Hello

[Lost-in-the-Day]

Hello everyone,
Just joined the forums (obviously) and hope to be free of the rat race one day, hopefully before I go completely mad. I'm currently stuck on Jersey, aka the Rock, supposedly for a year or so but life likes to throw it's little surprises at me so who knows how long I'll be here. Work keeps me too busy to do much "hands on" at the moment but I am reading and researching for the day when I am able to move back to the main land and make a start on being self-sufficient.

Hope to learn a lot on here and get to know some of you better.

Rachael x

[Lentil]

Welcome, Rachael!
This is a lovely place to be.
Beth x

[Lost-in-the-Day]

Thank you :-)

[southeast-isher]

Welcome! What's Jersey like then? What sort of work do you do there?

[Lost-in-the-Day]

Thanks.

Hmm, I may not be the best person to ask what Jersey is like, lol, I'm a little jaded! As a child it was great, I grew up on a dairy farm which was awesome. But nowadays all the politicians care about is the finance industry, putting Jersey on the map with the rest of the world and building lots of first time buyer houses that no one can afford. Green space is being developed like it was going out of fashion and everything is stupidly expensive just because it's Jersey and businesses know they can charge more.

My works not very exciting I'm afraid Full time customer services all year round and then during term time I have an extra part time job as a school matron/secretary. It's every bit as thrilling as it sounds Unfortunately for me I graduated when the recession hit so after failing to find work and spending all my savings on rent I had to return to Hotel Mum and Dad, (which happens to be on Jersey), for a short while to get back on my feet. Hence why it is only temporary.

[Milims]

Hi there and welcome

[Merry]

Welcome to Ish!
Do you still live on the dairy farm? What do you plan to do when you`re 'back on your feet'?

[spider8]

Hello and welcome Rachael from Orkney

[Lost-in-the-Day]

Thank you

Sadly not, we still live at the same address but my parents had to give up the farm years ago because they were losing more money than they were making and had 4 children to feed. We still have some land though, my dad has an orchard which grows mainly plums and both my parents have their own veggie patches, mostly lettuce, potatoes, leeks, onions and carrots, we've got some berry bushes too but usually the birds get to them before we do. We've also kept chickens over the years but our remaining 3 are so ancient now that I think we get about 1 egg a month if we're lucky!

When I've got enough savings I'll be moving up to Durham in a year or two (it's where I went to uni and it's a beautiful place, and most of my friends still live there) and doing what I can with what I can get, job market and housing market allowing. Hoping for a place where I can have a veggie patch and some rabbits at first, chickens as well depending on what our neighbours are like and then we'll work our way on from there.

[MuddyWitch]

Welcome to ISH

MW

[yvette]

Welcome and good luck with your plans for Durham. I've found much information, wisdom and support here and I hope you will too.

[Lost-in-the-Day]

Thanks, I certainly hope so!

[southeast-isher]

Thanks for sharing your story. And good luck with your move to Durham!