the daydream fund challenge thread

Rummer

lostinrates wrote: »

For the first time the horses had eaten almost alll their hay...and I hate filling haynets (hate using them too but one of the paying guest relieves herself on piles on the ground:().

I love filling haynets and mucking out :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Tell you what I will come and do your chores if you can go back to work for me tomorrow

lostinrates

Rummer wrote: »

I love filling haynets and mucking out :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Tell you what I will come and do your chores if you can go back to work for me tomorrow

I'll go to work and muck out if you'll do the hay nets!Seriously, they get me in knots.For other reasons I prefer hay on the floor ...musculature and dust ...but nets are right for us now.

I want to have a look at haybars to see what I think of them....or if home versions could be made more cheaply. They are very expensive.

Davesnave

Nice here: shirtsleeves again.:) Bit black over Exmoor, though! We may escape.

Spent the whole morning catching up with local gossip, clearing emails and stuff. Have signed up for a demonstration of hedge-laying at RHS using DWs membership, so I hope they don't look at me too carefully when I go! Also signed up for a plant gig in Bath, as there's a good chance we shall be able to cover much more than the diesel costs on that one.:D

Still feel lazy after the long Christmas lay-off.

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

Still feel lazy after the long Christmas lay-off.

I 'm shattered.But it felt good to start getting normal routine back.

Sky here is the most amazing mauve. ...oh,just fading to grey now I loo, but astounding. Can't see snow up on the plain, but had odd flakes blowing down from somewhere. Its not that cold though...my guess is I'll get rain.

edit:rummer...come and helpme...they'd eaten through the hay again...so I guess this is it till spring wrestling haynets 2-3times day

choille

Poosmate wrote: »

Evening all.


I'd love to have a bonfire but unfortunately I'm in a smoke free zone. I'll maybe try to find some pics of bonfires to post here on Choille's Night.

Poo

I'm only gonna light a little fire as I don't want to use up any firewood really - I'll burn some twigs.

We too had a lovely crimson sky as it grew dark but it's poured down most of today & the wind is bitingly cold. There's warnings of black ice on the roads.

I'll go to work and muck out if you'll do the hay nets!Seriously, they get me in knots.For other reasons I prefer hay on the floor ...musculature and dust ...but nets are right for us now.

I want to have a look at haybars to see what I think of them....or if home versions could be made more cheaply. They are very expensive.

I put hay in the byre as they pull it out & it acts like bedding. Outside i feed through a fence. Put the hay this side of a wenlock fence. I've priced those hay trundle things - they are so expensive, I can't afford one of those. I have seen people using baskets like the sort you get in big freezers, suspended from ceilings/beams as hay feeders - I just need to find some big pastic coated wire baskets & re-build the byre first.

Well the last couple of evenings we've cut steaks off a venison haunch. Really tasty stuff. I prefer it to actual beef steak when you get it so tender. Tonight I've put the remainder in to roast in the oven in a self baster - mmmmmmmmmm, smells wonderful if I say so myself. There's too much for us two so I'll slice it into portions & freeze what we can't eat in the next couple of days. The cats get a bowlful too & the outer gets strung up for the dickies - no waste at Choille's.

Well it's chucking it down out there. Do you think I could ebay Highland rain CTC? I'd become a millionairre pretty quick.

RAS

choille wrote: »

I'm only gonna light a little fire as I don't want to use up any firewood really - I'll burn some twigs.

I might set fire to the allotment bonfire, now there is some dry sticks (nice prickly loganberry and raspberry) to get it going?

Do you think that will be visible from Little Loch Broom? or deepest Devonshire?

Anyway, the more celebration we can have the better.

Hoping for news of the wassail at the end of the month (Hic!).

alfie_1

lostinrates wrote: »

I'll go to work and muck out if you'll do the hay nets!Seriously, they get me in knots.For other reasons I prefer hay on the floor ...musculature and dust ...but nets are right for us now.

I want to have a look at haybars to see what I think of them....or if home versions could be made more cheaply. They are very expensive.

for hay bars have you thought of using ....bear with me as this description may have you scratching your head !:rotfl: you know the safety barriers they use at events ? made from a scaffold pipe looking metal.approx 3ft high x 6ft long, well if the "legs " were removed and the bottom was bolted using U brackets to a wall then the top could be angled out and either braced by chain or a metal bar ??
would make a splendid big hay bar !! or am i having a "blue peter" moment...:o:rotfl:

lostinrates

alfie_1 wrote: »

for hay bars have you thought of using ....bear with me as this description may have you scratching your head !:rotfl: you know the safety barriers they use at events ? made from a scaffold pipe looking metal.approx 3ft high x 6ft long, well if the "legs " were removed and the bottom was bolted using U brackets to a wall then the top could be angled out and either braced by chain or a metal bar ??
would make a splendid big hay bar !! or am i having a "blue peter" moment...:o:rotfl:

I think I know what you mean,possibly. Ave you seen a hay bar? I'm wondering if they have a mesh top to justify the expense over a hay rack. I also guess people are scared with setting a hay rack low a horse will get its leg in it. Mone will eat out of trugs etc but not the paying guest...:(.

For horses hay gets too heavy and wet. That said, my chippings from the tree are starting to look a little dubious.

RAS

Well, finally got on the allotment over New Year, although I have been hospital visiting rather a lot.

The lump of ice I turned out two days previously was still 6 inches high so i concentrated on cleaning up and pruning.

Got rather brave with the vines, took out two whole stems on the biggest so the remaining one can form the basis of the proper guyot trained vine I planned last year but did not happen. Just hope it fruits well as it is the one that produced the ripe bunches last year. Dithered over one plant only. Have them rested on the ground under cover to stimulate flower buds. Vernalising is one this, frozen solid might be another.

Thought yesterday was positively balmy and certainly above freezing until I saw the canal out of the train window and realised it was frozen right over in the early afternoon.

Grey again so I try to put colour into the world. Two tricks work for me; remembering that even when it is grey down here, the sun is shining at 30 thousand feet and concentrating on the minor contrasts in plant life around me. Yesterday I noted how different the leafless trees look; some dark and regular in shape, some upright and tinged with red-brown, yellow willow branches, some trees almost fluffy in outline, others pale grey and the birches white against the greyness. Other times it is the contrast between heather, bracken and grasses.

Really looking forward to the days lengthing and the planting season but need to do some digging first.

lostinrates

RAS wrote: »

Really looking forward to the days lengthing and the planting season but need to do some digging first.

I'mnot looking forward to it...I still have no beds! Although I am considering planting veg all through what will become our longest flower border. Around the tree stumps. I can't see why not if we don't get veg beds in.