Daydream fund challenge part 4

alfie_1

welcome green bee...
you sound similar to daffy ... except he fills his space with animogs [who else does that !!]


been drizzling all day here...
theres a huge charity water slide set up down lymington high street today with nigh on a 1000 people booked to hurtle down the high street , hopefully on to a large barricade of mattresses ! else it leads down the cobbles to the quay !!
im way too wimpish to even set foot on it but am just heading off to have a laugh watching ..


pups are fine, got their 4 week check tomorrow ...


keep safe peeps x

lucielle

Still really busy here, not done anything in the garden and its a tip! You've been warned Choille!


Just taken another booking for the cottage, that's Christmas gone! Got a big year next year with OH turning 50 and our 25th wedding anniversary. Hoping to go abroad not been since DS2 was 6 months old and he's 18 in September.


Just been and collected 6 Marran X hens these have been 'introduced' to my 1 girl remaining. They are all going to go to my friend in Skye at the end of August, so play nicely girls.


Business wise very busy (which is good). Just sold the Triumph Dolomite and now got an MG in and another potential one. Not to mention all the lawnmowers and tractors needing servicing etc.


Just put in an order for some new IT as ours is going slooowwwwwer and slooowwwer. Lucky we did as the desktop at the workshop is windows vista which is apparently unsupported from next year.


Izzy the puppy is still a princess but gorgeous.


Been away with my daughters and friend for our annual girly trip. Had a night in Crieff did watersports at Lochearnhead and then went to Kinlochleven to do the Via Ferrati. Spent the rest of the time on Skye but I hadn't told my friend about the house so she was gobsmacked when I fessed up!


L

greenbee

alfie_1 wrote: »

welcome green bee...
you sound similar to daffy ... except he fills his space with animogs [who else does that !!]

I have plans for that... one day

For now I'm frustrated by not being able to get to grips with the garden until the house is finished.

Realistically growing food and keeping livestock will have to wait until my work travel is slightly less demanding!

alfie_1

I see you are 'ampshire.. green bee.
and I thought I was the only one ive been hijacked :eek: :rotfl:
are you near to the new forest or 'norf ?

greenbee

I'm just on the edge of the South Downs

Not a native though. I'm originally from Norfolk, but had to move to get a job. The hills and the rain confuse me...

Davesnave

Hi greenbee!:wave: Gee-whizz, you've done loads! I think your strategy of 'house first, land later' is probably the best, if you can get hold of the right people straight away. Some of us know from experience how hard sorting the house whilst maintaining the land can be! ....I'm not going there!

Poppy, if you want "A house in the middle of nowhere" you could always come here. After all, we're where dear Boris fled when he wanted to escape the journalists a couple of weeks ago. Tried to open the local school (which was already open:p) ate a lot of cream tea and said many daft things. What a buffoon! Still, hardly anyone found him! :rotfl:

Sold huge quantity of exactly 5 roof tiles ex-the Bay yesterday, but the people who came bought a load of plants as well.

Off to the scrappie today. I know prices are low, but we need the space.......

greenbee

Hi Dave I'm just back from your part of the world. I wanted to stay, but real life gets in the way.

I'm trying to get the house done while I have the people available but the last lot of work took 10 weeks which was a bit of a strain - I work from home when I'm not travelling so it can be hard work. Currently trying to get them to come back and a. finish off the snagging upstairs and b. clear up the stuff they've left behind. And come up with the plan for the next phase. I want to have the kitchen floor down and Aga installed by the end of November, which means putting an oil line (and one for bottled gas) in, getting the old chimney that hasn't been used since the boiler was moved sorted out and dealing with the floor levels throughout the house.

Oh yes, and do enough work to keep myself in gainful employment.

I'm not enjoying seeing the money vanishing so quickly, but once the work is done I can start paying down the mortgage which will give me more options.

DaftyDuck

Davesnave wrote: »

.... I think your strategy of 'house first, land later' is probably the best, if you can get hold of the right people straight away. Some of us know from experience how hard sorting the house whilst maintaining the land can be! ....I'm not going there!

