Daydream fund challenge part 4

Better_Days

choille wrote: »

I did actually speak to the Police at XMas time when she came down her & did her stuff.

She is scary- avoid eye contact scary, but for some reason she's homed in on me, but I think she must have done similar to others - other women I think. I hear her husband spend a night down the beach as he was so scared she would kill him! It's such a small place but there's a lot of folks with 'issues' as they call them.

No sense nor reason unfortunately. Some people just 'stew' up loads of negative energy and its bad luck when you end up in the firing line and horrible to have to deal with. Feel very sorry for her children who have to live with that instability day in day out. My mother had a dreadful temper and was volatile and it makes for a miserable household.

Lovely start to the day here, wind has dropped and its sunny. Mr BD is off this morning setting up the scenery for Sweet Charity which is playing next week and again this afternoon, something to do with singing with the band for the first time.

He's got a few jobs to fit in for me in between

Dave, I do feels sorry for the dairy farmers they are having a hard time atm. The vagaries of the global market must make it incredibly difficult to plan ahead. Thing is with farmers, they get subsidies, and tax breaks yet whenever we have them on the TV here (mainly agricultural) its because its too wet, or too dry or too windy, too hot or too cold. Then when they get a good crop they complain because the price goes down. Is there ever a happy farmer?

There was an item on the news earlier in the week about robotic milking machines for cows, they could just go in when they wanted. I wonder how difficult it is to accustom the cows to using them.

Davesnave

Better_Days wrote: »

Is there ever a happy farmer?
.

Pete was happy this time last year when the sheep left here destined for market. They were making a good price then.

Now, sheep are making silly money locally, so does he keep them and wait, or get rid?

Either way, he has no control, so it's a guessing game.

Up the road, the farmer with the turbine has spent a generation building up his herd to national prize level. He will probably be OK. Others have been selling off similar sized herds, as they have less emotional commitment and no great desire to second-guess the future.

Ultimately, the loss of production may alter the market in the farmers' favour again, but who plans like that, and can we be sure that imports won't simply fill any gap? How many consumers ever give a thought to where milk comes from? It's just 'milk,' that stuff in Aisle 10.

Davesnave

alfie_1 wrote: »

we have , for want of a better description , a tramp in our area here. he was more into the forest over winter at a lakeside. he is now in the village. hes a fantastic character, well spoken,articulate and very funny. [albeit the toffs here are not impressed..:p ]

When I was a teenager, there was a 'tramp' who lived on a stretch of the A377....I seem to remember in a tiny caravan, which moved periodically lay-by to lay-by.

Anyway, you'd often see him, plodding along, sometimes with a sack or bit of cloth over his head as protection from sun, or more likely, rain.

He was actually the person who wrote the crossword for either the Times, Telegraph, or Grauniad so he must've been well-paid, whatever he looked like!

I can't find any reference to him.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Morning all, we had a proper tramp, not just a drunk homeless person in our city. Since the 80's and he died this year, his death had so much publicity he was a local celeb..he wouldn't take food or money off anyone, and only took good if he was actually hungry... There has been many a story where night revellers have had no money for a taxi home, and he has given them his !money for them to get home safely..well educated man. Don't know the exact reason why, but they say he just had enough of the material life that was happening at the time, and just walked out. Supposed to have had loafs of money..

Re- milk, its the same with everything, rather than try and fix the supply and demand problem in Britain, the will just import to meet the demands, sadly this is no good for our economy IMO.... Plus who's to say that the milk imported has been taken from cows pumped full of anti B's etc.

Can't wait for the spring royal welsh spring show next weekend. It will be the first time in years we will be going as the general public, rather than a trader...will have to remember we don't have to dash around , and we can just wonder round lol

Better_Days

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

Re- milk, its the same with everything, rather than try and fix the supply and demand problem in Britain, the will just import to meet the demands, sadly this is no good for our economy IMO.... Plus who's to say that the milk imported has been taken from cows pumped full of anti B's etc.

Can't wait for the spring royal welsh spring show next weekend. It will be the first time in years we will be going as the general public, rather than a trader...will have to remember we don't have to dash around , and we can just wonder round lol

Really good point about antibiotics. Unfortunately we are now reaping the results of over use of antibiotics. We get our fruit and veg from an organic box scheme, umm we don't buy much milk but perhaps we should go for the organic milk too. It has also been very difficult for the egg producers trying to compete with cheap imports from countries which don't comply with welfare (and probably also health and husbandry) standards imposed in this country.

