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
Just wanted to say thanks for a great, helpful site. Like lots of others, I found you by accident while searching for advice on my chickens.
My partner and I live in a cottage in the Forest of Dean and have around an acre. We call it our little piece of heaven as we moved here a year ago from the ‘burbs’. I was born and brought up in the country and my family were always pretty self sufficient.
We’ve so far acquired approx 50,000 bees and our honey harvest this year was around 50lb. We rotovated part of our field for potatoes which like lots of others, didn’t do too well with the blight. We now have 8 chickens and grow just about all our vegetables. We have cooking and eating apple trees, pear trees and a couple of quite rare ‘Blaisdon’ plum trees (great for Dowerhouse Chutney).
I’ve rattled on too long but just wanted to say how lovely it is to read about like minded people and congratulate you on your site.
Hi Clare
Happy New Year to you too.
Thanks for leaving such a positive comment – it made my day!
Happy New Year to you both! I spent Christmas without the internet and checking your blog was one of the first things I did when we got back. Needless to say the posts I’d missed were as brilliant as ever.
Christmas has brought me a new stash of recipe books to peruse and I’m looking forwards to trying some new vegetarian dishes.
I hope 2008 brings you both happiness and plenty of new challenges and adventures!
Hi Woof
Happy New Year to you, let’s hope that is great for us all!
Hi
Happy new year to you all, just a short note to say what a fantastic site to find all the info I needed for a fantastic phesant meal/menue, keep going the hedgrow section is amazing
cheers WOOF
Hi Robert
Thanks so much for dropping by and leaving an update on your parent’s Christmas presents. I am delighted that they were a success. Bushcraft is a great magazine and the John Seymour tome is a wonderful addition to any house with an interest in self sufficiency.
The walk on the beach and tree planting sound like you had the sort of Christmas that I love.
Hi Fiona,
A note of thanks – my parents received a subscription to Bushcraft magazine and a copy of Seymour’s Self Sufficiency on the basis of your recommendations here – and their noses have rarely been out of them since Christmas day (except a trip to the beach yesterday and tree planting this afternoon).
So the success of our christmas is largely down to you – thank you again!
Robert
Hi Stephen
Thanks for leaving a comment. Hope that you found a pheasant recipe that you liked.
We will be cracking open the sloe gin at Christmas! And we have some sloe vodka left…
Great that you are enjoying the site.
Just looking for a pheasant reciept for tonight & stumbled upon your site..Had to leave a comment as I have already finished a gallon of my sloe gin and still have seven gallons of cider left. You have brought a smile to my face and purpose to my day!! that is until I freeze again in my workshop!!!!!!
Hi Crystal
I made the last minute Christmas cake today! I had 2 hours to go shopping and of course dallied a bit. I returned to find Danny lifting the cake out of the oven. Have just fed it with its dose of Whiskey!
Our way of life is great and we do realise that we are lucky. Our life is busy – up early and it’s late before I crawl into bed. Sometimes I miss the old sparky city life. It’s the buzz that I miss not the tube and the dirt and the rush. If I spend a day in London I am always delighted to get home to the stillness and quiet.
So pleased that you are enoying our blog.