the daydream fund challenge thread

Davesnave

I'm pleased to see that someone is getting so much from our collective ramblings! From my POV, it's enjoyable to hear and see what others are up to, while making a record of what I'm doing, helps me to focus. There's otherwise no one, except DW, to share in small successes, or to push me along when I'd rather put my feet up! DW keeps a detailed diary, and that's been valuable, as have photos, because it's so easy to forget what things were like, or when they changed.

I find differences between our experiences fascinating. For example, choille has found the weather this year too dull and still, whereas I've found it too sunny, windy and dry! Troglodyte has problems with slugs, and so did we in our last garden, but here they are less prevalent, possibly because of the different soil. OTOH, we have far fewer frogs and toads as allies here.....and so on.

Sorry to hear about your neighbour problems, choille. I'd have thought most people would welcome woodland - it's a vital part of the sporting landscape here - but there's nowt so queer as folk. Our only close neighbours are brilliant, as are their kids, which is just as well, because they educate at home! The more distant ones are also behaving themselves.....at the moment.

For the last few days I've been finishing off the chicken shed, adding perches and six nest boxes. My design brief to make the perches not touch the floor, nor one wall, and to be demountable, left me puzzled, but eventually they materialised. There's room for a second layer and a poo tray, when we need them. The nest boxes also had to be removable for cleaning and cost more than I expected, being in 18mm ply, but they should outlast me! They'd have been more expensive, had the cutting dept in B&Q not had a pile of offcuts in the exact size I was using. I'll get pictures done in due course.

Glad to say the polytunnel holes have dried out, though I shall not be able to dig more for a few days yet.

The garden and the stock plants are not as we'd like them, having been neglected for chicken-related activities , but DW has made a great job of the elm hedge, tidying up where the tractor cannot go, which is all of our garden side. The hedge is great as a windbreak, but there's over 200' of it, and I can't seem to get rooted pieces of elm I dig up to grow on. Where there are small gaps, revealed by our removal of old, dead stuff, I'm thinking of poking in a few hornbeam, which look pretty similar. When the elm gets to a certain size, the boles are attacked by Dutch elm beetles and slowly die, so it's lucky the plant can regenerate from new growth it produces, though this is random and not necessarily in the gaps.

Hope the shoulder keeps behaving itself, Marie. DW & I know all about tennis elbow, which is similar, from the repetitive strain of loading & unloading the van. It was that which made us give up life 'on the road.'

rhiwfield

Goodness, lots of new posts!

Poosmate, ignore my posts, I'm just a smallholding wannabe

Choille, dull summer here too, obviously Davesnave benefits from being south of the bristol channel!

Troglodyte, slug fritters?

Meanmarie, had to chuck my outdoor toms with blight a few weeks back and saw greenhouse toms affected at the weekend. Drastic cutting off of foliage has slowed it down and here's hoping that we'll still be picking for a few weeks yet

Davesnave, lets see some pics of the Chicken Palace Without prying, how are you finding the economics of the smallholding. Is it in line with what you expected?


Anyhow, wet, windy morning and taking stock after very busy 4 days. DW did her first craft fair, low footflow thorughout but she sold enough to turn a profit and she picked up a couple of commissions as well. Next fair is early October in a better location. Wool shopping this am then I have to get to grips with the e-commerce side of the website :eek:

Gardens been a bit neglected while we've been trying to get DW's business going, but its producing for Wales atm. More stuff going to friends and neighbours, with maybe a cake or two in return

The ground is getting wetter and wetter after all the rain and it wont be too long before I'll have to build the winter base section for the coop and run. After the scare with the blacktail, and briefly separating out the blue that was featherpecking, it all seems to have settled down and 3 eggs a day. No more monster eggs, they were so big that there were deep pressure lines in the shells, no wonder the blacktail looked off colour!

Davesnave

rhiwfield wrote: »

Davesnave benefits from being south of the bristol channel!
Davesnave, lets see some pics of the Chicken Palace Without prying, how are you finding the economics of the smallholding. Is it in line with what you expected?

Hmm.....pretty blustery and drizzling this side of the Bristol Channel right now! I think we benefit, lying in the rain-shadow behind Dartmoor, and sheltered to the north by Exmoor.

The costs here have been in line with what we expected, but costs are what you make of them. For example, if we'd employed a fencing company to come in and do the fields/hedges, I expect about 2/3 of the money we've spent so far would have gone on that, leaving precious little for anything else.

ATM we are still unable to earn much, but when we are up & running with the nursery, our aim is just to cover the gap between my pension and what we spend. There will be tax advantages too, and by the time HMRC realise it isn't going to develop much, we'll be ready to retire! :rotfl:

If we were 20 years younger and willing to travel about, we could make a decent living here, but that would be with plants, not traditional smallholding. I could imagine doing it with other products too though. Of course if we were in this for maximum income, we'd also put a 5 touring caravan pitch on our lower field, as that would bring in more than we'd receive for hay etc.on the same area.

I may have posted this before, but here is a property we turned down, although it had the caravan site and a good roadside selling position. It is now doing something completely different,which doesn't rely on either, and I hope the new owners are able to make a go of it:

http://www.cilwg.co.uk/

In the final analysis, I'd say it's impossible to make a living from smallholding without specialising in something, whether it's selling preserves from a roadside stall, or breeding a particular strain of animal. Your craft business is a good example of how a complimentary specialism can also boost the coffers, fitting in with the other activities. Also a great way to spend those long, winter evenings (days!)

