Hello from sleepy Suffolk

[Hedgecrafter]

Morning all.

I stumbled across this forum just now whilst googling about homesteading. It looks really interesting so I thought I should get involved.

A little information.
I am 29. I live with my partner and our 7 month old son in a small village near Ipswich. The last few years we have been growing a few things like runner beans, tomatoes, berries, herbs and salads and potatoes. No enough to live on, just as a hobby and to learn a bit out growing.
We buy and cook as efficiently as we can. I use old war time recipe books, grind meat and occasionally buy whole game animals to process myself.

I am involved in bushcraft and many of the skills involved with it such as leather work, tool making and wild food. But again, I'm not hugely experienced, just a weekender.

My partner is a wildlife artist and is quite crafty to, making clothes and baby toys in her spare time.

Recently I have started a bit of a gardening apprenticeship if you will. My partners Grandad is now on his own and has been growing all his (and most of the families veg) for 30 years. Now he is getting on I am doing most of the grafting in exchange for the knowledge.

Unfortunately, our landlord is selling our rented house so we have no idea where we will be in a few months. Where ever it is, we intent to make it a homestead and be as self sufficient as possible. We will be focusing on saving money, building raised beds for veg, keeping chickens if possible, build meat drying and smoking barrels, learn to jar and preserve foods and mainly learn the skills to live naturally.

Our ambition is to one day own a bit of woodland. Certainly. Ot on the cards for a few years but it's something to work towards.


That's me done.
Have a good day everyone.

[RunnerBean]

Hello I just joined too. I'm in Cambs so not a million miles away.

[jamesintayside]

I hope you get a nice place - guess you feel a bit unsettled with the landlord selling.

All the best

[diggernotdreamer]

You sound a bit like me at your age. Of course, we didn't have the internet then so it was very difficult getting all the information, so we formed and joined groups. Lots of my experience has been through trial and error, observing nature and mainly just getting on and doing it rather. I now have 3.5 acres of land, veg garden, tunnels, animals (all pets we don't eat them). The downside is, that we have done this at a time of life when you have a lot less energy. I wish I had done what I wanted to do years ago, which was buy a field and plant a woodland, I could have been reaping the benefits now or even sold it on at a profit to buy something else. Wwoof and Helpex are interesting, have you thought about doing wwoofing holidays, you can get a lot of experience that way. But good luck with your housing, can't be easy