A family swapped their suburban home for a rural homestead - and now grow their own food and chop wood for heating.<br /><br />Amy Johnson, 34, and husband Peter, 46, decided they'd had enough of the rat race during the Covid pandemic.<br /><br />So they moved their four children to County Mayo in Ireland - buying a six-acre property for £200,000 (€230,000) after selling their previous property in Lincolnshire for £275,000.<br /><br />The Johnson family now does their best to live off the land, growing fruit and veg and fetching water from a well.<br /><br />They estimate they're now saving roughly £285 (€327) monthly on utility bills and hope to slash their current £430 (€500) monthly food shop to £175 (€200) after harvesting their crops.<br /><br />And Amy, previously a receptionist but now a full-time homesteader, says they couldn't be happier following the July 2022 move.<br /><br />She said: "Throughout the pandemic we re-evaluated our lives.<br /><br />"We'd paid off our mortgage of our first house and we realised we didn't have as much life satisfaction or job satisfaction.<br /><br />"We looked in Wales but prices had gone up and we saw the opportunity to move to Ireland and we just thought why not?<br /><br />"We fell in love with this one. Packed up, quit work and moved over."<br /><br />Amy and Peter - a self-employed builder - had always craved more space and growing veg in their previously small garden gave them a desire to move.<br /><br />They lived in London before moving to Lincolnshire - then to County Mayo.<br /><br />She said: "I grew up in London and whenever we left London on a day trip I always wanted to live elsewhere.<br /><br />"It gives us peace and opportunities that we've never had.<br /><br />"We're growing a lot of our food and our children are growing up around animals. I do feel more at peace here and more at home."<br /><br />When they need essentials, Amy will nip to the supermarket.<br /><br />But the family has made an active decision to grow as much as they can.<br /><br />Amy said: "We've got a veg garden, poly tunnels and a greenhouse.<br /><br />"We're looking in excess of 200 tomato plants, 150 pepper plants, potatoes, sunflowers, corn, kale, cabbages, 100 strawberry plants, fruit trees, apples, cherries, plums.<br /><br />"I just think it'll be nice once we've got guests that we can offer a pick your own fruit and veg when they stay.<br /><br />"I'd like to create an off-grid experience.<br /><br />"We kind of just buy the essentials.<br /><br />"We make oat-milk at home and we try to use local butchers for meat but we don't eat a lot.<br /><br />"Once we've got a good supply of stuff, I plan to store it, freeze and dehydrate it.<br /><br />"I want to bring the shopping bill down. I do plan to get into canning soon too.<br /><br />"We've also got over 300 odd trees on our land and we dry out the hawthorn trees to make tea with it. We made some dandelion syrup too."<br /><br />Electric is the only utility that Amy and Peter pay for, though they say it can be quite strenuous chopping up wood for their heating.
