"Your life is an occasion. Rise to it"

rtandon27

oooooo – rain butts!

I’ve been coveting these – but can’t quite justify the expense…

What are the Wilko ones like?

Karmacat

Those are *very* pretty, RT! But very, very expensive - and very small, too, actually. The slimline Wilko one is 100 litres, the big one I'm getting at the back is 210 litres, but that beautiful little galvanised one only takes 36 litres for three times the price - it doesn't do the biz, I'm afraid :eek: I always meant to do this now, but I'm spurred on by a doubling of my water bill since my last house. Three years ago, it was £45 a month; then I went on a water meter, and it was £11 a month. When I moved here, it was £15 or so, and now its about £22 - of course, I water the garden here, because I have so many pots, as opposed to everything being in the ground and taking its chances :rotfl:

This is the large size http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/water-butts/water-butt-210l/invt/0101019

I reckon that even with having to water salad veg crops, I'll have too much water sometimes - so that will go into a bucket to flush the loo

Right, I just spent £71 at Wilko! Two water butts, two stands (money off for ordering both), the solar shower I was prattling about earlier this month, a cheap toaster cos my mum is visiting next month, a litre of ready made weedkiller (ready made cos I shouldn't need any more, and buying it neat costs megabucks, its big quantities), plus ordinary compost for the garden, and some ericaceous for my pretty little blueberry plants. Very bargainous.

redsquirrel80

Good shopping! Let us know how you get on with the solar shower - I might need one if the plumber doesn't come round soon :eek:

Karmacat

Will do - I should really have waited to place the order till I'd explored shower heads (for the ordinary shower in the bathroom), but thinking about it, I need to test it out in person, don't I, doh! And I really want this stuff delivered and done with, so I'm glad I've got it done.

MrsMoo2U

Great shopping KC. We just got our water bill and I was:eek:at the price.
We have had some problems with our water when we flush the toilet the whole set of waterpipes in the house scream until we run the cold tap. Stupidly it took a couple of months of this before I thought to stick a bucket under the bath tap before turning it on. One flush of the loo and we had to run a whole bucket full of water. So gallons and gallons have been wasted. We now use the bucket for every other flush Mind you, now we worked that one out the screaming has stopped. I think it has something to do with the outside temperature as I am convinced it is the inlet pipes. No idea what to do to put it right though. In my last house I had 3 water butts - one of which I had attached to the pipe for the bathroom so brown water from the bath and the sink went into it and it was used for swilling the paths with Jeyes fluid where the dogs were and also for watering the front garden. Then I had one that filled with rain water which I used to top up the koi pond. No water butts here as the garden is still a jungle.

Karmacat

That sounds annoying for you, Cheri! Valves? Pipes that are too close together? I've no clue, I'm sorry .... its definitely my ambition that some bath water will go towards grey recycling - at least something easy like flushing the loo, but I'm quite wary of not sending enough down the pipes - as it is, I have the problem I've heard of for people wtih a dishwasher - the sink smells a bit sometimes now, because there isn't enough water going down there :eek:

I may yet buy another slimline water butt - my neighbour mentioned that a shed gives enough runoff to be useful. I'll see how it goes on the porch first.

Charitising is all done - Oxfam lady was so snotty about a biography of Richard Hammond I nearly took it back and took myself over to BHF! Mouse mat from BHF only cost 99p :beer: choccy from the Coop, and I ogled the biiiig tvs in Currys - if I get a certain amount from the endowment when it matures, I think I might well spend some of it on a groovy tv that hangs on a wall.

Off out in a few minutes to pick blackberries and will download something watchable in the meantime.



ETA - blackberriers duly picked, and I'm about to put them in the bag with the others - will freeze them now.

You know, I *think* there's a wild plum tree on the recreation ground. I'll slice it up tomorrow, and see whats what. This is all getting very interesting

MrsMoo2U

You really are getting into the foraging for food KC. Blackberries are no where near ready here. Another couple of weeks and I will be following suit. I did notice when the train pulled into Leominster last week that there was an apple tree laden with trees on a piece of waste ground. If the train had stopped for a while I might have jumped off and picked some they looked so lovely.

redsquirrel80

Exciting to know that the blackberries are on their way to ripeness - I spotted one on the way home yesterday that was almost ripe! Few elderberries heading that way too.

Sounds like you had a good day of shopping, charitising (good word ) and foraging!

gilligansyle

I am keeping my eye on the blackberries by the railway line, saw someone out there with a bag the other day, but she didn't look to be getting much.

I wish I had room for a water butt. Then again, we aren't on a metered supply, so it wouldn't actually save me money, just make me feel better.

Karmacat

There aren't many blackberries yet, its true - but enough, it would be a couple of punnets in a supermarket. I'm adapting my mum's rule for foraging, and not picking anything below hip height - there's a *lot* of dogs round here

However, I stayed up till really, really silly o clock - consequently didn't get up till 9 :eek: but today, I'm definitely off out to the mall in the next town up, and check out the genealogy section of the library - I know it sounds odd, getting stuck into a library on holiday, but that really is me

My French bank just frightened the life out of me by sending me a registered letter, but its just my new cheque book **breathes sigh of relief** at some stage, I have to follow up with the mortgage bank, as an information letter got lost, and I haven't been able to update my sig on here - but the amount I owe is at least E1000 less than my sig currently shows :j