the daydream fund challenge thread

COOLTRIKERCHICK

flip all together at a rough guess, we have about 40 chickens,, ( excluding young chicks)

1 turkey called Jingle:rotfl:

about 18 adult ducks, and about 12 ducklings....

a lot of our birds are bantams, and call ducks..

our egg count has gone down lately, as the older girls are going through a moult, and a lot of the banatams are young birds, and havent started laying yet...

our food bill is through the roof, as it looks as though we have every wild bird within a million miles coming for a feed too:rotfl: but at the end of the day, we used to go out partying every weekend and spend a small fortune and only have a headache to show for it.. now we spend a huge fortune, and have our birds to show for it..

bonsibabe

Thanks for the welcome back! Well we will be shortly going foraging for brambles, cobnuts and other goodies that grow in abundance in the local nature reserve. But we are putting back! Last year, we decimated a young oak tree and hubby now has 8 young oaks growing in an old basin! So when they are strong enough, they will be taken to the nature reserve and planted there. Might try planting a couple of cob nuts this year as well. We also know where there is a secret stash of crab apples! No-one else seems to know where these are so we will go and decimate the tree later this month. I'm hoping to get a dishwasher from freecycle (just missed out on one this week). If no joy then I will just buy one when I get my benefits for DSD sorted out. Long story with her coming to live with us but we are happy she is here. Just got to sort out the financials and we are all set. CHB forms getting sent off tomorrow so fingers crossed it won't take too long. Once that is sorted I should get all the money backdated and be able to afford a new dishwasher but if I can get a free one I won't complain!

Also got to get hubby to get some tyres from the local dump. They will be lined and used to grow potatoes rather than the conventional method of just planting them in the ground. That way all we have to do is remove the tyres to get at the tatties! And we can plant them a couple of weeks apart so that we have an almost constant crop through the winter.

Hoping to get the dishwasher soon so I can sterilise the jars in it for the jams and syrups and sauces that will be being made from the nice things we forage. Looks like weekends are going to be busy. Work is going to be hectic as we have the scottish elections next year so it's all out with that and then hubby wants to stand for the council the year after, and we are campaigning to get allotments in the waste ground at the rear of the houses. If we are successful, I've already put dibs down on the one directly behind my garden lol.

Good to hear how you are all doing. Speak to you all soon xxxx

Winged_one

well, I reckon I am definitely saving money this month on the veggie front - over €20 worth of fruit and veg in just french beans, a courgette, brocolli, new potatoes and raspberries on Sat. And I also got 7 patty pan squashes, 400g peas (podded), 3 more broad bean pods and 1lb blackcurrants - and didn't bother with lettuce this week as we are still using up the older stuff in the fridge. And we got the first 4 cherry tomatoes as well!!

Made 3 more jars of jam at the weekend - 2 gooseberry (from the previous week's gatherings) and 1 of blackcurrant. I need to consider whether to make more raspberry or do something else with them - I did add more to my rasp vodka mix, and also made a small bottle of blackcurrant vodka.

And I forgot I am due the deposit from the creche back this month too - which I think I will stash away as I have already paid out the deposit for the afterschool creche for DD. And found an old bag of coins (probably last year's "parking meter" emergency bag) so I will put that away too (there's about €60 in that alone).

bonsibabe

I did it!!!! Christmas pressie number 1 is made!!! I just need to sew it up. I managed to get some two tone wool today and made DSD a winter hat in the style of bella in eclipse. She is now after some alice cullen style wrist warmers in matching wool! But they are going to go into the bag for christmas pressies. The only down side is that I will have to buy two shades and pink and two of purple to make for the other two now lol.

But the good thing is there is plenty wool left over so I will make some extras and flog them on ebay. I might as well use up the stash and make some spending money from it. I will be very thrifty tho and will only buy what wool I really need! I have loads of extra wool at the minute so will try and use this lot all up before I buy any more. I promise to be thrifty with the wool ... starting on payday lol. That leaves me a few days to pop to the wool shop at lunch time to get the supplies that I need for all the pressies!

The good thing is that my mum and dad love getting hand made pressies for christmas. I'm planning a new scarf and hat for dad and a new scarf and wrist warmers for mum. She has also asked for a shawly type scarf that she can wear in the house and I think I made one earlier this year as an experiment.

I'll just make the same for everyone ... if there are enough hours in the week!

Right, am off to bed as I'm up in 4 and a half hours to get my butt off to work and earn my crust lol. Speak to you all soon ... have a great day xxx

Davesnave

I haven't posted for a while, mainly because we've been very busy, but also because I was a bit down after losing Wilf, one of our ferrets. He was a lovely chap, but he'd been living with a tumour on the spleen for some months, so the loss wasn't unforeseen.

I've updated the photo stream, though since doing so, our first batch of hens have grown a lot. We also have another batch (4 Dorkings and two more Welsummers) which are proving calmer, but one is not feeding properly and we've spent (wasted) hours, making it drink and tempting it with more 'interesting' food.

