Daydream fund challenge part 4

Davesnave

in_my_wellies said:

Beautiful view Dave.
Found my old house for sale today, 25 years ago. We outgrew it but I'd go back in a heartbeat now the boy's have left but it's out of my price range now. 

It's what our close neighbours see, wellies, but they never open their curtains. We even removed the leylandii that blocked this particular view. Nowt so queer as folk!

Strangely, while looking for info on something yesterday in a Google search, I found the house we rented in 2008 before coming here. It had recently been completely re-vamped and had sold on a guide price of £750k, but it still had the same naff garden. Hopefully, they've fixed the subsidence!

Lovely heavy rain tonight is finally making a difference and some of it might even reach the streams. Our parched hedgerows might not shrivel after all. I've had to re-schedule a visit to Rosemoor with an old friend tomorrow, but its worth it if the wild life benefits. It's more of the damaging winds we're promised I'm most concerned about.

pink_poppy

I think our last house is probably already out of our price range now, even though we only moved last year. We're not very lucky when it comes to house purchases/selling... C'est la vie... 
I had a serious case of greenhouse envy this morning. I spotted one in the front garden of a house and it was huge!! Mind you the house itself was more of a mansion 
The chicks are gorgeous, Dave    I love the light coloured one and I hope she is definitely a she. What colour eggs will they lay?? I was a bit taken aback the other day when my DH said he wasn't interested in getting any hens when we buy our next home. I've talked about it for years and this is the first time he's said that...

Davesnave

pink_poppy said:

 What colour eggs will they lay?? I was a bit taken aback the other day when my DH said he wasn't interested in getting any hens when we buy our next home. I've talked about it for years and this is the first time he's said that...

  The Cream Legbars lay light blue eggs, but I believe they can sometimes have more of a greenish hue too.

Between you, me and the new gatepost I put in last week, your DH doesn't need to be interested in chickens, so long as you are!  I wouldn't need to be involved here with the hens, except that I'm up much earlier than DW, so it makes sense that I let them out in the mornings.

No one knows for sure of course, but it seems to me that waiting a little longer to buy will make sense in most areas of the UK now GDP is set to fall far more than it did in 2008. That hit us with a 16% reduction on our originally agreed sale price, but we still chose to take a punt and move anyway! Provided buyers have a decent deposit in 2021, they should surely see better value for money.

pink_poppy

Well, the owner of the busy road house has messaged my DH this afternoon to ask if we're interested in buying his house  so a decision needs to be made either way... 

pink_poppy

I must admit I was hoping for a bit more time to see what's going to happen with the housing market...

pink_poppy

Does anyone have any garden soundproofing ideas?? At the moment there's a hedge (unknown variety) running parallel to the road, which is a little bit threadbare in parts. I would prefer a wall (dry stone would be great but probably completely out of the question price wise  ) and I don't know if that would be better at reducing the road noise anyway. Plus, it might not be allowed/might need planning??
I know about the running water trick, having rustling plants like bamboo etc., but I'm not sure that would make a big enough difference...
Dave, can I send you an aerial pic of the plot on private message to give you an idea of the problem??

Davesnave

I've already PM'd poppy.

There are fences that help reduce road noise, but they aren't cheap and probably need planning, being over 2m. Mind you, laws are different up there. 

https://www.jacksons-fencing.co.uk/acoustic-fencing-and-barriers

Rummer

I don't know where the time has gone, I was keeping up with the thread and then the garden and allotment just seemed to soak up all my time and I now have loads to catch up on. However I was hoping you might be able to help me with a gardening problem.
At the allotment I inherited a massive compost heap that is riddled with every type of weed imaginable. The plot was also so overgrown that I have added to the compost weed problem. Now that most of the plot is cleared I am ready to tackle the compost heap but I don't know what to do with an already weed riddled compost heap. Any ideas gratefully received!

in_my_wellies

Rummer - Do you have space for two compost heaps? Or even three? One to fill and one to cook. The general rule is not to put weeds with seed pods on the heap but in reality they get gathered up together so the longer you can leave the heap to 'cook' the better chance they will die, though garden compost heaps rarely get hot enough to kill all seeds. Try to give what you have a good mix and add grass cuttings and leave a while - till next year. Start another heap with garden waste, kitchen waste (no meat/bones = rats) and grass clippings. 

For the first time ever mice are eating my strawberries! I'm sure I must have lost a few in the past but this year it's every other ripe one. I have two conclusions so far. 1. My tabby cat died last summer. She was 20 and always brought mice home. 2. Due to lock down I had time to build a really good cover for my strawberry bed - totally bird proof, not the usual bit of netting just thrown over 80%. I think this has prevented the local tawny owls feasting on them. (I have two clips of owls caught on a trail camera eating mice about 5m from the bed) No luck with traps so far, humane type.

Davesnave

Our little pals were 10 days old yesterday. They're already 'bounce flying' and perching, but I can't show you that because it's just a blur when they start going crazy! So, here they are in a quiet moment