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[skye]

Thought it was time to start my diary.

We purchased our 20 acres of land in March after going through a sealed bidding process. Think we may have paid a bit over the top, but really wanted the land and start our journey. Have wanted to do this for many years but it was only after reading the F2F book, I thought we had a realistic chance.

Following the purchase, we employed a consultant to deal with the planning side for us. This has been really tough and after 7 months, we still do not have permission for the barn. A 'Prior Approval Required' was submitted. LPA produced a report and based on this, on the 27th day, they said we would need Prior Apporval. Problem here was the report was written on a neighbouring piece of land and not ours. This seemed to make no difference. I thought it would just be another 8 weeks and we would hear - how wrong could I be. The Parish Council and Highways have no objections to a barn and track and yet we have recently been told we cannot have the track as well as the barn as we will exceed the 465 sq m. Delay after delay and yet every time we talk to them we are told we will get a decision soon. I am not holding my breath. Should also add that in the 7 months since submitting our application, the LPA have not visited our land once.

Now to the bit that keeps me going:

Pigs
We decided to keep Saddleback and GOS pigs. We have had three litters to date, the first was just 6 piglets, 3 girls and 3 boys. The second was 10, 7 boys and 3 girls and the third was 11, 7 boys and 4 girls. Although the first litter was only 6, these are huge in comparison to the second and third litter. Hope she has more next time around or she is off for sausages! Our first pigs to slaughter are booked for mid November. We already have orders for the meat, hopefully all goes well. We have also been approached by a local butcher for our meat. Our aim is to increase the number of sows we have to 50 over the next year. Do at least need the barn before we can look at increasing our numbers further.

Poultry
We have 20 ex bats and will increase this to 50 in the spring - keeping these just for their eggs.
25 rare breeds of chicken - intention is to incubate and sell the chicks. We have hatched about 100 this year and sold them. Have now invested in a large incubator which will take 1000 eggs. Purchased this second hand. Need the barn now to house it in.
6 breeds of ducks - we will incubate and sell these as well as raising some of the Aylesbury for meat. Have orders for these for xmas.
2 breeds of Turkeys - will incubate and sell as well as raising some for next xmas. Have orders for these for xmas.
1 breed of Geese but will probably increase this to 3 breeds for incubating and xmas meat next year.
Have found the poultry to be very time consuming. Cleaning out all the coops, collecting eggs, feeding etc. etc. In comparison to the pigs, these take a lot of my time.

Bees
We have four hives and the plan is to increase these to ten next year. Half to produce honey and half split to form new colonies to sell. Very little time required, couple of hours a week max. Downside, have been stung a few times!

I have a couple of acres which I haven't been able to do anything with this year but will put to use next year for growing produce. Also have a 7 acres of orchard which I will use next year fattening lambs for xmas.

Water has been connected by local water company. Originally we were going to get a hole bored but when we got a quote it was £12k with no guarantee of water compared to £1100 via local water company. We will not get electric connected until we know where the barn is going to be sited.

Feed is costing us a fortune and would like silo's. Once we get permission for the barn, this along with the track is next on our list. If the barn is anything to go by, could be several years before we get these!