the daydream fund challenge thread

RAS

choille wrote: »

Oh RAS - Making their own breeze blocks. I thought we were bad enough.

Believe me, you do not have it easy. Just getting that stuff up is a major feat.

I'm just having a crisis of confidence & need a kick up the behind.

I think maybe a week with a four solid walls and hot water would help rejuvenate you.

In the mean-time do you have any old friends who would give you a day's labour?

I noted some of you comments on Scot's Greys. You know they have a really poor hatch rate?

This crofter had a bit of a rant earlier in the year, but there is a lot of info in there http://stonehead.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/no-scots-greys-for-sale/

choille

Thanks RAS - The website - I know it well & actually have emailed him about Scot's Grey stuff. He is a real anorak on the breed - brilliant guy, who really knows his Scot's Greys. First year I have no chicks - I blame the weather we've had.

Our smashing elderly neighbours are off on holiday & I have the keys for their house - so I'm off up there later for a shower. You can't imagine how good & exciting that feels! They did say to use the facilities. The way I'm feeling I'll move in & change the locks!

Jim has some favours he needs to call in, but he's hopeless at asking for help, I'll just have to nag.

RAS

choille wrote: »

Thanks RAS - The website - I know it well & actually have emailed him about Scot's Grey stuff. He is a real anorak on the breed - brilliant guy, who really knows his Scot's Greys. .

I do not think Stoney does anything by halves:D.

I am not a geneticist but I have read up quite a lot on plant breeding and done some and if they are producing 75% male then there must something very wrong on one or more of the female linked genes.

Good gene X and Y
bad gene x and y

Put an OK hen and c.o.c.k together. If they are xY and xX, what you get is

XY - 25% - viable male - safe to breed from
xY - 25% - viable male - carrier
xX - 25 % - viable female - carrier
xx - 25% - dead

I suspect that some carriers will have varying degrees of problems.

If you breed the XY male onto an xX female you can produce

XX female - viable safe to breed from
xX female - viable -carrier
xY male - viable male - carrier
XY male - viable - safe to breed from

But of course most of the males have to be killed before breeding and you cannot work out which might be safe from until...

And that is assuming it is just one gene expression that causes the problems.

choille wrote: »

First year I have no chicks - I blame the weather we've had.

Pity. Given how crap Scots Greys are as broodies, could you foster the eggs? it might be safer?

choille wrote: »

Our smashing elderly neighbours are off on holiday & I have the keys for their house - so I'm off up there later for a shower. You can't imagine how good & exciting that feels! They did say to use the facilities. The way I'm feeling I'll move in & change the locks!.

Go get a good hot bath and pamper yourself. Nothing like it to get you warmed through.

choille wrote: »

Jim has some favours he needs to call in, but he's hopeless at asking for help, I'll just have to nag.

You really could do with the walls and trusses up before the weather turns.

alfie_1

hiya. [been out of the loop as been in morocco] BUT i get the gist that "home build" is the general subject. there is a brilliant book called SHELTER . it is published by SHELTER PUBLICATIONS. [WEB SITE www.shelterpub.com] i bought it from amazon. It is the most amazing collection of "buildings" iv ever seen from around the world and even includes plans. Hope you enjoy it too !!

Davesnave

Whoo, lots happening on here yesterday.....but I had rather a lot of things going on too, so couldn't post.

Trog, sorry, I have no knowledge of kiwi berries, but I bet lotus eater will know about them. Perhaps he'll be along shortly....

Choille, what a fantastic, interesting and beautiful place you have there! It all makes much more sense, now I have seen a few photies. I will go back and explore more later, but have to say your task makes this one look like a real pensioner's project, which is what it is, of course!:rotfl:We plan to go into a caravan in March and get back into the house the following October, but all the best laid plans.....

Rhiwfield, we don't have a suitable auger to try on the field (it would have to be tractor mounted, I fear) just a mechanical post basher, but we find that using water on the rough spots certainly helps. It's good arable land, but there are belts of stony stuff, and we also wonder if the road up there once took a slightly different course. That run of posts is now complete, and so we should be stock-proof by the end of next week. :j

I sympathise with those of you who have joint problems RSI etc. 'Tennis elbow' sounds almost benign, but it is far from that! It is one of the main reasons why we had to give up driving the plants around, as loading/unloading the heavy trays had DW in agony, and when I got it too, stuff like using a club hammer became impossible..... And you can't do anything if you can't hammer!

