Live off the Land Challenge

[valcharman]

Hi, my name is Val and this month I am applying for the tenancy of a mixed use farm in South Wales, near Haverfordwest. It is expected to have chickens, sheep and bees and grow salad vegetables and fruit.

One of my ideas is a Live off the Land Challenge and I would like to find out if this is an opportunity people would like to try so your feedback would be greatly appreciated

The largest field at the farm is approx 13 acres, it would be marked out into 12 one acre plots with walkways in between and offered to people who want to take up the challenge of living off the land. There would be portable toilets and showers on the site and use of a polytunnel and some outbuildings (unspecified as yet), possibly a washing machine and a farm shop. There are no permanent dwellings available, camping is allowed by the Council as is conversion of outbuildings at some point.

Priority would be given to people who can teach traditional crafts in order to offer courses onsite and earn some income.

There would be an upfront, annual fee (£1,000 has been suggested) and an option to sign up to year 2 and 3. It is hoped that the project would continue after 3 years in some form.

There would be filming of the challenge as a video blog and also the potential for media interest.

Further details will be as and when they become available. I look forward to your comments

[oldjerry]

Well,if you REALLY want comments,with respect,I'm not sure how far you expect to get with this in such a short space of time.

If you're planning on giving people some large scale allottment space,maybe it would work,but nobody 's going to establish a 'living off the land 'situaution in 3yrs(let alone1).(and £3000 is a lot .).

Icould suggest a couple of other things,why keep sheep on an acre,when you COULD keep a couple of goats(true 'self-reliance'animals),and who would consider a self - reliant holding without pigs?

Have you considered the cost of fencing such an area?

Although I quit livestock over a year ago,I've had somesort of a smallholding most of my life ,and my old man before me,people like HFW,the pig bloke in Essex etc only REALLY make it work so quickly with funds from TV companies.

However,I'm a grumpy old sod,andI wish you well,BW

[chickenchargrill]

I'm pretty sure this is spam. She'll also teach you how to lose weight by eating raw veg for the low price of £50.

[oldjerry]

See what happens to the new 'nice me' ???!!!..........suckered in less than an hour!!...Mods please take note...!

[valcharman]

No, its not spam, I am serious! and I can show you how to lose weight by eating raw vegan food and my 30 day course is £29.99. I rebuilt my own health from being severly disabled to fully fit and 4.5 stones lighter in 5 months and have stayed raw vegan for 2 years now.

The reason I am thinking of sheep is for the fleece to spin into yarn for craft workshops.

[chickenchargrill]

£29.99 for emails everyday, but if you want any further support or forum access?

Okay, so I apologise if this is a serious venture. What feedback are you after? What does that money get me? There's no where to stay. What is 'my acre' like at the moment? how much work am I going to have to put in just to get the land ready for use? Where does the money from the workshops I run go to? Would I pay £1000 up front? Not a chance.

[Penny Lane]

Sounds like a nice dream, but I don't know any vegans with hens, sheep and bees! Would you plan on giving up your raw vegan lifestyle to pursue your dream?

[valcharman]

What have my eating habits got to do with running a farm? I eat raw vegan food because that is what cured me of my illnesses and I have no intention of going back to being that ill. I can teach others how to do the same. Chickens will clear the land, lay eggs that non vegans want to eat and chicken keepers may want to hatch. Sheep have wool. Bees produce honey and I dispute the vegan view of honey as it is surplus honey that is taken from the hive and I dont see how the bees are being exploited as if they dont like it they have the ability to fly away.

Obviously, those commenting are people who would not actually be interested in doing this but if anyone would like to discuss the potential opportunity I would love to hear from you.

My plans do not hinge on this idea, this is something I thought would build a community of like minded people wanting to live off the land and become self sufficient, helping each other and learning from each other and offer them an opportunity they would otherwise be unable to pursue

[chickenchargrill]

I wouldn't take pay that much to take part. That doesn't mean my questions weren't serious ones.

[oldjerry]

I was far too nice,

your ideas are totally impractical from a farming point of view and exploitative from an economic point of view.

If you'd bothered reading a few threads on this site,you'd have realised that there's more than a few posters on this site who've been there ,done that,knitted their own T shirt out of foraged comfrey leaves, and then composted it.

[valcharman]

£29.99 for emails everyday, but if you want any further support or forum access?

Okay, so I apologise if this is a serious venture. What feedback are you after? What does that money get me? There's no where to stay. What is 'my acre' like at the moment? how much work am I going to have to put in just to get the land ready for use? Where does the money from the workshops I run go to? Would I pay £1000 up front? Not a chance.

Okay I will do my best to answer your questions...

On my rawhealthclub.co.uk website (which you brought up, not me) £29.99 for the raw course gets you daily emails of course modules with articles, recipes and meal suggestions and there is a guided meditation to use to help your subconscious mind accept the new ideas. The forum is completely free to join. If you want personalised coaching then I do charge for my time

Feedback, I am trying to find out if a low cost option, farm sharing idea is something of interest to anyone
I have to pay rent on the farm, provide facilities like toilets, showers etc so surely it is not unreasonable to ask for a payment to cover that as well as making sure the people are serious about getting it to work. No one values anything that is free do they? and £1,000 is less than £100 a month. I know people who have a larger alcohol bill than that.

What would you like your money to get you? its all open for debate

I don't know what the land is like at the moment, it has been a dairy farm for years and has been unoccupied for the past 18 months. Prospective tenants are not allowed to visit prior to application.
The google map shows it as mowed grassy fields. Once I am in, there would be the opportunity for interested parties to visit and view and meet with everyone before committing to anything.

I can't comment on the amount of work needed as you might want to do double digging on your plot or go the no dig way or use pigs to plough it up or just keep chickens on it or breed tiger worms.

Workshops would earn you a teachers fee, all negotiable dependent on what the workshops were, if they were part of another event, who would be attending etc

[Green Aura]

Val, you are welcome to join Ish, but I would ask that you read our rules before continuing - we do not allow one issue posters and it would have been polite to ask before making offers to our members.

Incidentally our veg box scheme, feeding a family of 3 adults, costs £13 a week - less than £700/year, plus another £10 or so for the seeds to grow other things. So £1k a year comes out at quite expensive, just for the land.

Without wanting to burst your bubble I think you need to have a serious rethink. Maybe you should have a look round here and try and pick up some tips and ideas - we're quite a knowledgeable bunch.

@OJ - your posts were just fine

[chickenchargrill]

Why can't you visit before you put in an application? Seems a little strange to me, but can't say I've really looked into renting farms.

One of the main problems I can see is the location. Really, you're going to be targeting your adventure to locals, otherwise folk are going to have to pay a grand up front, pay out for moving costs and whatever else they need to relocate for a year. Giving up jobs and supporting themselves for that time. It's going to be quite a while before the land gives enough to live on. It's not as simple as saying here's some land, plant some seeds and eat in 4 months.

£1000 may not seem that much. But you are asking for that up front without guarantees (what happens if things go pear-shaped 6 months in?) whereas if they were interested in doing something similar, they could garden share, rent an allotment for a lot less or even share a large allotment.

As Maggie said, it would be a good idea to have look round here first.

[oldjerry]

I'm fairly certain you might well find people interested in your'' project''.

None of them will have ever spent less than 5 mins near this site.

[oldjerry]

[quote="oldjerry"]I'm fairly certain you might well find people interested in your'' project''.

None of them will have ever spent more than 5 mins near this site.