Live off the Land Challenge

[demi]

must resist, must resist!

[chickenchargrill]

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.

I thought you'd put the same thing twice for a moment.


On a positive note, one of my dreams is to do something a bit similar. Have a decent bit of farmland, invite folk to come live there and help out, grow their own food/make a living there if they could. But, and it's a huge condition, I would have to win the lottery or something so I had the money to pump into it to speed the initial process up. We'd build some houses and have them ready to live in, give them rent free to those willing to come help us work the land and if they stuck it out for a few months and wanted to stay, sign the house over to them so they could have it indefinitely. It's a dream so it's not something I've researched. If I did win the lottery though, I'd be on here asking soooo many questions.

Val asked, "No one values anything that is free do they?" To be honest, I think most people on here do value the things that are free. We're not just trying to be more self-sufficient for some higher purpose.

[demi]

Val asked, "No one values anything that is free do they?" To be honest, I think most people on here do value the things that are free. We're not just trying to be more self-sufficient for some higher purpose.

true!

[MuddyWitch]

~My tuppen'oth:

I notice you are near Coalville. Some of the land in Leicestershire is classified as 'ancient leys' and can only be used for grazing. This would mean you can't let people dig it up for veg growing. Like Tree Preservation Orders, ignorance is no defence & you and/or you sub-tennants could incure fines into the thousands.

Also most farm tennancies strictly forbid sublettting for arible use as this alows ancient 'tennancy rights': (once you begin to work a piece of land for food you landlord can't evict you untill you've harvested the crops.)

I'd do ALOT more homework if I were you.

MW

[oldjerry]

I thought you'd put the same thing twice for a moment. :lol

Val asked, "No one values anything that is free do they?" To be honest, I think most people on here do value the things that are free. We're not just trying to be more self-sufficient for some higher purpose.[/quote]

Sorry, the computer is old and slow,and so am I!! And I can't always delete my posts.

There are a number of agrarian landshare 'communities' around such as you would like.The one I visited is based around a large mansion diivided into several individual dwellings which can be independently bought and sold,with a jointly-worked huge walled veg and fruit garden,plus fields for livestock etc..The whole system seems to be worked on a sort of rota basis with some people specializing in different things.

Although I cant remember who my contact was there,but they were nice people ,not averse to pre arranged visits.

PM me for details if you wish. BW.

[demi]

theres a self-sufficient eco- community living in scotland, im trying to remember what its called?? they've got a web site.
they all live in modern eco-houses, produce all their own food ect and sell it in their shops. i think theres a school for the kids and everything. god whats it called!? i will find out.......oh my mum knows.......

[demi]

yes this is it:

http://www.findhorn.org/

their all into that hippy voodoo shit though, otherwise id want to live there! if i wasnt living here

[Susie]

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 can see Demi is being unusually restrained, go Demi! ;-), so, I won't be the one to be mean, but... just reassure me you have recognised nutritional qualifications?

http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/cooking (I believe Jack Norris is reasonably well thought of but I'm happy to be corrected).

I've read some fairly terrifying claims about raw foodism (e.g. that if your periods stop that's actually really healthy) so I'm always a bit twitchy.

[demi]

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 can see Demi is being unusually restrained, go Demi! ;-), so, I won't be the one to be mean, but... just reassure me you have recognised nutritional qualifications?

http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/cooking (I believe Jack Norris is reasonably well thought of but I'm happy to be corrected).

I've read some fairly terrifying claims about raw foodism (e.g. that if your periods stop that's actually really healthy) so I'm always a bit twitchy.

i did write something but since deleted it............
yes i have also heard some wacky claims by raw vegans for the reasons for their diet choice.
something to do with if you cook the food it kills the 'digestive enzymes' that would otherwise be digesting your food for you in your stomach. complete pish.
for a start, most enzymes present in your food are denatured (killed) upon reaching your stomach due to the high acidity in there.
secondly, we have our own digestive enzymes specific to each part for our digestive system, which digest our food efficiently for us without the need for any additional enzymes from external sources.

currently they use animal-based digestive enzymes for treating certain digestive illnesses, but these are in concentrated tablet form in much higher concentrations than you would get from just eating food.
just now they are starting to test plant-based enzyme therapy, but again, the enzymes from certain fruits are collected and concentrated into tablets much higher in concentration than just eating a banana.
the tablets are also coated with something which prevents them being dissolved in your stomach until they reach where they need to work.

[valcharman]

~My tuppen'oth:

I notice you are near Coalville. Some of the land in Leicestershire is classified as 'ancient leys' and can only be used for grazing. This would mean you can't let people dig it up for veg growing. Like Tree Preservation Orders, ignorance is no defence & you and/or you sub-tennants could incure fines into the thousands.

