Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

COOLTRIKERCHICK

choille wrote: »

That made me laugh so much I thought I'd never get my pants dry:eek::eek:

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

the weather here is very windy... and getting colder..

Don't know what is planned for today, but I think I need to try and stay in and cwtch up on the sofa all day with warm cuppa's , But will see how the day pan's out.

lucielle

Last show of the season here and the weather isn't looking too bad. Just as well as DS1 'tidied' his bedroom, basically any clothes on the floordrobe got dumped in front of the washer!

DD1 is helping the Young Farmers with the car parking, we're hoping to go down after we've closed the shop. DS1 is showing sheep, he's hoping for a few rosettes.

Think I might drag myself out of the pit and go and bake some scones. Have a good day.
L

lucielle

Last show of the season here and the weather isn't looking too bad. Just as well as DS1 'tidied' his bedroom, basically any clothes on the floordrobe got dumped in front of the washer!

DD1 is helping the Young Farmers with the car parking, we're hoping to go down after we've closed the shop. DS1 is showing sheep, he's hoping for a few rosettes.

Think I might drag myself out of the pit and go and bake some scones. Have a good day.
L
PS CTC hope you have a good supply of biscwits:rotfl:

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Lucielle... nope haven't got one in the house, been cutting back, BUT I think I might send hubby:D over to get a stash of them for me, but on saying that I will not be able to taste them properly...

rhiwfield

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

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

CTC, I think we will continue to see a patchy and uneven recovery, part fuelled by more available credit. IF unemployment reduces sufficiently expect interest rates to rise in 2-3 years to begin to tackle inflation. Of course, if the Tea Party manage to get the US to default all bets are off!

Cheap off grid, not sure if it exists Choille's hydro wont be cheap, nor will the GSHPs being installed. Available woodland for heat you've got already and thats a big plus, EA wont let you do anything with the stream I guess, solar is much cheaper than it was but still a capital cost for a biggish system and wind is a big upfront capital cost.

We looked at Seymour, Strawbridge and others in the knowledge we couldnt go off grid where we are but we could either reduce reliance on external grid or minimise cost of grid use which we did over a period of several years. So water: meter installed and reclassification as no surface water drainage to mains, toilet cistern hippos. Leccy: energy efficient appliances, light bulbs, used with care + solar pv installed. Oil: new boiler, cavity wall & loft insulation, treble glaze with window film, lined curtains, letterbox sealed, draught excluders, thick rugs. Also woodburner installed. Food: Permanent fruit and veg planted, plus raised bed system. Cars: fuel efficient, low emission. TV: freesat.

It has knocked thousands off our annual spend, some items were heavy capital costs, some just replacement of worn out items, some (like the water) cost nothing at all yet still saved hundreds a year.

I would love to have been able to install a solar heating system, but our aspect is all wrong. However solar air heating can be self built fairly cheaply, so that and your free wood on your range/woodburner, may offer you a way of cutting down on oil, gas or leccy for heating/cooking

Davesnave

Well, I no sooner get my very small allocation Royal Mail shares and they start writing to me......though this letter is to say that part of our address will now be deleted from the official records.

They claim it's because the address contains more info than needed to efficiently deliver here, but it may also be because of a monumental c*ck -up when the barns were converted. The [STRIKE]idiot[/STRIKE] person responsible for that decided in his great wisdom to call them bungalows, which they're not. So, from then on, this property and the one next door, which are bungalows, had identical postal addresses to two of the conversions. This was overcome to some extent, because the real bungalows had names, but it didn't work well with on-line address finders.

It could only happen here!:rotfl:

Anyway, I'm in favour. The small location name has gone and so has the word 'bungalow.' What's more, our property, which never appeared on address finders, now has an 'official' name.

Now all 'they' have to do is put it on the OS map. It's only been here a short while I know.....like from 1974.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Thanks Rhiwie, I love reading your thoughts and advice on economics and finance..

I found this over on the 'preparing for winter' thread on the OS board

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/436170/Worst-winter-for-decades-Record-breaking-snow-predicted-for-November

I know a few Scottish mse'rs have said they have seen the wild geese fly early this year, and it's normally a sign for a cold long winter.

Plus there has been a foot of snow already on the cairngorms which is early.

so do you think the energy companies knew this info early, so that's why they told us about potential blackouts, and then hiked the prices up by 8%???

Think I better try and prep my cupboards etc and see what I need to stock up on.. think I better cave in and tax the beastie 4x4,as that will be a priority to go and feed our piggies... ordered a ton of pig food yesterday, so we should be ok for piggy food,

Rummer

Noooooooooooooooo :eek::mad::mad::eek: It can't be a horrid winter! I am going to be heavily pregnant and need to go to the hops every week and by the new year multiple times a week. This year it has to be an easy winter so that I can get to hospital!!!

Plus I am super saving so no spare cash to really boost the food cupboards :mad: I am going to have to rethink everything again!!!

alfie_1

IM "OFF GRID" ........:( and its !!!!!... :rotfl::rotfl:

i long to flick a switch and not have to wait in the cold to prime/check oil/whack starter motor and hope for the best on a cold miserable dark morning.....

apart from that lifes great....;)

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Rummer wrote: »

Noooooooooooooooo :eek::mad::mad::eek: It can't be a horrid winter! I am going to be heavily pregnant and need to go to the hops every week and by the new year multiple times a week. This year it has to be an easy winter so that I can get to hospital!!!

Plus I am super saving so no spare cash to really boost the food cupboards :mad: I am going to have to rethink everything again!!!

Whether its a load bullooocks or not, I think with you expecting little rumlet it might be wise to have a little store cupboard back up, for before and after rumlet arrives... I know its is so easy to say...

Hubby totally agrees with me about taxing the beastie for 6 months.. to tied us over the winter... 'just in case' even if we only need to use it for a few days.. it will be worth it, and peace of mind, that we can get to our piggies..