Finding Our Feet

This week has felt like two things at once, and both of them a lot: excited and a little bit terrified, often within the same hour. Some of the legal side of things has felt like tiptoeing through a minefield in wellies: planning designations, agricultural occupancy tests, the fine print of what "essential need" actually means to a council rather than to us. But in between all of that, something rather lovely has been true too: the growing, slightly giddy feeling that everything we've spent years only dreaming about might actually, genuinely be possible. Part of that feeling has come from getting out and meeting other people doing exactly this. We've been finding communities of like minded people, folks already living off grid and running smallholdings, and telling them our plans over cups of tea and messages back and forth. More than one has offered to mentor us along the way, which has been lovely. There is something wonderfully reassuring about someone who is already years into their own version of this saying "yes, that bit is hard, here's how we did it." Turns out the path is a lot less lonely than we expected. The actual land hunt has been less romance novel and more spreadsheet marathon: comparing land prices across the country, pouring over other smallholdings and communities to see what's realistic, and working through Somerset's planning rules line by line. Not exactly a montage moment, but oddly satisfying in its own nerdy way. The bit we've loved most, unsurprisingly, is the animals. We've been deep in research on quail, guinea fowl, chickens and goats, working out which ones would earn their keep both financially and ecologically. Chickens turn out to have as much personality range as dogs, while goats are the real MVPs of the plan, since dairy goats are what actually satisfies the planning rules for living on site at all. And guinea fowl might be our favourite discovery of the week: they're a brilliant, chemical free way to keep the tick population down (they genuinely adore eating them), and a group of guinea fowl is officially called a "confusion," which feels extremely fitting given how much noise and chaos they're known for. So that's the week, equal parts nerves, admin, tea with new friends, and a slightly obsessive amount of chicken breed research. Slow going, but the good kind of slow, the sort where you can feel yourself getting closer with every step.