Daisy the cat has been working overtime. Some rabbits moved in next to our barn, but they have all disappeared now!:)

Well, after rhiwfield's tomato picture, I can only answer with this:



Tipping down here ATM, so I think I'll spend the rest of the afternoon in the polytunnel...

COOLTRIKERCHICK

sorry to hear about wilf.....it is so sad when you lose a pet.. they are part of the family...

I have one young cochin chicken, she is about 9 - 11 weeks old, and she is not putting weight on at all...and she is sooooooo friendly i would really hate anything to happen to here..... so i am worming her again, and i have been spending a fortune on vitamins etc.... and treats..... bought her some mealworms today as they are high in protein.... flip she will be in house next watching tv with me.under the blanket ... if she doesnt put weight on....:rotfl:

its been piddling it down all day today, looks as though its in for the night too.......

rhiwfield

Davesnave, understand why you are a bit down, sorry to hear about Wilf.

Seems like we've been lucky with our hens, none of the problems (so far) that you and CTC have had. Still, we've only got three! We havent wormed them (is vermex the only amateur option?) since getting them on 1st May but they do get garlic cloves in their drink and we max on garlic (3-4 cloves) once a month for a couple of days. Although they had some initial runny poo that seems to be a rarity now (touch wood!)

The toms piccy doesnt show that for the prior two years we lost nearly all our toms to botrytis (+ blossom end rot) and before that our outdoor toms to blight. Major change this year, fewer plants in greenhouse, all lower foliage cut off to avoid splashes, no coolwash, no damping down, no yellow sticky traps, no soap spray. Instead, just the usual french marigold companions and vents and door left open. Noticed that we have had some blossoms not setting but no pest problems at all (possibly the spiders, webs and hoverflies are doing their bit). Also didnt try to grow cucumbers in greenhouse, using burpless tasty green in containers growing up netting by decking.

We are growing some gartenperle toms outside, no blight signs so far and quite a few ripe toms, but not as tasty as the gardeners delight.

Dug up the last earlies today, fewer suitable for storing with slug, eelworm and insect damage. Been disappointed with the Pentland Javelin spuds from both a growing and eating viewpoint, the Maris Peer were far superior.

Still raining here on and off, bad news for the sweetcorn pollination

Davesnave

Just an update on the poorly Silver Dorking......

It became more poorly & wasn't eating or drinking, so DW brought it into the conservatory in a cat carrier and we force-fed it hourly with water & chick crumb through a syringe. Its behaviour was quite odd, because although it didn't like this treatment, it would leap out of the carrier and onto the feeding person's lap at the first opportunity. Also, she wouldn't stop talking, (twittering!) and would hide under people's armpits, like a really small chick under a mother's wing. We decided she was reverting to chickhood.....:(

Yesterday, another Silver Dorking that had been looking unwell was brought up to the conservatory to share quarters with our 'juvenile' one. At least it was eating and drinking a bit. The first Dorking tried to steal bits of food from this bird's mouth, but still showed no sign of wanting to eat properly. However, I caught it out by introducing a few earwigs, and it polished those off, no problem! The two of them spent the day & night together and the forced feeding continued.

This morning, on getting up, DW went in to see the two hospital cases and, lo & behold, no head pulled back into body today! What's more, our weird hen, though still chattering incessantly, was eating & drinking normally, as if that was what she'd always done. (Well, she must have done before, or she'd have died earlier on.) So, that was that, problem resolved.

No sure what the cause of this was. We wormed all the hens as a matter of course, but as they'd not been out on grass, we didn't think internal parasites would have been an issue.

Hope I've bumped this back onto page 2 at least! Will do more later.:wave:

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Hi all,

we sadly we lost the little chicken:o, I konw this is going to sound hard, but i am ok about it, no tears like before etc,

been manic in work.... but going away in 2 weeks to the bulldog bash in stratford, so cant wait...... a total blow out...

looks as though i might be picking the first of our runner beans in the next day or so:T...oooooo i can taste them now, with the last of my home grown pots with lashings of butter melted on the top....:D

Davesnave

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

Hi all,

we sadly we lost the little chicken:o, I konw this is going to sound hard, but i am ok about it, no tears like before etc,

Agree, it's important to keep a fairly hard heart, especially if you have quite a few birds. By the law of averages, some aren't going to make it. Then, if you breed there's the matter of the 'boys!'

Still smarting today after almost picking up a two wheeled tractor at farm auction yesterday. As the auctioneers had mis-described it, I thought I was in with a chance of a bargain.

The bidding stopped,and it looked like it was mine, but then 'Grandad,' who owned it, appeared & shouted that he'd start it up. That revealed the fact that it was a diesel (someone here had done his homework & knew that!) and two more bidders came in at that point. Between them, they pushed the price up to double what it had been. I was out of my comfort zone by then.

I'll definitely get one though.....one day.