Sallygarden Smallholding - The Forum For Sustainable Living

Hello
We have settled in Co Roscommon after what seems like a lifetime of moving house/country. This is much to the relief of or rescue Greyhound. He is getting on at 14! His partner in crime an ageing lurcher does not seem to mind to much at the moment. We have been renovating an old cottage on 1.2 acres. Which has been entertaining as i am not a builder. Got a good DIY book though! Stell has got some chickens and looking into getting a couple of pigs later in the year. Incidently, why dont any of the chicken books state that they are so entertaining? They free range and help us with most tasks from digging to servicing the wood chipper! The pollytunnel is on its way up this week. Cheers for now, Diz and Stell

Hi Diz and Stella,

Welcome, and how brave are you doing up the house! We bought our cottage half way through the renovation work so essentially it was the best bits we got to do as all the hard work had been done. We wish you luck with your new venture. We used to live in Scotland and we rescued a couple of greyhounds, they are lovely dogs and so gentle.
We have a few chickens and I would suggest if you want even more entertainment you get a few ducks!! good for keeping down the slug population. We also have 6 pigs at the moment, they help with the digging, I would recomend pigs, they are so adaptable and fun to have around, some are pets and some for the freezer.

Good luck with your smallholding

Morag

Welcome. You aren't far from us, We are near Mohill.

We are still renovating, it's an ongoing labour of love! We've done most of it ourselves too, v rewarding.

Exciting times getting a polytunnel up, you'll be in time to get some things into it this year too. We also have a flock of chickens of various breeds, layers and table birds. We have 2 ducks, a drake and a female. The female duck is a great layer, every day without fail, I think I'd get 2 females next time. We are hoping that we can hatch some eggs and raise table duck in the summer.

We also keep 2 weaners every now and then to fatten for the table. There are some breeders in the area who sell weaners for raising, including Morhogs. See pig breeders thread in the Pig section.

Welcome. See you around.