the daydream fund challenge thread

choille

Saw most of it. Might be more down to earth next week, but I found the sheep stuff - duvet stuff interesting.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

choille wrote: »

Saw most of it. Might be more down to earth next week, but I found the sheep stuff - duvet stuff interesting.

i thought that too, i honestly thought it would be total novices, but the people on tonight's programme had experience.

i think next week its a family that moves from london down to cornwall, and run into some financial difficulties ( i think), so thats more like the real thing...

really do want to get my hands on the garden:rotfl: but its been piddling it down, plus its dark when i come home from work...... stroll on the spring and the light nights...:beer:

choille

They also seemed to have alot of money to spend & a lot of connections.

To be honest sheep keeping is not a payer - well not in my case.

It's really unsettled here, really cold, gales & more snow forecast - for goodness sake.
Tried to do some gardening yesterday & the veg beds are still frozen.
I had to buy onions & carrots today. Carrots not as good as the year before's crop which took me right through.

I was hoping to get my poly-tunnel up & running, but I'm champing at the bit. I have to clear the ground first.
It's so windy the caravan is really rocking about - thank goodness we have it strapped down & anchored.

meanmarie

Choille...we had sheep in a previous life and would agree about the non-money-making aspect....miss the lovely lamb that we had for ourselves though.

OH has managed to repair all the damage to the greenhouse, he has lettuce and scallions up out there...would like to get an early start with tomatoes this year but reckon that February will be early enough....all the huge window cills in the old part of the house will be in use this year as am determined to have as much home grown produce as possible...may be a case of the heart being willing and the flesh weak though, as I seem to have aches and pains everywhere at the moment.

Weather very unsettled here too, yesterday was quite mild but cold, wet and windy to-day...ah well, such is life in a 'temperate' climate!

Marie

choille

Yes the lamb is good, but I've not had a ram in this season - am actively looking at restricting my flock as they are pretty costly.
I have three male lambs from last May for growing on for the freezer.

Know what you mean about the aches & pains though as well -think it's the weather.
Good luck with your planting.

rhiwfield

Heyyyy, the sun is shining and its almost warm outside. Wont risk planting anything yet but its great doing a bit of tidying up.

Davesnave, check out the Relu website on SRC willow and miscanthus. 350,000 ha of crops for power generation and another 750,000 ha wanted for transport fuel production, and thats before BBSRC/Defra etc wanting the current baseline of 60% food production upped, if it went up to 80% thats a third more food production!. Wonder where all the land will come from, Relu was suggesting East Midlands and South West for the energy crops.

(For those not into ha thats a total of 2.5m acres wanted for energy crops)

Davesnave

I will do that, Rhiwfield. I've seen miscanthus around here, though I can't remember where now. Willow I already have, but in a perfect world, I'd think this land more suitable for food crops, bearing in mind I was surrounded by fodder maize last autumn. I do wonder about the logic of re-fencing the fields so that someone else can run sheep on them for a peppercorn rent!

Shh! I'm not too sure how much to say about the good weather, bearing in mind that some on here are still having it rough. Today began a little wet and foggy, but I ended the afternoon in shirt-sleeves again. ATM we are working our way through the soft fruit beds, removing the worst of the weeds and pruning several years worth of untended growth as we go. The bonfire mound in the field is huge again.

I've had to fell a few trees, most of them weak specimens of plum & pear because, at last, we have some sort of plan for the garden, so we now know what will be in the way. Two lawson cypress will get the chop too, but I'm not sure why they are in the market garden area anyway.

DW finally agreed with me that placing a 60'x 18' polytunnel on the field in front of our best view would be insanity, so we shall be fitting-in a 42'x 24' one within the garden area, where the view is just pole barn and muck heap. We won't need to demolish the old home-made one we inherited until the new tunnel is up, but I think I'd better talk to the planners, just in case, as we are more than doubling its size.:)

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Hi...all :j

done my first carboot of the year yesturday...... flip was i cold...:eek: but as they say no pain or gain:D, sold loads.... made loads.... and doing it all again on saturday and sunday next week:rotfl:

taken the day off work today.... just to get my paper work up to date etc.. pay work bills etc...

and i also want to make a new spreadsheet to keep my mojo going...

going to bank the money later, so i cant spend it...lol..

I know i havent updated my sig in a very long time... but on relfection i dont think its a good idea... as you dont know who is reading the threads....

choille

Davesnave - you should go into the Planning Dept & pull the file on your house/land. If the original application was for poly-tunnel with no size specified then you should be okay just to replace? But if you're shifting the location then if it's specified on the planning, then you're right you'll probably need to speak with your area officer.
If you're classified as a small holding can you get grants for fencing?
Even though I got some grant aid for fencing, I reckon I've spent £20,000 on fencing so far! Which is ridiculous & has eaten into what should of been spent on house building materials. But you do what you do & I had major deer problems & took some more ground on a couple of years back - really to stop development which would have overlooked me & ruined the area, but it cost me dear & although fenced I've never used my upper hill apportionment as yet.

you sound as if your getting on great guns with your plans - wonderful.

CTC - Great stuff with the car boot sales. I wish I had some nearer so will have to get my bottom in gear & start ebaying once I've figured it all out.

Got last year's accounts off in time - just. So that's always a big *sigh of relief time* & one big weight off the old shoulders.
Weather nice, but a big frost this morning. Yesterday spent getting the last roof sheets on the new hay shed that was started before the bad weather! Just need a ridge thingy & to clad it - will happen when some buzzard pay their bills.
Seems that people are in no hurry to settle - the joys of running your own business!
Also managed to partly lifted another panel onto the scaffolding for the house, but the rest OH will need to get a hand with as they're too heavy for just the two of us to get up, but amazed what progress in the last couple of days. The sun is now back on the croft & what a difference that makes, really cheering.
What an incredible long ice up - over a month of amazingly deep ice. And yes, the pipes burst the other week when it started to thaw, but only outside the caravan - thankfully.

Poppycat1

Hi, can I join in please? :j

I live in a terraced house with a garden about the same size as the plot of the house in a city. I was given a chicken house so got 3 resued hens last year, but unfortunately they dissappeared in November. (Foxes have been seen and heard.) I only bought 6 eggs last year. I have just got 5 new hens and can't wait until they give us some eggs.

I grow some vegetables in my small garden and have a section of my parents allottment. I am really excited about starting to plant some seeds. Bought some seeds yesterday and plan to plant some chilli and pepper ones tonight.

I am going to sell left over eggs on my doorstep and after reading the first few pages of this thread I have decided to plant some extra seeds and try and sell some plants aswell. All money will go towards our (me and my two young boys) dream. Which is to have a small holding but a house with a large garden is more realistic.

I will be logging in regularly to get ideas and maybe giving some advice if I can.