A typical weekend

Many people tell us they aspire to owning a largely self-sufficient smallholding like our croft.

But what many of them don't realise is that a vast amount of work is involved in keeping the place going, even more so if you have young children.

So here's a typical weekend's work for me…

Saturday (up at 5.45am)

• Quick shower, then prepare everything for breakfast
• Let the chickens out, then feed and water them
• Check the chicks, feed and water them
• Feed and water the weaner pigs, muck them out
• Feed and check the water trough for the breeding pigs
• Wash and then make breakfast (omelettes and beans) for the horde
• Get the boys dressed and packed into the Other Half's car for a trip to Grandma
• Concrete in four fence posts for the pig race (holes already dug)
• Start hand hoeing the potatoes (400sq m)
• Have lunch (cheese sandwiches and an apple)
• Check the papers for a possible replacement car for the OH
• Organise a boar (a Tamworth, due here in two weeks)
• Do a load of washing and hang it out
• Sow more vegetable seeds (pumpkins, squash, cucmbers inside; carrots, radish, peas outside)
• Feed and water the chickens
• Finish hoeing the potatoes
• Assemble the scythe
• Check the chicks, feed and water them
• Feed and water the weaner pigs
• Feed and check the water trough for the breeding pigs
• Have dinner (pork chop, fried potatoes, carrots and cabbage)
• Put the chickens to bed
• Check the chicks
• Answer various emails

Sunday (up at 5.30am)

• Start earthing up potatoes (with a ridging hoe)
• Let the chickens out, then feed and water them
• Check the chicks, feed and water them
• Feed and water the weaner pigs, muck them out
• Feed and check the water trough for the breeding pigs
• Shower, then breakfast (home-made chinese-style spare ribs, fresh bread and coffee for breakfast. I love it when the OH and the boys are away!)
• Do a load of washing and hang it out
• Do the dishes
• Cut out rusted sections of the trailer with the angle grinder (almost as good as digging)
• Cut a swathe of grass
• Cut back a couple of spruce trees
• Put in another strainer post
• Have lunch (egg sandwiches and an apple)
• Knock in about a dozen 3in posts
• Put anchors on two strainers
• Feed and water the chickens
• Plant half a dozen hawthorn (including clearing the ground, laying weed fabric and mulching)
• Check the chicks, feed and water them
• Feed and water the weaner pigs
• Feed and check the water trough for the breeding pigs
• Have dinner (fish supper from the chippie as I was running out of time!)
• Finish earthing up the potatoes
• Put the chickens to bed
• Check the chick
• Unload the boys, including the battle-scarred Wee 'Un, on their return from Grandma's. Say hell to the OH!
• Answer various emails

Saturday's work finished at 9.30pm, Sunday's at 10.15pm just as the OH got back and with the exception of the emails.

If you want the self-sufficient life on a smallholding, then be warned - you'll have to work for it. For us the rewards are worth it but they may not be enough for some.