Live off the Land Challenge

[oldjerry]

Why don't we have a silly\smiley\winky\huggy thing with a hammer hitting a nail on the head??

[Penny Lane]

Oh I had a whole post in mind to reply to this but my keyboard is playing up (q,w,e,r and u aren't working!) so I'm not going to bother, especially as there are so many well-worded responses already!

[Arbor]

There seem to be a lot of challenges to getting this off the ground.

It seems to be most accessible to people living in the surrounding area in Wales, as this is a remote area with a lower population it will be harder to find willing participants.

Anyone wanting to participate in the project from outside the area would have to live in a tent for three years or be able to afford to rent a nearby property. Could people live in caravans? What are you hoping to convert the outbuildings into?

What are these craft courses and who would is your target market? Do you have buildings to hold these courses in?

Is this scheme to be run as a co-operative with the community sharing in the decision making?
What do you see your role as? Would you live on site? How would you start to build a cooperative and cohesive community?

Is it fair to ask people to commit themself to a project that has an indefinite time scale? Anyone with an allotment will tell you that it takes more than a couple of years to establish. I am sure that those who have taken on a small holding will tell you that it is a long term project.

'Living off the land' is a tall order. Very few people manage to do so without supplementing their income in some way. You may know people who 'spend £100 a month on alcohol' but I am guessing that these people are not your target market. Anyone with a desire to be more 'self Sufficientish' have probably thought carefully about how they could achieve this goal. I don't have a spare £1000 and an allotment is much cheaper and manageable and I can find one on my doorstep where my job, home and family are.

I hope I haven't misunderstood your proposition but it seems to me to be on your part a 'Business idea' rather than a movement to build a self sufficient community. In your position I would be thinking about building on the Craft Courses and getting members of the public to fund the business. You could offer local people use of the land in exchange for leading courses in how to grow your own food. You could attract campers wanting to know more about growing their own food etc.

I think if you intend to go through with this idea you will need to think very clearly about whether you are offering enough to attract people to this project.

[demi]

i would never live year round in a tent in wales! we'd get blown away!

i lived in a tent in Greece for 1 summer which was fantastic! but the temperature never fell below 20 degrees the whole time.
we grew our own veg there and had a kitty to buy in other food stuff and wine
we built our own toilets which were just a big hole in the ground in a clearing through the bamboo bushes with a wooden box on top with a hole in it and a toilet seat and we built a shower consisting of a very long hose pipe left laying on the ground in the sun with the end attached onto a pole with a tap and all screened in with bamboo, and our living/kitchen area was a big bamboo shelter on a wooden support frame under these huge mulberry trees which when the mulberries were ripe they were falling on our stuff and staining everything purple . and we cooked on gas and had a sink with a tap on a hose same as the shower.
the sea shore was about 30 meters from our camp-site. it was brilliant! i was there from may till the end of september. we were all volunteering for sea turtle conservation, recording data and educating the public and actively looking for nests to protect them and protecting the babies when they hatched and have to get to the sea from preditors and tourists who might stand on them in the dark.
best experience ever and id jump at the chance to do it or something similar again. grate ending to my zoology degree its difficult now though coz iv got kids

[boboff]

Umm, me me me, I have 5 or so acres which you can pay me £1000 a year an acre for if you like, please?

Especially if you dig it all over get it nice and weed free and fertile, then in 3 years time I have nice ground for MEMEMEMEMEMEMEME!

Oh and if you would like some tips on drinking Cider and eating chips and curry sauce I can email you daily with my tips for just £19.99.

[MKG]

Hmmmm - no response.

I take it that ingrates such as us are now surplus to requirements.

Mike

[the.fee.fairy]

We're not 'fashionable' or marketable enough obviously...

We don't have 4x4s with spray-on designer mud

[chickenchargrill]

They liked her and her idea a lot more over on the Green Living Forum. http://thegreenlivingforum.net/forum/vi ... 9&t=106212

Seems the council like her initial business plan.

[oldjerry]

Never heard of that forum before,don't think I'll bother with it again..strange how the only person who thought the idea was drivel,actually farmed.

Anyhow, d'you think we're out of favour now?

[chickenchargrill]

Nah, I had a quick look round and wouldn't bother with it. I only found it because I Googled to see if she was trying to sell the idea elsewhere.

[Susie]

They liked her and her idea a lot more over on the Green Living Forum. http://thegreenlivingforum.net/forum/vi ... 9&t=106212

Seems the council like her initial business plan.

I agree with that person over there who said the power structures built in were going to cause problems.

[MKG]

Just looked up the DEFRA figures. Farm tenancies are going at an annual rent of between £140 and £170 per hectare, depending upon use and tenancy type. To save you doing the maths, that works out at between £57 and £69 per acre per year.

I think that says everything.

Mike

[Ellendra]

Prospective tenants are not allowed to visit prior to application.

Ahh, I love the smell of scammers in the morning!

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Prospective tenants are not allowed to visit prior to application.

Ahh, I love the smell of scammers in the morning!

Still, I thought it showed considerable imagination and made a change from the usual West Africa stuff. £1000 per acre on what would appear to be decidedly marginal land, no accommodation and no prior visits. Love it.

[Gra]

I have a 1/4 acre allotment in inner London, the rent is £130/year. How much would anyone rent an acre in Wales for - probably less than I pay for my 1/4 acre.