Sallygardens Smallholding

Sallygardens eBooklet Store

At long last I've managed to create a Paypal store which will make it easier for you to purchase our Sallygardens eBooklets. Instead of having to email me first to request a Paypal invoice you can place a direct order via this store front. Of course you can still use the old way, this alternative just provides another easier option . Look to the right hand side bar to find the store. Come on in and have a look around.

Felting Workshops at Sallygardens

The felting workshops have been a joy to teach. The participants are always really enthusiastic and we have a lot of fun around the kitchen table. I recently had a fantastic group of ladies who brought their mother for her birthday, she was in her 80s and bright as a button. She was full of stories about how they used to dispatch their chickens and even offered to demonstrate her technique but I didn't have any ready 'to go' at the time! Of course nothing of what we do here at Sallygardens in our bid to live sustainably hasn't been done before and there's a lot of useful knowledge out there for us beginners amongst people who have done it all their lives. Finding that information can be very difficult and then sometimes it arrives at the kitchen table without me even looking.

One of the most fulfilling parts of the felting workshops for me is to see the wonderful array of creations made by the participants, they really are inspiring. So here are a few from a couple of recent workshops to share with you (with full permission from the creators themselves!). The next felting workshop will be on Saturday 12th July 10am till 12.30, please leave a comment on this post or email me to book a place.

Launch of the Sallygardens Goat Keeping eBooklet

'Keeping Goats for Smallholders, A Beginners Guide' is an eBooklet that I have been working on for some time now. It's finally finished and ready for sale. The success of the first Sallygardens eBooklet on pigs,  'Rearing Weaners for the Table, A Beginners Guide' has encouraged me to continue with more. This goat guide is aimed at those who wish to keep goats on a flexible small non-commercial scale, perhaps to provide milk and cheese for their family. It draws together from many sources all the nuggets of information that took me months of research to gather before I felt ready to buy our first goats. Sources include books, websites, blogs, forums and friends. Also included is the practical experience we have gained during keeping our goats and advice from other veteran goat keepers. The booklet covers where to buy a goat, how to ensure you buy a quality animal, which breed will suit your needs, housing, feeding, fencing, milking, set-up and running costs, breeding and more.

Goats get a lot of bad press but by following a little bit of advice you can easily avoid the stereotypical nightmare scenario* and find yourselves a lovely couple of well natured and productive goats that will bring you many hours of delight and provide you with milk, cheese and meat. The eBooklet costs €8.

*goats breaking into vegetable gardens, destroying rose bushes, billies chasing their owners across fields, nannies flipping the milk bucket over your head etc.

Beekeeping

On Saturday last I attended a workshop at the Organic Centre in Rossinver on beekeeping, given by the inspiring Sue Anthony. I fully intended to take a few photos of the bees there (safely housed behind glass!), some lush images of beeswax, perhaps a few pots of honey (yes we did tastings too!) and a dismantled beehive. However I was so engrossed in the subject for the entire day, that I completely forgot. These little creatures are just amazing, and the art of beekeeping is incredible. I had never appreciated just how interesting, complex, enjoyable and rewarding this activity is. Now, I would love to get my hands on a nucleus of bees ... and a beesuit, and a smoker, and a hive, and a hive tool, all the other things one needs to get started (preferably mostly second hand). I may also seek out a bee sting allergy test first, as I'd rather not discover a severe allergy while kitted out head to toe in a beesuit at the end of my field all on my own during my first ever contact with bees!

So the first step to get involved is to do a course like this one, or this, and/or contact your local beekeeping association. Oh, and contrary to popular belief, members need not be only male and over 65 (but of course they are most welcome too)!

Going Live

Today we officially launch this new blogsite, yes we are going live! WELCOME aboard. Its entirely due to the overwhelmingly positive feedback from readers of my other blog An Irish Craftworkers Good Life, about the eco-conscious lifestyle that we strive to live here on our farmlet, that we have been inspired to launch this new blog; Irish Sally Garden , which is all about living the sustainable dream in rural Ireland and sharing the knowledge of our experiences with like minded souls through consultation and workshops.

So a massive and sincere THANK YOU to all those who have been in touch, asking, encouraging, helping (Julie who designed our banner ) and admiring what we do. Now that we know so many others seek the same, we are going to try and help you get there too, by sharing what we have learned, and continue to learn every day. Yes we've made some great mistakes along the way ... so you don't have to repeat them!

All our courses are now listed with dates and prices and we look forward to hearing from you. If you quite fancy the look of a particular course, but the date doesn't suit you, drop us an email and we may well be able to run the course on a day that does suit you. We only need a minimum of two participants to run a course (max 4 or 5 on most), so perhaps you have a friend who'd also like to come along, or maybe we have another eager participant on a waiting list who would fill the gap. We are aiming to keep courses small and friendly, very informal, around the kitchen table with a cup of tea and a few biscuits, punctuated with a light home made lunch.

If you are interested in a particular course please get in touch and we can send you a course outline, and help you decide if its what you are looking for.

Courses include :
An Introduction to Rearing Piglets for the Freezer
An Introduction to Keeping Goats for Dairy or Meat
Constructing a Living Willow Sculpture
How to Identify the Most Appropriate Alternative Energy Technology for your Home
Feltmaking for Total Beginners
How to Create a Blog : One to One workshop

An Irish Craftworkers Good Life will continue as normal, posting about my craftwork and various day to day farm antics. Irish Sally Gardens will be totally farm and sustainable living orientated with a lot more detail and focus on how to implement ideas into your own lifestyle.

Wish us Luck!