the daydream fund challenge thread

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Davesnave wrote: »

Hope your stomach is a bit better for a night's sleep choille.

I'm not sure about mine this morning!:( We had an African evening in the village, and the food was so tempting I over-indulged. One of the more interesting items was goat, which was certainly better than I anticipated, but there were many exciting things to try, many of them vegetable based, which I'd like to know more about.

People's costumes were amazing too. I thought I was daring wearing a two piece linen outfit, with embroidered details on the neck and hems, but I turned out to be one of the more conservatively attired!

so you didnt go dressed as a zulu type warrior then:p

Sounded as though it was a great night...hopefully you tum will not rebel against you too much today...



edit......Davesnave i have pm'd you

choille

Dave - sounds like a wonderfl time was had.

I don't like the African idea of 'Smokies' which is lamb/sheep that has been burnt with it's wool on to add a distinct flavour - yueeeeeewwwwwww

lostinrates

Goat is nice. Haven't had it for ages though. Goats are so undervalued for paractical things....still...any that join us would be pets too, so who am I to talk.

One of my neighbours cows got out yesreday and I managed to herd her in to their yard and lock her up. They knew when I called it would be her, (and these are not smallholders but proper dairy farmers who know and care for their animals). apparantly as well as being a natural trouble maker she's had a rough year and a bad calving. Its nice when farmers show genuine care about their stock...even if how they resolve the issues might be different to our way.

Davesnave

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

so you didnt go dressed as a zulu type warrior then:p

Sounded as though it was a great night...hopefully you tum will not rebel against you too much today...

edit......Davesnave i have pm'd you

No, but one of the local builders did. His wife had made him a great leopard skin outfit, though I noticed his spear was made from pipe insulation! :rotfl:

My tum has rebelled:(, but it's worth it, and so was the cause. The proceeds will go to the Air Ambulance, which comes here an average of 1.5 times a month.

Thanks for the PM.:) I'm having a proper look after dinner, if I can stay awake....otherwise tomorrow morning, first thing.....promise! Sorry, but I'm in the middle of another bit of paperwork which is already late. :o

Rummer

Hello Everyone

Not been posting here as the weather has been so shocking that I haven't been out in the garden so have very little to report. Been popping into the local garden centers and DIY stores over the last few weeks and buying stock that is past it's best for the garden. Got a lot of great bargains that will hopefully flourish next year.

Today the skies are clear and I am hoping to get out and get a bit done even just to tidy things up as I have the feeling the nice days are going to vanish soon especially since they are talking about it snowing in Oct :eek:

I will pop in more often

alfie_1

hi all

im sitting here willing my bath to run itself [adding my bededas!] also for the kettle to boil AND make me a cuppa....also that by magic all the animogs will be fed and bedded down.... im kernackered...

i have been clearing two ponds today of all nasties..ie weeds that grow tall and have roots that would make spielburg get inspiration for a new scary octopus movie !! i then decided in a weak moment to clean out all the chook houses there ??? I CRAWLED BACK TO MY VAN, FELL OUT WHEN HOME AND HAVNT MOVED FOR AT LEAST HALF AN HOUR ..SO FAR !

but...over the weekend i put lots of "items" [cr*p] from my infamous shed out on the verge with a FREE sign.. well 1st lot was gone in half an hour !! incl. dressing table ,5 chairs,table, kiddies sit in battery car and other "luxury items "...so i just kept putting more out over two days and its all gone bar 2 items.... saved me the time ,effort and fuel of tip runs !!
i got at our local carboot sale yesterday, a trailer light board FWO for £3, so will be legal on my next outing and drivers behind me will feel spoilt with the knowledge that they know which direction im going to turn now .....

im looking after [well calling in to feed] my friends 2 cats while they are on hols for 12 days... i need someone to call in and feed ME for 12 days ..... dream on !!

sorry not very newsy but seems to be that im going from A to B to C to D......at the mo.

I NEED A HOLIDAY

alfie_1

reading re your fancy dress evening... i own a white rabbit outfit ! it was bought for me by a "wealthy" friend with the strict instructions that i use it for any charity events etc...which i have and i must admit its fun when no one knows WHO is in the outfit !! he laughs his head off when i tell him of Rabbits exploits ! i did "do" one event ...a tad naughty... lets just say that pre present partner i was "seeing" a chap that maybe i shouldnt .... he was a singer.... on his birthday he was on stage and i turned up as rabbit [incognito!] with cake, balloons and got the crowds [had big prompt signs !]to sing happy birthday for him...he was somewhat stunned and mystified but then he twigged.... ooops ! if you can picture a large white rabbit legging it and not "seeing" clearly where they were legging it to !....i was actually helped across a major road by a lovely old old chap and further helped by a group of hoodies that seemed to think i was a real rabbit !!! it was hilarious but "he" did think i was a bit high risk after that so thus endeth that one ......

Davesnave

alfie_1 wrote: »

I NEED A HOLIDAY

.....But you can never say your life is routine, alfie! :cool:

Not much work done on the ranch due to DD2 returning to uni, after being home since late in May! I'm sure when I went, we used to end in July and start again in September. Apparently, uni will last longer this year. Bless her, she has been at work most of the 'holiday,' and she pays rent, so I shouldn't moan. All the same, it will be nice not to do the station run for a few months....
:j
Ironically, now we are due a heat wave, we've been preparing the potted plants for winter, particularly shrubs and things like agapanthus that we dot around the place in the absence of a proper home for them.

One plant that has proved tougher than expected is an Acca sellowiana, which languished after being moved from under the central heating boiler outlet at the old place, almost died, but then re-grew and even went through last year's frost. That was so pot bound, I had to use an axe to break up the root ball! Now I have six of them, which doesn't quite tally with our idea of reducing things...:o

As we say around here, "Yer tis..."

A plant that does have a home is a geranium we bred years ago; so long in fact, I can't remember what from. Anyway, it's a rockery kind with brown foliage and pink & white flowers that lives beside the drive. I'm going to keep a check now, but it's hard to find a time when it's out of flower. How did I overlook it for so long?

It looks like this:



A second sheep stuck in the wire yesterday. This lot are going to be trouble...:(

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Looks as though you might be turning into sheep farmers yourself then Davesnave...:rotfl:hopefully no more will get thier heads stuck in the fence..

love hte geranium you bred..... very pretty...


not much to report really, except we went to see some units, and done loads more number crunching, and we are def down grading/sizing the business..

2 reasons.....

1..... the over-heads are getting too expensive where we are now.... with the final straw being the insurance we got to pay the landlord for the build has gone up from 2.5k a year to 6.5k a year:eek:

2... if there is any movement, buisness goes a inch quieter,or cost go any higher this will tip us over the end, so its not worth the gamble... plus our option to use the opt out clause in the lease is in october, basically give 6 months notice to go in April....


I must admit now we have come to this decision i do feel a big weight off my shoulders..... but on the other hand i will have to leave some staff go:o

rhiwfield

CTC, when we downshifted we went through a lot of the thoughts you're having now.

In our case is started with giving up the London job and selling the flat that I used during the week. With service charge, tube fares, weekly rail trip, and cost of London living all behind us we were mortgage free and expenditure cut hugely.

Getting shot of the flat when there was an uptick in the market was key, but once that was done lots of things just fell into place.