Daydream thread continues.....

Lotus-eater

lostinrates wrote: »

Re leaks......remember we had one for ages they said was a spring!

We had one near here, which went on and on. The farmer who's land it was on the edge of, put a sign next to the road stating how much it has cost in water so far. It was a running meter as he updated it every so often :rotfl:
I think it was up to something like £80,000 before it was fixed

We're going to be on a hosepipe ban, it doesn't bother me, very rarely use it anyway.

lostinrates

So, just spent another seventy five quid on poison. I will kill them one way or another.

covenanter

Anglian Water have said that we will have a hosepipe ban from 5th April onwards. We're not too worried as we rarely use a hose, having 4 water butts (and a huge tank) attached to the downpipes. As we live in a chalet bungalow (A-frame) we have an enormous roof, so might as well make use of it.

rhiwfield

What a lovely day. Grey banks of mist on the M4 and A470 but as we drove up the sun broke through, and we had second brekkers by the top reservoir under a clear blue sky with the sun sparkling on the water. Descending into Brecon the sun disappeared again, we delivered some stuff, had a walk round, bought some tools from the recycling centre and did the reverse trip.

As we hit the high point we broke into the sun again, looking behind the valley to our left had a wall of fog. Cue another stop by the lake for nuncheon, watching the geese and ducks amid glorious scenery. Feel quite refreshed

BBC Wales had a piece saying we shouldnt take our water supply for granted, as rivers abstraction is at its max.

We do see the occasional rat here, not surprising with lots of chicken keepers around, but make a point of removing the hanging feeder each evening, which makes for less spillage anyway

Off to Carmarthen early am for another auction, oh for another sleeper like the last one! Pretty unlikely as there are loads of toy lots so half the toy dealers in wales will be there

Davesnave

It's been a very grey, misty day here, so perhaps we should have gone up to one of the moors, instead of plodding on.

Yesterday it was tee shirt weather & today it was long johns, but the job was the same; preparing the area over & around the septic tanks for some kind of planting. Fortunately, we have a good depth of soil over the tanks, but someone used that as a good excuse to hide old breeze blocks and even an entire concrete fence post. Then there are the natural stones, many of them brick size, old barbed wire and quite a lot of asbestos shards. :mad::(

It makes the couch and nettle roots almost a pleasure to remove.

I've no idea what we will put there yet, but obviously stuff on top of the tanks needs to be none too vigorous in the root department. We'll have to watch the incoming pipes too. The worst problem is the outflow though, which was too close to the original hedge trees we removed. Hopefully, our new yew hedge, being smaller and a couple of feet further away, will be OK.

Sadly, the oak we saved last year when we pulled the old hedge out is in totally the wrong place; possibly only 3'-4' from our drain run into the tank. It has really prospered since the removal of its neighbours, but it can't stay.

lostinrates

I would be interested to know how you deal with the septic tank area planting intime.


My parents tank is under some conifers and a flower border and runs underneath a nother flower border and a huge lilac tree. But it has had significnat problems with pipe collapse!

rozeepozee

Davesnave wrote: »

But it wasn't casual at the time! There I was, in the garden of a reasonably famous nurserywoman, with all kinds of treasures to look at, and instead of enjoying the moment, I have a wailing, whinging child and I can't concentrate. :mad:

Actually, we've been doomed with Carol's place. Second time we went, we had to work from memory and it took some time to find it. Then, when we finally parked-up and sauntered in, she said, "Sorry, we don't open on Sundays."

Sorry, Dave, I've lost the thread - where were these gardens?

Been at my Welsh class today. Really enjoying it. My son is reasonably fluent after only a term and a hlaf in school. The girls start (Welsh) nursery next month. We'll have some free time then. At the moment, we're very constrained by what we can do having to lug at least 2 toddlers everywhere.

I climbed Mount Kenya in 1999 with a group on an Eco tour. I met an amazing woman in her 70s who went off entirely alone on a bus after we'd finished the climb bit of the holiday to spend time with a family she'd been sponsoring. Amazing. I'd love to do something like VSO at some stage in life, once the children have flown the coop.

Lotus-eater

lostinrates wrote: »

So, just spent another seventy five quid on poison. I will kill them one way or another.

My problem was never getting them to eat the poison, my problem was it stopping working. Maybe I need to change the type of poison I use.

I have a feeling that professional poisons are stronger than the ones we can buy, but that may not be the case with a farm/smallholding.
I think it's something you can't allow to carry on, not with all the animals you have.

Have you had a word with the neighbour who owns the clamp? Not accusing (not that I think you would do that for a second any way) but discussing and asking him about it?

Lotus-eater

I saw a nifty little drinker at the place I got my chickens from, it was a small red thing that you drilled a hole into a container, inserted the small drinker (as many as you like per container) and the chickens just took the tiny amount of water in it.
It looked amazingly easy, with no contamination problems.

He hasn't told me the name, but I am buying a couple from him, so when they arrive I might know more.

Has someone come across this before? They were tiny, I couldn't see how the chickens got enough to drink, but they obviously did.

rozeepozee

If any of you fancy learning how to build a round house on a 9 day residential (camping) course in Ceridigion in June, cosy £120, PM me.