What are you Old Style goals? (longer term)

squeaky

Makes you feel good doesn't it? When you can put a plateful of food down on the table and think to yourself "I made that!"

Better still when all the plates come back wiped clean

ET03

have you always lived the oldstyle life then squeaky or ust started since joining here?

Curry_Queen

Any longer term goals I would make are all dependant on getting my health back to a state of being able to realise any of them, so that's my first priority, and as such I don't tend to look very far into the future ... a day at a time

But ... if dreams were to come true then I would have a small property, preferably on West Coast Ireland, with enough land to raise my own animals and grow my own produce, and be as self-sufficient as possible. I'm not a materialistic person so I could live a basic, frugal lifestyle quite happily as long as I had my health

Some shorter term goals are to re-learn how to use my sewing machine that has sat idle since I bought it 6 years ago ... learn how to make my own jams/chutneys/marmalades and teach my children the ways of the Old Style

My youngest son laps it all up now and often thanks me for getting back to basics with cooking/baking etc despite his initial groans at eating healthy foods LOL! ... but I fear my eldest two are a lost cause, eating fast junk food, easy-come easy-go with money/possessions etc, but hopefully they'll wake up to reality once they have families of their own to look after!

needmoney

I know some of you are keeping chickens so I have a couple of questions please.

Are they likely to annoy the neighbours
e.g
flying over the fence
do their droppings smell offensive
do they make a mess of the garden
would two hens be enough to supply eggs for one person
are they much trouble to keep

We always had then when I was little but can't remember the ins and outs of caring for them

Curry_Queen

needmoney wrote:

Are they likely to annoy the neighbours
e.g
flying over the fence

Possibly, a couple of mine managed to breach a 5ft fence and land in the neighbours garden a few times, much to her dismay as she was scared of them

do their droppings smell offensive

If you don't clean them out regularly then yes, they do smell

do they make a mess of the garden

Most definitely :rotfl:

would two hens be enough to supply eggs for one person

They should supply an egg a day each if in good health and receive a good diet, but this tends to drop off slightly in winter and as they approach old age. It depends how many eggs you normally use, but two hens will give you on average a couple of dozen eggs a week

Pennywise

Not so much "old style" as "never moved on" style.

I have "never" worked anywhere where I couldn't walk to work. It wasn't planned this way, it just happened.

True, I have suffered some truly awful, unrewarding jobs, in my time, but by walking to walk I have managed to keep my health, and more importantly, financial independence.

By working locally, I have lost out on the opportunities to move up the career path, but I havn't needed to ever buy a car, so must have saved thousands of pounds! I have also benefitted from not wasting time commuting.

I went to college when I left school and got distinctions in various subjects, and have also successfully studied since then part time, so it's not as if I didn't have the qualifications to move on. It just seemed that everything I looked at would have been a "detriment" - i.e. buying a car or moving away would not have been compensated by the increased wages!

I can't honestly say that I feel to have missed-out. I have been (and still am) happy with my lot. I wonder just what people these days get out of demanding jobs with lots of stress, long hours and unimagineable commuting - I wonder if they really are "better off". With congestion, increasing oil prices, etc., I am sure that there will be a trend back towards "working on your doorstep" before too long.

calleyw

needmoney wrote:

I know some of you are keeping chickens so I have a couple of questions please.

Are they likely to annoy the neighbours
e.g
flying over the fence
do their droppings smell offensive
do they make a mess of the garden
would two hens be enough to supply eggs for one person
are they much trouble to keep

We always had then when I was little but can't remember the ins and outs of caring for them

You could clip there wings that would stop them from flying.

Do you want a garden left as you will not have one once they are let free.

You can feed them your left over veggie scraps.

Before you got any you might want to check that you don't have any convenats(sp?) on you house. Some say that you can't keep non-domestic animals on the property. e.g hens, pigs, sheep etc.

Yours

Calley

needmoney

Thanks for replies to you all, then they're not for me as I do want a garden left, shame about that, I don't suppose a run would work because then they wouldn't be free-range,

Sarahsaver

You keep them in a run most of the time, my hens are happy to be in there most of the time and get let out for a rummage for slugs/woodlice etc. 5 foot by 4 foot at a wild guess for two hens is pretty good in terms of space, and I KNOW they are looked after properly. If you have 100% 'free range' hens than you also have to consider you are gifting them the freedom to be run over or attacked by foxes or have pot shots taken at them by the local village (or city) idiot. Clipping their wings is easy, i just typed in 'how do you clip a hen's wings' into ask jeeves.

needmoney

Thanks for that SS something to think about the other thing I've just remembered is we have a few cats living next door who are in my garden daily.