Also most farm tennancies strictly forbid sublettting for arible use as this alows ancient 'tennancy rights': (once you begin to work a piece of land for food you landlord can't evict you untill you've harvested the crops.)

I'd do ALOT more homework if I were you.

MW

I think I said it is to be in South Wales?

there is a place nearby but I expect its a bit hippyish for all of you
http://www.brithdirmawr.co.uk/

[valcharman]

Many thanks for your feedback, which is what I asked for, I certainly wouldn't want to sell you anything

[Green Aura]

There have been a few misunderstandings here.

Val, no-one here is telling you not to do this, but to do lots of research, especially in terms of legislation/planning laws etc. Think things through clearly and then proceed on an informed basis, don't follow a kneejerk impulse which many of us have seen before many times. In addition look carefully at location - your intended site is quite remote so may have limited appeal. And I don't know if you've done much camping in Wales, but it can be a dire experience at times, Wales isn't so verdant for no reason and although Toby Wrench and others have finally got planning permission, I'm guessing it's unlikely you'd be allowed to erect any more permanent dwellings, especially on rented land.

Places like Brithdir Mawr have been many years evolving and have nearly fallen flat on their faces several times in addition to the years of stress and worry re planning regs. And, in response to one of your later comments, I would rather pull my fingernails out than live in a hippy commune, but that's just me. Many here would love the opportunity, I'm sure.

As for diet, I think there has been a general misconception that you are vegan. My reading of it is that you are vegan by diet only, not ethically. So I'm guessing you still wear wool and leather just don't eat animal-derived products. However, your comments about vegans and your lack of understanding as to why they don't eat honey and object to having sheep and chickens is another example or your lack of knowledge or interest in alternative lifestyles.

For me, this, even more than your ill-thought out land-share scheme, is why I for one would not be interested in your proposed plans. Jumping on the Self-sufficiency bandwagon seems to me to be another of your money-making, solopreneur ideas (Google is a truly wonderful thing). I'm guessing there's not much money in fashion, book searches or dietary info at the moment.

I wish you well.

[matowakan]

Sorry nice idea but dont think you will have many takers!
I have my doubts if it is viable.

[chickenchargrill]

I thought you'd put the same thing twice for a moment. :lol

Val asked, "No one values anything that is free do they?" To be honest, I think most people on here do value the things that are free. We're not just trying to be more self-sufficient for some higher purpose.

Sorry, the computer is old and slow,and so am I!! And I can't always delete my posts.

There are a number of agrarian landshare 'communities' around such as you would like.The one I visited is based around a large mansion diivided into several individual dwellings which can be independently bought and sold,with a jointly-worked huge walled veg and fruit garden,plus fields for livestock etc..The whole system seems to be worked on a sort of rota basis with some people specializing in different things.

Although I cant remember who my contact was there,but they were nice people ,not averse to pre arranged visits.

PM me for details if you wish. BW.

Thanks It might be something we look into in the future. I'm keeping an eye out in the local newsletter for local schemes, but at the moment Dexter is keeping me so busy I'm struggling to keep up with my own little garden.


Demi - That one is a bit too out there for me too

[MKG]

I have a question or two, Val.

If you're planning to mark off the field into 12 one-acre holdings, the thirteenth acre being taken up by paths etc., and you intend to take on 12 sets of people at £1000 per annum, thereby netting £36,000 over a three-year period (not a fortune, true, but nothing to be sneezed at), then where are you going to be?

And if this is going to be a "competition" kind of thing, by which I think you mean that the participants will keep to their own acre, then what's the point in providing a nearby communal farm as an example?

And, as per your first post, if you haven't even applied yet for the tenancy, aren't you putting the cart before the horse by looking for any participants at all at this stage?

Would you carry on and still apply for the tenancy of the farm if no-one takes you up on your idea?

At the moment, there's more than a scent of short selling about the idea - too much of an odour, to my mind, to be an attractive proposition.

The reason I ask these questions is because the following statements are your own ...

"How do you turn Social Networking sites like Facebook into a fully fledged marketing machine?

How do you turn your knowledge and passion into products you can sell over and over again with zero production & distribution costs?

How do you make the most of free and low cost Internet Marketing techniques?"

... in your persona as a marketing professional. What you are advocating in those statements may be acceptable practice within the marketing community, but most people would call it SPAM.

Last question, then. Is this scheme just another of your, to me, distasteful methods of making a quick buck?

Mike