After a weekend of heavy snow fall, we are snowed in! Peter stayed at home today as there was no way he would attempt to drive down the hill to work. Getting out of our drive alone would have been a challenge with 18 cm of snow and a fair amount of ice too!

Once the sheep were fed with plenty of fresh bedding in their shelters and hay in the racks and once we had broken the ice off the drinkers and water troughs, we enjoyed walks to take photos. Especially today as the sun was out and …

Two weeks ago, we purchased four hens and their coop. Their keeper, from just over the hill from us, was moving away into rented accommodation and could not take them with them. We collected the coop first and got it ready for the hens. Betty, a Splash Maran, and her brood (a Light Sussex, a Speckledy and a Blubell) arrived in cardboard boxes at night time and we transferred them into their own coop but at their new location at ours. They made a little fuss but quickly settled in for the night.

The next morning, I let them …

This week sees us reach an important milestone in our smallholding life, an event that we have seen coming and been preparing for for the last five months. On Monday, we took the concept of "homegrown" to a new level by taking two of our lambs to the abattoir.

It was very hard and, if I am honest with myself, I am not completely at peace with doing it. I feel conflicted as I wrestle with the ethics of it... is it right for an animal to be born and then slaughtered for meat a few months later? It …

A couple of Sundays ago, we held an Open Shepherd's Hut afternoon with friends and neighbours, as a way to launch our new venture and to show what we have created. It was a lovely gathering, a real celebration of what we have achieved, almost a year to the day since we first set eyes on our shepherd's hut.

It was an almost sunny afternoon (given the cold and wet weather we've been having this August, that was a good thing!) and people came and went as they pleased. Our local Welsh Assembly Member even responded to our invitation …

On this day two years ago, we completed the sale of our house in Salisbury and the purchase of our smallholding in Mid-Wales. Two years already that we are living the smallholding dream!! I can't quite believe it because the time has gone so incredibly fast! And yet, if feels as if we have lived here forever!

This morning, as I walked down the lane to go and check on our sheep, with fresh air filling my lungs, the warm sun on my face and stunning views across the rolling hills, still in love with our little piece of …

When we first got our ewes, 18 months ago, everybody was asking us what our plans were for them ie will we put them to the ram and have lambs from them. They were our lawn mowers so thinking about lambs was just not within our radar then. As novice sheep owners, there were plenty of new skills to acquire to look after them before we could even contemplate lambing! Besides, they were lambs themselves so we had another year to think about having lambs from them.

As time passed, we settled into looking after our ewes and Spring …

When we were looking to buy a smallholding, one of our priorities was somewhere where we could be or work towards being “off-grid” for our utilities, or at least some of them. We thought that it would help us achieve our goal of keeping our outgoings to a minimum and feel more in charge/in control of our consumption. We figured that a more sustainable and self-reliant way of living would make us more resilient in an increasingly fragile and unsustainable world with rising living costs, limited resources and the serious challenges we face to tackle and respond to climate change.

I cannot believe I have not written a new blog piece in a couple of months!! Well, actually, I can believe it as it has been a busy Summer here with our son's graduation, our silver wedding anniversary party and having visitors as well as completing various small projects on the smallholding and tending the garden, by now in full growing mode with generous offerings of fruit and vegetables that need harvesting and preserving for later.

At the end of July, we also celebrated our first anniversary of living here. These last 12 months have gone incredibly fast and …

When we were buying our smallholding and exploring what we were going to do with our 3 acres of land, we decided that we would plant some trees. Soon after we moved here, we got in touch with The Woodland Trust for advice and found that they were actually offering grants and funding support to farmers and smallholders interested in planting trees on their land.

Through their MOREwoods scheme, The Woodland Trust make financial and practical woodland creation help available to people with a minimum requirement of 1.25 acres of land available for small woods or scattered plantings. We …

One thing we have come across since owning sheep is the old saying that 'sheep should not be left in the same field long enough to hear the church bell ring twice'. Our neighbour has reminded us of it a couple of times when we have left our sheep in the same paddock for longer than that!

This traditional farming practice of frequently moving grazing livestock not only serves the sheep well but also benefits the land. Our sheep are getting used to seeing us and being handled by us so it is easier to spot and treat any …