Kitchen Garden Forum

Dear Mike, now that attitude to life makes us all feel brighter, good on you.

Great attitude to have, Mike. Try not to get too disheartened if you feel tired, just rest and then carry on allotmenting (hmmmm, I think that might have made a good film... ).

My sister's husband is having a prostate op for the same reason soon, all fingers crossed please...

Hi Rooster, Right here goes! Im Mark and the wifes Kim, We have 4 kids under the age of 15, 2 boys and 2 girls. Im 40 and Kim is 39. 5 Years ago we decided to leave the rat race in Dagenham Essex and bought a old cow shed on top of a mountain in Lower Normandie France. We have 7 acre's of land in total. The veg plot is just over an acre. We have 24 free range chicken's and are in the process of building pig shed's for the spring. The rest of the land is taken up by an orchard with 180 fruit tree's on it plus 2 goat's until the sheep arrive in spring. Also arriving in the spring are duck's,Turkey's and geese. The cow shed is well on it's way to becoming a 8 bedroom house, All work being done by myself. People back in the UK ask me why move to France, I was in the Dockland's bombing and the greek st bombing soho. We sold our 2 bed house in Dagenham and bought a life for 23k in rural France. The local's are the most caring people you could meet in the world and stress here does not exist. Imagine being able to walk out your front door which is never locked and fish your own trout stream as I do, Also something the local's laugh at that I do is to sit outside of a night time and just be at peace with the site of million's of star's in a clear sky. I hope this tell's you a little of our live's. Also Rooster my advice to you is if you want to know anything about self sufficiency then buy what we call the bible, That being a book called " The complete book of self sufficiency" written by god himself "John Seymour" published by Dorling Kindersley. I hope this helps.

A warm welcome to the forum Mark and Kim, your new lifestyle sounds quite iydllic, very similar to here in Bedfordshire.

WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Mark and Kim

You took our dream and are living it for real, how wonderful.

When I read your post to my wife she was in awe and said she finds you inspirational...

Thank's Herbaceous for the welcome. Rooster if it's a dream of your's then go for it! Dont live your life and think what could have been! We have found there is no risk involved in moving here as long as you dont mind a simple but healthy life. The time it become's risky is when you bring England with you and become part of an English click and rejected by the French local's. The local's are the door opener's to everything that goes on and what to get where at what price, While the click pays through the nose! The Local's believe if that if an Englishman lives here more than 2 year's then they are here for life! They are correct we have seen so many people come and go always in the second year and always we are told because there is no night life or the wife cant get her nails done and theres no gym! We know of lots of nightclubs and people that do nails and where theres gyms, But there again all our friends are FRENCH! If anyone would like to know more about life in rural france then please contact me by email or even messenger multiservice.de.mark AT hotmail.fr one day I will write a book on how to realistically live in France. Sorry to all if im going on abit.

Email address edited by moderator, use an @ instead of AT

Dear Mark and Kim, i think you have really hit the nail on the head, when you say about mixing with the locals.
A friend of mine moved to Spain about six years ago and still hasn't bothered learning the language. He has a circle of friends that are all English.
I really do feel that he is missing out on so much, but everyone to their own i suppose.

Happy living.

What a wonderful life you have Mark and Kim. I'm really rather green around the gills

Good luck to you and the kids cos it's much better for them to be there than here.

Are you taking bookings cos me and The Grock fancy a bit of a break.

Hi Lizzie, You are welcome anytime, Everyone is welcome! If we cant put you up then we have many friend's who can. The thing about our place we live at is we are on top of a mountain, What this means is we get damn cold winters, snowed in a lot of the time which is glorious, But also in the summer is mega hot. We get the extremes here. I could not think of a better place on earth to be!

Dear Mark and Kim, i think you should just know, that Bedfordshire is still recovering from a visit from Lizzie, and that was when she was a little girl.

But i'm sure shes not like that now.

Just to let my friends know that I've been told that there has been no spread of the tumour. It is now well and truly confined to barracks, starved of rations and awaiting execution. No excuse, therfore, for not doing the allotment jobs.

Best to all
mike

Brilliant news Mike, congratulations

Dear Mike, after reading that, if i don't hear anymore good news all week it won't matter.
I really am truly pleased for you and your family.

Excellent news Mike.

Now be sure to get an early night, lots to do on the allotment tomorrow...

Excellent news Mike. Make sure you eat lots of tomatoes!