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
Hi Lucy
I love Alpacas. Best of luck with your ventures.
What a lovely blog and site. Well done. We have alpacas and llamas and are at http://coirealpacas.blogspot.com, also enjoying some eco and simple living!
No min-pins here, I’m owned by a Vizsla who seems confused by the fact that he’s a) not human, and b) not the size of a min pin (as in he thinks he’s a lap dog when really he’s 45# of elbows, ribcage and tongue).
Also he seems confused that he isn’t the activities director on a cruise line. He seems destined for a job with a scarf, clipboard & a flair for dramatics. That’s probably another story altogether…
I can’t wait to make your slow cooker chicken stock.
I am in love with your full use of vocabulary, you have a wonderfully descriptive, melodic use of words. Your posts play out in my mind as a lovely english comedy / commentary. It is thoroughly enjoyed!!
Keep well,
Jen
Huge pats to Vizsla. The Min Pins think that they are already in a cruise ship…
Hi fiona –
Just sending a quick note to tell you your blog is cherished in Brooklyn NY! Keep up the good work, our best to the min pins!
Hello Jen
Thank you so much for leaving this comment. Just the fillip that I needed this evening. Do you, by any chance, live with Min Pins too?
Hy I have just foud your wonderful website and I think that in way I was meant to find it . Reading it it has given me some serenity which I really needed . I am an Italian lady ( 41 years old ) that has been living in the Uk for 10 years now with my anglo/italian husband and my miracle (my 8 year old son ) and our cocker spaniel Lucky . I have been dreaming of going back home to Tuscany for the past 3 years and infact we should have moved last summer , but because of the housing market we were unable to move , therefore no olive trees to sit under, and no limoncello. I have realised that I have to find some tranquility for the next 2 years at least here in the Uk I live in a nice town in the West Midlands , and have to try and find happyness here for the time being . By reading your stories it has given me the strenth to believe that it can be done even in the uk , and try and forget about how dangerous it is for young people and children ( I work in a secondary school )to live in this society . I was bought up with my parents and my Nonna and Nonno ( Grandpa & Grandma)and that is the sought of life that I want for my son .
We have decided to inrease our family with 2 chicks and 2 indian runner ducks , have you any advice , is it a lot of hard work ? Many thaks MAnuela and I apologise for the long post
Your introduction applies almost perfectly to me – except I don’t breed terrapins and, by accident, I was given far far more land than I expected.
It’s been fun – even laughing at the local beekeeper when we removed four (yes, four!) beesswarms last spring. He got stung but I had no protection and didn’t. An interesting feeling as they crawl across your face but I was taught by an expert!
The land is littered with fruit – almost name it and we have it from cherries to quinces to sweet chestnuts and far far to many apples.
I barter; a friend cuts and removes the hay, my grand-daughter rides and I get the processed hay which is transformed into all sorts of veg and fruit (and flowers for the house). Others want wood for their fires so ………
I thought I had a few ideas but I don’t know whether to thank you for all the advice you make available or look away!!! Thanks Fiona
I stumbled across this site quite by accident and have a feeling I’ll be spending a lot of time here 🙂 I’m only 25 so quite a long way off of retirement and having my own smallholding is still quite a distant dream, but a year ago we bought our first house and I’m finally free to at least have fun with my garden and start growing. I have three raised veggie beds ready for the spring and I’ve got plenty of seedlings sat on windowsills around the house waiting to go outside. This year will be very experimental and I’ve got a lot to learn but I’m very excited. Today is the spring equinox and the real start of all things new.
You are a great inspiration, thank you for all your wonderful advice.
Hello Fiona, I lost my dog-eared Penguin Book of Jams, Pickles and Chutneys, googled ‘apple chutney’ and found your site. What a delight! As a child growing up in SW15 in the 1950s, I used to help my mother on her allotment. She was born in Worcestershire where the family ate what they grew so she had never shopped for vegetables until she married and set up home in suburban London in the late 1930s.On her first visit to the greengrocers she asked for peas but had no idea of quantities so when the greengrocer asked how much she wanted, she replied 20lbs. When my late husband and I bought our house, on the outskirts of Newmarket, we had a wonderful long garden the size of two (or even three) allotments. Pete grew almost all of our own veg. and I still miss the taste of those first new potatoes, the rhubarb, runner beans, broad beans and the asparagus I used to cut with my grandad’s old asparagus cutter (with his initials carved on the wooden handle). Pete did all the planting, I did the weeding and hoeing and we shared the harvesting. Thanks to all that home-grown produce I don’t ever remember buying jars of baby food: my son and daughter ate what we ate, just pulverised in a Mouli blender which I still use to make soup nearly 30 years on.
Hi Fiona, I have just found your blog, and love it.I have just started one of my own, and have discovered a whole new world out there! You are a woman after my own heart – I love what you are doing, and you have so many great ideas. I especially envy the way you can “forage” for food, it is pretty difficult to do that in southern australia, although, there is probably a whole lot I could learn about bush tucker. I am having a hard enough time keeping up with my own yard and family!
Thanks again for a great blog.
Hi,
What a fantastic website. Kept me occupied on a sad sunday evening!
Am going to try recipe for onion gravy tomorrow!
You sound so content – I dream of your lifestyle.