Daydream fund challenge part 4

Davesnave

alfie_1 wrote: »

dave.... hard as it will be for you, maybe you have to be a bit stern with HW family and tell them its too much responsibility for you and OH.

I think that's finally sunk in. HW was able to put up a passable impression of 'normality' with every visit from her sons....until this time. Mind you, their idea of normality and ours is a bit different!:rotfl:

She's been self-reliant and very stubborn all her life, I think, but over the course of this year it's become selfishness; the objective being to sustain her independence, no matter what. Nothing must change.

In her lucid times she's shown an awareness of the imposition she's placed on three or four friends outside her family, but she's had no inclination to co-operate with medics, or to accept any help from the people the hospital service provided. Whenever a carer has been mentioned, she's refused to discuss it, and when someone came this week to look at her needs at the behest of her son, he didn't get in!

So she is where she is, and to help her to further sustain an untenable position would be folly. We aren't going there.

Davesnave

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Did I tell you about my Motability car being tooken off me? I'm getting muddled as to who knows and who doesn't. DLA to PIP fail. But my Mandatory Reconsideration is in with them, and now (too late) Atos have sent for reports from my GP and my Counsellor.

I understand that there have been problems with the assessments and about 6/10 people get their allowance reinstated on appeal. Of course that means 4 don't.

Disability services probably won't be the only sacred cow to get a poke, I'm afraid. Another to look out for will be inflation-proof government pensions, such as the one I receive.:o It's been my belief sionce the Crash that the country can't afford them.....unless they stop affording other things.

Bit political, so I won't go there either!

choille

Sheep went off, but not all & not all that were supposed to. Got rubbish money for them, but that seems to be the norm these days.

A little mini hoss couln't get £100 I was told Alfie & other fine ponies couldn't get their price. I didn't go to the sale - I don't like going.

Snow on the tops - a fine dusting & very cold day with heavy downpours.

Tried doing some listing on the bay but not got on too well.

Hope that some sense comes to HW &/or sons Dave. These things usually change when there's a crisis as has happened.

Davesnave

I miss the sheep too choille, although I still have those on HW's field to look in on daily, just to see they're still upright and well-watered. They will know me by the time they come over to our place.

Quite a significant frost this morning, so that'll be the dahlias blackened and the peppers knackered in the polytunnel, probably. We're very vulnerable until this conservatory arrives in a few weeks.

Mixed feelings about laying and lowering the road hedge, but we have to if it's to be machine cut in the future like all the others nearby. When walking the field yesterday, I found two wine bottles that had been lobbed-over, just at the point where we laid it last year. Kids returning to the village, or the place for vulnerable youngsters, I expect.

Athough we'll leave a couple of oak trees, I reckon the wood in that hedge will pay for the saplings we'll need to thicken it up, once it's turned into logs, that is.

Neighbour farmer cut his hedge at the front two days ago, giving us our view back. There are always simpe little bonuses, even at this dark time of year. :j


Didn't see or hear a single firework last night. Nothing!

choille

I should really move a very colourful Japanese acer as it's crowded on the slope where it is, but I don't want to kill it.

alfie_1

hi all


sorry to hear you didn't get much for the sheep choille
I know ive asked before but what sort are they ?


our old "grandma" sheep defies science each winter as we think shes "gonna go" but she bounces back again ! I do think the 4 Jacobs have given her a bit more umpf to keep up... they are like bl**dy scatty racehorses when they get going !! if I need to catch them, I lasso them by thier horns...:rotfl:


mum came over for the day today as she has her cataract op [no2] tomorrow and it took her mind off it. made a big beef casserole and apple crumble


it is very cold here, sun seems to be out early but gone overcast by 2pm..
was watching some deer in the next door field yesterday just before dusk [the ones with white tails or near bum anyway ! ].. so pretty !


we seem to have a spate in lymington of missing cats ?? im sure some have just moved home and the "new" owners are not putting their hands up


I painted my fireplace wooden surround today, same colour as the walls [it was a horrible darkish golden colour] and it has transformed it ! against the wallpaper it looks sooooo much better.
ive started to paint the walls in the extension room... I really have to get my !!!! into gear to get that room sorted.. ive had the roll of carpet since august !


both bimble and asbo have lost weight on their gluton free blah blah dog meal :j... alas dolly daydream is still a barrel !

