I've sort of chickened out/gone for the middle ground on the idea I started with.The lady has a field of about an acre by the house and I have been offered this for free.
There is a large pen at the top of the field where her husband used to rear phesant chicks so I can put chickens in there and grow veg on the rest of it.Being realistic it will give me a good idea of what I can handle without shelling out a lot of money that I can't afford to play about with.
it does feel a lot more comfortable and much less daunting doing it like this and if I find that I do have the time there's an old pig stye in the corner beging for a few weaners.The beauty of the phesant pen is that it is completly enclosed so foxes or crows/magpies can't get in so if I cant go there one evening/morning there won't be an issue anyway as long as they've got enough feed.
The farmer who rents the land on the farm ploughed a bit for me this morning and i've carted a load of really old manure from a cow shed this evening He's going to rotovate it over the weekend when it's dried out a bit.I've started some spring cabbage and early summer/spring cauliflowers at home so the bed will be nice and settled when they are planted and I'm planning to sow some nanco chtistmas carrots(we'll see) and perpetual spinach as soon as it is rotovated and there'll be a patch left empty for the garlic in October.Ill leave the rest of it fallow until the autumn and just plough it and put a load of manure on it before starting on that in the spring.I don't see the point of ploughing it now as it will just just encourage weeds.
I've been helping the farmer in the evenings as well which I've really enjoyed.I miss working with the animals on a farm but I don't miss the tractor work.I find that really boring.He's likeing haveing me there when he want's a hand too and last night I spotted that one of his cows was on heat so the AI man was able to inseminate her today.If he'd missed her it would have thrown his calving pattern out a lot.So thinking on If I do ever need to borrow a ram etc etc for a larger piece of land I know a man I can ask