self sustaining; advice, tips, experience

ibstar

Hi.

Might sound like a hippy but I've had a long life dream to become self sustaining in my early/mid 40s, so starting to research into this now. Kids should be old enough to choose whether to stay in city or move with the family at this stage.
My plan is to move with the missus down the country to have my own small farm with greenhouses for veg and berries, also enough land where I will have small flock of cattle and bird for own consumption.
Also planning a small pond to breed fish.

Obviously by that age I should be more than qualified enough to do some freelance in business/IT sector,if the £$%* hits the fan and I'd need to cover some sunk expenses like replacing sick animals etc.

Is this kind of thing possible?
What are the obstacles involved?
Does anyone have any experience with this kind of thing?
Does the government approve of something like this?

Thank you.

blue5000

Ah it's a lot easier in France, better weather, cheaper to live there too. Too many EU rules here, lot more 'flexibility' there too.

Bog Man 1

You might learn something over here . Farmers would not survive without the EU . I am working out how to survive till I get the rest of my subsidy payment .It can be done but you would have a handier time in France or Portugal or some place that is not as wet as here . Also if you have rich people nearby that will buy your excess produce . You have to pay tax and insurance plus high standing charge for ESB so you would really need an income to cover this . Its still could be done but you would want to be well organised .

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1514

djmc

It probably would be possible to sustain yourself but their wouldn't be any money in it and in the world we live in you need money for luxury s
like a car insurance taxes charges TV upgrades repairs etc.
So you would probably need an income elsewhere and do it as a hobby.
There would be a bit of red tape for animals and such but its possible.

Belongamick

If you decide to move from city to country its a big change if you have not lived in the countryside prior to this. If you spent (or your spouse/partner) your childhood in the countryside then you will probably have some experience to draw on. It really is the basic things that you may miss. For example, proximity to a shop, cinema, no public lighting out the countryside, not great public transport etc. Weather is significantly worse the more you travel west, Dublin annual rainfall 757mm, Claremorris 1203mm (4 year mean).
On the plus side quality of life is alot better (in my oponion).
In terms of 'growing your own' there is great satisifaction but when you can buy the veg for less than you are planting it is it time well spent?
Suggestion would be to rent a cottage in a rural location for one month and see how you and your family adjust. Try several locations and do some homework. Best of luck.

Buona Fortuna

Good points above

The land we live on used to be 4 fields. The wife's Grand Father had it divided up for barley and wheat, grazing.

They had a pigs and killed one once a year (I think) kept it in a barrel of salt. They ate a lot of bacon

Cows for milk and a bull for breeding. There was a "fair" in the village then so he would walk his surplus cattle up to the fair to sell them.

He had a horse that did everything. If he couldn't lift it or drag it the horse would or it would stay where it was. The horse would also take them to mass once a week.

He was an absolutely great guy - sadly I only knew him briefly.

Its doable but we need money for so much these days. Before you even get up in the morning you've got to pay property tax and water. There's loads of things that we almost take for granted electrity, internet connection, transport.

I think it gets more difficult to live on your own resources as time goes on, but I do wish you well OP.

ibstar

Thanks for the replies.
Had a chat with an engineer over the weekend who's mad into new building technology (heat retaining glass, converting cold into heat, self charging devices, water filters etc),
and he said the same thing regarding self sustaining,that nowadays it's cheaper and faster to buy then to grow yourself,
and the same thing pretty much regarding meat.
It's the taxes+bills which is the main obstacles in this case after all.
Obviously this idea still not out of the question and only time will tell how far I will take it in future.

Thank you all.

Miname

ibstar wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.
Had a chat with an engineer over the weekend who's mad into new building technology (heat retaining glass, converting cold into heat, self charging devices, water filters etc),
and he said the same thing regarding self sustaining,that nowadays it's cheaper and faster to buy then to grow yourself,
and the same thing pretty much regarding meat.
It's the taxes+bills which is the main obstacles in this case after all.
Obviously this idea still not out of the question and only time will tell how far I will take it in future.

Thank you all.

If your aiming to have all the bits above you'll need to sell another farm to get them, and I've yet to see any that don't require serious servicing every year.