make do and mend for tougher times

Mrs_Chip

Oh god, I have to steer away from those stories, they make me murderous and distraught in equal measure. I would happily dish out the same treatment.

MrsRogers

Ellie83 wrote: »

How old are you Mrs Rogers if you don't mind my asking? Of course you don't have to reply I am only asking because OH and I are in the same boat, except that my maternity cover comes to an end in August and I still have nothing for September (as we are relocating for my husband's job, which is a very good job for a very good company). We really would like to start a family but I would not want to have to work full time until the children are much older. So we are saving as much as we can. But sometimes I wonder if it won't be too late when we're finally "ready"......

Hi Ellie - DH & I have just turned 31 - For us we have been saving hard and spent time clearing debts. We officially started trying last year and nothing has happened so far .. I have had tests and have PCOS and am over weight and have a stressful job so GP basically said no wonder not concieved yet!!:mad: Anyway our time will come but in the mean time we are focusing our efforts on our finances and that when we do get preg we can make the most of the time

Mrs_Chip wrote: »

GQ - you can subscribe to receive an email from Blightwatch to alert you when your area is entering into Full Smith Periods (blight conditions) - www.blightwatch.co.uk. Sorry you are feeling so carp

Thank you for this Mrs Chip - I have just subscribed - they also send text message alerts.

GreyQueen wrote: »

2012 will certainly go down in my personal gardening history as an absolute burger.

Me GQ - having a terrible veg gardening year - lost count the amount of plants lost or rubbish harvest.. My worry is if we are having a bad gardening year then what about the industries :eek:

Im stayed off work today .. felt a little better this morning but still not 100% - hopefully will be better for tomorrow.

ifonlyitwaseasier

sadly Lennox lost his fight this morning

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-18794360

katieowl_2

How awful. Poor family. So WRONG. It's not like he'd ever bitten anyone or anything, and I fail to see how an appeal can be heard by the same judge that ruled in the first place. Surely that can't be right? (morally, I mean, I dare say as the law is an !!! that it's legal!)

Kate

smileyt_2

Just came on to post this http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/news/news.asp?id=3109 about Lennox but IOIWE beat me to it. His poor family.

Mrs Chip I agree with you about the animal cruelty stories. I find them terribly distressing and they stick in my mind for ages, sometimes years and forever. I look at my two snoozling away beside me and wonder how on earth anyone could be cruel to any animal.

Bossy, Popperwell and anyone else who is grieving, hugs to you.

Well, I'd best crack on. Working my way through the person spec and job description, thinking of examples when I have demonstrated the required skills in preparation for tomorrow's interview. I have to go into town to look for a smart coat (yawn) but I have an absolutely banging headache. Oh well, a couple of paracetamol and a cup of tea and a self-administered kick up the backside should see me right .....

GreyQueen

MrsRogers wrote: »

GQ - having a terrible veg gardening year - lost count the amount of plants lost or rubbish harvest.. My worry is if we are having a bad gardening year then what about the industries :eek:

Im stayed off work today .. felt a little better this morning but still not 100% - hopefully will be better for tomorrow.

Hope you continue to improve, Mrs Rogers.

:(:( Just to add to the gaiety of nations, I have returned from two hours toil on the allotmentino with a handful of "suspicious" looking potato leaves off one or two plants. All the rest are looking perfect but I know that can change in hours.

Have been studying pix of blight online and am pretty much 100% certain that it is the earliest stages of the dreaded blight.

Am too tired to be upset, just very very disheartened. When I looked at the blight map I realised it was less than 5 miles away so not really to be wondered at. Conditions could hardly be more perfect; it's still, humid and everything is wringing wet.:(

I came in to an answerphone message from a firm appointed by my LL and the upshot of returning their call is that they will come to mine between 1-4 pm today so am committed to waiting in. Not that I would have the energy to deal with cutting the tops off a large potato patch today but it will be my first priority after the workday tomorrow, come rain or shine.

Oh, and the blasted snails and slugs have reduced my 7 pitiful runner bean plants to a mere 1 straggly specimen. They seem to want to eat every leaf down to the stem and won't be satisfied until they've done it. Grrr! But I found several of them and killed them. (evil grin icon needed). Thought that it would be nice if they could be trained to eat fat hen as I have plenty of that and it's growing quite happily.

Howsomever, all is not doom and gloom. Batch 1 of the broadbeans are starting to come ready, at least the lowest pods, so will be picking in days. Batch 2 are about 2 feet tall and starting to blossom, bless their stalwart little hearts. I have never seen peas as lush and fruitful as the ones I have this year and will be having them as soon as the pods fill out. I harvested blackcurrants and some strawbs although they aren't liking the rain and some are going mildewy.

Well, am about to trial tinned potatoes and will lay some in for the stocks if they're OK.

