the daydream fund challenge thread

ukmaggie45

You will need some sort of shelter/tool shed if it is a mile away from home. I suggest a steel container as it needs to be theft proof.

Stell containers are excellent! we've used one before and I really miss it, secure, dry neat, rot free!

We just got our Licence to Occupy Pitch form for our caravan today. We're told we have to remove our wooden shed (that OH's Dad built from scratch - own plan, ordered planks, carted them to the caravan and built the shed). We have to "change it for a non-combustible one" before 1st March 2011. :eek:

Seeing as site is shut from Jan 6 (or thereabouts) to March 1st that means we have to source and site the shed in the next few weeks.

Please, any recommendation for metal shed about 5X6 or 6X6 (we don't even have the measurements)? Or ones to avoid? Security is of some importance, but we don't keep anything expensive like outboard motors in it, it's basically a dumping ground for odds and sods for the boat upkeep, oars and rollocks, plastic toys for the beach and such, some gardening stuff (though keep the tools in caravan over winter on the whole), and general junk. Bit like the usual loft in many ways!

Site can be very windy, our neighbour had probs with the metal roof of metal shed blowing off. (they had a garden gate on top of it to weigh it down this summer)

Know this is maybe a bit OT for this thread, but since the question of metal sheds came up at such an opportune moment I thought I'd at least post and ask!

Renovation house is coming on apace, garden is a mess, but I guess it was inevitable since we don't really have access while the build is going on. And no toilet now, so harder to even spend time in garden at weekend for any great length of time.

Tomorrow we go to Harrogate to the Homebuilding & Renovating Show. I wish we'd gone last year, but better late than never! We're meeting our builder there to go and talk with the people on the Thermaskirt stand. And there's some more stuff I want to look at too, but don't tell OH or he won't take me!

alfie_1

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

We just got our Licence to Occupy Pitch form for our caravan today. We're told we have to remove our wooden shed (that OH's Dad built from scratch - own plan, ordered planks, carted them to the caravan and built the shed). We have to "change it for a non-combustible one" before 1st March 2011. :eek:

Seeing as site is shut from Jan 6 (or thereabouts) to March 1st that means we have to source and site the shed in the next few weeks.

Please, any recommendation for metal shed about 5X6 or 6X6 (we don't even have the measurements)? Or ones to avoid? Security is of some importance, but we don't keep anything expensive like outboard motors in it, it's basically a dumping ground for odds and sods for the boat upkeep, oars and rollocks, plastic toys for the beach and such, some gardening stuff (though keep the tools in caravan over winter on the whole), and general junk. Bit like the usual loft in many ways!

Site can be very windy, our neighbour had probs with the metal roof of metal shed blowing off. (they had a garden gate on top of it to weigh it down this summer)

Know this is maybe a bit OT for this thread, but since the question of metal sheds came up at such an opportune moment I thought I'd at least post and ask!

Renovation house is coming on apace, garden is a mess, but I guess it was inevitable since we don't really have access while the build is going on. And no toilet now, so harder to even spend time in garden at weekend for any great length of time.

Tomorrow we go to Harrogate to the Homebuilding & Renovating Show. I wish we'd gone last year, but better late than never! We're meeting our builder there to go and talk with the people on the Thermaskirt stand. And there's some more stuff I want to look at too, but don't tell OH or he won't take me!

i know its not metal but i had the metal frame of an 8x6 greenhouse[no glass] and iv "clad" it in weather board and felted the roof, treated the walls with cuprinol and i have a solid shed with a handy sliding door. may not suit you but good way to recycle an old greenhouse?? and cheap but solid.

choille

The name yardmaster comes to mind for metal sheds - think they come flat packed.

rhiwfield

Metal sheds, not sure I recommend this but a neighbour uses an old rectangular oil tank with doors cut into it.

And at this gloomy time of year, a ray of light............

Blacktail Illuminations

Davesnave

rhiwfield wrote: »

Blacktail Illuminations

That's a hoot! I wonder if the lights will be enough to encourage laying? I won't bother with ours, since we haven't seen so much as an egg yet!

