the daydream fund challenge thread

Davesnave

knithryn wrote: »

I still work full time (teacher).
Even in the rain, the ice, wrapped up well in waterproofs wheeling a barrow is a great stress relief from the classroom.

Oh, go on, you teachers have a 9-4 job, thirteen weeks holiday a year and a gold-plated, index-linked pension to look forward to!:mad:
As for stress, those kids are all lovely; well mine were anyway! Now, if you want to talk about a real job.....

Hang on a minute.....Sorry, wrong forum.....:o Get a lot of that over on 'Debate House Prices & Economy,' mainly from people who spend much of their working day on MSE.:D

I got out at 53, but when the purchase of an ideal business property fell through, I made the mistake of returning part-time + supply until I was 58. Like you, DW and I didn't wait; for the last 11 years of work we were running a small plant nursery, and even making a decent profit.

The previous business enabled us to buy this ag-tied property to retire to.

In short, you never know what lies around the corner or where an interest will lead!

And did I say 'retire?'

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

edit: infact, thinking about it I didn't even realise houses would have had drain runs then. This is the very old brck though.......I'm beginning to wonder now whether these brick runs are something more interesting....

When I was at college, our main building was Georgian and a couple of us investigated the brick drain runs. They weren't sewers, but probably carried the surface water and the copious amounts that came from the roof.

These drains were only just large enough to wriggle through. I was OK with that as they weren't too far down, but after we'd gone quite a long way into one, the guy behind began muttering about the possibility of rats! It was at that moment my torch picked out a 1967 penny.

Realising we were not doing anything that hadn't been done before, I halted there, so we wriggled all the way back. I was a bit disappointed though, because we'd not discovered where the beginning of the system was.

Pity about your garden, but best to know the worst now, IYSWIM. Seems you are going through similar discoveries to ours, and finding similar solutions. Men with diggers eh? Worth their weight in hernias.

rhiwfield

Knithryn, making part of the dream happen in less than ideal circumstances is a great attitude to have. I hope you get all that you wish for!

What a change in the weather, drizzle am and warm sunshine this afternoon, though at a neighbours funeral so a bit dismal even so.

Slowly getting beds ready for the season ahead, and took the opportunity of the fine weather to move the chicken coop and run to fresh quarters, leaving 6" of deep litter to be carted to the compost heap. Still just one egg a day, though all hens refeathered. The ring on the blacktails beak seems to have no effect other than the intended one of stopping her featherpecking. She got used to it in about 24 hours and doesnt stop her eating, drinking, pecking greens etc.

The last of the dessert apples in store have just been used, only a few cookers left. Realised from fruit book that one of the trees (fiesta) suffered from bitter pit this year, so planning extra mulching and watering. Thinking about Davesnave's squashes, plan to use the main compost heaps to grow them, with courgettes on the wild garden heap.

Last month of winter proper!

lostinrates

Yes, so much warmer rhiwfield...but wet and wind on its way.

I didn't check the field trough...thats been so deeply frozen..but I'm hoping its on its way to defrosting. I also can't work out how horses are coming through the fencing.....its jarr-ing me....but they had it down twice yesterday and then this morning again. Trying to save some grass now....letting them trash an electric paddock and feeding hay.....but its awkward with diggers going this way and that through the yard.....the horses liked the hustle bustle on Monday....now they want there barn back in the daytime not just at night.

Lotus-eater

rhiwfield wrote: »

Thinking about Davesnave's squashes, plan to use the main compost heaps to grow them, with courgettes on the wild garden heap.

Last month of winter proper!

I've done a tomato plant on a low compost heap also, it worked really well and amazingly had fruit ready earlier than the greenhouse toms. There was a fence behind it to shelter the plant from some weather, although most of the wind comes the other way across an open valley. I don't know why it did so well tbh.
I didn't do it last year, I did a squash instead and that worked well too.

If anyone's got a big pile of horse poo, courgettes love that. I bet you could use it from a couple of months old. I've grown them on almost fresh stuff and they romped away, cucumbers too.

Lotus-eater

Davesnave wrote: »

It was at that moment my torch picked out a 1967 penny.

I almost hate to point it out, but have ever considered that someone may have dropped it down a drain?

lostinrates

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I've done a tomato plant on a low compost heap also, it worked really well and amazingly had fruit ready earlier than the greenhouse toms. There was a fence behind it to shelter the plant from some weather, although most of the wind comes the other way across an open valley. I don't know why it did so well tbh.
I didn't do it last year, I did a squash instead and that worked well too.

If anyone's got a big pile of horse poo, courgettes love that. I bet you could use it from a couple of months old. I've grown them on almost fresh stuff and they romped away, cucumbers too.

Ohh, well...that's something I can do! Toms might well like it too I guess. They like sewage plants, and that must be fresh ish.

re the tomato...the compost heap might well have been creating more warmth than the greenhouse. I like standing on the muck heap on cold mornings for the same reason. Oh crikey.....my glamourous life....warmer on a pile of poo than in my house :rotfl:

Davesnave

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I almost hate to point it out, but have ever considered that someone may have dropped it down a drain?

Yes we considered it, but there was such a build-up of leaves & other stuff in the drain, it seemed unlikely that it had been used, even to take storm water, for a long time. Unlikely, but not impossible. Presumably, all the drainage was reorganised after WW2 when it stopped being a country seat.

There was only a period of 3 years between the minting of the coin and me finding it, which also suggested that it had been dropped or put there deliberately, rather than swept in somehow. It was the 'newness' that got to me.

Lotus-eater

lostinrates wrote: »

re the tomato...the compost heap might well have been creating more warmth than the greenhouse. I like standing on the muck heap on cold mornings for the same reason.

Yes it could well have been, but it's quite windy here most of the time, so there can't have been much heat around the above ground bit (if any), it must have been something to do with the roots being kept warm. I don't even know if that's possible tbh, but it's the only thing I can think of.

lostinrates

All go here this week....its hedges week too.