Our Journey to Becoming Smallholders

Are you thinking of moving to a smallholding? Would you like to know why established smallholders took the plunge? Read on to find out all about our journey from city dwellers to running a smallholding in rural Scotland.

Let’s Start at the Very Beginning

George and I met through a mutual friend when we were both living city life in England. We both had busy work lives with successful careers; mine involved working a lot of antisocial hours. We tried to make time whenever we could for our shared love of the outdoors, with walks on days off, and using holidays to explore UK beauty spots on foot or by bicycle.

George is a keen and talented gardener, and I quickly got behind the idea of using home-grown produce in the kitchen. Home-grown fruit and veg is fresher, it tastes better, you know that pesticides and other harmful chemicals have not been used, and it comes with the added bonus of zero food miles! Win-win-win!

Trying to Live the Good Life in the City

We tried to expand our growing endeavours to a local allotment, but both found it difficult to prioritise travelling to and maintaining the plot in addition to the garden and housework, while we were both working full time as well.

So we began to have serious conversations about what our priorities were. Where did we see ourselves in the next five years? If we were going to move away from the city, where should we base ourselves? Did we both need to continue working full time? What were our career goals and aspirations? How did they stack up against our other hopes and dreams, hobbies and ambitions? Where could we make some compromises?

Thinking Critically about the Future

Through all this discussions, we realised a number of things.

1. State pension age in the UK is likely to continue to rise. So we could not plan on being able to finish work at an age that would allow us a meaningful retirement. If there were things we wanted to achieve, such as being self-sufficient with home-grown produce, we needed to find a way to do this sooner rather than later.
2. And if we seriously wanted to grow more of our own produce, we needed enough land attached to our house for this to be achievable. We lived less than a mile from our allotment, and that short distance was enough of a barrier to prevent us from visiting as often as we should have done.
3. We were both pretty frugal and minimal in our spending habits already, and we were in a strong position financially. We could easily afford our lifestyle with lower incomes.
4. I was feeling unfulfilled in my work and had become very disillusioned with the trajectory that I had planned for my career. I was willing to make some adjustments and compromises here.
5. Neither of us went into town regularly enough for the proximity to shops, bars and restaurants to be a deciding factor in where we lived.
6. We had enjoyed several holidays in Scotland immensely. We were keen to base ourselves north of the border.
7. Our desire to minimise our impact on the environment ranked above most other priorities. We were already trying to shop ethically, consume minimally and cycle or take public transport instead of using the car wherever possible. We decided to move from a largely vegetarian to entirely plant-based diet.

The Search for our Smallholding

We planned our next several holidays in Scotland; cycling the North Coast 500, and walking holidays in the Borders and South-West Scotland, to get a feel for different areas. A Zoopla search after one of these get-aways revealed a property that ticked all of our boxes; a beautiful cottage with lots of character, some outbuildings and a good parcel of land that would allow us to follow through with our plans for sustainable living.

We went to view the property and knew immediately that we had found our forever home.

Our Progress So Far

I was able to find a job nearby and George continued working for the same company on a remote basis. We both cut down our working hours to give us some more time during the week for the big plans we had for the house and land.

We’ve achieved a great deal in the years that we’ve been here. We have established a productive vegetable garden and polytunnel. We have rescued a number of ex-commercial chickens through the charity Homes4Hens. We agreed to take Peggy the sheep, who had become very unwell after two attempts at lambing, and would otherwise have been sent to market. I found Peggy two new friends from a lovely local farmer and have learned to spin with their fleeces. And we can’t forget our two rescued dogs, two alpacas and a flock of ducks!

Even working part time whilst trying to keep on top of jobs at home has been a struggle for both of us. Since having our little one, I have decided to take an extended career break to focus on our family and invest more of my time in the smallholding.

With so much to do, it feels like a bit of a juggling act most days. There is definitely a great deal of satisfaction in working for ourselves, though. And there is nothing more rewarding than serving up a meal that has been entirely home-grown!

Thank you for reading! Leave me a comment below if you have any specific questions about getting started on a smallholding!