Today's the grand opening of our new village PO and shop, built with money raised since the last one closed, a few years ago. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed that it survives, though I suppose using it will be the most practical way of ensuring that. Sitting here, half way between the village and the little town, we shall be pulled in both directions now...

Didn't see or hear one firework this November 5th. Stuck my head out the door around 7.30pm, but there was nothing, not a peep. Good for the animals, I'm sure.

lostinrates

rhiwfield wrote: »

Metal sheds, not sure I recommend this but a neighbour uses an old rectangular oil tank with doors cut into it.

And at this gloomy time of year, a ray of light............

Blacktail Illuminations

Superb! Is it enough light for laying? We're still getting ample for us (3-4 a day) but I'm going to have to start getting up early for the light switch...its not possible to do it a the other end of the day because the lights out there can't take a timed dimmer as they stand.

Having lighting is amazing. Yesterday evening I was sweeping away out on the yard with no problem at all. Such a difference from those screw in battery powered lights (which are good BTW where nothing else can be made work) but this feels like such ''lux''ury .

Finding it quite hard to wind up to the weekends work though today....

rhiwfield

Enough light for laying? Only just put them up so dont know yet but I'll keep you posted.

I'm switching them on now for an hour in the morning from 7 am and at night from 4.30-6 pm, though they went to the coop about 5:30 last night, well after dark. They are only 4 x 8w low voltage bulbs and when they were first put up in an adjacent bed they weren't bright enough to keep them up.

Got another outdoor light so switch that on as I switch the hens' lights off so they can see their way to bed

For months now our 3 have laid about 19-20 eggs per week, but in past 5 days had 11 eggs so slowing down. With 11 hours light a day I hope they keep laying.

lostinrates

rhiwfield wrote: »

Enough light for laying? Only just put them up so dont know yet but I'll keep you posted.

I'm switching them on now for an hour in the morning from 7 am and at night from 4.30-6 pm, though they went to the coop about 5:30 last night, well after dark. They are only 4 x 8w low voltage bulbs and when they were first put up in an adjacent bed they weren't bright enough to keep them up.

Got another outdoor light so switch that on as I switch the hens' lights off so they can see their way to bed

For months now our 3 have laid about 19-20 eggs per week, but in past 5 days had 11 eggs so slowing down. With 11 hours light a day I hope they keep laying.

One needs to be wary about lighting with a non-dimmer switch at the evening end of the day. Its quite stressful for them and can cause ''social issues''..pecking etc. That's why if I light I do it in the mornings, sudden sunrises are less stressful than sudden sunsets!

Mine are all going in at 3pm now It seems no day at all for them.

rhiwfield

lostinrates wrote: »

One needs to be wary about lighting with a non-dimmer switch at the evening end of the day. Its quite stressful for them and can cause ''social issues''..pecking etc. That's why if I light I do it in the mornings, sudden sunrises are less stressful than sudden sunsets!

Mine are all going in at 3pm now It seems no day at all for them.

LIR, 3pm? Whereabouts are you? Without the extra lights mine were staying out until 4:50-5pm (current time). Perhaps the light from our kitchen 20 feet away encourages them to stay out, and the new lights just a while longer.

Hopefully the combination of the kitchen light and outside wall lights will avoid any stress when the run lights are switched off, but if they do show any signs I'll extend the mornings only.

lostinrates

rhiwfield wrote: »

LIR, 3pm? Whereabouts are you? Without the extra lights mine were staying out until 4:50-5pm (current time). Perhaps the light from our kitchen 20 feet away encourages them to stay out, and the new lights just a while longer.

Hopefully the combination of the kitchen light and outside wall lights will avoid any stress when the run lights are switched off, but if they do show any signs I'll extend the mornings only.

Yes, your outside and kitchen lights going off later at different times may work as a stage dimmer! Clever!

In the south, in a wide open valley, mine just seem to be going in early. eg its lightish now, not yet dusk, but they are in and roosting.