the daydream fund challenge thread

Davesnave

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

Dave is the wellsummer older than the verwicks?

Yes, and brighter. She gets a bit of social time with the others each morning until she starts to misbehave, then we segregate her. She might be bright enough to cotton on, but I doubt it.

Once everything is up & running properly it won't be a big problem.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

just about to leave, we are doing a poultry and country table top sale today, its a fairly new one, only the 3rd i think...first of us though,

so taking some various aged chickens to sell, and some country wear...lol... basically, wellies, wax jackets, waterproofs high viz walking boots etc.... all seconhand.... not expecting to sell loads, but this will get us back on track for the main one at the end of the month... as we havent done that one since before christmas..

It absolutely piddled down last night...... but it does look as though tis going to be a nice day today.....

will report back later with how much we sold..... if anything.....lol...

Rummer

Davesnave wrote: »

As for Avon products, we can't get them here. Back in the mists of time, DW was a rep for them, and there's clearly an opening for someone, but she's adamant it's not her!:p

Now you can order from them online, I was that product to prevent midge bites and it is really effective, used to use it on my horse too when I had her.

rhiwfield

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

It absolutely piddled down last night...... but it does look as though tis going to be a nice day today.....

And of course we got 2 soft shelled eggs

But had 2 normal ones as well and was able to use one of the soft shells

Havent got that many raspberries but DW managed to get 1 1/2 pots of jam from them yesterday. Courgettes are in full flow and cut the first cucumber yesterday. Quite a few toms as well but the peas and the broad beans are over. Small beans forming herald the start of the runner bean glut.

Each day the hens make a dustbath scrape which gets left behind when they are moved in the morning. Good thing the grass paths are not for show given the scrapes, bits of poo I've not raked up properly and shavings kicked out of the coop!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

rhiwfield wrote: »

And of course we got 2 soft shelled eggs

But had 2 normal ones as well and was able to use one of the soft shells

Havent got that many raspberries but DW managed to get 1 1/2 pots of jam from them yesterday. Courgettes are in full flow and cut the first cucumber yesterday. Quite a few toms as well but the peas and the broad beans are over. Small beans forming herald the start of the runner bean glut.

Each day the hens make a dustbath scrape which gets left behind when they are moved in the morning. Good thing the grass paths are not for show given the scrapes, bits of poo I've not raked up properly and shavings kicked out of the coop!

what are you feeding your chooks? might be worth buyng a bag full of bird grit for them as well


we had lovely time, sold some birds.... sold some wellies and coats etc and we took £128..

so really pleased with that, so def going to do the next one, allready booked our tables....lol..

Winged_one

Well, I took away from the fund over the weekend as we headed to Belfast for the day (it was forecast to be too wet for the planned gardening on the plot - and boy was that the rgiht decision!!). But it was worth it. I distracted OH enough to make him go to lakeland - I had spotted a jam funnel in the cookery near me at €15 last week, I needed jars, and I had a load of other "useful" things in mind to get (I mostly avoided the gadgets!). I spent £120, but I got what I needed, a few things I wanted, and OH added a few things too (and we were being careful to avoid gimmicks). I also got a lovely present for my Mum, for letting us stay in her (and Dad, who says it's for all the family) holiday house on the coast in 2 weeks - £25 for a week's holiday! (I got a holder for her Nespresso pods, as she LOVES that coffee and keeps a couple of different types).

But I also got what I needed for my jam-making (most of it being long-term equipment), and my cheating pre-cut greaseproof circles for cakes (OK that's really not OS or MSE - but it means I am more likely to bake myself than buy a cake, which IS the OS way!!). And we got the space-saver hangers for trousers - we were buying one each for OH and my wardrobes, when the girl mentioned as we paid that we could get another (they were on a 3for2 offer which we didn't see a sign for).

I have put my cherries into the honey rum now, so they will be nice for making choccies with by Christmas. And I have plans to make at least 2 more batches of jam this week - gooseberry, and blackcurrant. Possibly more raspberry or some redcurrant jelly.

rhiwfield

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

what are you feeding your chooks? might be worth buyng a bag full of bird grit for them as well


we had lovely time, sold some birds.... sold some wellies and coats etc and we took £128..

so really pleased with that, so def going to do the next one, allready booked our tables....lol..

CTC, they get about 140g of Countrywide layers pellets each, plus what they peck up, and they also have greens from garden (pea foliage, plantains and their fav, leaf beet). Have also supplied them with baked, crushed eggshells both alone and mixed in with pellets. They also have garlic cloves and apple cider vinegar in their water. Back to normal today, it definitely seems heavy rain related.

Well done on the car boot, 'fraid we spent £1.50 at our local one yesterday on a couple of frames for the solar electrical schematics and 50p for a stainless steel colander. Saw Beeb filming there, Bargain Hunt?

