Axe Head Farm Project

Date: Dec 2013 to Aug 2018
Project Type: Agriculture

About this Project

This project had been a lifetime’s dream to buy land, make it in to a smallholding and get to build on it. Lots! In December 2013, the opportunity to take ownership of just under 13 acres of agricultural land came about and the dream and the project was on, From Field to Farm.

The land was near Helston, Cornwall and we named it Axe Head Farm. The name because as you can see in the photo that shows the land that stands out as ploughed, the land looked just like an Axe. The view of the sea was from the blade of the axe. For Cornwall, it was relatively flat too.

The purchase came about when I received some compensation following an accident at work as an HGV driver, that nearly saw me losing my right leg from just below the knee. The doctor told me that 76% of people with this sort of injury, never make a full recovery. I wasn’t OK with that.

When the land was purchased in 2013, I wasn’t long since off crutches, having spent the first 6 months after my accident in 2011 in a wheelchair. I was a long way off fit and strong. That was the point of the project. Rehabilitation. I was determind that I was going to be in the 24% of people that made some sort of recovery, not the 76% that didn’t.

When I first arrived at the land in January 2014, I struggled to walk around the first field (the one that makes the base of the axe’s handle) once. I kept going, building up to walking around the first field 5 times, before walking around the first two fields, adding more and more on, until by May 2014 I could walk around all three fields 5 times. The land, and my rehabilition pup, Bob, aided my recovery at a speed I’d never have achieved without such strong incentive.

Other than the first set of gates at the entrance and the fence and gate beyond that, all of the work was either done by me on my own, or with the help of some very brave and willing friends and family. My arms where aided by an ever-growing collection of clamps of varying types and sizes! The groundworks were all done by me, sometimes with a digger and dumper, sometimes by the use of a wheelbarrow and shovel, depending on the amount of money I had that month.

I am adding in to the project write up a multitude of pictures, and as much as possible, I have put them in some sort of order of the works as they were undertaken.

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I didn’t fit the transformer box for the electric connection, but I did dig the 75 metre trench, lay the conduit and drag the electric cable 75 metres through the conduit, so that the electric company had far less to do on the day. Everything else was me or me with some assistance. I loved it! I was most definitely living the dream. Sadly I didn’t get to drive the Unimog that the power company brought with them, but hey ho. I still loved watching drive along the farm track that I’d dug out.

Once there was electriciy so many jobs became easier. For the first 8 months on the land I had no power and no running water in the static caravan. I ran a generator a couple of hours a day to charge my tools, mobile phone and laptop and a torch etc… and water was collected daily from a field tap near the entrance gate and carried to the static in eight 2 litre pop bottles. It was hardcore.

The first morning I woke in the static and there was electricity it was revolutionary. I flicked the light switch on, located and filled the electric kettle and flicked the switch. Just like that I’d leapt back in to the 21st century.

The arrival of electriciy also meant that I could finally move toward keeping livestock, as I had power to keep foxes out from the chickens, and the pigs in from the rest of the farm! It also meant that I could run power over to the polytunnel so that I could put a timer on the sprinkler system, saving me at least one of my daily chores.

Once the orchard was planted and the chicken runs were created to sit within the orchard, in moved the hens and my rooster, Ronald. I’d never taken much notice of chickens unless it had been roasted in an oven, but actually, they are the most adorable animals. So mesmerising. By the time I was selling up, I knew every hen by sight and was in love with them all.

The Lavender and soft fruit area was fenced in and rabbit proofed. The market garden and polytunnel were fenced in and rabbit proofed. The area for the barn was marked out. The track to navigate all of the farm were driven and mowed. The first two pig enclosures were fenced and gated and the first 4 Oxford and Sandy Black (OSB) boars moved in. The smallholding was definitely taking shape.

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Every part of this project was a challenge. Doing it predominantly on my own was probably the biggest challenge of them all. As was the solitude, but it was also exactly what I needed to rehabilitate and come to term with permanent disability.

The chickens were my pets really. There were 30 chickens in a coop for up to 50 birds. They had dust-free sawdust on the floor of their coop. Yummy nesting materials in the nest boxes, along with fresh sprigs of lavendar to calm their nerves whilst they laid their eggs. Only the best food. Along with a multitude of special treats and rewards, like watermelons from the polytunnel, sweetcorns, brocolli, butternut squashes, my chickens were a loss leader, but they did bring footfall to the gate and I adored them.

I kept the pigs with the same high levels of care. They had freshly made wallows on hot days. Fresh fruit and vegetables when there was a surplus. There sty was filled with delicious fresh straw and there were toys a plenty within the enclosures. Pigs are adorable and keeping them with a view to killing them for food was the hardest aspect of all of this for me. So much so, that when the decision to sell up the smallholding was tabled, I was relieved that I could pass them back to the breeder and let them deal with the abbatoir bit.

I think it’s fair to say that keeping livestock helped me know the benefits of high welfare farming, but it was also impossible to avoid the ugly side of the job.

The plan for the produce was to sell it from the Axe Head Street Food catering trailer up the lane from the farm. Selling the eggs for 50p each rather than 6 for a £1, and the pigs by the sausage or the slice. It was a great plan, but again had to all be done by me and that was just not possible. So much so, it was easy to finally agree to selling up.

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It won’t surprise anyone who knows me to know that I am now a vegan. I only support high welfare farming. I’m not the type of vegan who thinks they should lecture anyone for their lifestyle choices, but the experience of keeping livestock was enough for me to know 1000% that even high welfare was not high enough by far.

I left my now ex-partner on the farm to manage it whilst I visited family in the north east of England. I was away for two nights. The only duties for the time I was away were to feed and water the dog, pigs and chickens. When I got back the words that greeted me were ‘I don’t know how you do everything?’ and at that moment I realised that I was performing on unsustainable super shero levels and it had to stop.

As a result of the whole experience though I now have a much greater wealth of skills and knowledge that I can put to good use as the Yorkshire Handy Woman.

I can build pretty much anything out of wood, can make roads, car parks, put up fencing, gates, stock fencing, build a smallholding, refit a catering trailer, start up a catering business from scratch, and all of that on top of the skills I’d brought to the project in the first place.

Selling up gave me the opportunity to move back up north and my next project was to be a house renovation in Chesterfield. The breakdown of my marriage brought that project to an end also, but the experience was priceless and further bolsters the skills I have to set up as The Yorkshire Handy Woman.

I could add more photos. I could tell you more tales about the experience of building Axe Head Farm. I could literally carry on for hours, but this is a website to promote my future, not to commemorate my past.

If you want to know more, then hire me!