Friday 1 April 2011

Plans for Filming the new Microholding





Microholding could become the next 'big thing' and we want to see it happen.

With more and more people getting back to basics, growing their own fruit and vegetables, rearing garden hens, foraging and preserving, there has never been a better time to start planning to create your very own microholding. (It's like a tiny smallholding.)

Frugaldom is about getting back to nature and becoming as self-sufficient as possible, so that means growing as much as possible by way of fruit, vegetables and herbs plus rearing poultry in sufficient numbers to produce enough eggs for home use and surplus for selling to help cover costs. I would keep things like bees and goats, but practicalities don't permit.

However our garden turns out, we want to be able to share the trials and tribulations of setting everything up with other followers of frugal living.

We opted for artificial incubation for hatching out eggs from our own hens, ducks and quail. The joys of those newly hatched chicks were shared with everyone on our website, by way of this inexpensive webcam and regular updates.

 
Now, however, we are planning on creating our first real microholding and would love to be able to feature part of what that entails on a live video feed. Not being technically minded, I haven't a clue where to start. As yet, I don't even know how to get a video uploaded onto You Tube!


My big plan is to set up a system of webcams that can be used in the incubator, to monitor the hatching process, and then transferred to the brooder, for observing the chicks. But I'd also like the cameras to reach further afield, to provide a view of the garden hens and any wildlife we can encourage. This is all well and good, but how do I get it all to stream through the Internet via the website?

I guess that's my next challenge - learning the technicalities of setting up and running a live webcam system and doing it all on a shoestring budget. I thought the set featured looked quite reasonably priced and would really appreciate any feedback.

If you have any free tips, hints, helpful advice or suggestions, please comment here, Tweet them @Frugaldom on Twitter or submit them through the free forum, where you can also send by direct message or by email.

5 comments:

  1. google sheepdreams-dianne; she has a web cam on her blog showing her sheep in the barn....

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can only wish you all the luck in the world, had we stayed in the cottage we would have joined the growing your own, we had a veg garden which our old neighbour has taken over. Here we can, and will, grow just herbs. We will be able to source some produce from Amisfield where OH does a stint each Wednesday morning. We just cannot afford the farm shop prices mush as we would like to. There is a butcher in the town, I need to investigate that option.

    I will watch your progress with great interest.

    ReplyDelete
  3. wow , no advice but cannot wait :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Can't wait to see the live feed as I love seeing the photos

    sft x

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for that, Lynda. I'd love to be able to rig up something wireless between house and garden but haven't had anywhere suitable that warranted the expense of setting anything like that up. Once we're in our own place, it will seem so much more worth it - no landlords complaining about what they read on here, for a start! :)

    ReplyDelete

Many thanks for taking the time to comment. All comments are moderated to help prevent system abuse by spammers, time-wasters and chancers, so your comment will not appear until it has been manually accepted for publishing. This will be done as soon as possible - I check for updates regularly. We are on GMT - London times.