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Daydream fund challenge part 4
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Sorry to hear your news CTC. All I can say is be glad that you've made the jump and that you have the Daydream half-sorted, even if everything's on hold and financial stuff is precarious.
Looking back, if we'd made our jump in 2002, as we ought to have done, things would be much easier for us now, but we bottled-it.
I could blame my Dad's dementia setting-in, DD2's education, or all sorts of things, but with the huge benefit of hindsight, I'd have made harder decisions and taken a greater risk then for the greater good now.
As it is, I'm planning for the worst here, although still hoping for the best. There's a possibility DW may not get over her current mobility problems, so the garden plan has been drastically pruned. I'm now looking at ways to return the orchard to field, whilst starting a new orchard in the garden. It would also make sense to reduce the chickens' land, as they don't use half of it......ungrateful lot!
It's a good job I've come to like sheep.....sort of! :rotfl:0 -
Fay, our previous cats have had some of those toys and they were very popular.
Our two have a favourite, which is a ball with a tail. It seems indestrictible and I have no idea where it came from.0 -
Lovely day out, warm, sunny, light breeze. Felt like April. No sign of the coming storm that'll flatten and destroy East Ang ... oh, hang on, been reading the Mail Online. (Who are all those girls on the right, and can't they afford clothes - even some that fit ....? A different World)
The big estate next door has been muck-spreading, so it was smelly, with half the gulls in the world cruising for a delicious snack, but that's all cleaned off by recent rains. I suspect the rains over the next few days will show if my waterworks work... well, the ones I've built, anyway.
On the moggie front, catnip isn't always effective; some cats have no sense for it at all, more commonly females. It's a genetic thing. There are also several types of catnip to grow, and some are the "hard stuff". I used to be a drug dealer a few years back.
:eek:
Oh, for the local cat sanctuary! I used to turn up with a dozen or so little pots of rooted catmint, and pass it down the cell line for a bit of escapism for the inmates. In fact, I took a fair few home with me too - and have one on my lap at the moment. He's partial to a bit, but his sister just thinks it's boring! It was great fun, leaving thirty cats as high as kites, upside down, playing with a toy, leaf, imaginary friend.....
Quite a few catnip toys are packed with whatever cheap muck they could get hold of a year and a half ago, and it's lost most of the essence. Nothing beats some of the fresh grown skunk! Some of the catmints (Nepeta mussini) have very little Nepetalactone, but "Six Hills Giant" seems to excel. Nepeta cataria is a less elegant plant, but seems to do the trick brilliantly - hence the name, I guess. The lemon catmints don't seem to do anything for mine. Nepeta racemosa works well, and is a pretty plant.
To stop ravenous moggies destroying the entire plant and killing it (and your sofa), stick a metal hanging basket cage over the plant upside-down. They can eat the protruding tips, but not the lower stem and roots.
It's harmelss, by the way, and makes a good appetite stimulant for ill moggies that are off their food.
Sorry to hear of various ill bits, woes, leaking rooflines and cold bits. I'm refusing to contemplate my own (minor) ills at the moment, and I'm off to watch the sun set.
Oh, sheepsies now in for lambing, very fat, with occasional very energetic kicking on one or both sides. Ladies; you all have my deepest respect and sympathies!0 -
It's harmelss, by the way, and makes a good appetite stimulant for ill moggies that are off their food.
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:"the munchies"...........
its been a mild day here too but was bit wild last night !
son off to Canada for 4 months Tuesday so last night was his "seeing him off" do.. I turned out 1am to pick him up [almost literally] and as he had left his car at the firestation, I had to drop him back to town this afternoon for work tonight. didn't realise there was a big football match on and the worlds football army was also enroute...!! I hate queing in traffic, I swear there are traffic lights every 50yds in Southampton ! so a half hour journey took 70mins
lovely couple came today to view terrier pup [I collected her from heartbroken pre owner this morning] pup was so over excited at being with my dogs/big garden /their dogs she was an absolute BRAT !! :rotfl:she did calm down eventually and they could obviously see she had a good sideand have decided to take her ... I think it seems an ideal home as they are very "out doorsey" and she is a bundle of energy !!
we will see .......
im collecting mum tomorrow as son has requested a "damn good roast dinner" before he leaves
its so nice having lighter evenings now :j
id so love our sheep to have lambs0 -
Poured down today and colder, but only went out to feed feathery things and wooly things.
