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Penny Outskirts
Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....
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 Posted: Wed Mar 29, 06 7:38 pm Post subject: Welcome - Introduce Yourself |
 
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Hello all,
I'm Penny, married to Steve with three offspring 17,14 and 11. Eldest one mine, younger two, OH's.
We have a t-shirt printing business in Cheltenham, and it's our intention to build it up over the next few years, with the intention of Downsizing abroad in the future. The timing of said future is somewhat governed by firstly the needs of the children, (although youngest would probably be happy to come with us), and secondly by making the business secure enough for us to leave it running here and be managed from wherever we end up!
Our original chice was Spain, as my eldest sister already lives there, but property prices are so high there now, it's becoming difficult. More recently, having chatted to Pricey, and seen how beautiful it is, we are looking at Portugal too. We would be quite happy (as soon as funds allow) to buy a property before we are ready to completely up sticks.
When we move, we intend to live as self-sufficiently as possible. My OH is very keen on off-grid utilities, and is very handy too, (he can do most things). We live miles away from anywhere now (as Pricey can tell you!), and are much happier without neighbours too close.
We are practising now by growing our own vegetables, making much of our own food, but as we live in rented accomodation, there is not much we can do about off grid utilities at the moment.
Anyway that's us.  |
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pureportugal
Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 15
Location: Central Portugal
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Giulia
Joined: 01 Jul 2005
Posts: 21
Location: Urbino - Le Marche - Italy
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Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism
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pricey
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Posts: 6444
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| Posted: Thu Mar 30, 06 9:10 pm Post subject: |
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Hi , I'm Steve(3 & my beautiful wife is Rita(26), We have 2 girls, Jessica(2.5) & Rebecca (1 next week), I also have a daughter from another marriage, Ashlee(9),
I am English, although I have spent at least 12 years living in different parts of the world.
Rita is Portuguese ( Madeira ) and has lived in Guernsey and England for the last 8 years.
We currently live & work on a big holiday park in the new forest. It has been my dream since I was young to have my own little smallholding or what ever you choose to call it. So about 18 months ago, we were in what we thought was a comfortable financial position to start looking. Well that was a eye opener, and we soon discovered that what we wanted here, we could not afford.
So thinking caps on, Rita wanted to go to a country she could speak the lingo,(she is very shy, and needs to understand what is going on)so we started to look at Portugal.1 Hour later I had found Sophie's site, found Fontainhas new it was for me, but there was 1 draw back, the wife, she liked some other places. So we put together a list of 13 I think it was, I took Alberto my brother in law & we went to Meet Sophie.
Two weeks later we went back to pay the deposit, 2 days after getting back Rita had Rebecca, and my wife finally saw her new barn in November. She is very trusting.
So we are the owners of a 240 mt sq barn with sheep in at the mo, 6 acres of land, with fruit and olive tree's every were, to many to mention, a wine cellar-well small house, vines to make 1500ltrs of red wine, 4 natural springs.
We are going to try and be as self sufficient as possible, with a goal of being 90% within 5-7 years, and everyone is more than welcome to come and see us.
So let's not bore you any more and let someone else have a go.
Steve |
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Millymollymandy
Joined: 23 Sep 2005
Posts: 187
Location: Brittany, France
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thos
Joined: 08 Mar 2005
Posts: 1139
Location: Jauche, Duchy of Brabant (Bourgogne-ci) and Charolles, Duchy of Burgundy (Bourgogne-�a)
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Just Jane
Joined: 16 Mar 2006
Posts: 140
Location: France
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Merlinn
Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 27
Location: Limousin, France
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Went
Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 6968
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hardworkinghippy
Joined: 01 Jan 2005
Posts: 1110
Location: Bourrou South West France
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Guest
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| Posted: Sun May 07, 06 10:34 pm Post subject: |
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Back in April 2005 I registered with the "creative living for the 21st century" webste https://mrsl.forumsplace.com which I had discovered thanks to "River Cottage" https://forum.rivercottage.net , and this in turn led me to "downsizer". This is what I wrote as my introduction:
<<<When I look back and see that I bought John Seymour's "Self Sufficiency" when it first came out, it makes me realise that the desire to do something along those lines has been with me for quite some time and that I, like many others no doubt, have instead taken the softer option and done a conventional job. With a wife, two kids and a mortgage, the great leap forward (or backward?) to a different lifestyle is not so easy to accomplish.
But now things have changed dramatically. The reinsurance company I work for has ceased underwriting and we are in the process of an orderly "run off" where we meet all our liabilities. At the same time the government, in cooperation with the employers' federation, has come up with the idea of a structured early retirement programme to help alleviate the unemployment problem. This has forced me to rethink my position � didn't take long! � and opt for retirement at age 57� rather than 65. It means a large cut in salary from now to age 60 and a similar reduction in pension entitlement forever but in a couple of years' time I can do my own thing at last.>>>
One year down the line things haven't changed all that much - the job is anything but enjoyable (I'm bored) - and the only thing preserving my sanity is the thought that I've got just over a year to go before this misery ends. I try not to complain, there are other poor souls far worse of than me.
What does get on my wick is the thought that I could be doing something far more useful with my time but I'm obliged to turn up at the office every day and pretend to be busy.
My wife is very understanding but frankly does not share my enthusiasm to have a go at "the good life", prefering to cite the educational needs of our boys (12 & 15) as the prime factor for staying put.
We may end up striking a compromise: ideally by finding a suitable location relatively close to where we currently live which would allow me to put my interests into practice, whilst the kids can continue to go to the same school. In reality the high property prices in the area mean a move further away to somewhere less expensive is inevitable and our youngsters would have to change their school, so that's out.
One alternative would be to find housing and a plot of land for me some way out of town, leaving the family home where it is but with an absent father during the week - not exactly the best solution. At a later stage, if and when the boys decide to go to university, my wife and I could relocate there - or maybe much further afield, like France, as she herself has suggested.
At the moment I'm rather frustrated.
Any ideas from you good people out there?
Colin |
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lr110td5
Joined: 20 May 2005
Posts: 37
Location: Kerpen, Germany
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Purple Martin
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 57
Location: Canberra
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| Posted: Tue Jun 20, 06 2:17 am Post subject: |
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Hi everyone, I'm Purple Martin and I live in Canberra.
People tend to assume that Australia is a hot place, and most of it is, but Canberra is in an area with cold winters. The other night we had a -6C frost, and the daytime max was only +4C... and winter has barely started. Canberra summers can be scorchingly hot (how does 44C sound), with no rain for several months. This combination of freezing winters and hot dry summers makes it difficult to grow things. An irrigation system is an absolute necessity, and so is plenty of mulching. Australian soil is notoriously poor quality, so plenty of compost and manure are important if you want your veggies to succeed.
Apart from growing the usual veggies, I also grow my own hops for brewing beer. I set up a pulley-and-rope system on the tallest wall of the house, but even so I have to prune the tops of the hop bines after only about 4 weeks of growth because they get really tall really quickly! |
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sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales
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