Self Sufficiency Goal

Not because it is the trendy thing to do but because all the actions below are common sense and should be done anyway, without making a song and dance about it!

The circle of muck

Animal poop, straw and vegetable waste is collected from across all the pens and fields and placed in huge high piles dotted across our fields. After a few years this muck turns into magic manure, it looks like expensive compost!

The composted muck is then carted to the fruit and vegetable plots. Our vegetables thrive in it. The fruit and vegetables are then fed to the animals and is converted to yet more poop!!

Water

Water tanks have been installed collecting rain water from our many roofs. These tanks are our first source for watering the fruit and vegetables and replenishing water trough, before we turn on the taps.

Food

The fields provide us with rich butter coloured hay bales, and the livestock with grass. The woodlands provide browse to eat and natural shade and shelter for our animals and the stream fresh running water.

We have planted over 450 trees and 1000 hedging plants and will continue too. We do not use chemicals and regularly move the animals around the fields with the benefit to the grass land of the poop deposited and to the animals of ongoing fresh grass with low risk of worm eggs being swallowed.

We have developed a talent for turning unwanted objects into animal enrichment and shelters. A local company gives us their old plastic oil tanks. After deep cleaning they make for a great animal shelter. Fire stations give us waste hosepipes which we use extensively for animals that climb high and to weave to make into comfy beds and hammocks.

We have installed 71 high raised beds in blind panic during Covid about our ability to access enough food for the animals.