Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

Davesnave

fc123 wrote: »

Ditto to above
..............the symptoms of a fatal brain anneurism (sp?) are none....nothing at all. scary.

Tell me about it! They aren't all fatal though. My Mum had one as a result of a congenital defect, so it was sitting there waiting to do its thing most of her life. They reached it in time.

fc123

Davesnave wrote: »

Yes, we've got ground source as one option. There's a space with no drains or trees where we could dig a huge trench. I'd still keep the woodburner though; in fact we want two of them.

Our life is pretty normal compared with yours, y'know. Ask lir. She'll confirm it's mainly just weeds, mud and poo! :rotfl:

Mines normal too

lostinrates

fc123 wrote: »

I kind of thought that about feral. Do you have the barn cats spayed?

Did you inherit the barn cats with the property or were they yours?
So many Q's late at night.
I have an OH sitting next door wanting treats I think as both adult-kids are out on the town...I might offer to do some DIY instead.

This dam eye thing is scaring me now and the more I look the worse it seems to be (which I know it isn't..it is the same as yesterday).
Monday I will 'phone to see what the procedure is to register. Would be really rubbish to have something bad when life is suddenly ticking over OK now too.*humph*.

why not call nhs direct? or go to a drop in centre (which is where they would probably tell you to go, or a and e. If you nip now, you'll be there before the main saturday night rush. take a book!)

we inherited the barn cats. we THINK they are all spayed, only one was silly enough to fall for the trap, and she is spayed. we also trapped one of our neighbours cat (most certainly an aunt, cousin and child of the ferals) and that was spayed too (later they admitted they found it as a kitten ''in the road'' so was a feral from here) But they have a pet cat who is not spayed, and somewhere there is obvipously a tom, becaus emore kittens keep turning up.


The feral that was trapped lived in the house last winter. One of her parents might have been siamese or snowshow, or something like that, - my mother said oit looked like the other half was a beaver- and its really very sad, she hated being in, but liked the fire, and started to succomb to stroking and loved being scratched, and still comes to the door for food when pickings are slim, but she doesn;t want to be a pet. Its fine at this time of year, but its horrific when its nasty weather. She also has the beginings of chrinic renal failure...and not much I can do to improve diet (neighbours put bread and milk out for them) and situation, so one day, if we can't catch her she'll be in real pain and we'll be not able to help.

If we get on top of the cat situation in the future we'll get more siamese, maybe rescue ones. They are great hunters, and there is no reason a hunter can't come in and sleep by the fire, be de-flea'd and wormed and taken care of as well as have a job. I don't mind having barn cats, I mind not being able to help if they need it.

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

...then of course there is thinking about when to empty the septic tank we have so proudly installed. At least we've got past the stage of dh inspecting our poop proudly every weekend!:rotfl:

You shouldn't need to do that for a while yet. The previous owners were decent enough to remove most of theirs before leaving, but we have yet to phone 'the man' about ours.

(Makes mental note to buy a pair of those [STRIKE]manhole[/STRIKE] inspection chamber lid lifters.:D)

LydiaJ

fc123 wrote: »

PV panels are meant to the better ones to get aren't they LJ? I missed how much yours costed up.

There are all sorts of posts I want to reply to but I really ought to get some sleep, so I shall just agree that lir and Sue are amazing about not moaning much, and should take the opportunity to vent on here when they need to, and also tell fc that my panels cost just shy of £13k. They've been operating for 4 rather cloudy days so far, and have earned me just under £16 in those 4 days - that's actual cash due to be paid to me, not including the reduction in electricity bills. I am hoping to average at least £100 a month from them, and am only paying an extra £50 a month on my mortgage to pay for them. But then I do happen to have an ideal roof - facing due S at 30 degrees pitch with no shading from anywhere and enough area to fit a 4kWp system.




Anyone thinking of getting them, please PM me for further info about which companies are good and which to avoid.

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

You shouldn't need to do that for a while yet. The previous owners were decent enough to remove most of theirs before leaving, but we have yet to phone 'the man' about ours.

(Makes mental note to buy a pair of those [STRIKE]manhole[/STRIKE] inspection chamber lid lifters.:D)

It depends. every now and again I get a bit bleach happy and start cleaning with things that are't good for tanks. Some people go years and years not empting a tank, my parents do theirs annually. Its not a huge expense, but, from experience, a house ful of guests at christmas, especially if you use a soakaway not a modern thing like ours, and its raining....its almost a certainty to have a ''plumbing issue''. I'll probably get into an autumn routine, so its wrm enough hen empty to reestablish some bacteria quickly enough. I think we won't need it done this year, but will have a look just in case!

PasturesNew

On Grand Designs in the past I've seen people using reed beds to dispose of sewage. They seem to just plant some reeds and Bob's your uncle. No emptying (just don't be downwind of it I guess).

Spirit_2

It has been a week of comings and goings for the contents of our tanks.

The cess pit was emptied this week. It is done twice a year, it is not modern and we become aware of it's presence when it has rained heavily or as lir says when we have people staying. 2000L cost £165.

The comings was having the oil tank filled. 1579L @ 57.25ppl. With vat that is £940. We will refill again in March.

Both more expensive than last September, the oil scarily so.

zagubov

Davesnave wrote: »

The trouble with getting medical info from the web is that every possible eventuality is covered, and when all the possible symptoms are added-in it becomes very confusing. You are probably just fine, but now you need a real medic to tell you you're OK.

Totally agree - online medical information is a hypochondriac's heaven. Pop to the doc's and let them see it is the best advice! I suspect NHS direct would end up suggesting the same.

If you're not registered ask around your neighbours and see who they recommend- there's often big differences between the services in practises.

tomterm8

If you aren't registered with a doctor, but need to go to a doctor, and haven't registered yet, turn up anyway. They'll see you as an emergency patient, and probably give you a form to fill in to become a permanent patient.

PasturesNew wrote: »

On Grand Designs in the past I've seen people using reed beds to dispose of sewage. They seem to just plant some reeds and Bob's your uncle. No emptying (just don't be downwind of it I guess).

There are a lot of solutions to drainage issues. You can have a pure reed bed sewage system, but... well, here's the thing: sooner or later you need to get in the sewage in order to change the balance of the planting. Which is something they don't tell you on grand designs. But a reed bed sewage system is basically a set of ponds.

Other choices is a water treatment centre, which will treat the sewage, and produce water clean enough to put into a soakaway.

Or cesspit... hard to get planning permission for.

Possibly, you might have a private lateral drain OR private sewer running under or near your property. Most of those will transfer over in a month. If you suddenly have access to a public sewer on or near your land, it may not cost very much to connect in to the main sewage grid. Of course, it does cost a lot to connect into a private drain / sewer because they have you over a barrel.