This is what's changed
Last year we made hay and sold the bales from 3 fields, this year we will just do our meadow here.
Last year Col was working for our farmer friend moving the big irrigation system, this year he's not been able to.
Last year we had 140 chickens and selling dozens of eggs every day this year we have just 40 old chickens and selling just a couple of dozen each day.
Last year Col was doing lots of hedge cutting for our neighbour, this year that job is one of the things he has to avoid.
Last year we grew loads of pumpkins and squash out on our field, this year we couldn't.
It's obvious our income is and will be less all through the next few months. What perfect timing it was to find I was going to get a bit of pension from 35 years ago, an unexpected bonus. Then there is the loads of scrap we've cleared and sold, with more to go later, the smallholding equipment we hope to sell via a barn and yard sale and we've already made £300 from car boot sales and the campsite has been busy through most of this month.
This isn't the first time we've found things turn up at just the right time. It's called The Flow and I've written about it before (told you I was going to re-hash more old posts!)
Here we go, this is part of my post from April 2014
When Patrick and Shirley Rivers moved to an almost derelict house on steep overgrown land in the Wye valley, they were already nearly 60 years old and found some of the work really hard. Often just as they were on the verge of despair something or someone would turn up to help. Later, when he researched the other book, he spoke to many people who had also found that if they had faith in themselves and the way they were living simply, things often happened at just the right time. He called it The Flow.
That's how it's been for us. We've never sat back and waited for something to happen but when we've worked hard and trusted in ourselves to manage, everything usually turns out OK. All the house moves we did to work our way towards a smallholding always went well, we never lost out but we had to work hard to improve the properties.
When C had the heart problems last Autumn (2013) he wasn't able to do the 3 day-a-month council job but then the unexpected extra council work when he was well again in December and January filled a gap which would have meant dipping into savings.
When Council cuts in this new tax year brought his work with them to an end our income fell but our neighbours' gardener has now retired so C will fill that gap to do her grass cutting for her, which means a regular job with no traveling.
With Easter being late this year our April income from the campsite has been a bit more than usual, which will help us through until we start to sell our produce again.
Last year the irrigation work didn't start until June but we had the Sizewell Outage men on the campsite early in the year before our opening time, which was an unexpected bonus that saw us through.
Hopefully all will be well.
A few days ago I said I might be too busy to do much writing on here but the road is still closed so no point digging spuds or picking gooseberries to sell, no viewings yet either - no passing traffic to spot the sign. I could despair that there is no income from produce but I'll just cross my fingers that they get the road open again soon and the campsite bookings diary fills up for July.
Welcome to Tracey,a new follower in the Google pictures
Back sooner than I thought
Sue