Winged One, going round Lakeland is great fun and they do sell some excellent stuff, tho a bit pricey. Managed to pick up some second hand jam jars/lids from the local market for a small donation in the charity box. So while we're about sorted for preserving stuff we've just about run out of soft fruit. Still the shelves are creaking with what we've done so far and there are the pickles and chutneys to come

bonsibabe

Hi all, i'm finally back! It's been an interesting year so far. DH has finally been diagnosed with PTSD and is getting treatment (well he's had one week's course of treatment) so hopefully that will help. He's also on new tablets which seem to be helping. And DSD has come to live with us permanently so we now have 3 kids and need to move into a bigger house! Hopefully it will also have a bigger garden for us to get some chooks. And we were taken on holiday to Turkey by the in-laws. All well and nice but it cost us over £1000 for the two weeks and we have very little to show for it.

But now is the time for starting the Daydream fund again. So we bought 2 savings jars (the type you need a tin opener to get into) from the pound shop. I already have a small one that is almost full of 5p pieces and the other two have been split into coppers and silver so anything under 50p is being saved. We have to start again after the last 6 months decimated all my savings.

I now have plans to have hubby make some little christmas decs on his sewing machine. We have to get some supplies for him to make the children new christmas stockings so we are going to get him to make some mini ones that we will sell on ebay as they will be made from the off-cuts of the kids ones.

And we are about to have a massive de-clutter. I have several books listed on play and a huge pile for a car boot sale. Going to sell hubby's old chef kit at car boot too. Should get rid of some of it at least. If not it will all go to the charity shop.

Hope you are all well. I'm thinking of extra ways to make some dosh. Will update you all soon. I promise it will be much sooner than it has been! Take care all xx

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Hi Bonsibabe..

funny enough i was thinking about you last week...

so glad things are starting to get forcused now, and well done on the Holiday..... those saving tins are great.. as they do stop you from 'dipping in' ...lol...

over the last 2 years of trying to save, i have had to dip into my savings for things.. either to put back into my business, becasue of cashflow, but a month or so ago i used a chunk of it to pay off my credit card, rather than transfer it again to 0% balance ..

well i have got my £100 from Alliance and Leciester for tranfering my bank account to them:T and i am waiting for the £45 cashback for doing it via quidco.... going to see how long i need to be with them, before i can look around for another cashabck deal for transfering my bank account:rotfl:

went to farm auction yesturday, and we ended up coming home with a female call duck and 7 ducklings.... 2 blue polish bantams, and 3 splash polish bantams... its like chicken city here:rotfl:

so tday we are going to busy continuing to convert one of our out buildings making more tired cages... for the birds....

I think most of my fund money is going on my chickens at the moment...lol...... but hayho... my back garden is our little small holding at the moment....

piddling it down here..... glad we are not going to the royal welsh this week, as it looks as though it could be a mud bath there...

rhiwfield

CTC, how many chickens, ducks and turkeys do you have now? And are you selling the eggs as well as rearing the birds?

Bonsibabe, at least you'll have some good memories of the holiday. Interested to see that you (or hubby) will be making stuff for ebay sale. We're playing around with that idea ourselves and had a brainstorming session last night. Worryingly, all that we've achieved so far is to spend a tenner on materials!

For us its testing time for real :eek:

While DW was bringing in a wage, the changes we've made to cut living costs, like insulation, heating system, solar pv and the fruit and veg garden, while useful, were not vital. But the last monthly salary came at the end of June and so its down to living on our much-reduced savings, eked out with garden produce and bits and bobs, until pensions start in a few years. One option is to try to get another job, but after looking around and with OH's dodgy knees, neither of us are hopeful that either of us could get anything in todays market and the longer you are out of work, the harder it gets. I know.

One of the most difficult things to do is to kick the habit of going out to spend money on non-essentials. But retail therapy isnt an option any longer. On the positive side its now second nature to get best value if we have to spend money.

Spent most of today changing part of the garage layout to create a clean area round the inverters and to use the space underneath them for food and drink storage. So put some old wine racks together and filled with the wine we've been bottling. Cannibalised some Ikea giveaway hardboard sheets to make a light-reducing cladding held together by cable ties. Heath Robinson maybe, but very stable, does the job and looks the part :beer:. Trouble is we've missed opportunities lately to make more wine, understandable with all thats gone on in last 3 months but not good.

Still, two free-standing racks of shelves made as well, one saved from a skip and reassembled, the other an old mini-greenhouse frame with shelves made from sawn bits of a faulty plastic shed replaced by homebase. These will do for storing the onions and apples (and short term for the new potatoes I'll be lifting next week to make room for the last of this years brassicas).

Best of all, even after Friday nights thunderstorm and torrential rain, the chooks laid their usual 3 eggs and no soft shells