Daydream thread continues.....

Alexelisey

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

With the butcher prices.. it was the add ons that Bulked the price up... sausages etc, as if you dont use them, then someone else will..

I would try and find your nearest abattoir and ask them for a full price list, as by the sounds of it, it might more expensive, going by the food prices..

Good luck today with the shop CTC!!!

Thankfully, any pig keeping will not be done here in suburban Kent :rotfl:We have one quite old ex-bat chicken who's no trouble, and next-door-but-one has a fair few hens and bantams, including 2 c0ckerels. I hardly hear them in the winter with the windows shut but if it's warm I hear 'em then as they're only about 10 metres away. No room for piggies!

What did you mean, if you don't use them someone else will? That you wouldn't get all your meat back if they didn't sausage it? I'm a bit confuzzled.

We are getting closer by the day to when we put the house on the market. I'm going to spend some time decluttering and organising my stuff today - there's the threat of eldest son moving back in potentially and my knitting machines and yarn are in what is currently the spare room. I think I need to go and check EVERYTHING that I've got stashed in the house, and see whether I still need it or can get rid.

Next year, being a bit selfish, I want to be able to entertain you all with tales of our house hunting! :j

(BTW what's a Welsh blanket?)

Itismehonest

All the best for the shop, CTC :beer:

I think we may see more of a return to the old habit of fattening a pig for winter for own use.
The market for pig meat hasn't been good for some time now but rearing your own does, as CTC said, overcome the problem of the various things pumped into bacon & pork to preserve it for the supermarkets.
Much of the weight of the meat we buy is some form of preservative. Sometimes. apparently, it's mainly water pumped in to fast-freeze. Hence the amount that comes out when you cook. The white gunk which comes out of bacon is down to the process of preserving, CTC.

Of course, the problem many people have with meat reared the old-fashioned way is the amount of fat it produces. Farm animals are bred to be lean nowadays - most people don't want to pay pounds per kilo for fat.
I'm old-fashioned in that I believe it's the fat that gives most of the taste...... but then I don't eat much meat now, anyway

lostinrates

Planting is never ideal in the wet, but if we don't get on with it now then who knows when it might be dry. Half way through getting the yew in. Our little stretch of garden hedge feels exceptionally long and we have only got half way. .

Itismehonest

No, wet planting is not ideal, lir, but if the plant soil is equally as wet as the ground it is going into (a sort of wet acclimatisation) then you should hopefully be OK.
The big problem would be if there's a really cold snap & the wet ground freezes, I guess. Fingers crossed they can get comfy before the freeze arrives.

Davesnave

I hope today's gone well for CTC after the damp start!

I'm not sure where my day went , but after getting the fences sorted yesterday, and having the dodgy roadside trees felled, I feel like something's been achieved this week. We can have the sheep back now.

Pete is to return soon and sort out the fencing for our new copse & stream area, which will mean moving some of the soil we have in heaps at the entrance to the bottom field. That will be trailered up to Mr Dog's end to fill in the dry pond, after Pete's cut down the willows growing in it. This ain't gonna please Mr Dog, but as he's returned to his noisy ways of late, who's bovvered?

Meanwhile, across the road from Dogland, the owner wants Pete to fell a load of ash and leylandii. I am not sure what this means yet, but it will be a log-istical (!) nightmare, unless the permission of the landowner behind can be obtained, cos it's a case of 30' trees and 20' space! I'm not sure if the tree owner realises just how much material will be created once the trees are no longer vertical.:eek:

Either way, it looks like a lot of logs & mulch.....:D

rhiwfield

I hate planting when its wet, but if its necessary then I'd want to put plenty of friable compost around the roots as well as rootgrow. We've postponed moving the rhubarb bed as its sodden out there.

Nice MSE day. Repaired oven using local tradesman, bought higher lumen (eco value) bulbs to make a cheapo photo booth, got c100 small boxes free from Homebase for Ebay sales packing, sold an unwanted bench vice locally, DW gloried in shopping at our new local Waitrose, DD1 cooked first of Davesnaves Sharks Fin Melons, we posted parcels via local PO and C+ store, worked from home researching/listing things to sell, enjoyed eating apples from store, woodburner chugging out heat and planning family Christmas meal/get-together on Dec 1st to celebrate return of NZ prodigal son

lostinrates

Well, all the yews are in, we can but hope now.

Head of vermin control is settling in ok, has learnt his name, has the greyhound wrapped around his paw, and is doing pretty darn well on the housetraining front.

Feeling grim now, and trying to not moan because I think how much choille endures as winter draws on. Choille......I don't know how you do it without a bath, I am almost in tears today at the lack of hot bath.

I don't know why it all seems harder now. The sea of mud around the house is probably a big part of it though. I keep ending up 'on my 'arris' when I try and go out side, and every time the dogs need in and out its a slippery dangerous and filthy mess. Concrete floors inside don't help much either, so hard to keep clean. Some friends came down from a near by city this evening on an emergency moral run with HUGE slices of expensive cake from a lovely bakery, and we ate cake, cuddled dogs cats and puppies...but now it's back to coping with mud and trying to get clean.

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

Well, all the yews are in, we can but hope now.

I don't know why it all seems harder now. The sea of mud around the house is probably a big part of it though......it's back to coping with mud and trying to get clean.

I'm sure the yews will be fine. They put up with a lot, including clay, and even chalk.

The mud factor is one reason why I'm insisting on some kind of garden room just beyond the bungalow, which we'll use as a muck & general cr*p buffer zone before entering. At present, the agricultural conservatory performs this function, but it's going, so we need a 'filter,' which the new utility room will be just too posh for.

Did the builders leave a muddy legacy?

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

I'm sure the yews will be fine. They put up with a lot, including clay, and even chalk.

The mud factor is one reason why I'm insisting on some kind of garden room just beyond the bungalow, which we'll use as a muck & general cr*p buffer zone before entering. At present, the agricultural conservatory performs this function, but it's going, so we need a 'filter,' which the new utility room will be just too posh for.

Did the builders leave a muddy legacy?

Builders and mud combined.

We will have a utility room entrance when this phase is finished too. I don't see how places like dreamers houses can cope with out.

I'm told it's snowing 'back home' in Somerset, makes me wonder about dave and itsmehonest.....

Here its just very, very wet. The ditch by those blasted yews has blocked again, so just heading out to sort that out. Where the ground has been heavily compacted, or just where no more water can be absorbed we are starting to hold water very badly. This house has never been a flood risk.....today might change that. The greyhound and the puppy didn't surprise me at baulking about going out this morning, but when the big dog will not go I know there is a problem.

If this keeps up I might have to haul the horses of grass for a while. .

Even our front yard is flooding, and that has excellent falls and drains, so I think the volume of water is just to much to process. We are going to have to look to putting our clean water discharge intot the ditch again, it seems crazy. Can the lagoon already nearly be full again? Nuts, nuts, nuts

Davesnave

No snow here, just rather lovely sunshine, but there was ice on the windscreen when we set off for the pub last night.

It was a sad evening, being the last time the pub would ever open, but at least plenty of people showed up to send off the lovely couple who've run it for 8 years. Mind you, they're only moving 50 metres up the road! This place is too friendly to leave.

Near the end, at around midnight, someone knocked the remainder of my drink over onto the carpet. "Oh dear!" they said, "Still, it doesn't matter now...." That was particularly poignant.... ....and I didn't get a replacement!

One piece of better news: I hear the shop has decided to stay open, for now anyway.