Pictures coming soon....

troglodyte

:eek: to slug fritters! I have wondered if I could think of a use for them but can't quite bring myself to do that. Also wondering about uses for horsetails - apparently they used to be used as panscrubbers so perhaps I could start making a modern version of environmentally friendly ones?

We are not aiming for total self-sufficiency at the moment but a productive garden, it's doing quite well but doesn't seem to be making very big inroads into our grocery bill, not sure what we're doing wrong!

betterlife

hi everyone, wow i remember reading this post when it was started 18mths ago, i was wondering (will try and read through all the many pages) how everyone is getting on with ther savings and if anyone has acheived or getting close to there day dream! we are just starting ours, i am trying to make extra money by buying and selling (mainly from charity shops/car boots and sometimes ebay) and by making then selling. would love any advice

betterlife

ok, so i have managed to sell a couple of vintage handbags on ebay(which i bought from a charity shop;)) after paying listing and fee`s managed to transfer £70 for dream savings, plus i have saved over £30 from house keep this week so have over £100 so far:T.
have a long way to go but its a start, kids are excited of the though and even asked for money for xmas to put towards the saving bless them. we have done a wall chart to monator our savings, we have gone up in £50`s and it goes to £1000. (my son informs we we will need to do about 200 of them:eek:. will be selling what i can on ebay and crafting to, hope i can do it whilst the kids are still youngish:o

JayneC

Hi betterlife,

Good luck with the buying and selling. I'm hoping to try something similar too. Hoping can get to the point where I can work from home. that's kind of become my dream now. I've managed to 'acquire' a bit of land, well a bit of a hillside with a small field really. It belongs to somebody else but he can't manage it's upkeep so hoping that I can eventually become self sufficient in fruit and veg. (it's a bit of a state at the minute so it may take a while) If I'm not having to go out to work I could possibly keep some small animals there too, but can't guarantee to get there everyday whilst at work so that's just a plan for now.

I think maybe my dream has become more about self suffiency than land ownership over time as I've made very poor progress at saving, Though my debts are shrinking and I'm within sight of them being paid off - hopefully within a year. However this doesn't mean more money to save as I've decided to reduce my hours at work to try and build up self employment and other income streams (or self suffiency to reduce costs). Life's too short and my kids are growing up too fast!! Will only have one under 18 after next wednesday (DD3's birthday)- I'm a bit sad:(

Dave looked at that website - that's lovely. I'd love to do something like that, they seem to be doing really well don't they and quite jolly too I thought.

Hope everyone's doing ok? Weather is pants isn't it? It's been quite blustery here.

betterlife

JayneC wrote: »

Hi betterlife,

Good luck with the buying and selling. I'm hoping to try something similar too. Hoping can get to the point where I can work from home. that's kind of become my dream now. I've managed to 'acquire' a bit of land, well a bit of a hillside with a small field really. It belongs to somebody else but he can't manage it's upkeep so hoping that I can eventually become self sufficient in fruit and veg. (it's a bit of a state at the minute so it may take a while) If I'm not having to go out to work I could possibly keep some small animals there too, but can't guarantee to get there everyday whilst at work so that's just a plan for now.

I think maybe my dream has become more about self suffiency than land ownership over time as I've made very poor progress at saving, Though my debts are shrinking and I'm within sight of them being paid off - hopefully within a year. However this doesn't mean more money to save as I've decided to reduce my hours at work to try and build up self employment and other income streams (or self suffiency to reduce costs). Life's too short and my kids are growing up too fast!! Will only have one under 18 after next wednesday (DD3's birthday)- I'm a bit sad:(

.

thanks! i ve just started a tread on os board if interested on similar topic! self enployment would be great for me too, to be able to work from home around the kids would also be a dream. but becoming self sefficient is another dream! or as much as we can anyway.
what business do you/would like to do?

stitching_witch

One of my chickens, Pandora, is having egg production problems (a massive egg on Wednesday followed by an egg with no shell a few hours later and another yesterday).

She seems well enough and is rushing around with the others. There's certainly no prolapse and she's eating well. I'm not exceptionally worried, but I'm keeping an eye on her for a couple of days and if it's not back to normal by Monday it will mean a visit to the vet.

The harvesting and foraging is continuing in earnest. My new pantry now has fifty jars of home-made jam/jelly and also the first batch of beetroot chutney (more to make at the weekend). DH also made the first 12 bottles of Rosehip Syrup yesterday. So far, we have only paid for the sugar and all the fruit has been free. :T

I like betterlife's idea of a progress chart. I might do one first for paying off my debts as my Daydream Fund can't really progress until the debts are paid.

JayneC

Thanks betterlife

I'll take a look at your thread. I'm thinking of trying to go with a recycling/reuse theme. Either buying and selling vintage or reclaimed items or reusing and 'doing up' said items. For example cleaning and applying paint effects to furniture or using fabrics to make household furnishings/accessories. I notice that bunting seeems very popular at the minute. also knitting/crocheting accessories - bags, brooches, etc. i've had a look on folksy which looks a good site for selling crafts and have also found notonthe highstreet but they have very high standards so maybe HM crafts haven't got the proffesional finish they need. Saw a stall selling items made from driftwood which may be a possibility too as I live on the coast... I thought I could do craft fairs/markets and possibly a party plan thing too, I know someone who used to do that to sell her own crafts and take commisions too.

How's everyone doing? Are you making progress with your holes Dave?

RHIWFIELD is the website up and running yet?