Davesnave

alfie_1 wrote: »

hiya. [been out of the loop as been in morocco] BUT i get the gist that "home build" is the general subject. there is a brilliant book called SHELTER . it is published by SHELTER PUBLICATIONS. [WEB SITE www.shelterpub.com] i bought it from amazon. It is the most amazing collection of "buildings" iv ever seen from around the world and even includes plans. Hope you enjoy it too !!

That's an interesting-looking book, alfie. The US doesn't have our planning system, of course, and that might be contentious if we went too far into it.....!

People have different ideas about 'eco-homes.' For example, you my have seen this one on 'Grand Designs:'

http://www.profilehomes.com/documents/0cae52_6-8-bed-country-property-for-sale-nr-llandeilo-west-wales.pdf

It was to be the 'forever home' of a Welsh TV actor and family, but obviously something has gone awry. Anyway, they're not finding it easy to sell.

The longer we stay here, the more we want to make our re-build practical, simple and less ostentatious.

rhiwfield

Davesnave wrote: »

That's an interesting-looking book, alfie. The US doesn't have our planning system, of course, and that might be contentious if we went too far into it.....!

People have different ideas about 'eco-homes.' For example, you my have seen this one on 'Grand Designs:'

http://www.profilehomes.com/documents/0cae52_6-8-bed-country-property-for-sale-nr-llandeilo-west-wales.pdf

It was to be the 'forever home' of a Welsh TV actor and family, but obviously something has gone awry. Anyway, they're not finding it easy to sell.

The longer we stay here, the more we want to make our re-build practical, simple and less ostentatious.

That home is not for me Davesnave, too minimalist, too modern, too showy, too open plan. But others may love it

Re SHELTER There's a community near us Coed Hills that has numerous yurts as dwellings but I know that they have had problems with fabric rotting and the iron age roundhouse's built at the local museum of welsh life are very smoky and dark.

Lotus-eater

troglodyte wrote: »

Quick gardening question here - does anyone know anything about the 'kiwi-berries' being offered by a couple of the seed companies? I'm looking for something to try against the new south-facing fence our neighbours just put up, but would they be any good?

I do know about them funnily enough, but only because I've tried growing one.

Well I've got the Kiwi Arguta Issai, which was from DT Browns I think.
I presume they are the same type of thing.

Had it 3 or 4 years, it took a couple of years to grow to a decent size of about 2 and a half metres (it grows slowly), then we had some blossom and maybe 20 fruit. We tried them when they looked ready.... and they were horrible, so I picked the rest before the first frost and left them inside, for want to know what to do with them.
Then just as I was about to throw them away, I tried one again when it was really soft, it was lovely and sweet, a strange taste, but not unpleasant, but not brilliant either.
Problem was, they were all ready to eat then, no extension of harvest.
Then last winter killed it all off, so it's spent this summer growing again and no blossom.

Mines on a south facing wall, although not that protected, I wouldn't buy one again.

troglodyte

Choille, thanks for the link to your blog! We will be popping in now to see how you're getting on. It really takes a lot of determination and vision to do what you're doing though, I don't think I could do it; we've been in our house 3 years and haven't finished the work yet, and we only have veryt minor things to deal with compared to you, but i still get fed up with our front room being used as a 'garage' etc.

Re tennis elbow - I gave myself that too, from strenuous digging out of a mat of ground elder! It did make everything really difficult, and once I had it, even when it seemed mostly better then soomething as simple as carrying a heavy shopping bag would bring it back again so it took ages to clear up! Being more careful now (the joys of getting older )

Cold but sunny here this morning; hope you all have a good weekend!

Lotus-eater, thanks for that! I might reconsider then as they are rather expensive, especially the ones where you need both male and female plants.

Lotus-eater

I think there are a couple of full sized kiwis that are self fertile, Jenny is one, I think these can take a few years to get going, but once they do (same as the non self fertile ones) you can get very large harvests from them.
If you have the time and space, then it could be very worthwhile doing, but I would steer clear of the small sized kiwis tbh. But others may have had different experiences of them.