the daydream fund challenge thread

Lotus-eater

I went walking on a new path yesterday, the going across ploughed and newly sown fields was unbelievably dry, we were due huge amounts of rain this weekend, but it hasn't arrived, which was great as I could stay out walking late and after all the dutiful necessary work that needs doing, that's about the only time I have left.
And thank goodness it's staying light later now.
I saw the first wild barn owl I've ever seen, come out from a hidden man made owl house.... in a old barn, amazing to see.
And a large deer herd, which because of the strong wind I was able to creep up to about 20 metres and sat watching them for a few minutes, they were all does and youngsters and sheltering behind a Woodland Trust bit of forest, I noticed that over a small bit of farmland away, was a high hide up a tree in private woodland, they could shoot right into the WT bit of forest and I bet they do.

Last weekend me and my DD saw two magnificent fallow stags together, they burst out of the woods right in front of us, my friend who knows all about deer, tells me that the stags have now left the mixed herds and are on their way back to the all boy herds, or to live alone till the next breeding time.

It now looks like 2 of my PSB have survive this far into the winter, that's out of 7 plants! Very annoying, 7 would do us fine, but 2 is woefully short of what I wanted. Never lost a PSB due to the cold before.

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

You're all making me feel better: we have alot of standing water in the summer grazing, a little in the spring grazing, but the gardens are relatively ok.

We haven't had the rain others have had, so the pasture is fine again and the stream is just trickling. The garden is workable, but I'm leaving it for other things at the moment.

Distributed our 'off the back of a lorry' feed to a few others yesterday, keeping four bags for ourselves. A lot of it is close to the due date, so I'm not keen to overstep that by a large margin, but I imagine the corn will be good for longer.

Does anyone know how far beyond the due date it is safe to go? By Googling, I've established the consensus is about 3 months, because fats can go rancid. My friends in this area just laugh when I tell them this, saying it's a plot to make us throw good feed away. There again, when I tell them the stuff is legit, not dodgy, they don't care about that either! (It's like that here - people aren't what some might call call 'fussy,' but I am.:o)

lostinrates

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I saw the first wild barn owl I've ever seen, come out from a hidden man made owl house.... in a old barn, amazing to see.

We have a barn owl here. I love it. We had a barn owl and um....a big brown owl and their wives at the last place....they uses to come out and fly down the road next to the car at night sometimes.

It now looks like 2 of my PSB have survive this far into the winter, that's out of 7 plants! Very annoying, 7 would do us fine, but 2 is woefully short of what I wanted. Never lost a PSB due to the cold before.

PSB?

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

PSB?

Purple sprouting broccoli?

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

Purple sprouting broccoli?

OH! Love that stuff. Ours last year was caterpillar invaded under nets though

NB must pop out for seed compost today.

choille

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Last weekend me and my DD saw two magnificent fallow stags together, they burst out of the woods right in front of us, my friend who knows all about deer, tells me that the stags have now left the mixed herds and are on their way back to the all boy herds, or to live alone till the next breeding time.

.

They're called batchelor herds. One stag wins the harem by fighting off contenders - sometimes to the death. It's called rutting. They make a noise calling, bellowing - we hear it from miles off - it echos up the loch - eerie. You can't eat the males during rut because they stink & it taints the meat - it's the hormones. They're off bounds.

soupdragon10

Many years ago when we moved into our house there were a pair of barn owls that nested in the corner of our loft. There was a piece of board missing from under the guttering and they got in there.

Nested there for several years, baby would sit in the tree just outside the window screeching to be fed at 2 a.m. (it was at this point that my dedication to owl conservation hit a bit of a low).

They finally moved out when next door were having a lot of building work done as I don't think they liked all the noise.

alfie_1

hi all.
well iv cleaned all the dust and debri off my shelves etc from my "fire":rotfl:

i used to have a pair of barn owls ,rescued from a nerd that put them in an aviary and thought theyd do something entertaining???
called them hinge and bracket... had to get the jesses removed by the vet as they had not been oiled and the skin had grown into/over the leather.they had been put on way too young and too tight. i had them for about 8 years. one died and the other did shortly after.

weve had strong wind and showers but no bad rain so far.....

Barney is still being a pig to Ruby but am hoping he will get bored soon.

as for feed dates, i dont like going "over" as i think you can smell it going a bit rancid?? some change in the ingrediants??

mind you mines never around long enough to go off:)

alfie_1

p.s. apparantly a rare sea/fish eagle? has been around the shore line here.... a lot of excited people hurtling along with tripods slung over thier shoulders and cameras near knocking them out swinging round thier necks :rotfl:

i have barn owls, little owls, tawney owls and buzzards ,kestrels and sparrowhawks all around me, and deer. love em all !:D

lostinrates

Knackered. Started carting blocks around for the new bed. Got one layer in. Aiming for two layers this year and to go up a layer next year. And then maybe one more the next year. (think we'll run out of blocks before then!)