...

So that's where I'm going wrong! Me, I'm living in a hovel, carpets are manky, windows rattle, and kitchen is falling apart. I am, however, busy sorting the ditches and drainage, planting hedging (and cutting others to the bone). Lawns are improving, and garden is developing. My reasoning is that the land will improve with time, trees will grow once established, and control should be easier once the weeds and hedges are beaten into submission (please say it gets easier ...). Everybody (and it pretty much is literally that) who passes or meets us in the village tells us how the house is one of the most beautiful/their favourite/the one their mum wanted, which is quite reassuring - until they say they are watching what we are doing, and looking forward to seeing inside. Then the pressure is on.

I'm not coming onto the thread often enough to keep track of you all, or where I'd updated/bored everybody. So: love & kisses to all where inappropriate, and...

Old hairy cat died, sadly. He was a rescue centre cat, 15 when we got him, in ill-health, cross, and given to us so he could have a last few good months. That was five years ago, so he'd done pretty well. Still killed everything to the end, rabbits, birds, chased other cats, caught him stalking the small donkey (seriously; I did wonder what he'd do when he caught up!). Marrying a vet was a good idea! She can keep cats alive like Jesus did, and even patch donkeys!
Visited Norfolk Show Pick 'n' Mix animal tents ... , but not yet collected what we are thinking of getting. I want one thing, wifey another, so likely we'll get both. Or divorce! Photos to follow in a month, I guess (not if divorce...). Donkeys still refuse to work... they turn tail and stomp off - literally - if I so much as look like I intend to do anything. Lazy s0ds, fat too... Donkey kebab recipes, anyone?
Two of the woodland areas are now tidy, with most of the elder and rubbish out. Drainage is improving, but we are getting a digger in a couple of weeks for the big stuff. Weeds are in control on 1/5th of the land, just about on a further 2/5th, and the rest is for another year. Baby herons look ready to fly, and they'll probably feed on the villagers' ponds and become really popular. Marsh harriers appear to have no chicks - not sure what's going on there. Don't ask about the doves... Suffice to say, the buzzards did have chicks, and they grew fast and strong!
Two new flowerbeds are nearing planting stage, but I still have several hundred plants in posts - many suffering from the summer, even if it is a wet one. I suspect more will peg out if I don't get a wiggle on.

House refurb must begin soon... or I will be facing divorce! I'm getting blokes in to do the heating and, while the house is in chaos from that, I'll get stuck in myself. I am likely to have less time than I'd like, as work is increasing its demands post-Brexit (there; I can't get away from it :rotfl: ). There are jobs that must be done before winter (roof fixed, guttering, much of the outside paintwork for windows, some rot), and jobs that are ideal for winter (indoor flooring, replastering, rewiring and the like). Then, there are the fun jobs - I have a really swish burglar alarm/cctv/monitor/house control system to play with (play being key) and, with the floors up, it'd only take 2451 hours to install... Then I could close the curtains and lock the back door whilst turning on the outside lights, all while sitting down, so that'd be really time-saving! Cool!

I'm really not good at this doing things one bit at a time... I've always got the previous houses all done up in eighteen months (three years for one, but I was poorer then), and started to think about flogging them. I was hoping to stay here, and still will, unless I'm sucked back to The Dark Side - and they are dangling money at me, which is irritating.

Village continues to be charming. Had various coffee mornings, a barbecue (which did manage to be completely Brexit-free as promised - I kept my gob firmly glued round burgers and beer to shut me up), and a duck race (plastic ones in a river).

Dave, couldn't you have kept Boris? Buried him in one of your many trenches? We were "lucky" enough to have Julian Assange next door but two for a while, but that was before we came here... another lovely, modest, unassuming gent if never there was!

