the daydream fund challenge thread

Rummer

Due to have a few days of lovely weather here and I am really looking forward to getting some weeding and reading done in the garden!

Davesnave

Now we've guaranteed dryness for a day or two, I've been able to go out and treat the bracken on the edge of the top field. Apparently, it doesn't keel over, but just fails to re-grow in spring. Huh, for £75 I thought I might get something more spectacular in the way of visible results!

Meanwhile, in the orchard, I caught the hens helping themselves to some low hanging plums. We picked some small ones yesterday, but now another tree has come to their attention, mainly because the fruit crop is so huge the branches are weighed down.

Also, we had another rambling email from the chicken breeders today, having sent them a final ultimatum, 'make us an offer of compensation or we will file a claim against you in 7 days.' They began by saying their solicitor had told them not to answer us and then went on for a further 3 pages or so....:rotfl:

It's the same old guff; accusations that we're lying, practising bad husbandry, threatening them etc etc....oh, and using Jeyes Fluid now as well!:eek:
They're not even sure these were their birds anyway, and they're not a business, (because they only have 180 hens and a web site that includes a section called 'Shop.') It's just a hobby.

Fine, we won't wait a week. I will start the ball rolling Monday, using the Moneyclaim web site. I'm just so :mad: about the whole thing. Actually, it stopped being about money some time ago.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I honestly dont think they have spoken to their solicitor at all. they just sound like a pair of plebs..

Might also be worth you passing their details/website etc onto Mr Taxman, i am sure he would be interested...;)

If they have over 50 birds they should be registered with defra....do you know if they are?


only another 2.5 weeks and we will be off to the Bulldog Bash:T:j

Lotus-eater

How much are you out Dave? Is it worth all this hassle?

lostinrates

Lotus-eater wrote: »

How much are you out Dave? Is it worth all this hassle?

IMO it is. for two reasons:

1. the welfare aspect

2. essentially we're all in the same business...smallholding. Whether its Dave's beautiful plants and a few eggs, or fruit/veg sales and a bit 'o' meat. We need to be clean ourselves and expect clean. We cease to be able to be angry about....say journalists turning a blind eye to illegal forms of information sourcing or mps turning a blind eye to dodgy expences if we don't expect our fellows in which ever field...in this case one which is often associated with fairer deals for people and livestock...to uphold standards.


This must be a DEFRA issue, surely? Its certainly a welfare one...the kind I've been bleating on a bout for ages:o

If they had a decent solicitor he'd be wanting to handle any communications and they'd be refering you to them I imagine.

rhiwfield

Lotus-eater wrote: »

How much are you out Dave? Is it worth all this hassle?

Think I'm with Dave on this one. Hate it when people walk away from their responsibilities, especially if they are selling livestock. If they get away with it this time they'll do it to others as well. Someone has to make a stand.

On a similar tack, I've just refunded £20 of sale price and postage for an Ebay item that I hadnt noticed had an old hairline crack. I'd rather take it on the chin than have a disgruntled buyer.

Its a car boot weekend, Cardiff today in the sun and Sully and Porthkerry tomorrow to take advantage of the good weather. 6.30am depart to 6pm return, hmmm, feel free to question my sanity! Dont think my bladder will hold out all day

Best thing about Ikea? Skip diving!

Just had an omelette with eggs from the chooks and onion, potato, courgette and tomatoes from the garden. Yum yum

lostinrates

Oh,.....the dry weekend sees us attacking windows again. The garden....what garden. I've cracked a pane of glass (tha nkfully not an original one) with the hot air gun while trying to strip paint. They are a bleeding mess...more filler than wood.

Lamb for supper, from up on the hill. A neighbour we only met recently, big farmer with a local attitude, not organic, but really good welfare standards...I went to have a look.

Lotus-eater

rhiwfield wrote: »

Best thing about Ikea? Skip diving!

Oooo, you can do skip diving at Ikea........... I've just experienced a bit of deja vu, did we not talk about this before???

Anyhoo.... I like Ikea now, after years of hating it. The trick is to go when it's almost empty, nick a load of pencils for use at home, get the cheap family card breakfast and free coffee.
Then when you get to the cashier, have a look through the trolly and take out what you really didn't want in the first place. Then you hopefully only end up with what you actually need, not what you just decided to buy at the moment.

Davesnave

Lotus-eater wrote: »

How much are you out Dave? Is it worth all this hassle?

From a money and time POV it's a waste, but lir explained it pretty well.

The closest thing I can liken it to is a situation I sometimes had when teaching. A surly child gives you all kinds of grief, so you give up on them one day, but the next day you're right back in there again, trying to change their attitude. You don't write them off.

I'd settle for half the price of the hens/treatment, because I think DW & I could have researched about respiratory problems somewhat earlier, but any expenses caused by their recalcitrance should be met in full. So, I'm looking for about £70, so far + whatever it costs to start & action a claim.

I won't be using a solicitor, as there's no need. Their talk of using one, and making counter claims against us, is all BS.

Davesnave

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

Might also be worth you passing their details/website etc onto Mr Taxman, i am sure he would be interested...;)

If they have over 50 birds they should be registered with defra....do you know if they are?

They claim to be registered with DEFRA and to have sought their advice, I've no reason to doubt them on that.

As for their business being a 'hobby,' well, if it is they will have nothing to fear, will they? Let's see what happens next though, before we talk of 'angry' measures.

I forgot the daftest part of the whole thing though. The bird that died was almost certainly a coc kerel. We'd eyed it suspiciously because it didn't look like the other two, but gave it the benefit of the doubt because it was older. Now we have our friend's two at the same sort of age to compare with, we are reasonably certain that it was mis-sexed. Being stuck with a respiratory infection was probably the reason why it never crowed.