| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| suomi |
jus bought our dream small farm... well after being here in Finland for 9 months,learning the language...actually this make take some time!!!  teaching English,making contacts and looking for a small farm we are now the very happy owners of 13 hectares,9 hectares of forest the rest in fields.
we are hoping to have Finnish native breeds,a cow,sheep,pigs and chickens. plenty of room to grow veggies and some animal feed. we will move in end of April, or when the snow melts!!! its minus 27oc here at the moment, but oh so beautiful
so wellcome anyone who would like to visit, extra hands are allways appreciated. |
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| sally_in_wales |
oh wow, that sounds great! Many congratulations on finding what you wanted. | ||
| Penny |
That's excellent news Which part of Finland?
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| suomi |
We are about 360km north east of Helsinki near a town called Savonlinna.
its right on the lake with a medieval castle and 5 week opera festival, oh and so much more..... its beautiful 
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| Azura Skye |
that sounds wonderful! Book me in I'm coming to visit but how helpful are a pair of hands when they are frozen blue? I'll bring plenty of gloves then.
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| Cho-ku-ri |
Sounds lovely, but cold. Is it cold at the moment? | ||
| boisdevie1 |
That's great news. Is Finland an expensive place to buy a farm then compared to the Uk or the rest of europe? | ||
| AnneandMike |
I'd love to see some pics. | ||
| Andy B |
How long is the growing season in Finland? What will you be growing? | ||
| 2steps |
wow. It sounds wonderful | ||
| woodsprite |
Congratulations, sounds wonderful.
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| Cathryn |
You sound very happy - please can we see photos and keep intouch with the sort of things you are doing and growing. | ||
| suomi |
Hi everyone! well its pretty cold right now,during the day around minus 26oc and going down to minus 34 some evenings.
but its dry cold so very different from UK cold where it tends to be damp,so you can be out in the snow and stay dry..brilliant  it is stuning as everything is covered in snow,every branch and twig and glistening in the sunshine,the lakes are frozen great for walks,ski-ing,skating and ice fishing . we will have snow untill end of April,unless it melts before! so we will have the keys in a few weeks but will move in in April as there is nothing we can do there with so much snow!
The growing season is shorter than in the UK however we have thoese glorious long summer days... more hours of light so more growing hours!! so we will put stuff into the ground in May,if its warm enough and let it do its thing!! snow usually comes around October and when it arrives thats it in the garden untill the following year! last year we grew all the usuall veggies and had a bumper harvest,along side all the wild foods there are. Yes property here is a whole lot cheaper than in the UK, you can get some amazing bargins if you are preared to live some way from a town. we are about 25 km from Savonlinna. So welcome any one who would like to experience Finland, we want to encourage people out here as its not the usual destination! most people in the UK know very little about Finland,but its beautiful.... summer is around the corner so come on out If you are serious just PM me.
Sorry if this a little long 
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| sally_in_wales |
How is it for general cost of living- things like all the taxes and bills you can't escape no matter how self reliant you are? | ||
| Cathryn |
It's not long - it's interesting. | ||
| Simon |
Re: jus bought our dream small farm...
Ooooooooooooooooooh Noooooooooooooooooo! Congratulations on the farm mate and comiserations on the temp. I certainly couldn't live there. -20 is the worst we have had and that was far too bad. |
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| Simon |
Suomi
Stick your pin in the Downsizer Atlas so that we can see where you have settled. |
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| tahir |
Sounds absolutely fabulous, one of my wife's cousins lives over there and he loves it too. Good luck. | ||
| MarkS |
Congratulations.
Sounds wonderful. Do keep us all updated on how things are going. What constitutes a native breed ? Are we talking Reindeer ? |
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| suomi |
No reindeer for us!!! we will however have a Finnish cow, they tend to be quite a bit smaller than the usual cow, also they are a pale brown and white, very beautiful, they dont produce as much milk as the real farmed milking cows but enough for a calf and ourselves.
Also we will have Finish Landrace sheep and goats, a couple of pigs and chickens, enough to keep us going! when we get ourselves sorted out I ll post a couple of photos. We are waiting for the snow to melt, which could take a couple of months! then we can get going.... yipppeee...... 
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| suomi |
Hi Mark, just realised you are in North Yorkshire! we moved from Bentham ( near clapham,on the edge of the forest of Bowland) last may!
couldnt afford a property in the are so here we are! and we are loving it
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| @Calli |
We left Uk for Ireland but how did you come to settle in Finland? A real change - not just the language and climate
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| suomi |
I lived on the outskirts of Dublin, Wicklow hills side for some years, then moved to north yorkshire and then to Finland last may.
I worked in switzerland for a number of years beore that and my best friend was a Finn so naturally I visited here a number of times and just fell in love with the place and vowed that one day I would move here.... and thats just what Ive done...at last.... We are going to Finnish classes to improve our language skills,but luckily for us my best friend lives in Savonlinna and most people have good english. WE work hard at making contacts, there arent very many english couċples living here so we are quite an oddity 
Its a great place to live, we love it
Good luck in Galway, its a beautiful part of the country. do you have any rare breeds? |
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| dpack |
i like arctic
if you need help next autum/ winter pm me im game for a couple of weeks clean air and hard work 
well done
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| suomi |
dpack, welcome any time
an extra pair of hands.. yiiipppeeee.. seriously we will be here so come on out, and yes I will PM you to remind you that you volunteered!! where in yorkshire are you? we lived in Bentham for a while. |
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| dpack |
im in the worsted town | ||
| tahir |
it's not that bad
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