I love the country shows. The Suffolk Show is always a great day out, I love looking at all the fancy hens and going round the plant and flower tents.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

We are going up on Sunday, one of the reasons is that from around 3-4pm a lot of stands reduce the prices on plants and the flower displays. I bought a lovely big bunch of sweet peas for a friends funeral that week, then my father died, before the funeral, so I took a little posy of them to try and find my step mother's grave, couldn't find it, so I put then on my great grand parents grave. Think it was my way of saying good bye to my father...

Was going g to take my ' dolly trolley' but I think it will be more of a hindrance, so going to take a rucksack full of food, drink and empty carrier bags.. One thing we will buy food wise there is the fantastic lamb burgers,, expensive, but lovely...its tradition to have one now lol

choille

Hissing down here. Gorgeous yesterday, disgusting today!

No more lambs as such yet.

Re the milk thing & farmers - there are farmers & farmers. The big boys are slightly luckier than the small. The rougher, poorer areas such as Highlands is much more difficult to 'manage'. The Queen gets massive subsidies for tree planing, fencing etc a do other large land owners. It's quite slewed really.

I always try & buy Scottish meat. Danish bacon is not as welfare friendly as British. We do have a good diary supplier - Grahams organic produce, butter, milk which is really nice & reasonably priced. I like it coz it's tasty & not travelled far.
The importing of eggs, milk,meat, fish (in Ullapool you can buy seafood that has come from Vietnam!) is really not sustainable. The worry for me is the lack of labelling - USA put stuff in the milk that increases output & I don't think it' a good one at all. The welfare issues in Europe really leave a lot to be desired too.

alfie_1

hi all...
took lots to sell at boot sale and sold hardly anything as did the other sellers wish id stayed in bed....


I watched a program the other week re importing foods. some things that we produce, but not enough of, are supplemented by foreign. others are purely because it was cheaper. the question was asked "how can it be cheaper for chicken from Vietnam than here".. answer was APPARENTLY that we do not produce enough chicken and in V it is such a big business they just churn em out. it was pointed out that this V chicken is nearly always used in restaraunts/take aways etc to cut costs/improve profit. they did a restaraunt/TA survey and as many as 87% use foreign. when asked if they were concerned with welfare only 12% of the 87 were !! they said that most chicken dishes have a "sauce".... that hides the flavour/flavourless chicken....:eek:


organic does not necessarily mean that it is UK . free range does not nescesarily mean its spent its life outdoors etc. it should be classed as free range if it is "not CAGED or its movements restricted in any way unnaturally for the duration of its life " a lot are classed as FR when it has maybe only spent the last month of its life in freedom...


sorry, sore subject with me !;)
when will people get the message that the cheap carp will probably see em off ! chemicals and the sh*t that goes into it and still they feed their kids with it ????

phoebe1989seb

Not too bad weather-wise here today - at least it's remained dry and there have been a few sunny moments - but still breezy/chilly.

DH has taken advantage of the last free listing day for business sellers on fleabay, whilst I've spent the day weeding - which I actually find quite therapeutic, although I never want to see another buttercup

Discovery of the day in the garden - a reasonably large laburnum tree that had completely escaped our notice till now I actually noticed it from the window seat in our upstairs 'snug' whilst taking a well-earned break......how we'd not spotted it before I don't know. Also found some Solomon's Seal - we had tons of this at our Wiltshire house so I was regretting not bringing a clump and planning to buy some, but no need now

Alfie, I didn't see the tv programme you refer to, but it doesn't surprise me at all about the imported cheap chicken. This is why we always prefer to make our own curries or whatever at home with responsibly sourced chicken etc rather than eating out/getting a takeaway - far more rewarding to cook from scratch and they taste better too IMHO

Off to finish some curtains now....have a good evening all

lostinrates

I wish we had Solomon's seal. I keep meaning to buy some and never remember. We discovered a hiding laburnum here too. Its one of the trees that will probably have to go longer term though. Half of it came crashing down in a storm in winds a couple of years ago, and it grows at the edge of a wall that is to be an annexe one day.

End of our 'staycation' today. Fir is heading back into Town tonight for a full week's work before going pt for the year. Induction week in a new place is always a bit exhausting.