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Welcome – Croeso – to our Site:

the tale of LittleFfarm Dairy

& how we became the privileged guardians of this beautiful slice of Paradise.

Have you ever felt that you’ve just had enough, stuck in life’s rut, pacing on an endless treadmill of  “if only’s” & frustrated dreams?  Ever yearned to break free & do something completely different?  Well try it.  It’s worth the battle….

We are Jo & Tony Knight, & we embarked on this remarkable journey into a very different way of life, back in October 2005.  By charting our progress & explaining a bit about what we do here along with advice, tips & experience we’ve picked up along the way, we hope to inspire & encourage others to take the plunge & have a go at becoming a little more ‘self sufficient’ – whether that means becoming a ‘full blown’ smallholder with a few acres of land: keeping animals, & cultivating fruit & vegetables (& perhaps even starting a new business venture); or simply putting a dwarf fruit tree in a pot on the patio, or a growing few veggies in your window box.  It really is up to you: but we have found our lives have changed beyond measure – & so much for the better – since we decided to ‘downshift’.  Our health has improved; our quality of life has increased; our stress levels have decreased & we have had immeasurable reward through the ups & the downs of this challenging but satisfying new lifestyle.  So if you’re tempted to ‘have a go’ – or if you just like a good story, read on…. 

But first, down to ‘site navigation’ basics: the LittleFfarm Dairy webspace contains the following information:

• Pages: aligned both across the Photo Header & on the Sidebar (where you’ll find extra pages), these give background information on the elements that make up the Ffarm as it is today.  For example, ‘Trees’ covers our eleven-acre wood plus our orchard, the garden, & other specific examples of ununsual tree specimens, on our land; whilst ‘Veg etc’ explores not only the background to the vegetable garden, but also the flower garden & the wildlife pond, too.  But the most noteable page, is perhaps the….

• Blog: this not only covers day-to-day happenings on the Ffarm (it’s updated on a daily basis so you won’t miss out) but also highlights any interesting news stories or links which catch our eye or cause us to ‘put pen to paper’ (in a Bloggy sense that is).

• Calendar:  located on the Sidebar, this highlights in red, dates which have a diary entry (or rant!) ascribed to them.

• Recent Posts:  again on the Sidebar, this lists the latest ‘Blog’ Page entries, in ascending date order.

• Archives:  Monthly Diary archive (in case you missed anything!).

• Top Posts:  Articles or pages we’ve written which readers have referred to the most, in order of popularity.

• Top Clicks:  Links (see below) people have referred to via this site, in order of popularity.

•  Recent Comments:  Latest feedback regarding the site, from our readers.  Feel free to comment as we welcome feedback – the more the merrier!

• Categories:  Under each entry on the ‘Blog’ Page, you’ll see the relevant categories that particular post falls under.

• Tag Cloud:  Again on the Sidebar, you’ll see a group of words of differing sizes.  If you fancy a bit of a ‘Blog’ Lucky Dip, just hit one of the words & pick an entry to read.  The bigger the typeface – the more posts have been written on the subject. 

• Links:  Click on a Link to bring you to a Website or Blog on the relevant subject.  There’s a fair number but we hope this reasonably comprehensive list will enable you to find any additional information you may be searching for.  If you know of another useful link please let us know so we can include it for the benefit of others.  Starting with ‘Anything Goes’, which covers a miscellany of topics, we’ve also included a ‘Blogroll’ (interesting/salient/well-written or photographed Blogs – plus links to good Blog areas such as WordPress, who kindly provided our site); Business; Cheese; Culture (things which have influenced us; plus art, literature, language, music, history & religion); Environment (go greenstuff!); Food (including recipes, food initiatives etc); Fruit & Veg (growing & gardening information); Livestock (all things furred); Local Area (things to do/see around Wild West Wales); Poultry (all things feathered); Publications (useful online agricultural/self-sufficiency/green bookshops);  & Smallholding.

• Blog Stats:  See how many people have seen us, so far…..(& pass the word on, if you like us – please be patient as it’s early days & we’ve only just started to develop the site!).

We’re also hoping to add a Gallery of Photos of the Ffarm so far; although to whet your appetite we’ve put a ‘Header’ photo to each Page, & there are additional photos on some of the ‘Blog’ posts, as well.

We love to receive feedback & correspondence from other like-minded downshifters & smallholders – as well as from those of you who just like the site or are interested in what we’re trying to achieve here.  Feel free to leave a comment; or if you have a question or would like some advice you can email us at ffarmfach@tiscali.co.uk  with any points, observations & suggestions – we welcome them.  Kindly note, our words are based on our personal experiences but we, like everyone else in this life, are still learning – so treat us gently!

Meanwhile: for more about who we are, & our motivation & means to get where we are now, please refer to the ‘Us’ page & the historical ‘Blog’ archives.  Croeso!