Greenbee... I'm taking an oil-fired Aga out! Alfie must be wrong about the similarity... Ah, Norfolk.... that's where I am! Lucky to work from home via the interspiderthingumyjig... unless they change their minds in the next few weeks, and then I'll be on the twentieth floor in Canary Wharf for a year, if I'm not careful. (Damn Boris and Co... I will remain calm... )That's my idea of a nightmare. I have a river to play with too, and "Ratty" lives on the banks of mine too. Guess there are similarities, Alfie right after all.

What else? Well, I'm sleep-deprived enough at the moment (wifelet has a bad cold, snores like a chainsaw, I can't sleep, another reason for divorce ) so no real idea what I have or haven't done. I am about to move a load of patio paving slabs and turn that into another flowerbed. I also have a large metal frame from an artic lorry-back that should soon be a super poly tunnel on steroids. Tall and perfectly formed for vines and the like, so pretty useful. Hides behind the ugly barn ... well, hidden from us! Will look pretty once done, but looks !!!!!! at the moment.

My birthday next week, so I've been collecting presents for her. Yes, I know, but that's what we do, being odd. Of course, if I fix the divorce in time, I might get to keep the lot! I have bought her a wheelbarrow trolley thing for poo-picking, because I am a romantic. Aaaahhh I hear you all say (or was that an Aaaarrrggh?). Will she poo-pick for me after a divorce? Could be a new MSE Moral Dilemma in that, but I might just keep her instead.

Anyway, apologies for the long, rambling post. There's somebody whining in a foreign accent in my headset at the same time, and I suppose I should be listening in case I'm meant to say something (I do grunt every so often; it makes me sound knowledgeable and so involved). But, it's time work stopped in 5 minutes, so I can stop writing this, and go an play. Get the mini tractor out, and get those paving slabs shifted! Plant some plants, do what I really want.

And no, I will not go and work in an air-conditioned office. S0d off work colleagues; I'm happy on the end of a phone line, and I stink so you would not want me in there!

Right, conference over, off to play in a field, move some slabs, clean horse poo up and move the muck-heap. Much better!

(Apologies for the length - they were very boring in that meeting!)

greenbee

DaftyDuck wrote: »

So that's where I'm going wrong! Me, I'm living in a hovel, carpets are manky, windows rattle, and kitchen is falling apart. I am, however, busy sorting the ditches and drainage, planting hedging (and cutting others to the bone).

At least if inside is cold and damp outside is less unappealing when it's cold and damp out there!

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Greenbee... I'm taking an oil-fired Aga out! Alfie must be wrong about the similarity... Ah, Norfolk.... that's where I am! Lucky to work from home via the interspiderthingumyjig... unless they change their minds in the next few weeks, and then I'll be on the twentieth floor in Canary Wharf for a year, if I'm not careful.

Don't suppose you want to bring it down to Hampshire and install it here? I also work from home, although my landline is down and my broadband so flaky I'm amazed I made it through my calls today. (I'm also from Norfolk originally... so Alfie was obviously on to something!)

I was going to go out and try to drag some more weed out of the stream, but the heavens have opened and there is no way I'm going out there...

alfie_1

broadband flakey in 'ampshire !! it doesn't know the word "work"... :rotfl::rotfl:


pup wups had their check up and all good
dolly daydream is grossly over weight tho ! she has gained since her pups ! normally they loose weight ! SO strict diet and exercise when pups leave !
they all now sort of yippy bark when I go into them ... one started doing it and now they all do...


THE sister is down here for a week [house sitting for her ex neighbour] so mum / dad out of bounds for me... much easier to just stay out of the way... tho mum rang me tonight for a good chat... reading between the lines sister is on a moan mission still


one of my goslings [Chinese] had a swollen foot.. kept looking , couldn't see anything, no heat , redness etc ... got my magnifying glass out, upturned said gosling, wedged between knees,managed to dodge flying poops and found the reason..
a thin thread of hay had wound itself round the ankle , it had swelled to cover it but I spotted a fine line.. so virtually a tourniquet...:eek: managed with a stitch un picker to get it off and normality seems to be returning
pic is what they will look like ... I hope !