Sheep Spell Good Life for City Commuter Couple
24th August 2022
Sheep Spell Good Life for City Commuter Couple
Perhaps not THE Good Life, but it’s certainly a good life that former London commuters Steve and Karen White have found in West Wales. They’re keeping sheep on 34 acres and are growing as much of their own food as they can.
The inspiration for their move from city life was a short break four years ago, in the holiday cottage run by Gwynne and Linda Davies at Llanddewi Brefi, near Tregaron. They are renowned sheep breeders, with prize winning North Country Cheviots, and Gwynne is Assistant Honorary Director of the Sheep Section at the Royal Welsh Show and a former Chair of the NSA Wales & Border Ram Sales.
It was inevitable that Gwynne and Linda would show Steve and Karen the sheep. They had begun to tire of the daily commute and so the seed was sown. Steve and Karen returned to help with lambing the following Spring and then began to look for a small farm.
Karen explained: “In the back of our minds we had been thinking about moving, but this was just a weekend away, somewhere new that we hadn’t been.
“I think we’d been to Wales separately, but not together. We saw that Linda’s cottage was on a working farm and so we just booked it up. They took us round the farm and we just got interested.”
Steve asked Gwynne how he could learn to farm and was told to ‘just find a friendly farmer’. The friendly farmers turned out to be Gwynne and Linda, but Lockdown and Steve’s cancer diagnosis intervened, so delaying their finding a farm and making the move.
Steve said: “We started looking again after lambing last year. Now we have 34 acres and 22 ewes and 26 lambs.
“They’re cross breds and we bought them in Llanybydder, with Gwynne’s help. We’re hoping to do lambing ourselves next Spring. It’s work in progress, we’ve got a long way to go but we’re well underway.”
They have had the farm fenced and are gradually kitting out the land and sheds. Steve has retired, but Karen jokes that she has to keep working full time from her new home, with occasional trips to London, because as fast as she gets money in the bank Steve is spending it on sheep and equipment!
She acknowledges they’ve begun at one of the most expensive times ever, but added: “The thing is there is never going to be a good time and I think things came sharply into focus when Steve was diagnosed with cancer.
“It was one of those times where you realize life is too short. We had to bite the bullet and it’s expensive, but it’s a choice of doing it now or waiting until when? Who knows what is going to happen?
“The most surprising thing that we've found since moving here is the sense of community and how incredibly friendly and generous our neighbours and everyone we have met has been. And the surprise to Gwynne and Linda is the fact that we ever returned to help - they were convinced as they said goodbye to a completely shattered pair that they'd never see us again, only for us to call the following week asking if we could help with lambing again the following year!”
The farm came with a greenhouse that Karen is putting to good use. Steve is better and they say they’ve never been happier. They’ve no ambition to emulate Tom and Barbara in The Good Life, but they had been ready for a life change and a different quality of life.
They’re throwing themselves into the local community. Their great friends, Gwynne and Linda Davies, are just a phone call away and taking them to all the best places, including of course the NSA Wales & Border Ram Sales at the Royal Welsh Showground.
Twenty one ewes will soon be looking for a mate!
