Daydream fund challenge part 4

Davesnave

Hi Ted, eye isn't watering today; it's just the antibiotic gunk which is limiting vision a bit now as I'm finishing the course. I was lucky, since the vision in my other eye isn't good enough on its own for 'puter or driving. Will wear my helmet like a good boy from now on!

Sam's new brother is to be called Jack, but to some of us at least, I think he'll always be Twinkle. There's not much point in a photo because even his Mum can't tell the difference between him and Sam at a few days old! We used to have families that produced clones when I was teaching and it looks as if DD1 has done it too. It's OK though;  being 5.5 years apart they won't be able to do the switching tricks identical twins used to pull at school!

Hay's being cut anytime now.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Congratulations on Twinkle Jack, Dave! And 'this is why we're told to wear PPE, you wally'. 

I do like it when a new kid turns up and I can give them a 'look' and say 'Do you know...?' (a relatively tactful way of saying 'well, you're obviously from the same factory, aren't you?'). It's even more amusing on Parents' Evenings and the like when you look across the hall and see that both Mum and Dad were popped out of moulds as well.

Amongst various work related things, I'm in the limbo between being able to do my contractual holiday hours onsite and getting the OK to travel to do them, partly because, to by utter joy, I've just been fasttracked for lung x-rays, antibody tests and, my personal favourite, bone density scans at a fancy Osteoporosis unit. My tendency to wibble on at the consultants has meant that combining the historical steroids, bad hip/lower back, STILL low vitamin D and complaining that I'm shorter than Himself now has meant that their ears have pricked up.

And then, just to make me feel better about it, Himself has bought himself a posture corrector brace. He now looks like a supertough plainclothes cop from a movie. And three inches taller before adding his work boots. Gave me a cheap laugh before he promised he'd wear it underneath his shirt so that nobody thinks he's wearing a shoulder holster. Considering where we live, there's a sizeable number that's going to suspect he's police just from his new stance, anyway. Apart from the discomfort that led to him buying it, I suspect that middle age is beginning to suit him.

I have two small teepees of runner beans growing and only lost one plant out of the seven seeds I planted, two bundles of peas currently podding, the spuds are just about falling over (is that when I should harvest them?) and three still to be identified curcubits that are happily producing male flowers. There are no tendrils and the leaves are 'pointy' (not spiky yet), so I think they're courgette, rather than pumpkin, melon or cucumber. But if they don't hurry up with the female flowers, I'll never know.

Oh, and it looks like the graft on my dwarf/patio cherry did fail when somebody climbed over the wall a couple of years back and snapped lots of it off.. I had one branch that fruited and the rest look like an entirely different tree. Is there anything I could do to improve it? I don't even know what rootstock it is, other than it was labelled Patio and is currently about 10 foot high.

Sigh. The blackberries are going to be outstanding this year, though. Shame we haven't got through all of last year's crop yet.

Davesnave

Hay's cut and no bottles got through to scupper it. Yah! and Boo! to Mr Dog, who seems to be away on holiday, so has missed all the action, which will be doubly unsatisfying for him. Could have done without the hassle of clearing the area though.

No idea about the cherry Jojo. I have similar problems with a Bramley  with a weirdo rootstock that's mutated into a step-over tree.

Unsurprisingly, having exhausted the potential in this place, Sam decided last night he was really missing his Mum and wanted to meet Twinkle, so his auntie drove him half the way home last night and they'll finish the journey today. He's been a good lad.

Here he is with Big Hen.(Yeah I know, but really, she isn't!)

ukmaggie45

Davesnave said:

Here he is with Big Hen.(Yeah I know, but really, she isn't!)

My, what big feet she has! 

Ted_Head

Been picking blackcurrants which always do well here. Near the hen house so when cleaning it out I shovel the muck on the patch. It's on a slope (everything is here) and with it being so wet it's like the slide from Hell. So like an extreme sport of sorts.
Just freezing them as I have still about 20lbs of jelly in the pantry from last year. It keeps for ages.
Been getting more wood out of the burn - another extreme sport of sorts as the bed rock is very slippy and on a slope above a little drop. It's surprisingly tight grained and seems hard wood but only willow which I didn't think would be that dense. Chain saw seems blunt so Mr Choille was instructed to take a peek at YouTube videos and given a file, so that kept him quiet yesterday afternoon in his 'cupboard' - which he loftily calls his office.
Whilst walking down to the post box I spied some cyclists sneekily camping on the closed campsite and I shouted across, Can I help You? They said they'd had an emergency I retorted that we call it 'Rain' in Scotland. He had so many plums in his mouth I could hardly make out his response.
And rain it is - coming down in torrents. Again.

Ted_Head

Alfie has been in touch which is nice as I was worried about her. Her Mum's been in hospital but will get home this week coming. She sends everyone her love and is hoping to reappear soon but with a different alias probably.

Davesnave

Good to hear alfie is shortly to return to the fold, even if she's going to confuse us with a new alias. My 'other half' was out and about briefly today, managing to get an annoying thread shut without saying anything truly punishable. To be fair it was off topic anyway and heading for the bin, but it's nice to give threads like that a final tasteless push!

Yesterday, we were back in the Forest of Dean again for a family "Meet Twinkle Jack" bonding session. The place was rammed compared with our visit almost 3 weeks ago, but it was still possible to find a very quiet place by going only 200m from the car park. I was rather annoyed to find that there was free mulch in the form of composted bark available in a big pile, but we were short of a  dumpy bag and a shovel. Never mind, tonnes more of Horse Woman's manure (or rather that of her steeds!) is arriving on our heap very shortly,

We have put up a sign that the nursery is closing at the end of the summer, so it's official now. Still need to get rid of this lot....

Davesnave

Yesterday it was pretty warm and the skies were cloudless, so we went for a couple of turns and then baling in the evening. We might not be posh here, but we get a contractor with some smart kit! Do you think he has enough lights?

It was still clear last night, so I got a decent sighting of Comet Neowise. It was below the Plough and heading for Torrington. ....And it seems I was not alone:

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/comet-neowise-photo-devon-proves-4347766

RAS

I remember getting the hay in as a child, before a storm. The two of us could drag a half bale to the sled; aged 5 and 6. We wouldn't be able to shift those beasts..

Davesnave

RAS said:

I remember getting the hay in as a child, before a storm. The two of us could drag a half bale to the sled; aged 5 and 6. We wouldn't be able to shift those beasts..

As rain threatened today, Pete magically appeared and all 22 vanished while I was shopping. There were 2 inside the baler when the contractor finished and headed for Pete's place to continue, so  we grew 24 big bales this year; much better than the 13 managed last year in the drought.