Living On A Little Land

 I've owned these two books for as long as I can remember, so long that I've no idea where they came from, but it was way before Amazon.

 Living Better on Less was published in 1977 and Living On A Little Land in 1978 and before that he'd written Politics By Pressure; The Restless Generation and  The Survivalists and in 1982 he wrote Diet For A Small Island. 

Patrick Rivers was a journalist in his 50's when with his wife Shirley they moved to an old cottage on ridiculously sloping land in the Wye Valley. 

It was not the first time they had left London for the countryside because after WWII he had done the Government training scheme for new farmers but after running a Jersey herd for a few years they'd moved back to London when a farm purchase fell through. Then after losing his job for the second time in 10 years they decided to make one final move and to be as self sufficient as possible.  

 

He says they really purchased land that was too difficult for a couple in their 50's but luckily help often turned up unexpectedly just when it was needed. He called it "The Flow".

I thought I'd written about this before and thanks to the new search facility I found it on the old blog in 2014

When Patrick and Shirley Rivers  moved to an almost derelict house on steep overgrown land in the Wye valley, they were already nearly 60 years old and found some of the work really hard. Often just as they were on the verge of despair something or someone would turn up to help. Later, when he researched the other book, he spoke to many people who had also found that if they had faith in themselves and the way they were living simply, things often happened at just the right time. He called it The Flow.

That's how it's been for us. We've never sat back and waited for something to happen but when we've worked hard and trusted in ourselves to manage, everything usually turns out OK. All the house moves we did to work our way towards a smallholding always went well, we never lost out but we had to work hard to improve the properties.

When C had the heart problems last Autumn (2013) he wasn't able to do the 3 day-a-month council job but then the unexpected extra council work when he was well again in December and January filled a gap which would have meant dipping into savings.
When Council cuts in this new tax year brought his work with them to an end our income  fell but   our neighbours'  gardener  has now retired so C will fill that gap to do her grass cutting  for her, which means a regular job with no traveling.
With Easter being late this year our April income from the campsite has been a bit more than usual, which will help us through until we start to sell our produce again.
Last year the irrigation work didn't start until June but we had the Sizewell Outage men on the campsite early in the year before our opening time, which was an unexpected bonus that saw us through.

There are a few photos,lots of good drawings, plans and maps in this book (lots by Sally Seymour the then wife of Self Sufficiency Guru John Seymour)

 Showing how steep the land was Patrick says that from the road at the top only the roof of the house was visible.

 

They had to practically rebuild the house at the same time as clearing the land  

There was a huge heap of rubble and rubbish in one area that they had to clear and needed help, but much they did was by hand.

Love this drawing of Shirley milking, on a stand similar to what I had - although mine had a bucket loop so the goats had their food while being milked and was narrower so I had a chair to sit on beside the stand. Wonder why she's milking one handed only - two handed is the way to do it. It's odd that with all my years of goat milking I have no photos of me doing it. I've got lots of goat photos but of course I wasn't blogging then so hardly used the camera. I loved leaning against a warm goat on a cold morning - it wasn't so good on a hot evening - especially as I had a window right behind me with the evening sun shining through. We walled in the little milking room, which was in the corner of one of the big buildings, with a door to get in and keep shut to keep flies out. So I was often sweltering by the time I'd finished.

 

Taken by a photographer for a piece in the East Anglian Daily Times promoting the Suffolk Smallholders Society in about 1994. How young we were!

 

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Sue