the daydream fund challenge thread

rhiwfield

Getting a bit fed up of the 24/7 sub zero temperature, though I know a lot of you have got it worse. Only minus 7C last night, so getting warmer Yesterday didnt get above minus 4C in the day. Roads now mostly clear but perhaps a bit more snow tomorrow? Ordered more oil to top up tank before crimbo/new year, just in case we have a repeat of last year :eek:

Hens still laying remarkably well, most days still getting 3 eggs from the 3 girls. Let them out usually before 7am under light. Cleaning the coop out is easy, the poo is frozen rock hard! Water needs checking regularly to stop freezing.

Stopped trying to dig out the root veg and all the brassicas are brittle with cold. So using the veg in the freezer instead . Most curtains are shut during the day to conserve heat, just opening a set to take advantage of any solar gain.

Toms, was disappointed with the gartenperle, not much taste and blight susceptible. Gardeners delight did fine as main g/h tom, nice flavour and prolific, San Marzano also ok, Harbinger ok but nothing special. Just got a few margarine tubs of toms left in freezer

G/h looking forlorn, unheated all the leaf veg is deep frozen atm.

UK Maggie, didnt you have a floor once?

lostinrates

Two eggs already by the time I let them out at 8. After gritting the yard. I put hay out last night with feed hidden in it, the horses found the feed and left the hay. I really must start to trust that they know what they need! I moved all the hay back into their barn this morning so its not spoiled by wet snow but they can still get it if they want it. There was very light snow that isn't settling when I woke up and while I was outside but I think its very light sleet now, looking out. Its still bitterly cold though....the feed in the feedroom had a thin crust of ice, so colder than it was two days ago.

The wild ducks were miserably honking that the pond is frozen, but the garden birds seem perky and plentiful.

choille

My goodness Maggie - That's some grit on your floors. I don't feel just as unkempt in the caravan now. Once the floor's cleared it'll look great - the walls look done. You have walls, you lucky pup!

LIR - You're getting eggs, that's great. We seem to be infested with hens but haven't had an egg out of them for a while.
In Animal Health getting feed yesterday a woman came in asking for hay for a horse - which they ddn't have, but she had small bales of haylage for £7.50 - which she recommended for horses - I thought it must be expensive feeding horses.

We are scrabling a bit for firewood. OH spotted an ad in the local paper for split logs. They're at Inverewe Gardens - they had a load of storm damage a couple of years back as we all did but it really copped it there - £35 @ ton. Hate buying wood but that seems really reasonable & will go a heck of a long way in the stove.

Yesterday got a clutch of brand new gloves out of the Red Cross charity shop ranging in price from 49p to £1.49 - I get through them.

As we are all tottling up the year, it hasn't been many months snow free - 4 - so no wonder we're all a bit grumpy bears around here! The Summer was the most midgied I remember - so all in all not a good one.
Juat had a call from a guy South of Glasgow & they have 3 foot of snow so we shouldn't grumble too much.
Keep cosy.

lostinrates

choille wrote: »

In Animal Health getting feed yesterday a woman came in asking for hay for a horse - which they ddn't have, but she had small bales of haylage for £7.50 - which she recommended for horses - I thought it must be expensive feeding horses..

It is as expensive as you make it. You can spend a fortune or a minimum. Start with a native pony, keep it moderately fit and manage the right sort of and amount of grass well, the most you'll need most of its life is three- four bales of hay when you have no grass or too much grass and the odd sack of feed. Better still to balance the feed with a balancer, (cost dependant on size of horse/pony but say £3-4 a week). You have other costs....tack, traditional saddles should be reflocked once or twice a year, feet is a huge expense, (we are barefoot but I don't self trim because a: I'm not strong enough any more and b: I have trouble seeing the right lines well, especially while bent over) but DH will rasp feet a bit between trims to keep them neat and an eye on balance, (he would like to attends a trimming course if he had time, but we have an excellent trimmer who guides us). Even the one of ours with the worst feet has had better feet since we took shoes of and went wholeheartedly barefoot. Worm counts and/or worming is a significant cost too.

Really the very basics are not huge, significant but not huge.

Small bale haylage is expensive IMO...our big bales last year were twice that cost for five times the amount of haylage! But you need to have two or three plus eating to make big bale worthwhile (horses can't have it when its been open more than a couple of days, or any punctured bales that cows can tolerate). Generally, for various reasons both nutritional, environmental and practical I prefer hay. I fed haylage the last two winters because I had to for a decent quality product where I was.

choille

Just what happend here last year & possibly this year too is that the ground can end up under a thick covering of ice - so no grass for months, so you do need to buy in. Us on the West don't really have much grass as such.
There is a shortage of hay as the farmers on the East are holding on to it & the price is gonna rocket.
I feed the sheep & they have a lick - you have to.

lostinrates

choille wrote: »

Just what happend here last year & possibly this year too is that the ground can end up under a thick covering of ice - so no grass for months, so you do need to buy in. Us on the West don't really have much grass as such.
There is a shortage of hay as the farmers on the East are holding on to it & the price is gonna rocket.
I feed the sheep & they have a lick - you have to.

Yes, there is a hay shortage here too, and straw (you can feed oat or barley straw- and a balancer, to hardy ponies, in fact I think its often a better feed for them if they are portly ).

luckily I got in early enough, just, to make a good cut here. . Much easier down south, though we had no grass for five weeks (I think?) last year, and precious little for most of the slow season. Two big, old,expensive-feeding type horses were eating a bale to a bale and a half of big bale haylage between them with nothing at all on the ground, and I was also pumping hard feed in to them. I've kept natives in similar circumstances to that and would have got by with simply hay/haylage...andmuch less of it! I wish we still had british natives. I especially love highlands.

Davesnave

choille wrote: »

There is a shortage of hay as the farmers on the East are holding on to it & the price is gonna rocket.
I feed the sheep & they have a lick - you have to.

The sheep here are still not that interested in the hay I have out for them, but they've eaten the grass down well. They have a lick and go for that, but the manger thing is still pretty full.

Still no snow here, but the ground is harder. Nasty NE wind too.

choille

We did used to go in with a couple & they split up so we are a lot thrown this year regards getting in feedstuffs/hay etc.

We only feed hay if absolutely nothing on the ground for them - like now really. They will dig to get down but if the ground is frozen it's hopeless. The licks are good as that has their nutrients & they sort of self medicate do sheep - take what they need if they can get it.
We got some bruised oats for them yesterday so that's good. The neeps I put down for them weeks back - the ones with fly, they largely ignored until now.

It's just white outside - sky, ground. Loads of garden birds skimming about.
Yesterday in Tesco there was a Robin & a Pie bald wagtail in the canteen.They seemed really tame waggling along under the tables.

RAS

choille wrote: »

Yesterday in Tesco there was a Robin & a Pie bald wagtail in the canteen.They seemed really tame waggling along under the tables.

Well they have worked out where it is warm and there is plenty of food.

rhiwfield

Davesnave wrote: »

The sheep here are still not that interested in the hay I have out for them, but they've eaten the grass down well. They have a lick and go for that, but the manger thing is still pretty full.

Still no snow here, but the ground is harder. Nasty NE wind too.

Can see the trees swaying on the rise to the east of us, luckily we're partly protected from NE winds but its bitter outside even so. There's nothing productive to do outside and with lots of taxi-ing still to do there never seems to be a decent period of time to get on with the o/s decorating. Just managed to get a parsnip and some carrots out of one of the beds, so that'll do for veg tonite with blackcurrant pie to follow. Got quite a few tubs of gooseberry granita in the freezer but it just doesnt seem the right weather!