A former nanny with a dream decides to move to one of the country’s most remote parts in order to look after a petting farm, in Channel 5’s Ben Fogle: Make a New Life in the Country, tonight.
Cara, 43, bought the petting farm for £210,000 and made the move from London to John O’ Groats, remote Scotland, in 2016, as Ben followed the early days of her relocation, before visiting her three years later to see her progress.
At first, Cara, who moved by herself, is seen struggling to manage the petting farm, which counts 50 animals including donkeys, pigs, chicken, goats and rabbits.
In spite of working around the clock to keep all the animal fed and happy, she makes no profit at all, sometimes earning £10, and sometime as little as £1 a day.
Cara had to take a loan in order to buy the farm, and was left with only £10,000 after buying it, which covered the move and settling in. This means that she was left with no savings to keep her head of the water, the farm being her only source of income.
In the episode, we see her struggle to make ends meet and cover her monthly costs of £3,390, looking after the farm, its animals, herself and paying back her loan.
Londoner Cara, 43, left her job as a nanny in London to buy a petting farm for £210,000 in John O’ Groats, Scotland (pictured) She features in tonight’s Ben Fogle: Make a New Life in the Country on Channel 5 at 9pm
‘It’s such a strange experience to know that no matter how hard you work does not correlate with how much you earn,’ she says while preparing some hay for the farm’s donkeys.
‘I’m very independent, very strong minded, but I’m not superwoman, that’s the reality,’ she says.
At first, her sole income is a self-service shop she has set-up for locals to come and pick vegetables and pay through the ‘honesty box’ she sets up for them. But on slow days, money is hard to come by.
‘This is all I earned today, after all I did,’ an exhausted Casra says, ‘£10, that’s probably like a pound an hour.’
Cara says living her dream is not easy and demands hard work, yet says she does not regret her decision to manage a farm in the country’s most remote location
‘We had one day where it was super stormy, the weather was crazy windy. One person came, bough a cauliflower and I earned a pound that day,’ she recounts, sitting on her couch.
After a few months of hard work, Cara eventually manages to break even and even turnover a small profit of £155.
However, by the time Ben Fogle visits three years on, Cara has turned the farm into a profitable affair, by turning her house into a small bed and breakfast, and having used her skills to make candles and soaps on top of the petting farm and self-service shop.
Cara tells Ben the animals did not chose for her to take on the farm, she did, and says she feels a high sense of responsibility towards them
‘After I did it for a few years, I realised the petting farm would not earn enough money to grow the farm and pay up the debt,’ she tells the presenter and adventurer.
She tells Ben she felt that with no savings, a farm to run and a debt to pay, she had no choice but to carry on and make the farm profitable.
She adds she was deeply motivated by her responsibility to her animals.
‘I am aware, I’ve chosen to look after them,’ she says.
‘There have definitely been moments in the beginning where I lost an animal or two and sat at my kitchen table thinking “Why did I ever think I could ever do it, I have no experience, no knowledge”, I had a little crisis of faith in my own self,’ she says.
The former nanny (pictured) managed to turn the petting farm into a profitable venture by adding a B&B and selling items such as candles and soaps
‘I’m very resilient. I thought: “It’s true, I don’t know anything but I’m surrounded by farmers, by people who know more than me, and I’m not proud,’ so I went and asked,’ she explains.
‘I’m just somebody who’s living my dream, which I discovered hasn’t been easy,’ she says, ‘I’ve never worked more in my life, but I’ve never been satisfied in my life,’ she goes on.
She admits that the beginning was a steep learning curve, and that she had cried sat in her barn, but adds she eventually finds these hurdles were ‘nothing a cup of tea won’t fix’ and concludes that she has no regrets at her lifestyle overhaul.
Ben Fogle: Making a New Life in the Country airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 5.
Ben visits Cara three years on and help her around the farm, moving hay and meeting all her animals