Discuss your salary

mbga9pgf

Dont buy enough consumer stuff to notice. The stuff I do buy is second hand (Cars, games, electronics, ebay even some furniture) so very much doubt I will notice. Having a good salary doesnt mean you cant still count the pennies.

lostinrates

mbga9pgf wrote: »

Dont buy enough consumer stuff to notice. The stuff I do buy is second hand (Cars, games, electronics, ebay even some furniture) so very much doubt I will notice. Having a good salary doesnt mean you cant still count the pennies.

we don't buy much consumer stuff either, but like you, have land. Things like hedging/field maintenance contractors.....VAT able. we were very much hoping to have the new sewage treatment system in by now but the surveyors delays mean that will be increased vat-able too.

mbga9pgf

lostinrates wrote: »

we don't buy much consumer stuff either, but like you, have land. Things like hedging/field maintenance contractors.....VAT able. we were very much hoping to have the new sewage treatment system in by now but the surveyors delays mean that will be increased vat-able too.

We only have 1 acre, which is just on the cusp of "do it yourself" at the weekend. Not too small, not too big. We are about to grow 1,000 bay laurel from local cuttings to replace our hawthorn boundary (which I personally hate) and we have enough firewood from recently chopped trees in the surrounds to last 2 years (around 2 metric tonne).

Our sewage treatment is requiring updating (are you talking about agri or residential here btw?) and again will be a DIY job with a digger, spades and lots of work! Not anticipating installing it for a decade, however, we will be getting a clean outlet system when we do!

lostinrates

mbga9pgf wrote: »

We only have 1 acre, which is just on the cusp of "do it yourself" at the weekend. Not too small, not too big.

Our sewage treatment is requiring updating (are you talking about agri or residential here btw?) and again will be a DIY job with a digger, spades and lots of work! Not anticipating installing it for a decade, however, we will be getting a clean outlet system when we do!

Ah. yes you can do that yourself with hand tools ...personally, the hedges are still something I'd have done...and won't cost too much at that sort of amount. we've got too much to do by hand, but not enough hedge certainly to do other than have hedging contractors. I don't know many farmers now that don't use hedging contractors. Maintaining/buying equipment works out not cost effective I guess.
*
Sewage treatment, residential: agri system is in place..though needs some work , although we would ideally love a methane capture system: that for us is longer term thinking. we have a time limit, contractually, and a practical necessity to hurry up! Yes, we are having the clean sewage treatment centre. we have facility to take the run off too, so another bonus. TBH, it doesn't seem sensible to go for anything else, now, they seem to be pretty amazing things.

edit: * in fact, if I had an acre or so I'd seriously be laying myself I think, rther than cutting. an acre can in fact, IMO, be harder work than much more land...given with more you are likely to find various pieces of equipment cost effective. ATM I'm cutting about an acre of grass with an electric lawn mower. Its seriously unfunny, but nice gentle exercise. Roll on winter though as far as that is concerned!

eta: um, re the laurel...hope you don't ever get livestock, or have them on the other side of the boundary!!!!

Hawthorn jelly is a useful forager's jelly, to have with meat, and its more secure as a boundary...stock and people. If amcluesant is right, you'll really rgret the laurel in later years.

Trees, a couple of metric ts is good. Haven't weighed ours and don't plan too, but we have a SERIOUS amount of timber seasoning now. Honestly, it'll take 4 yrs, but it the world collapses after that we will be warm....for the rest of our lives.

mbga9pgf

Might give the hawthorn jelly a go before starting up the chainsaw. Is it sweet or savoury? I am putting in 200m of pine pole post and board for the livestock and keep the bunnies out of the veg allotment; problem with the hawthorn is we seem to have a pretty bad infestation in it at the mo and although I have treated the roof timbers for woodworm, I am still concerned about it migrating to our loft space.

I had to lop a load of bracket infected plum trees down, was gutted. Having put a small section on the wood burner, smelled divine!

lostinrates

mbga9pgf wrote: »

Might give the hawthorn jelly a go before starting up the chainsaw. Is it sweet or savoury? I am putting in 200m of pine pole post and board for the livestock and keep the bunnies out of the veg allotment; problem with the hawthorn is we seem to have a pretty bad infestation in it at the mo and although I have treated the roof timbers for woodworm, I am still concerned about it migrating to our loft space.

I had to lop a load of bracket infected plum trees down, was gutted. Having put a small section on the wood burner, smelled divine!

The jelly is sweet, think redcurrant or mint jellies...you eat it ith meat.
Plums we have like weeds...

bay laurel...you mean like bay trees:laurel nobilis? I've never seen a bay tree hedge though imagine it would be lovely. I find them very temperamental trees/bushes though and in my repeated and frustrated experience are less hardy than I would think them to be. Even by people's sheltered front doors hey look depressing when they are dead! It would smell great if it works, but has limit second usage...if you are really thinking of your 1 acre as being a potential self sufficient hub, which of course it doesn't have to be!

If you mean bay laurel as anything other than that, as I often hear it: its poisonous..all of it. Your animals/birds eat it, your neighbours..........

eta: tbh I don't think, both for discretion, self sufficiency, wildlife (epecially if you want to shoot to eat, you need to have some cover for them), and excitement at different times of year you can beat a native mixed hedge. This year we have had blackberries, hazels (ok, only six this year, lol) haws, elderberries and flowers, rosehips and the sloes are about to get their frosts for gin. A few crab apples in there (the best apple blosson as far as I am concerned is dark pink crabs!) a few pears, or replace the plums.

we have a short length of hedge to think about ATM and are finding it really hard. I'm thinking hazels ATM (to increase our crop from half a dozen!) unless I can think of anything less usual that doesn't need molly-coddling.

neverdespairgirl

mbga9pgf wrote: »

Might give the hawthorn jelly a go before starting up the chainsaw. Is it sweet or savoury?

Hawthorns produce sloes, which make sloe gin or sloe jelly. Hedgerow jelly's a mix of different (edible) berries, also sweet. Very nice indeed.

Rainmaker_uk

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Hawthorns produce sloes, which make sloe gin or sloe jelly. Hedgerow jelly's a mix of different (edible) berries, also sweet. Very nice indeed.

Oh I do like sloe gin :beer:

lostinrates

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Hawthorns produce sloes, which make sloe gin or sloe jelly. Hedgerow jelly's a mix of different (edible) berries, also sweet. Very nice indeed.

Sorry NDG, Hawthorns produce red hawthorn berries (sometimes called haws, much to my delight). These are much less commonly used than sloes which are from black thorns.

edit: picture of hawthorn http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=hawthorn&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1152&bih=535

picture of sloes/blackthorn:http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=blackthorn&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=z-W5TICeH5m8jAe408S7Dg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CDsQsAQwAg&biw=1152&bih=535

coldstreamalways

Blackthorn produces sloes, different family to Hawthorn (known as quickthorn).