Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

Rummer

:mad: I have wasted a whole day waiting in on people that never came :mad:

Money wise we are not in a great position at the moment and although we are functioning day to day we are, as many are, ill prepared for a change in circumstances. The problem is there is little room to cut back to help us work towards improving the situation. We need to sit down as a family and work out what we are going to do next.

lostinrates

rhiwfield wrote: »

Yes, I saw that report. My feel is that the countryside may become even more polarised, with salaried well-off commuting incomers contrasting with relative poverty among the elderly and local workforce, with continued movement into expanding towns/cities.

I think we have discussed the economics of smallholding several times before and I don't think things will get any better

Jam sarnies? Nxt summer come and pick our blackcurrants and goosegogs and make a big batch of jam

One of the things we consistently find is how surprised our architect is by the rice of quotations out here. Its the lack of competition innit.

There is good money to be made in the country side by townie small businesses willing to charge transparent mileage IMO.

After another day of frustration with a contractor who is failing to deliver (a well regarded local heating firm) I suggested we just ship people out from London. The cost is no greater, the only hassle is they aren't near by if something goes wrong and it might take a day or two to get to us. A day or two? Sign me up........

'Incomers' get a bad name using 'London' people for stuff, but I just couldn't give a stuff. I've moved a lot, and always balanced a country and city life until later when I have been full time out here, and I've been lucky enough to get little of the incomes treatment when people meet me, but ....services and functioning life matters more to me than what the locals think.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Rhiwie.. sorry I meant 'in general' not just for the land/smallholder... As I really respect your financial views on things...:beer:

I really wish there was a cheap way of getting off grid... maybe I should see if there is any good books out there on the subject...I could give it to hubby as a crimbo pressie;):D I was also thinking of getting hubby a good swiss army knife... with all the gadgets on it... Hubby loves his gadgets:rotfl: when hubby's friend has comes over to help at the ranch, he has allways had his gadget knife with him, which has really come in handy on occasions

alfie_1

Rummer wrote: »

LIR it seems as things are moving along well for you too

:rotfl::rotfl: they are moving along maybe cos i sowed the seed !:o if it goes t*ts up...its my fault me finks....:p :rotfl::rotfl:

lostinrates

alfie_1 wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl: they are moving along maybe cos i sowed the seed !:o if it goes t*ts up...its my fault me finks....:p :rotfl::rotfl:

Certainly not your fault.

But, you know that guy you said with all the timber......

We, um, might be looking for the odd replacement floor board....our spares are the wrong width:rotfl: we have a couple of socking great holes, and a few very spongey boards.

Getting the carpet up is excellent as we can give them an infestation treatment. Just in case. There has been one at some stage and whether its still live or not is not clear. But we treat all the wood we uncover just to be sure.:o

Davesnave

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

Davesnave, I bet you are glad today is nearly over ( well strimming poo grass, and that woman):D

The woman is OK really.;) A 'lady' in her time, she's now on her own and manages two horses on about an acre, which always looks immaculate. She says what she thinks and doesn't suffer fools gladly, so I like her!

The verge in front of our place used to be a dog's toilet, but we removed all the cover, cut the grass and started to make it look cared-for. I haven't seen one dog turd there all year.:)

Obviously, the dog walkers are using the old lady's side instead.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

aaahhh ok Davesnave, I got the wrong impression about the lady, sorry:cool:.

Why are all the off grid books on Azon are American:mad::mad::mad:
I asked hubby if he was good at electronic, the reaction was:eek::eek::rotfl::rotfl:, so when I told him why, he started looking through the internet.. I also had the same reaction when I told him about my wacky potential business idea..

ukmaggie45

lostinrates wrote: »

But we treat all the wood we uncover just to be sure.:o

:eek::eek:

Wood treatment stuff is horribly toxic. If you have any neuro probs you should try to avoid it. I think that some of my probs are down to woodworm treatment in our old home. So long ago now can't remember all details, but we had to sleep on living room floor for ages after bedroom floor treated due to the awful chemical stink. Moved back to bedroom for Xmas as needed living room available.

Please be careful!

ukmaggie45

Found this about green manure for anyone interested.

I think we'll try some of it next year when we're on hols as the weeds were awful on the lottie when we came back. Can't plant now as garlic and onions about to go in, we're still trying to get to grips with the plot!

lostinrates

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

:eek::eek:

Wood treatment stuff is horribly toxic. If you have any neuro probs you should try to avoid it. I think that some of my probs are down to woodworm treatment in our old home. So long ago now can't remember all details, but we had to sleep on living room floor for ages after bedroom floor treated due to the awful chemical stink. Moved back to bedroom for Xmas as needed living room available.

Please be careful!

Living in a house with woodworm ain't that good for you long term either.:D Yes, we don't sleep in treated rooms and do furniture in a barn or room we aren't going to use for a while.



Alfie, you have no idea how lucky we've been changing light bulbs, the foot of the thing we change light bulbs on has been right over a hole!