No T Words mentioned at all - a fresh start

hoglet121

Ah ok! That's great to know thank you. I think I have a whole lot to learn, but that's all part of the fun I guess.

:-)

[Deleted User]

Morning all, perishing cold here this morning mainly because we didn't light the fire yesterday as we were out to the pub quiz in the evening, Brrrrrr I hadn't realised how much not having the residual heat in the masonry round the woodstove would affect the overall temperature of the whole house! Extra layers will be going on and we'll light up earlier today.

HOGLET 3 acres is wonderful as an area, our local recreation ground is 3 acres so I can visualise the space easily, if you haven't got them already 1/2 an acre of fruit trees will give you a massive yearly yield of produce, certainly enough to keep both of you fed and hopefully enough to trade as well. A friend in Kent was gifted 1 1/2 cres and two old farmworkers cottages on the plot from her mum and we planted up 1/2 an acre of apple, pear, plum, cherry, damson, greengage trees, she got a succession of earlies, mids and late fruiters and was able to feed the family through the year once the trees had established and grown to maturity, Took about 5 years for a big crop but it was there from then on. It's a bit of an outlay for the young trees at the beginning but it pays for itself well for little attention othr than pruning, keeping the grass down round them, pest control and picking. Lyn xxx.

hoglet121

Morning everyone

MLW - thank you, yes fruit trees are very high on the 'want' list. I hadn't relaly though we would be able to eat from them year round but I see that it makes perfect sense from your comments. I will work on another plan of exactly what we would plant here.

We actually went to see a place last night as a very spur of the moment thing. It was almost perfect - lovely house with lots of outbuildings, garden was around 3/4 of an acre with established grape vines, apple, pear, peach, lemon and feijoa trees, the ride-on mower in the shed was included, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, double garage with an extra bathroom, lovely neighbours on one side with chickens, neighbours on the otherside were a herd of cows, stunning views across unspoilt countryside to a lake, vendors were a lovely couple in their mid eighties moving on to something more manageable for them. The sun was setting and lighting up the countryside and sky in glorious colours and I could well see us sitting out on the veranda with something cold in our hands, taking in the view.

BUT

It was on a 100km an hour road and the cats (the boys in particular) would end up squished.

Hopefully, as that was under budget we would be able to find something on a quieter road that we could still afford. It was such a shame, the estate agent thoguht I was completely nuts as we'd obviously loved the place, and he asked me what I thought and I said we couldn't live there cos of the cats, he obviously isn't a pet person!

love to you all

Hoglet x

candlelight_2013

I can well understand Hoglet and any animal person would. It sounds lovely except for the road, but you could never rest easy with th thought of your kitties being squashed.

We live on a very busy road so that is why Flora is a house cat,

Good luck with the next one

Much love

Candlelightx

fuddle

I do find the idea of duck keeping quite a romantic one. Seeing as I know not a jot about it I think it might be an idea formed out of ignorance:rotfl: I do intend tasting a duck egg though. I think I had best wander off with my wonderings of whether a supermarket would sell them. Kate put your hands over your eyes and ears over such a suggestion! Sacrilege indeed

[Deleted User]

A friend of Nells' Mum kept two white Aylesbury Ducks in their garden, or should I say mud patch, and unless you had wellies on it was inadvisable to go out into the garden as they were wicked little ankle peckers, and believe me, Ducky Beaks hurt!!! Mind you they are ace at eating slugs and snails, unfortunately tender green seedlings too!!! Kate has probably got hers under tighter control than that but I prefer my ducks floating around on a village pond!

hoglet121

:-)

The neighbour's chicken run didn't have a lid, and I would fear for them with Alfie about during the day too. DH has just texted to say Alfie has pinched someone's breakfast sausage and brought it into the house.

katep23

Fuddle, if you're ever in Wiltshire, I'd be more than happy to give you some to try

Hoglet, laughing at the idea of Alfie nicking the sausage - was it cooked and off someone's plate do you reckon

We had the same issue with the road; OH fell in love with a farmhouse in Oxfordshire with over an acre of land but it was on a B road, when we went to look it was a very busy road so that was a no go. Houses on quiet or no through roads are rare in the Thames Valley. We're on a quiet and narrow lane; we get some passing traffic but it's single track passed the house so you can't get up much speed.

Our ducks are penned in by an electric fence which is about 100m so gives them loads of space but gives them a degree of protection if a fox comes visiting. Hopefully the cats are enough of a deterrent to keep the fox away but one of our cats had a run in with a fox last year and ended up having to have her leg stitched up as she had a really nasty wound.

OH is home tomorrow evening :T And even better, he is in Southampton on Monday then may be working from home the rest of the week

Sat here listening to the radio and having a glass of wine; need to unload the dishwasher, have a tidy up and hoover the spare room so I can get the futon put upstairs but I really don't have the motivation right now.

hoglet121

Kate - it was cooked and had some very human looking chunks taken out of it..... I caught him snaffling some broccoli with satay sauce on it from my plate yesterday, so I would not be surprised at all if he'd paid the neighbours a sneaky visit.....

katep23

hoglet121 wrote: »

Kate - it was cooked and had some very human looking chunks taken out of it..... I caught him snaffling some broccoli with satay sauce on it from my plate yesterday, so I would not be surprised at all if he'd paid the neighbours a sneaky visit.....

:rotfl::rotfl:

My boy cat caught me a good un one day, we were eating dinner at the table and he kept hanging around looking at my plate (can't remember what we were eating). He jumped up on the table and stared passed me at something out the window and his eyes got huge - when I turned to see what he was looking at he nicked something off my plate and ran away

It was just like when you say to a kid "look over there" then pinch a chip!