The story behind Two Left Wellies
We didn’t set out to be self-sufficient; we just sort of drifted into it. Jarvo retired from 22 years in the British Military and decided he never wanted to drive to work again and then a couple of weeks later, decided he never actually wanted to work again, at least not for anyone else. K had a pretty good job, high pressure, stress and all that stuff but decided she would rather pick up pig shit than take shit. So after a year of experimentation with the budget she jacked it in as well.
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We both now work harder than we ever have before but it’s all for us. Don’t be fooled into thinking that’s self-sufficiency is a wonderful fluffy wuffy dancing in meadows with goats type of deal, it ain’t, it’s friggin’ hard work. That said it is also the most rewarding thing you could ever do.
If you have the urge to give it a go then we hope we can help you. Not everything we do is correct and can be poo poo’ed by many an expert but we don’t give a toss, we do what works for us based on what we have learned the hard way.
If you have the urge to give it a go then we hope we can help you. Not everything we do is correct and can be poo poo’ed by many an expert but we don’t give a toss, we do what works for us based on what we have learned the hard way.
We live in southern central Italy in a house that we can only describe as rural but not isolated. We can go weeks without seeing anyone especially in winter which suits us just fine. Our lifestyle means that we are together for 23 and a half hours a day (the half an hour is for number two’s) so if you ain’t that close then don’t even attempt it. We managed to find a house that had running water, sort of electricity, decent land (almost flat) with wells but no toilet. Basically, it was liveable.
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Jarvo moved in straight away while the building work was being done while K flogged herself to death in corporate misery.
Eventually, K started to work more and more from Italy and as mentioned, once we realised that we could survive without an income, she stayed and started really working. This was a process that took 5 years as neither of us had any experience of farming or even gardening. |
Three years later we finally managed to get to self-sufficiency in terms of food and drink. We eat and drink wonderfully all year round either fresh food from the garden or stuff we have provisioned for winter, we want for nothing. We produce all our own wine, beer, cider and liqueurs mainly from fruits we forage locally. We have goats, hens, pigs and chickens all for meat and eggs and we grow specifically for our yearly needs with a bit of surplus built in to sell.
There have been setbacks such as flooding, horrendous snowstorms, hail that destroyed our crops and Jarvo suffered a horrendous paper cut from a post-it note, but apart from that it’s a good life if you can survive working from dawn to dusk with never a day off. If you can then give it a go, we are here if you need any help. |