Hellloooooo from Aberdeenshire, Scotland

[Shirley]

What a great find this site is! I was looking up information on the proposed carrier bag charge for Scotland when I found this place with it's fantastic article on the carry-a-bag idea.

I always carry a bag or three with me anyway - I hate using carrier bags for all the obvious reasons.

Anyway, I'm Shirley, I live in Aberdeenshire with two children, both boys, aged 11 and 2. I also have a daughter but she's 19 and has flown the nest.

We keep chickens and plan to grow our own veg - we moved here about a month ago and have lots of plans to use the land to it's full potential.

Looking forward to getting to know you all better and sharing hints and tips and enjoying the site and it's fabby forum.

Shirlz xx

[ina]

Hi Shirley

Welcome to the site - I'm glad to see somebody else on here to share the particular problems of growing stuff in Aberdeenshire with!

I'm hoping to keep chickens, too - was a bit put off by the bird flu scare and thought I'd better postpone it for a while. What type chickens have you got?

See you around

Ina

[Millymollymandy]

Hi Shirlz and welcome to the site!

You must be busy having just moved - are you downsizing? How much land do you have? How are you enjoying Scotland? Not that I'm being nosey, just curious!

[Shirley]

Hi again Ina... and hi Millymollymandy

Thanks for the welcome - I keep light and buff sussex chooks at the moment. When we were in Herefordshire we also kept embden geese, various ducks, and sheep too. We were renting there and there was a large paddock and plenty of outbuildings, but I wanted to move back to Aberdeenshire - I used to live here before but moved south when I separated... moved quite a bit too lol... I'm from Manchester originally, then moved to Aberdeenshire, then to Brighton, Bath, Herefordshire, and now back up here to the frozen north Shame I did all the moving though as house prices have gone through the roof over the last few years! Still, I'm really happy to be be back home.

I know what you mean about the problems of growing things in the north east Ina - such a short season isn't it.

Are there any other posters from our neck of the woods???

Shirlz xx

[ina]

There's greenbean from Stirling, and hay331 from Fife (but she hasn't been around a lot lately). Apart from that only sporadic posters.

Are you going to have sheep again?

Ina

[Shirley]

lol i'm not sure - right now we have about 5 of the local farmer's sheep that keep coming into our garden - we have no fencing. We are surrounded by sheep of all sorts of breed here.

We might - I'm not sure yet. DP isn't up here with me yet and I've got enough to do with the chooks, unpacking, kids and a kitten - I'll just let the farmer's sheep carry on doing the lawnmowing and fertilising for the time being

[ina]

Pity they don't do the digging and planting while they are at it!

Yes, fencing is the most important thing if you want your garden to be anything more than an extension to their field. Anyway, I was just feeling my way to see if I could interest you in a soay tup... (See swapshop!) I'd really like to find good homes for them. But I see you have your lawnmowers sorted out for now.

But you must be busy with all the moving stuff plus kids... Probably sitting at the computer just to have a rest ? I should be busily working away myself, but my body has gone into "Friday mode", just can't get my head around those figures in front of me. Which means I'll spend most of the weekend in the office, too.

Ina

[shiney]

Welcome Shirlz!

Oh another lucky person with chickens. I am still toying with the idea of having one or two.

I hope you find lots of useful info here. It's a very friendly and knowledgable place to be.

[Muddypause]

Welcome, and all that.

You know I keep casting my eyes northwards to north Aberdeenshire and Morayshire as a likely place where I can afford to buy a couple of acres and build a house on it. It's three or four years since I was last up there, casting around for suitable land, and I'm most depressed to see that prices are now three or four times what they were then. It seems that property prices forever race ahead of my ability to raise the money to buy it.

There was an interesting little TV programme about life on the Black Isle a few weeks ago. A little way from you, I know, but a nice little community they seem to have there.

[ina]

There was an interesting little TV programme about life on the Black Isle a few weeks ago. A little way from you, I know, but a nice little community they seem to have there.

