Over the last few days (thanks to a USA Today article) I have taken the time to notice that there seems to be a lot of movement of urbanites like ourselves back to the land. While most seem to have been forced as a result of the economic collapse that now seems to be happening pretty much right across the globe, this surely is a good thing. All of the blogs, articles and even Facebook pages that I have been going through are filled with people that despite some rude shocks and a general unpreparedness for their new lifestyle are actually happier, and more balanced people for having made the change.
As I have mentioned before I have urbanite friends in Canada who want nothing more than to be able to buy a couple of hundred acres, build themselves a green home, and raise livestock. They are like a lot of others I am reading about - those who at present are unable to move and so are turning their once dormant back yards into vegetable producing gardens. Even in the UK it seems this revolution is happening with companies reporting enormous increases in seed sales.
Will it last? That's certainly an interesting question. Once economic stability arrives, will these people return to their urban roots and take up where they left off? I don't think so personally. I think that over time the growing trend will be to ruralization rather than urbanization. With the availability of mass communication and the internet these days there is no general need for the average person to be forced into the concrete jungles. All of the people I am reading about have everything they need and are living a more satisfying existence on sustainable plots of land. I know it's not for all of you, you're more than happy in the urban sprawl, and that's just fine as well.
I'd like to show my support for those people who have shown the courage (whether through economic necessity or not) to return to the land and a more satisfying way of life and for anyone out there interested in looking into it, take a look at some of these links:
Self-Sufficiency and Homesteading
Homestead.org
Mother Earth News
The Simple Living Network
When the Catesby Farms website is eventually launched (and yes I know that's been coming for months now), I'd like to include a small section on sustainable living, based of course on our own experiences. Maybe it will give you a better insight into how we are doing this, and maybe, just maybe it might tempt you to look further into it yourself.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Construction Time Again
Things have been busy with engineers, contractors and friends all doing their part for the Milk Barn project in the last couple of weeks. We have just had all of the original milking stanchions for the 6x6 herringbone cut out and the room is now empty apart from the pit in the middle. We have had various quotes for everything from a complete knock-down and rebuild to a renovation and a refit.
So, in the next couple of weeks we hope to have workers on-site renovating the Milk Barn and turning it back into a milking facility once again. Once that is done we will definitely feel as though we are getting somewhere. We have been looking at various milking systems and are having DeLaval come down from Salem to talk to us in the next few days. I am also in the process of talking to potential buyers of our milk. Initially we will not be able to use all we produce in our first foray into actual raw milk cheesemaking and as the flock grows next year and into 2011 (we are now aiming for 150 ewes) we will have a large surplus of milk that we will need to market. For the time being we want to get comfortable with the milking process in conjunction with the animal husbandry. Jumping into everything at once is never a good idea. Our initial figure projections show that milking 50 ewes next year will turn us a small profit and that we should be able to increase the flock to 100 ewes and then 150.
We realized we were overly ambitious with our initial plans considering there was so much to learn with regard to sheep management, animal husbandry, milking and of course cheesemaking. The first two are an on-going thing and you are always learning something new, the last one is a rewarding process but in order to be successful at it you need to know the three steps before it, and so milking is next.
The lambs are doing extremely well and all are putting on weight and looking very healthy. The differences between the three breeds is now starting to become more evident in their little faces and soon we will be starting to wean them. In the coming weeks we have the haying to look forward to as well. The rain and the warm weather that has started to grace us has kicked the growth season off and it's hard to believe that we only have another 6 weeks before we're haying again. The warm weather will be a welcome break from the particularly wet few months we have just had and will give us the opportunity to finish the vegetable planting for this year.
So, in the next couple of weeks we hope to have workers on-site renovating the Milk Barn and turning it back into a milking facility once again. Once that is done we will definitely feel as though we are getting somewhere. We have been looking at various milking systems and are having DeLaval come down from Salem to talk to us in the next few days. I am also in the process of talking to potential buyers of our milk. Initially we will not be able to use all we produce in our first foray into actual raw milk cheesemaking and as the flock grows next year and into 2011 (we are now aiming for 150 ewes) we will have a large surplus of milk that we will need to market. For the time being we want to get comfortable with the milking process in conjunction with the animal husbandry. Jumping into everything at once is never a good idea. Our initial figure projections show that milking 50 ewes next year will turn us a small profit and that we should be able to increase the flock to 100 ewes and then 150.
We realized we were overly ambitious with our initial plans considering there was so much to learn with regard to sheep management, animal husbandry, milking and of course cheesemaking. The first two are an on-going thing and you are always learning something new, the last one is a rewarding process but in order to be successful at it you need to know the three steps before it, and so milking is next.
The lambs are doing extremely well and all are putting on weight and looking very healthy. The differences between the three breeds is now starting to become more evident in their little faces and soon we will be starting to wean them. In the coming weeks we have the haying to look forward to as well. The rain and the warm weather that has started to grace us has kicked the growth season off and it's hard to believe that we only have another 6 weeks before we're haying again. The warm weather will be a welcome break from the particularly wet few months we have just had and will give us the opportunity to finish the vegetable planting for this year.
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