Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

Itismehonest

alfie_1 wrote: »

would land "demolished " by piggies more or less eradicate the creeping buttercups ? they would def be ripping out the roots...
mabel is excused here....:rotfl:

They could help if the pigs had taken enough root out but what usually happens with any 'disturbed' land is that you'll find that it's the weeds that come back well before the grass or plants have a chance. Here it's usually nettles, brambles & rosebay willowherb (bombsite weed) that shoot up

Itismehonest

LIR - Thought of you when I read this.
http://www.northdevonjournal.co.uk/North-Devon-businessman-boiling-point-supplier-s/story-19912304-detail/story.html
It may be worth others who are building taking a look to note the company charging "by the letter of the law"?

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Choille, so sorry the blighter has come back again... it is truly heart breaking when that happens.

Sat here on the sofa listening to the mouthy gits next door screaming at each other :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: Cant wait to try and get the ranch sorted...

Re- work.. I was thinking this morning.. if we did want to pack it in after the lease ends etc on the building... what would we do?? There is no way we could make a living off the ranch.. or even come close to even earning enough to cover basic running costs..

we have an opt out clause at the end of the 3rd year, ( in our first year now) So I have 2+ years to come up with an idea, plan and get it up and running slowly..

Davesnave

Itismehonest wrote: »

LIR - Thought of you when I read this.
http://www.northdevonjournal.co.uk/North-Devon-businessman-boiling-point-supplier-s/story-19912304-detail/story.html
It may be worth others who are building taking a look to note the company charging "by the letter of the law"?

It certainly would, especially me, as I was thinking of contacting the company with the solvency issues! :eek: (Haven't read my Journal yet.)

It's so hard to separate the cowboys and the Johnny -come-latelys from the pack, as the technology is relatively new.

The horse lady down the lane as saying how pleased she is with the firm who installed her solar panels, but then in the next breath she said how they'd 'advised' her to buy German panel heaters.:eek:

I thought, "I bet they did!" :rotfl:

moneyistooshorttomention

Second question for you knowledgeable folks:

If compost is widely known as A Good Idea for gardens and I have read about someone just digging in all their kitchen food waste (presumably of the "natural" variety, rather than processed ready meals obviously) then my thinking cap went on and I thought "Surely I can just blitz up all my (natural) type food waste in my Vitamix blender and put the resultant 'powder' onto my soil and it will blend in well and give extra nutrients to the soil?"

Does that sound like an idea to you?

(would certainly avoid any time being taken for it all to 'break down', as that Vitamix can blitz ANYTHING to Kingdom Come in seconds, as its so HEAVY duty).

I guess anything out of fruit and vegetable waste, eggshells, coffee grounds, herbal teabags (minus the paper envelope around the herbs??) would be usable for this...

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I got an idea!!!:eek::eek::eek::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: and there is only a handful of suppliers in this country... I need to do more research, plus 'if' We did try it, it would be one of those 'hobby' that could gradually potentially be a possible good earner, did that make sense:D

Davesnave

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I got an idea!!!:eek::eek::eek::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: and there is only a handful of suppliers in this country... I need to do more research, plus 'if' We did try it, it would be one of those 'hobby' that could gradually potentially be a possible good earner, did that make sense:D

So long as it's not snail or worm farming! :rotfl:

Money, blitzing stuff will speed the composting process, but if decomposition goes on 'in' the soil, then it might rob your plants of nitrogen while its doing it. However, there are green manures, so......

Someone like RAS would know better than me.

ukmaggie45

Money, you don't just want the leftover foody bits - you need about 50% dry stuff like cardboard, paper, smallish twigs as well. Otherwise the compost turns to slime.

On a gardening forum I'm on someone is experimenting with a form of trenching, which is where you dig a trench and gradually fill it with kitchen leftovers (nothing meat or cooked of course), layering it with the soil you dug out of the trench. Then over the autumn and winter and early spring the worms get to work on the bits and drag them down into the soil. But this person is doing it as pits rather than trenches with the idea that they'll stick a bean tripod over each pit next spring.

Dave, some of the green composts have vetch or other members of the pea family in them, so they'd be producing nitrogen to help against the loss when dug in. But I think not all of them do. It's something I really must read up on! If I ever get the time! Spent a few hours at old home yesterday, there's still a lot to pack up and get out still! :eek:

Choille, so sorry for your chook losses - must be really heartbreaking. Don't think I could ever face keeping hens as couldn't bear the worry and then they don't live that long do they? Even if not caught by fox or other predator. I don't think we'll have a cat again either, we were both really broken up when dear Brodie had to make that final trip to the vet, and he wasn't even our cat!

CTC hope your throat is better today, and your idea sounds great, go for it!

LiR, not sure when you're off to London, but hope all goes well and new consultant is of use.

RAS

money

maggie is right about the trench composting.

With respect to fruit trees, is their an Apple Day in your area? Chance to find out what varieties are grown locally? Most run in October.

Also as your climate is quite mild, you need to pick your fruit trees carefully as you may not get as much frost and cold weather as some varieties need (vernalisation). A chat to locals as their best performers would be a good idea. Otherwise go for anything that does well in Devon or Cornwall and avoid Scottish and North European varieties.

Davesnave

Well, lovely breezy day for grass cutting, and I've done a bit, but it's been 'difficult' working with the horse woman, who decided we could do our verges together. :eek:

She's terrified of traffic, but I'm terrified of damaging vehicles with flung stones etc.

She parks out in the road with her headlights on, puts cones everywhere and generally creates a huge hazard.:o I try to make do with a few cones.:A

She insists I wear a high visibility jacket, then sits in her car watching. The jacket smells horribly of mothballs, which is really funny as its made of nylon.:rotfl:

In the end she can't start her brushcutter, so I cut the verges. Hers hasn't been done in 6 months and is full of dog poo.:mad: Soon her high vis jacket smells of dog poo too!:rotfl:

We finally pack up and so does her car. The battery is flat after sitting there with headlights on full beam for an hour. After lots of grunting and groaning I admit I can't push it up a slight slope, so I have to get the van and pull it instead.

Finally, I get her back home, plug the charger in and breathe a huge sigh of relief!

I have done maybe 45 minutes of proper work.....:wall: