the daydream fund challenge thread

rhiwfield

Just occasionally, when its a bit too much for me to handle, I'll get someone in to do a job, like hiring a guy with a minidigger for a day, or a builder/landscape gardener to lay slabs.

Its still your project and your design, but just for a day or two you're the gaffer and not the grunt labour

lostinrates

Thanks guys.

the local chap with mini digger is about £150 a day...If we go that route then there is lots of stuff I can get him to do, so might be worth considering. I think we'd need a full size digger and person for the tree roots though.. maybe, as we can't do that ourselves anyway, that's something to explore now for autumn.

My dad can't really operate the strimmer for too long, but he can turn it on ....its stupid but I can't get those things with pull cord starters going. So I think I'll get his help and we'll bumble along slowly.

I feel a bit brighter to day. After all, worse things happen and sea, and three months is 12 weeks, and I WILL go and visit dh. He has a trip to Milan in Oct and a hospital appt here that week, so he's hoping to be able to keep that appt here, too. We used to go a fortnight apart all the time, and we're going to make sure we see each other every month this time

RAS

lostinrates wrote: »

I wonder if RAS is reading?

RAS IIRC you acquired local swarms...not ''named strains'' of bees. I'm guessing they are more resiliant.

Also, what hives are you using? Nationals?

davesnave, forgot to say, we don't have a wasp ANYWHERE around the trees, neither the plums that were ripe nor the apples now......they all seem to have made a beeline for the bees.

Just popped in for lunch; been a bit busy recently.

re the bees we took two swarms, a mini-swarm (which we started with) and were given what was supposed to be a prime swarm (with a guaranteed mated queen) but proved to be useless.

One lot of bees are a busy little mob, taken as a swarm, very very docile and quiet. When you take out a frame and turn it the bees just sit there, going " oh we are outside the hive? Oh cool" and they just sit on the frames, ignoring you. I have taken the lid and crown board off them un-suited and they barely even fly. Based on their behaviour, we have been advised that they are probably Italian bees (colour looks like it). The sting in the tail is that if their replacement queen is allowed to mate with non-Italian bees, the next generation could be fiesty. The up side is that they have fill two brood boxes with grubs bees and stores.

The other lot are based on the mini-swarm which we merged with another swarm when their queen proved badly mated. They have always been more flighty, they are DIY merchants, ignoring and adapting frames at will and have not multiplied in the way the other hive have. I have doubts as to whether they will make it through the winter. I would not lift the lid on them unsuited and do not really like working them without a smoker.

It is this smaller and more fiesty hive that is repeatedly challenged by wasps. They patrol the front of the hive and take out bees mid-flight, ripping off their abdomens.

We have wasp traps which do help.

We have an apiary - the bees have to climb 6 foot to get out the top - because we are on a public site. People come and watch when the hives are open, often immediately outside the apiary (about a five feet away). With the italian mob, they are fine, with the smaller hive, they often go away to get something to cover bare limbs as a precaution.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Hi All

Autumn is def here, was rather chilly last night, some nights we need to leave the front door open so the dog can go back and for to the toilet..as between about 8pm and 10pm he is pacing back and for etc, so it is just easier to leave the door open, rather than up and down like a flipping yoyo opening ad closing the door......and last night you could really feel the chill in the air.....good job i have a blanket on the sofa:D

Over the next week or two i REALLY do need to make as much money as i can not saying nothing...yet...;).so going to start with 're-jigging' and re- arranging the 2 antique stalls we have... to get more things in there, and to make them look a bit fresher, and different....got some vintage fashion fairs coming up, so I think i am going to do alot more in the £5 to £10 bracket range... as to be honest i do have a LOAD of lower range and grade vintage clothes etc.. so hopefully the sell them cheap rails will take a bit of a battering ( fingers crossed)

oooo ye maybe doing the lottery on saturday will help too:rotfl: ( lose me £3...lol...)

Going into work a bit earlier today..... got lots to think about, and thinking about down sizing the business too ( overheads have gone way to high now)

Davesnave

We went up to our old garden yesterday and removed the very last of the slabs and rubbish from there, half filling the van, then we went on to BiL's and overfilled the rest of it with firewood, galvanised sheeting, a complete external door and various other things he didn't want from his building activities.

At least our removal is over now, and only 2 years 8 months after it started! :rotfl:

Lir, my Honda 4 stroke brushcutter starts very easily compared with 2 stroke machines, so strength isn't required to get it going. No mucking about with oil/fuel mixing either. Like all the others, operating it needs some bodily flexibility, but my DD2, who isn't strong, manages OK. With those things, the quality & design of the harness makes a huge difference too.

RAS

CTC

maybe not your style?

kittie wrote: »

the ultimate dream house

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039719/Simon-Dale-How-I-built-hobbit-house-Wales-just-3-000.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

COOLTRIKERCHICK

RAS wrote: »

CTC

maybe not your style?[/QUOT

VERY much my style:D the simpler, rustic, old fashioned the better

when i say simpler, it does have to have proper toilets, couldnt cope with compost ones or seeing what the previous thron sitter had done:eek:

lostinrates

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

RAS wrote: »

CTC

maybe not your style?[/QUOT

VERY much my style:D the simpler, rustic, old fashioned the better

when i say simpler, it does have to have proper toilets, couldnt cope with compost ones or seeing what the previous thron sitter had done:eek:

remember, my sewage treatment thing only took four and a half days for the team to get in. In fact, it was the trenches and piping that took time, the sewage treatment thing took about thirty mins! So that wasn't too tough a thing at all.

rhiwfield

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

when i say simpler, it does have to have proper toilets, couldnt cope with compost ones or seeing what the previous thron sitter had done:eek:

Local ratcatcher was at great pains to tell me of a local composting loo that was "overrun" with rats. If true, it would certainly make me think twice before I sat down, not so bad for the gals but us guys have more to lose!

lostinrates

rhiwfield wrote: »

Local ratcatcher was at great pains to tell me of a local composting loo that was "overrun" with rats. If true, it would certainly make me think twice before I sat down, not so bad for the gals but us guys have more to lose!

Well at least you don't risk gaining a passenger!