| Archive for countrytalkandtips.myfreeforum.org ........................ smallholding, crafts and country life ................................................... IN IRELAND ....................................................... |
| Rebecca |
Leitrim HomesteadThanks for setting up the forum, fantastic.My husband and I relocated to the sticks of lovely Leitrim 4 years ago. We have an old Irish farmhouse with 13 acres, 10 of which are oak plantation. We are renovating our house and striving for an ecosensitive existance with our two little girls. We try to grow as much of our own food as we can, and anything else we need we buy local. Our heating system is solar for hot water and solid fuel backboiler for our heat and winter water. Our fuel is timber waste product from my husbands work and we are also planting our own willow coppice this winter so we will be totally self sufficient fuel wise. I'm hoping to invest in a polytunnel this spring and sell our surplus food to eager neighbours! You can read all about our eco adventures on my craft blog, where I also sell my work at www.irishcraftworker.typepad.com My husband also has a blog which follows the design and creations of his hand crafted toys in his workshop at www.hobbyhorsetoys.wordpress.com Can't wait to 'hook up' with other likeminded people, both virtually on this forum and hopefully at a gathering next summer. Rebecca ps a 'blog' is an on-line diary, or 'web log' with new entries posted almost daily. |
| Róisín |
Sounds like a dream Rebecca! Well done you for achieving it 
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| Rebecca |
Roisin, your right, it is a dream come true, but its also a tough slog and at quite regular intervals it can be a total nightmare! But we wouldn't have it any other way now ... |
| wayland |
Nice one Rebecca . I would love that amount of wood land as trees are my fabourite plant, and I am sure my pigs would love it. A willow coppice is in my plans for fuel in the future, as is an acre of oil seed rape for bio diesel. The cost of fuel will never be cheap anymore, so we have to stand on our own two feet. I love the idea to bits Do you have stock on yopur holding?
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| Rebecca |
Hi there
We dont' have livestock I'm afraid. We did have chucks but they were so tame the children carried them around all day kissing them, so when bird flu came to France we decided it was probably best to send them to a friends farm. It was either that, or house them indoors as per guidelines, and not let the children near them .. kind of defeated the purpose of having them. We started out with 7 great isa brown chucks €7 each, laid every day. We then invested in 5 pedigree birds, all of which turned out to be cockerals ...worst €100 ever spent! If we get chucks again we'll get the isa browns, they were perfect ladies! We are considering raising a couple of piglets, or lambs, researching at the moment. |