A bit about myself: We (My husband and two boys aged 18 and 17 now) live on 25 acres in the mountains on a block that was completely bush when we bought it some 3 years ago. Since that time we have build a rammed earth loft style cottage (as a first stage) and are just about to start on a rammed earth house. We milled all the timber on our portable lucas mill, made the windows - well you have the picture - every little bit of it. It was an amazing experience and certainly one that taught us to appreciate timber and the enormous potential of building with earth. We have temperature ranges here of a max 32 degrees and a min of -18 degrees.
We are well on the way to being self sufficient - have a large food garden (haven't needed to buy any vegetables now for over a year) and keep dairy goats (British Alpine), Pigs (Berkshire and Berkshire/Duroc cross), Meat Rabbits, Geese, Chickens, Ducks, one irish donkey, two whippets (dogs) and one Kelpie working dog , bees, oh and a cat. Gosh I don't think I left anything out.
If anyone is interested and wants to have a look, we have a website that has some photos of our place, animals and us plus stuff on self-sufficiency and our experiences. The address is www.sarariver.comWe are interested in old crafts and skills and have had a go at many of these. Maybe some more on all that at some other time.
My husband was born in Cornwall and we live in what is known as Celtic country. My ancestors were Scottish and Irish so we keep up the celtic movement here with my husband and boys donning the kilts regularly. I play penny whistle and flute (used to be in a celtic band) but while we are setting up I am having a break for a bit.
Well that will do for now (otherwise it will turn into a book). Look forward to chatting some more and joining in the threads.
Oh, forgot to say that I have met Nev (Wombat) on an Australian site - hello Nev didn't know you were over here. I found this site on a general curiosity search.
from a fellow Berkshire keeper...
