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About Me

My name is Kev, I'm in my very early forties, have a wife, two daughters and a son and love how we live.
I grew up on a farm in rural Shropshire and I've always loved being outside. We used to farm around 200 acres (all rented) that was mixed for arable and livestock, we kept around 250 sheep and my childhood is full of memories of farm life from managing stock to days spent on a tractor.
When I left school/college I fell into a job labouring on a building site. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to get a trade and trained as a carpenter. Since then I have worked on many interesting jobs, from schools and prisons to managing whole floors on high rise buildings.

My most interesting and rewarding job came a few years ago. Since April (2014) I have become a stay at home dad, I still work as a carpenter at the weekends and school holidays, but day to day I spend looking after our children on our little homestead.

We try to grow as much food as we can and I'm trying to give my children a real appreciation of where food comes from. I'm obsessive about anything to do with homesteading and try to put skills into practice as much as I can, to learn through doing.

I try to involve my children in everything I do as well as making sure that we're a part of our local community. I've got big plans for our little homestead so I hope you all stick around and read about our adventures! 

3 comments:

  1. Having just commented on your post of yesterday, Kev, where you ask what we all do as small holders of varying degrees of small....
    I looked to see what your patch measured in the way of acreage and couldn't find anything about size....
    so just how big is your homestead?

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    1. You answered this question in your response to my comment...
      five acres is a goodly amount... we've got six and 3/4ths...
      the three-quarters is where the houses and our veg and orchard are...
      the 6 was the farm in-by land...
      it was mainly milk and dairy products...
      we found the last milking records in an old tin box...
      it was sad to see the place emptying!

      That six acres is now our nature reserve... "Le Pré de la Forge"... and possibly takes as much time as the other three-quarters to maintain....
      you can't neglect land and expect a result!
      Tim

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    2. I have to admit to just cutting the other four and a half acres for hay so far but I am planning on getting some sheep to help keep the grass in check and put something back on the fields. I have also planted a lot of tree for lots of different reasons. Your place sounds great, so you ever think about getting cows again to milk (or goats?)?

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