Mar, it's warmer here than where you are but it keeps raining every hour or so. I feel sorry for those people who work out of doors. Can you imagine trying to orchestrate exterior painting works in this weather?

Right, must bounce back and Keep Calm at all times. I will have tea, food, medication and kick some b*tt.

Laters, GQ x

Mrs_Chip

So sad :(:(:( . I know there is a problem with dogs being bred for fighting, and being used to intimidate people, but it is not the animals doing that, it's the horrible humans.

I don't know why there are not moves to say that all animals not required for breeding (which should be strictly controlled by licence) have to be neutered and chipped by law. That would stop the awful trade in puppies and should lead to far fewer animals going into rehoming centres. I makes me so cross that puppies and kittens are killed because owners cant be bothered (or more worryingly think there is something macho about having a entire dog) to get their animals neutered. I know people will say oh it will cost too much and what about those that can't afford it, but I am sure there is enough money in the pet industry to make sure there was a scheme to cover costs for those who could not pay - but I fear the industry rather likes the idea of so many animals as it makes them money :mad:

katieowl_2

Yes Mrs Chips and I would add re Bull breeds, that they are so loyal and trusting and eager to please, that if some scum of an owner wants them to be agressive and nasty they will do that, as that is what is required of them. It's a real abuse of their good nature. It makes me so angry :mad:

The rescues centres are full of staffies and staffie crosses who are in a bad way, they do not deal well with being in that situation - ie caged as they crave human company like no other breed I've ever encountered, and a lot of them end up being given up, or dumped because when aformentioned scum owners are out all day they take their houses to pieces out of frustration and misery of being shut in alone. That's why the one we rescued was being kept in a cage...he was trying to chew his way out of a top floor flat!!!

Not ten years ago, if you were to search for info on breeds of dogs that were good with children, Staffordshire Bull Terriers came out top of just about every list...which was why we ended up with our first SBT having had the fun of a non-child friendly collie when the kids were very small. I have to say in my experience they are bomb proof with kids, and my first boy was always at the school gate with me at going home time, surrounded by his adoring fan club.

So if anyone out there is looking for a loyal and trusting friend for life, go and re-home one of the thousands of staffies out there who are looking for loving forever homes.

*steps off soap box* You may of course have gathered that I have rescue Staffs.

Kate

fuddle

GQ I'm really sorry about your produce. If it's not too annoying/ irritating/frustrating would someone be able to explain what blight is? I guess it means crops are ruined by too much rain?

The rain is effecting industry. DH works in amongst the building trade/council building projects etc and says that his taking for this month are way down. Companies are not needing his services/equipment because they can't do the work.

My MIL's partner is a roofer and hasn't been able to complete any of his jobs on time, if at all and work is drying up (no pun - it would be funny if not so tragic!)

The kids are holed up indoors, they're loosing their zest for getting out there and investigating, running around.

It's a very sad time. This weather is effecting much more than the obvious

GreyQueen

You soapbox away, katie. We have so many abandoned Staffies in Provincial City that they have to hold special staffy-only rehoming open days at the rescue centres. I know people who have rehomed them and they are as soft as butter.

One mate used to have a rescue staffie that had been trained to fight by his scumbag former owner. Had him sit on my lap, the great soft dollop and don't they weigh a ton? Solid muscle but very affectionate. This dog was a love with people inc children but because of the way he was trained, he was a menace with other dogs. He had to be muzzled and leashed outdoors becaus of this.

The latest fashion-dog-du-jour for the hard of thinking around here seems to be the husky. One of my neighbours decided to leave his in his upper floor flat and go away for 24 hours. Poor animal went spare with distress and about a dozen other people got no sleep. SuperGran tore the owner off a strip when he came in and told him he had no business having a dog if he wasn't going to care for it properly.

ETA, Fuddle, here's a snippet from Wikipedia. Think of it as like bubonic plague for potatoes and tomatoes. Commercial growers can spray against it but it has to be sprayed when it is around, you can't effectively pre-treat. This is why there are things like BlightWatch. Potatoes are clones and highly suspceptible to disease. I'm growing Kestrel which is technically a "second early" which should have died back and been harvested about now. Because of the cold spring, it's still verdant and green with several more weeks potential growth which means it's around at the blight-risk time. I was advised yars ago by the lottie old boy brigade not to grow maincrop because it always gets the blight. Potatoes and tomatoes are of the same family and get the same blight, so it's very bad news, I'm afraid.

Phytophthora infestans is an oomycete that causes the serious potato disease known as late blight or potato blight. (Early blight, caused by Alternaria solani, is also often called "potato blight"). Late blight was a major culprit in the 1840s European, the 1845 Irish and 1846 Highland potato famines. The organism can also infect tomatoes and some other members of the Solanaceae.[1][2]