Davesnave

Bitter wind today here too, alfie, but it stayed sunny a good long time and it was roasting indoors, thanks to that. The sun shines straight through the big patio doors at this time of year, which makes such a difference.

Our builder is off on other missions now, so as he can't get here till late in the week, I decided I'd have to do the fireplace brickwork myself...Not one of my skills, but I can, at a push.

I found a lintel in the yard, so I cut it down to size and chopped-out a line of bricks, so it can go in tomorrow. Once that lintel's in, I can knock out all the stuff beneath it, push the firebox in, add another bigger lintel and then brick up again. Sounds easy, but it'll probably take all week if I do it. Still, I won't need to pay me!

Pete's here in the morning to dig out trenches and holes for soak-aways + another wide trench for a patio foundation, otherwise known as somewhere to bury more rubble.....:cool: We already have a massive soak away where the patio's going, but we can't use it because the regs say >5m from the house.

choille

Sheep were Shetlands & Shetland Crosses & Hebredian x Shetlands & some black face x's - Just had a tidy up have pure bred Hebs & one Shetland & some tups - pure bred hebs left - which should have gone off.

The Shetlands were getting no money - folk had brought some over from the islands - terrible as the buyers know that they aren't going to take them back, but some did so we hear.

Lovely day here, but decidedly cold. Dry - which is a blessing.

DaftyDuck

Sorry to hear you aren't getting good prices for the sheep, choille. It's always sad enough letting them go. I'm surprised, as Shetland and Hebredian sell well down here - especially if pedigree is good. They aren't quite as thick on the ground here, for some odd reason! We haven't sold any of our Norfolk Horn or Boreray this year - but the prices are pretty high. The rare breed goats have gone through the roof (as well as the fences, hedges and gates!). By starting off small, we hoped to delay the inevitable dispatch for a year or two and, by aiming for pedigree rare-breeds, we seem able to flog a fair few as lawnmowers and decorative living statues. A friend does this, and starts off with a two-page questionnaire of the prospective keeper; one wrong answer and the eyebrows descend, and you'll never see one of the four-footed brigade on their patch.

I like her style, intend to emulate this approach, and am busily brushing my eyebrows to suit! I was dispatched by She Who Must Be Obeyed to build them all some shelters. So I did. Good, solid, double-roofed ones. Leaving us with a leaking roof and a damp ceiling instead, from the recent deluge. Sometimes I feel I wrongly prioritise...

Haven't been good at updating, but have been a bit confused as to what counts as progress, and what's just destruction. Ordered several hundred pounds of hedging, two new spades and several pairs of gloves for the main hedge that's out. That'll be fun. The water meadow isn't as far done as I'd like; I had hoped to get the water gates onto the river done properly, but it'll have to be a bodge for this year. I have got several of the smaller hatches up and running. The main carrier is ready, and some of the smaller float trenches are also, and the two small bridges (one late Georgian, or early Victorian) are partly restored. This will be the first time for 120 years at least that the water meadow is back under controlled flooding - unless the river level goes too high. That used to be under the control of the drowners, but now some bureaucrat has probably decided they'd rather keep a new housing estate dry instead. Someone else with the wrong priorities... There's a ten acre field that should work right, and a five acre one that'll fail. Problem is, when that fails, so do other fields that shouldn't flood at all. Oh well, another year.

