Now we've decided when we want to be ready to make a move on to the next chapter of our life, the natural step is to fill in some of those gaps about what we want and what we don't.
This I think is the hardest part, because often none of us really knows exactly what we want in any great detail if we haven't been through quite a comprehensive exercise to work it out. If someone said to me right now: "You want that smallholding in the country? Cool...what are you going to do once you're there? What are your plans?"
Ummmm...don't know. Bees? Goats? Origami?
So I've done a bit of reading up on this over the last few days and have a handle on the process I need to go through to figure it out though. I thought I'd share it with you just in case you find it useful.
Not the first clue - usually the first step
If you really have no clue at all about what you really want, figure out what you don't want.
Few people know what they want, but they will know what they don't want. Get someone to come up with something, anything, for you and then figure out what aspects of it suck! I guarantee you'll pounce on bits you don't rate. So if someone said: "Well you could keep goats and process the milk into your own cheese and butter and stuff, and you could build stables and offer them to rent to people with horses. You could make jams and sell them at farmer's markets," At which point you go "GOATS!! Bleurch...I wouldn't have a goat - I'd have to milk them everyday...and stables? We're thinking of going to Wales and the market is saturated...etc etc."
A bit of a clue - you're either lucky or have been through the first bit above!
You'll probably do this spread over a few days to let the ideas 'ferment' a bit. A nice glass of homemade sloe gin helps as well ;-)
1. What's the dream and what's the reality?
This is where your likes and dislikes come into it, as well as you fears and prejudices. How do you feel about heat, cold, snow, rain, mud, poor roads, power cuts, long journeys to see family? Be honest.
The dream....is to spend every day immersed in smallholding, making jam, pottering around the garden, bottle feeding orphaned lambs and piglets wearing hunter wellies and a Cath Kidston tea dress...the reality could be you're probably not going to have the time to potter due to a part-time job plus the fact the lamb will stick it's poo-covered trotters on you tea dress the second it sees the bottle and the piglet will bite through your expensive wellies. Ask me how I know ;-)
The dream....is to have an old stone cottage with a aga that heats the whole house...the reality is you hate the cold and all that stone will make for a cold damp house if anything goes wrong with the aga or you have a problem getting it lit. It could be you decide to forgo the idea of a stone cottage for a more modern insulated property, or you might decide there needs to be a secondary heating system installed.
The dream....is having a placid jersey cow and making your own dairy products...the reality is there'll have to be a baby cow about the place for part of the year that you may have to sell or send to slaughter, plus if you have a job you may not be enamoured with the idea of milking that cow every single day for months on end come rain, shine, sleet or snow. Who milks her if you're ill?
Here are some other things to consider in your initial plans.
- How isolated do you want to be?
- How's your health and will it stand up to what you want to do?
- How far from a main town?
- How far from neighbours?
- How much land is enough and how much will be too big an area to maintain?
- You can cope with it now, but what about in 10 years time when your back hurts a lot more?
- Do you consider "privacy," to be the last house on the way out of a village or a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere?
- Do you want mains gas, or will you settle for an oil or a wood burning range as your only source of heat?
- Do you want to be able to drive in snow in bad weather or are you happy to be snowed in for a few days with no ill effects?
- At what point would you feel trapped and start to panic?
Now you won't get everything you want, so you will have to compromise. What will you compromise on? Write it all down. You may not want neighbours within five miles of you, but if the reality is that you have a health problem and you could need their help one day, perhaps no more than a mile away would be better.
2. Write down pieces of your dream and join them together.
Now you have a handle on what you don't want, what the realities are and what you could compromise on, you can start to actually write down what the Dream looks like. For example your Dream might look like "...20 acres with a stream running through it. A couple of good fields for horses and stabling. Preferably on flat land with a south facing kitchen garden. England only, no further North than the west midlands to ensure a decent length of growing season without needing a polytunnel. About a mile from any neighbours and within 10 miles of a main town. Would like some woodland to coppice firewood from. Ideally a three bedroom stone house with outbuildings. Concrete or stone pigsties. etc etc..."
4. Gain experience and skill
Now you have the Dream written down, what life experiences do you need to make it a success? Will you need to learn to garden, to can and preserve food, to hunt, fish or forage,to keep animals for meat and other products, to use and maintain a chainsaw, to have first aid training (should go hand in hand with learning to use a chainsaw), to build outbuildings or animal houses, to learn to drive a tractor to help maintain a crop, pasture or meadow land? Will you need a 4x4 if you live somewhere that can’t be accessed well in bad weather or you have to drive over very poor road surfaces to get to your home? If so, how much will that cost you to buy and maintain - could you maintain it yourself if money was tight?
Whatever you think you will need, spend the time until you can implement your dream getting the experience you need. Read books, go on courses, try experience days at farms and smallholdings, have working holidays on farms. Take tiny baby step steps forward, have a go then alter you plans as you get a better idea of how those pieces of your dream match up to reality.
4. What you think you will need
As you start to get some of these skills you may soon realise you're going to need a whole lot of stuff so start a 'Dream box'. You'll probably need three types of 'boxes' - a physical box or space, a digital box and a mental box to collect all the tools, equipment, supplies, safety gear, reference information and knowledge slowly and thoughtfully in advance.
5. Now imagine you're living the Dream; practice with mini challenges.
What do you need? If necessary create the same conditions as you might experience to practice. If you know the area you will be going is off-grid or experiences power cuts in bad weather, try living without your electric for a couple of days and see how you do. Can you live comfortably rather than just survive?Can you stand each other’s company without the distractions of the computer and TV?
Farming experiences are ideal to get more experience of this and many places offer weekend deals that could provide all the challenge you need if you ask the owners for it. Does your Dream start to change after two days getting up at 4am, you're dog tired and the goat bites you?
6. Finally money, moolah, reddies - a few helpful suggestions in the money department.
Whatever you decide to do, money will be vital. I've never met anyone or read anything that advocated starting this life with a large mortgage and debt. It starts you off at a disadvantage immediately and one financial problem could lead you onto a slippery downward slide from which you may never recover. Also, if you plan on setting up a business you'll need every ounce of credit you may have until you are established.
Have no payments for anything debt-related, including mortgage if possible.
Pay off your credit cards then cut most of them up bar one for dire emergencies. Put that one in a block of ice in the freezer.
Pay cash for your house, land, tools and animals.
Get all the dental work done that you need and any nagging health problems addressed. Don't put off having a knee joint replaced that's hurting all the time, otherwise it could seriously impact on the lifestyle you want to have. As mercenary as it sounds if you're employed and get sick pay, now is the time to get it done not when you're struggling to establish income sources and keep a holding going.
Try and get stash of money togther as an emergency fund for after the move. Things always need replacing after a move or an opportunity may come your way shortly after that you want to capitalise on.
Develop your talents into something you can market and set up a few income streams from before you're scratching around for cash. Do your research though.
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So there you have it. That's what I've managed to glean so far from all of my wandering across the internet.
Is there anything else you think should go in here?
