks to see about 30+ different farms and finally choosing this farm. And here we are ?
My main fear was that the housing market might start collapsing and we might loose the opportunity, and also if more than about 1% of the urban population decides they would rather buy a small holding or a farm, then farm prices could rocket at the same time ? so the faster the better, as far as I was concerned.

The Barn:

Mind you, we have not bought the ideal place at least in one respect ? we have had to take out a mortgage to be able to buy the whole farm, including a converted Barn (getting the barn was part of the deal). We don?t really want the barn and would be interested in talking to anyone, especially anyone from this site, about selling the barn to them and cooperating on this venture.

Just a quick description: the barn is quite small but really well converted ? all open plan. It has a kitchen, dining area, lounge area, galleried bedroom plus bathroom upstairs, utility room downstairs and an unconverted room downstairs, that could become a spare bedroom. It comes with 0.4 acre of land, but of course more land is available if needed. It was advertised at 165K and we bought it at 150K. If anyone is interested, just email me and come and check it out.

Looking further into the future, I am hoping to put forward a planning application for a small sustainable community on the site. There is a very suitable field of 6 acres and it just may be possible to persuade the Council to allow development of 4-6 houses with an acre each, provided I can make a very persuasive case for the proposal ? but that?s for the winter or next year.

And finally, at some point, perhaps October time, I thought we could hold an ?open day? so that anyone from PowerSwitch can come and see the awful truth of farming reality in person.

Any interest in that?

Cheers

Fantastic!

A few years back when the Steward Wood eco-village crowd were just moving on to their land, they made weekly blog/diary entries on their site complete with photos - I think it was one of the most compelling reads on the internet. They really managed to make you feel like you were living it right along side them, to the extent that when I finally went to visit the site, I felt immediately at home and knew as much about their history and future plans as some of the residents (much to their amusement).

If you were to do something like that, I'm sure it would guarantee you a group of eager supporters and cheerleaders, from which no doubt a more tangible community could quickly arise.

Thanks Paul

All these barns and buildings and communities sound really interesting but I'm a bit far away and can't bring myself to leave this part of the world yet - even though I think Cornwall is a far more inspiring place.

I'd certainly be interested in the guided tour - will there be tea and cakes?

Paul

If you e-mail a couple of photos for starters to me, I'll sort them out.

I'm interested in a tour too.

Thanks
DamianB

Paul, we would be interested in a tour of your farm. Very impressed that you've had the guts to do this! Hopefully it will inspire us to do something sooner rather than later....
Best Wishes. Rachel

I'd be interested in a tour as well!

I presume we have the venue for the next Powerswitch event established

I don't know if anyone's come across the Magdalen Project near Chard?