Self-Sufficiency in Style
Buying your smallholding - Part Seven
Collecting some tools
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Self-Sufficiency in Style Buying your smallholding - Part Seven Collecting some tools |
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He hid a combine in the luggage rack, your honour. |
Let's get one thing out of
the way, if you are travelling from one country to another, with the single
possible exception of Eire to the UK or vice versa - you would be completely
mad to bring anything with you that has been in intimate contact with a
farm. Agricultural equipment would be suicidal. Imagine the reaction if you arrive into another animal or plant health scare! If it is Australia, they don't even need a health scare. They simply will not take any chances of introducing diseases. You would be lucky to stay out of jail. |
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selling up or buying anew applies to both buyer and seller. A seller moving out of self-sufficiency and perhaps thinking of living in town and doing a little travelling has no need of equipment. A buyer coming in from abroad or town has every need. It makes sense for both parties to talk. |
Do a deal, if you can. |
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Broadly, you can divide tools and other transferable items into categories. * livestock * consumables (timber, bricks, rubble, muck, manure.) * hand tools * tools that are undeniably agricultural - (cultivators, strimmers, mowers etc, right through to tractors, even a pick-up truck) * domestic items linked to the house (emergency generator, fridges, freezers, cream separators.) |
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You won't need a bike or a sheep dog. |
It is not usually wise to buy
existing livestock, but there can be exceptions. There is little need to buy mature poultry unless you intend to start breeding immediately and like the particular type. Lambs are cheap to buy and you soon build up a flock of biddable ewes. Piglets and goats the same. You might want to start dairy production immediately, but again a young heifer costs almost nothing and you finish up with a manageable cow. |
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Always buy the consumables. In fact, you won't have to buy them. You will get them for nothing. A nice pile of brand new matching bricks to build a cold frame. Timber to make an emergency repair. Wood and kindling to make a good fire. A good muck heap already rotting away. Rubble to make some hard-standing. Your price might be that eventually you may have to take some metal to the tip, but that's a small price to pay. |
Covert the muckheap. |
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How do they do it?. |
Hand tools are cheap today.
How do the Chinese do it? But there are exceptions...the ferociously expensive specialist tools for hedging and fencing. Some may have been specifically made for specialist situations. Others may be well known makes for which spares are available locally. |
| Agricultural machinery of the
larger type has to be bought with an eye on maintenance. If you are not
engine orientated, and not all of us are, some will come with a local
specialist who understands the beast. Our pick-up truck does about 500 miles a year, but those miles are essential ones in collecting animal feed from the mill. We will give the vehicle, rust, holes and all, to any buyer. When it does eventually collapse beyond sensible repair, the man who maintains it will take it to the wreckers yard. |
Pick-ups come in all shapes and sizes. |
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Overhead lines! |
The domestic items of fridges, freezers and food preparation machinery are
available, just as they would be in any other non self-sufficiency deal. You will need the generator, if you have overhead lines. The writer promises you, you will need the generator! |
| Take a good look at all the
major items whilst you are at the smallholding. You will need to discuss
which items you need and the price to be paid. The period before the sale can be used to tie up all the details. The vendor can make a list, photos can be sent via the net and agreement reached before the sale of the property finalised. |
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They also cost - consultancy perhaps? |
One thing that really surprised the writer, when he first moved to a
self-sufficient life was the lack of good advice. Rather naively, he expected a rosy cheeked farmer to lean over the gate and give him a few pointers on what to do and how to do it. That didn't happen. Farmers today are specialists using big equipment often on massive acreages. You need dozens of specialists today. They do exist, but are often hard to locate. They also cost. You don't get much for nothing in today's farming world. Try finding anyone who can lay a hedge in East Anglia or anyone that understands exotic fruit in Ireland or Wales! Mind you, you probably would have difficulty in growing them in the Celtic west, so it would be a academic point. Your predecessor on the smallholding will be a store of information. Not just how to do the job, but who to ask for help, to lend you books and enjoy your successes. |
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Keep things friendly, when things go wrong, you may need help. |
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You may return to
Buying
your smallholding - Part One -
Don't complicate things! In future articles, we will tell you why you cannot avoid the "crunch" moment - and why it should come sooner rather than later. In the meantime, if you are so inclined, you can return to FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS which deals specifically with Hangman's Cottage or perhaps UNDERSTANDING ESTATE AGENTS will offer you some help for any sale or purchase |
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...a friendly reception - at Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner. |
