Responsibility

I think one of the quickest lessons I am learning is responsibility. Even though I have a wife, kid and mortgage you dont feel as tied down with responsiblity as you do with a few vegetables and some poultry. A simple example, I need to go to London this weekend to watch the greatest football team in the world (I wish) and I have to rely on a neighbour to feed and water everything. And then you get into the whole issue of "will they do it properly". Last time I did that I came back to dehydrated chicks and was not happy. Then what do you do if the neighbour goes away?

Even part of your daily routine is to some degree ruled by the smallholding, up at dawn to let the hens out, water the veg every day, check on the chicks a few times, make sure the electric fence is working, bla, bla, bla the list goes on.

We have booked a holiday for later in the year and I also wanted sheep by the end of the year and now I am in the dilema of what to do with them while we are away!

So for any wanna-be small holders, head my warning - be prepared to be tied to the land.