Sorry to hear you are having a time of it Maggie - things seem much more complex these days. It is frustrating having to deal with any authority as the rules seem to be ever changing recently. OH does Planning stuff and local authority are very under staffed and layered in bureaucracy.
Dave sorry to hear that OH may not be as mobile as she hoped.Mr Choille is the same and it is making us wonder about the wiseness of living where we do - on a wet, boggy slope that is untamable. Glad I don't have lambs due as I feel we have enough on. I can identify with how you feel that you have delayed things - we are the same, but life gets in the way.
Alfie pleased that little dog has found a new home. You'll get some peace with son away, or will you miss him?
CTC - sounds like you are making plans - you do have a lot of go in you. I think you are a real energy ball.0 -
Hi All,
I was TDQO, now I am Chesapeake! Bloody IT error with my laptop switching means I can't access my old account.
We got an allotment todayI started thinking about it seriously a few days ago and added the local private allotments on FB on Wednesday. On Friday night they posted that they had some spaces coming up and we went and saw 3 today and picked one
£100 for the year for a 30' x 90'.
It's not in great nick as they have booted a few people off who haven't done anything for a couple of years and we got one. There is a shed with a leaky roof and rotten floor, a self-built poytunnel that needs some work due to a massive fig (I think) that is dragging it down from the inside. The bottom also has a small pond absolutely packed with frog spawn!
As my other half can't work she is going to use it for some therapy, designing and planning and making it all pretty will hopefully be very good for her mental state while she has me to do all the heavy lifting!
Incidentally does anyone on here have any knowledge of growing figs? I love the idea and this tree is massive, it has grown around the hoops on the polytunnel and started to drag it down. I'd ideally like to trim it right back and keep it. Is it worth it? We get pretty warm weather here in Cornwall and the site is sunny enough it was toasty in there today.0 -
Hi, Chesapeake. :hello:I live in the fig capital of Devon, judging by the number of venerable old plants I see in walled gardens in the little town nearby. I think the secret of success is probably to restrict the root run. Mine in the polytunnel do well enough, but they do like planty of water and a very occasional feed with something containing trace elements.
Panto and being as beastly as possible to the conservatory company seem to have taken over my life now, but hopefully some respite for a few days from tomorrow.
With regard to the latter, I've now discovered that this infamous box gutter was never part of our original contract, and thanks to their crappy accounting, not part of the amendments we signed either. Thus they have broken their own terms and conditions by installing something not approved by us in writing.:p Huge joy! :j
We have asked for a meeting within a week, and while that won't go anywhere, it will at least allow us to escalate this to the next stage....
We've resigned ourselves to a long haul, so I'd not be surprised to still be writing about this in July.:(
While I was casting about for a suitable local dignitary to minute the above meeting for us, the one I chose burst into laughter when I mentioned who and what it was about. He replied, " I was so wild, I turfed the MD off my premises some years ago after a similar meeting...... I think he'll recognise me!"
Oh dear. :eek:I'm going to see this chap's conservatory on Wednesday.
Apparently, It's still standing....0 -
Dave, typical he didn't get the opportunity to warn you off first!
Re. fig tree, do you think it is worth cutting it right back and giving it a feed? By restricting the roots do you mean cutting them or potting it up instead?0 -
I grow a few figs, and keep their roots restricted either by keeping them in a pot, or just bunging them in the worst soil, surrounded by rubble and crud. I haven't cut roots back, as the need never arose. I don't think I would do it that way, I'd just replant them so they'd be restricted, or dig round the root area, and tip in some bricks and junk. Good drainage is imperative.
I either grow them against a south wall, or move the ones in pots to the warmest bit of the garden.
Figs take cuttings easily, so you can always start a new, smaller plant!
Dave, I'm still worrying about getting my conservatory and wood burner done, hearing your frolics. I do hope it goes well, your meeting, with your independent witness wearing wig and dark glasses....0 -
I agree with Dafty about the figs. I would try to hang on to the one you have for now , but if you find it takes up too much room, a new one from cuttings will take around a year to get to a plantable size.0
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