2016..........and we're off on a new adventure!

All my life I've wanted to live in the country. A small place with a little bit of land to grow fruit and veg and have a couple of pigs, some hens, and possibly a goat or two. Ideally, it would have a creek running through it, and an area of woodland big enough to wander through in peace, and to provide some wood for my cooking stove. Space for my dog to run in safety, and for my cat to hunt mice. I'd be happy if it was off grid, and I didn't have to answer phones all day, and hear people shouting.
Such are the stuff of dreams! In the words of an ex..........."It ain't ever going to happen"......and he was right, darn 'im!

The reality is I live in a housing association 2 bed semi, with a postage stamp of a garden, no woods and  LOTS of noise! I used to have an allotment, but that had to go when my back did!
I still miss it, but lately I've been looking at my postage stamp garden and a new challenge has arisen. I've been playing at things out there, and this year its going to get serious. I've measured as well as I can on my own, with a wavy metal tape. As near as I can figure it, my garden measures 14ft wide and 28ft long..........0.01acres! ha ha ha
Since I moved in here, I've been buying raised beds from linkabord bit by bit, so I don't have to kneel (impossible) or bend too low ( almost impossible). But now I've made up my mind... 
 The challenge is: 
How Much Food Can I Make This Garden Supply?

The answer is.......nothing like enough to be self sufficient, obviously. But, I'm on a basic state pension, and money only goes so far. Can I grow the things I love, but have to go without when times are tough?
 Can I grow some luxuries that I would otherwise have to forgo?
 I have an added bonus that on application to my housing manager, I have been given permission to keep some hens in the back garden! No cockerel obviously, but if you don't want babies, why keep a male about? Lol
However, it now means that on a small scale, at long last I can have a backyard small holding. Or should that be micro-mini-smallholding? So this is the year it gets a bit serious. I'm hoping to get a small budget polytunnel in and a chicken run built. I would have liked a nice polytunnel from First tunnels, like I had years ago on the allotment, but cash won't run to it this year, so a budget one will go in for a couple of years and then I'll replace it with a tip top model.

Last Autumn I added some fruit trees (cordons) along the fence. I have a strawberry bed, and some rhubarb, so we'll go from there. I clearly won't be able to do crops that need a lot of space, but it will be interesting so see how much I can get out of this ground. I'll have to religiously weigh and keep records of everything I harvest, but it should be interesting.

Usually I allow £40-50 per week to feed myself and my daughter, a large dog, and an un-fill-able cat! I noticed that a blogger I follow is doing a new blog called "A year without". she had been saving some cash in a pot and has decided to see how long she and her husband can live without housekeeping this year. Well, I can't do that, because I have no savings to speak of, BUT.......I thought to myself, if  put my housekeeping in the savings bank, how long could I live off my store cupboard?
Obviously milk, and veg would need to be bought as I need it, except NOT from the supermarket in bags bigger than I need......how about I find a greengrocer locally and if I need two tomatoes, that's what I buy. Once the freezer and cupboards start to run down, I can do the same with finding a butcher. I can buy 4 sausages if that's all I need. I'm sure that's why so much food is wasted, people are obliged to buy the packet size stipulated instead of what they actually need.

So these two challenges will run alongside each other this year. I wonder how much better off I might be by Christmas, I'm looking forward to finding out.

Point nought one acres as it looked the day we moved in!