When the going gets tough, the smallholder needs to pause and take stock

Jack Smellie shares her secrets on surviving the difficult days and living your dream

- Jack Smellie

Smallholding is, for most of us, an active choice: a way of living that for years we may have yearned for, aspired to and dreamt of, and yet, despite wanting it, working hard for it, and feeling passionate about it, being a smallholder can also be pretty tough. As well as the many, many highs: new life, eating home-grown produce, successful land management, spending time with happy healthy animals, and more, there can also be considerable lows: death of stock, mud, lack of money, unexpected vet bills, tiredness and injury, issues with neighbours, to name but a few!! But we've just come through another winter, there are green shoots and spring time promises in the air.

SAY GOODBYE TO WINTER

• Mud goes, the rain stops and the land recovers: look back at photos you took in the spring/summer and remind yourself that it WILL look like that again.

• Make the most of the good weather when it happens, not just in terms of getting jobs done but in acknowledging that a sunny day really can be uplifting and that it does make you feel a little better.