I feel Dave's builder pains. I have a good conservatory guy up and ready, but he awaits the chimney lining and stove install, else bricks will fall on his new construction. I can get that done, but I really want to find someone who shares my insanity for installing the thermal stores and link the way I want... and thinks it might work. I have found two such. One is great, insane, cheery and would be fascinating to work with. Even his friend of 20 years can't get him to help install a simple stove on time. The other is simply too eccentric and unsure of pricing/timescale/personal hygiene... I can see I might have to have a go myself, an exercise doomed to pain, failure, frostbite and arrest for mariticide. I did do it 20 years ago, but the regs were more flexible, and I certainly was! Crawling around at ground level in cramped spaces isn't my forte..

The garden progresses, but slowly. Whereas there were six shrubs in it on arrival, there are now over three hundred, including fifty-four lavender varieties! Smells good, better than I do most days!

I think we have finished unpacking... But I do keep finding a box or two that's been forgotten.

Sun is out, it may be cold, but all the beasts are out snoozing in the sun, most lying down. Currently becoming a true slum landlord, and building a tenement block birdhouse for the white doves that are being evicted from the barn, Fifteen holes per birdbox, but pretty mammoth construction. Individual flats, well-roofed, but unheated and no hot water. I fear S.W.M.B.O. may insist a deluxe version be built with radiators installed. Luckily (boo hoo), it's her go to vanish to foreign parts to earn a crust. I get to play in the cold by myself for a while.

It's a difficult time for HW and family. I remember when my mum got to the stage of needing full nursing care - she and we were both fighting the idea, pretty much in denial. But, if needed, it's needed. I might get wifey to put me to sleep, when the time comes. I get so addled at times, it may not be far away.

Anyway, off to put a third storey on my pigeon loft! Cram the lodgers in, cram them in! G_M (from another part of the Board) would not approve!

Toodle Pip

Edit: built, room for 15, fixed to wall, and covered with grain. Being studiously avoided by all the white doves, suspicious beasts if rather dense! Oh well, I tried. With time, somebody will adopt it as home.

Davesnave

Dafty, I get tired, just reading all the things you do! There's no way I can keep up....:o

However, made some major mess on Monday, when Pete turned-up with the digger, because the weather was soon to break. He dug out a regulation style soak-away near the hedge and it was like a desert down there, with just rocks and sand, even at a metre. We decided that would do. :cool:

For the other one, we found it tricky to find a spot 5m from the building without crossing drainage pipes, so I made an executive decision to make the 15m3 of hardcore under our soon-to-be patio into a huge soak away and cross fingers that the building inspector doesn't ask. We've got about half of that area filled already and I'll be laying the pipe and filling the rest over winter. BCO won't be back for ages yet.:D

That's waste disposal' sorted for the next few months, so yesterday I started to attack the chimney breast, but more of it fell down than I'd anticipated and I had to rebuild rows of bricks above the lintel I inserted. Now I can't attack the rest for a day, in case it disturbs what I've just done.:( There are two layers inside, a bit like a bad cavity wall, but I only want the outer one. The inner lining is so unstable, it has to be the work of the previous owner, done from the kitchen side when they installed the Aga.

HW is making some progress in hospital but is still confused. Far from not disclosing anything, the sister was pumping DW for info about her, which suggests they don't have much background. We might visit in a day or so when the gales ease.....I'll be going up to town tomorrow, as Lidl have a drill at £40 that'll do to replace the one that finally expired.

Speaking of hospitals, we had a moment of drama yesterday when two 'First Responders' (firemen trained as paramedics) arrived in their truck, looking for what appeared to be a ficticious address here. My guess is a hoax. :mad: It's a great idea in these far-flung places to have two guys in a 4x4 who can sometimes get ahead of the air ambulance, guide it in etc......or in this case, tell it not to bother.

And ending on an aerial note, we had 4 Eurofighters practising overhead for about 20 minutes on Monday,. Normally they just zoom through, but at lunchtime it appeared that we'd been honoured as the location where they should do a low turn, as every one of them came directly overhead on its side......several times! I hope this isn't a sign of things to come...:eek:

https://www.eurofighter.com/news-and-events/2016/10/operational-evaluation-commences-for-raf-typhoon-fleet-enhancements-under-project-centurion