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Written by Nigel
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Saturday, 10 March 2007 |
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Welcome to the fourth incarnation of the Random’s-Lair webpage
This is the bit that tells you all about me and I can honestly say that it doesn’t get any easier deciding what to write. I’m an Englishman living in a small village in Skåne, Sweden, where we have a small farm of five acres which is home to our ever expanding menagerie of animals.
In 2006 I had the chance to start over, to live a long held dream. My partner had the chance to relocate, and after much consideration and not a little heartache we decided to move to rural Sweden. The decision to give up my nine-to-five, friends, family and all things familiar and to give smallholding and self-sufficiency a try was one of the most considered decisions I have ever made and I suppose it’s only natural that when you start to write about all the changes that you have made that you mentally list the pros and the cons, the highs and the lows. I’ve come to realise that despite changing nearly every aspect of my life, the biggest change has been in me. Leaving England was a huge step, but I don’t think I could ever have been content to take my place by the fireside with pipe and slippers and simply look on. I have always thought that life was meant to be lived.
Things do not change, we change
Henry David Thoreau
I don’t think anyone should ever, for whatever reason, turn their backs on life. The worst that could happen is that we do not succeed and I think that failure is easier to live with than the “what ifs” that would be inevitable if we hadn’t even tried. The biggest regrets in my life are all for things I haven’t done. Like Robert Frost I may have taken “the road less travelled by” but in the long run, we have to shape our own lives and destinies, and in doing so we shape ourselves. This is a process which never ends. Every choice we make is ultimately our own responsibility. We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we should, at the very least, try all the things which we think are impossible.
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading
Lao Tzu
The move has presented us with a whole new set of challenges. Ones I hope to write about in the diary/blog section on this page. I can’t promise excitement, just a collection of my thoughts and descriptions of my day-to-day life, which since we moved has fallen into a comfortable routine that revolves around our home, our land and our animals.
We have several additions to mention. We have a dog - Troy, a beautiful Weimaraner which we have given a new home to. Due to set of unfortunate circumstances he was due to be destroyed. He has settled into life here wonderfully. He is a happy good-natured fellow who I can’t ever imagine being without now. Our little old cat Tazio died in December 2006. We missed him terribly and as a house is not really a home without a cat, we acquired two kittens Puck and Jyrkï [yer-key]. I’ve never had kittens before and found them and their antics both adorable and abominable in equal measure and quite often at the same time. They are part Maine Coon and have made large cats each weighing over five kilos. Of course we have chickens, some Blommehöna – a breed native to Skåne where we live. They are a large dual purpose breed good for eggs and the table and will be a major part of our drive for self sufficiency. We’ve also several varieties of ducks and some geese. We kept poultry in England before we moved so apart from increasing in numbers we were confident we knew what we had taken on. Then we added goats; we thought some dairy goats would be the next logical step for us. The learning curve we have been on as goat-keepers is described in the blog section; they’ve certainly given us a real rollercoaster ride.
I intend as my time allows, to keep this all updated with all the changes that happen around Alledal.
The final word is for Steph, none of this would have been possible without him ...and he showed me things
many beautiful things
that I hadn't thought to explore
they were off my path
so I had never dared
I had been so careful
I had never cared
and he made me feel excited...
well excited and scared
I couldn’t say it any better. Thank you for those words Steven Sondheim.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 14 November 2007 )
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