... and a good organic brewery! Called Black Isle Brewery (would you believe it... )

And the land is flat, which makes for much easier working of it. But Aberdeenshire is quite nice, too. Fairly dry, as far as Scotland goes, only snowed in a few days every winter, and flooded a few days the rest of the year , not too much heat...

Anyway, if you find more than one affordable property, can you please let me know?

Ina

[Shirley]

There are still properties out here that are affordable - in the local paper today it said that Aberdeenshire and Moray are the cheapest places in the UK to buy property.

We live in an area that is just within commuting distance of Aberdeen and of course the oil workers with their big bucks like the idea of a beautiful place in the country - so sadly the prices have shot up. We had to really go out on a limb to afford this place. Hoping that prices don't fall too much now :D

Ina, I'll have a mosey on down to the swapshop - have to be honest and say that we've generally had ewes so far (and their lambs of course) - had one lot of triplets and one twins although one twin was stillborn.




Shirlz x

[ina]

Affordability is all relative, isn't it... I'm one of those cases who'll have problems getting a mortage. As I'm in a job that has the house as part of the pay, I live cheaply now, but I also earn little - which means I'm not in a position to save that much. And of course I'm on my own, which means only one income - and who knows how long the job is safe for - and what then? Took me long enough to find this job. Well, I've always had work, of sorts, but often part time, short term... No good if you are applying for a mortage!

I've just had a look and yes, there are a few properties out there, even in this area, which would fit the bill. I was thinking of trying to get something cheap and nasty (i.e. in desperate need of "upgrading", as they call it in the ads), and try and do it up myself while I'm still working and living here in this place. (That's why it would have to be nearby, too.)

Then, if it's done before I retire, I can try and rent it out (or use it as a weekend home ). But I would need a few acres with it, and that is really my main problem at the moment. I'd like to keep more livestock, but I can't. Well, I'll be able to fit in a few hens and ducks, and maybe bees... They can go up the hill somewhere. But anything larger (sheep, dairy goats, cow...) is just not on! My two goats are almost more than my garden can cope with.

Sorry, I'm rambling again. Must be the time of night, and the fact that it's Friday...

Ina

[Muddypause]

I looked at several plots of land when I was there a while back.

The best site I saw was 3½ acres with the remains of an old, roofless crofting house. The owner, living next door, further up the hill, was a friendly chap with a young family who had moved up from a town near here. There was electricity, water and even a phone line already there, and a new fence around the whole site. He was planting out an area with trees, and about to level off the building area. The setting was remote and peacful, rolling Aberdeenshire countryside, without any nearby main roads. The farmer across the valley was organic. The only real disadvantage was that it was on a north facing slope, which I reckoned would have had a significant effect on sunlight.

He wanted £26k for it.

It's easy to regret past decisions in hindsight, isn't it?

The only reason I didn't go for it was that I would have needed to borrow some money. It seems a trivial amount now, compared to the potential of the site, but I had just extricated myself from an ulcer-inducing oppressive debt and I decided I didn't want to go there again.

It seems that a similar plot of land would now be fetching around £70 - 80k, just 3½ - 4 years later. I seemed to have missed me boat, slightly.

Now that prices are out of my reach even in the cheapest areas, it is beyond me how young families, or people on the statutory minimum wage, or single people, can be expected to make any headway on the housing market. I can't understand how high property prices are always heralded as A Good Thing. The fourth richest country in the world now has a growing underclass. I blame the Enclosures Act (though, to be fair, I don't know if this affected Scotland - but you had the land clearances instead)

Another fine example of thread drift, brought to you by...

[Shirley]

There are still the odd few bargains to be found Stew - if I hear of anything I'll let you know.

Is it something to renovate that you are looking for? How rural? pm more details or post them here.

Shirlz x

[greenbean]

Hi shirlz, I'm in Stirling, amateur veg grower, jam and cheese maker, anti plastic bag person, no land to speak of. The short growing season here saddens me, but the countryside is beautiful. welcome to the site, I'm not on much nowadays due to a new demanding job.