Photo: Fiona in a bee suit with smoker
My name is Fiona Nevile. I want to share our journey towards our goal of partial self sufficiency. It is such a satisfying, old fashioned endeavour, that provides moments of glowing pride alongside the occasional smelly disaster.
I started this blog after we decided to invest in our future. Retirement looms in a few years time. Before I fell ill I often worked in houses where people had recently retired. Usually they were testing the water. They had plans that they had dreamt about and tweaked for years:
- Raising a few chickens
- A small vegetable patch
- Bees
- Homemade wine and liqueurs
- And the individual extras which could include stock car racing, dabbling on the Stock Exchange, breeding terrapins, planning the trip of a lifetime and dreaming about a lottery win that would finance the lot.
Watching from the sidelines, I realised that often the first four of these interests can take years to get up and running. So I decided to start early. These activities are so satisfying that within months I was peering over the parapet. Why not cure and smoke our own bacon and make salami? How about making sausages and homemade butter? And where could we find food for free?
Six years later we are investing in now as well as our future retirement.
Why just plan for the future? Investing in now can be a bumpy ride but generally we’ve found that it’s fun and our quality of life is so much better than before. Each week our horizons expand.
This website charts our journey towards deluxe self sufficiency and beyond. Our aim is to live like kings on the lowest possible budget. Visit our new forum for inspiration and ideas from our readers.
My articles have appeared online in the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Chicago Sun Times and many other publications. Use the ‘contact us’ tab to speak to me. Writing commissions are always welcome.
Some people like to visit us here at the Cottage Smallholder.
Because I have been ill and unable to work since July 09 we decided to host advertising on the Cottage Smallholder site from December 09. Click here for more details.
a brief potted history of Fiona’s career, which has ended up in our attempt at partial self-sufficiency.
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FD
hey fiona,
hope you are well. for some reason my browser keeps sending me to your front page, and it keeps making me want to ask: How is your pond?
hi feona
well i think u should put a picture of u and Danny on this page (about us)you see it gives the reader a mental image of the authors who are teaching us advising us in such a good and helpful way .
hope to see u both :}on this page soon .Good day
Just discovered your wonderful site! I live in a town and have dreams of escape to the peak district, for now I’m contenting myself with a veg patch and will eventually convince my boyfriend that chickens are the way to go.
Thank you for all the helpful tips and advice in plain english! I’m also enjoying Victorian Farm and will learn some skills! No one ever taught me these things as a child!! By the time I’m 50 I think I will be quite useful!
Many Thanks again keep up the good work
Jo
Thank you or a great site, 6 months ago I decided to leave full time work a bit early bought an old house in a little village near Bendigo (Australia). Wish I had done it years ago. We are battling severe heat and no rain but am determined to keep on trying for a self sustainable vegie patch.
To date I have raised a fantastic herb patch, failed with tomatoes and everything else, even potatoes (they all turned to pot pourri with 40 degree plus heat wave over last month). Have had an abundance of plums and Australian Garlic, (like Russian garlic).
Anyway am keen and still trying
Have just found your website whilst searching for seville oranges! Wanting to make marmalade and trying to find a source for these oranges – only just started looking so am sure I shall find some if its not too late.
We are a couple of months in to running a wood-fired range (Marshall) which provides heating, hot water and cooking. Cooking is totally different and takes a LOT longer! Also completely unable to maintain a constant heat – it goes up, down, all around and I am having to totally rethink how and when I cook. I want to do marmalade but am slightly nervous about achieving and maintaining the 104 degrees boiling point long enough for a set! I shall try though!
Terribly sorry about your bantam – we have chickens and named the first four – we now have ten and perhaps would name them if we could tell them all apart but maybe it is slightly easier if there is a loss not to have named it – certainly for the children. There have been tears but certainly when Glitterbelle(!) passed away my 8 year old was inconsolable – I definitely find illness and death the hardest part of keeping animals.
Its lovely to find a website/blog achieving what I am trying to! Thank you so much for taking the time to write about everything when you must be so busy with your smallholding.
Regards, Meggonymay
Hi Fiona
only just discovered your blog – was looking for gardening info on broad beans! I too am a rural person and rather than waiting till I am old and grey decided to just get on with it and do the things I love, keeping my chucks, growing veggies etc despite a fulltime job and 2 teens. I love your recipes although I don’t have the gift of cooking but can throw a good Shepherd’s pie together if required. Hope to catch up with your site every weekend,
best wishes. Jane
What a wonderful website and I haven’t even browsed everything yet. I found you while searching for things to do with my crop of blackcurrants. I’ve no idea why the birds didn’t eat them all this seaon like they usually do. Could it be my garden/orchard is now providing other more interesting food! Besides the Blackcurrant Schnappes I put down for winter (it’s Summer here now) I ended up eating most of them fresh on homemade yoghurt with wheatgerm, sesame seeds and LSA sprinkled on top. The rest went in blended Smoothies made with other fruit juices or milk, ripe bananas etc.
I have bookmarked your site as it is so interesting and helpful – any chance of putting the most recent blogs at the top of the page to avoid scrolling down each time? Or is it just that I’m a bit upside-down here in New Zealand? Also I’m very impressed that you respond personally to each blog. Inspirational all round.
love this site! in 1999 we left the city, found a home for about the price of a good used car and we’ve never looked back. like you, we’re working toward that goal of living well on very little cash. we live on a good-sized lot in a village of about 200. we’ve packed our yard full of various projects like a huge garden (it all gets canned or frozen) chicken coop, small orchard, meat smoker and hopefully an outdoor oven/summer kitchen next year. we “landscape” with stacks of firewood and compost bins! not many people would choose to live like we do and it’s a lot of hard work but we’ve never felt so secure. hope things continue to go well for you.
Hello, just wanted to say how much I am enjoying your website. Im 27 and its been my dream for the past few years to have a smallholding and live as self-sufficiently as possible, so I am finding inspiration from you whilst I put a little bit of money away each month to make my dream come true!
Hello Fiona, very good web-site packed with really interesting stuff well done with the bee keeping a very important job in of itself!
I enjoyed your little radio interview and was surprised to find your just up the road from us, We are following your example and currently are in the process of bringing an old vegetable patch back in to use and reshaping an very overgrown apple tree, My great Uncle (Prof W Tutte, who is on your village web site) and several ancestors were from your village.