Daydream fund challenge part 4

Chesapeake

Evening, sounds like you've all been having some adventures with the weather. We stayed in all day yesterday and just listened to the wind and rain howling around. I ventured out today and it was calm, warm and lovely! Funnily enough the reservoir we walk around has gone up by about 3ft which is a good thing and there wasn't really much storm damage to be seen. The woods are a lot lighter though as all the dead leaves are on the floor now.

Davesnave

Weather hasn't been too wonderful here today, with some further blustery wind and heavy showers, but it brightened-up a little in the afternoon. Not aware of any damage though; in fact a bit of a no-Brianer for us!

Just sold my wheeled brushcutter on the Bay. I never got on with it.:( Had 3 people email in the final hour asking if I could courier it to them......Well, I don't know, which is why I put it up for collection-only! I imagine stuff like that has to be palleted, and if it isn't, that it'll be rejected, or broken en-route. One guy was 500miles away.

I told them "No!" and one still carried on bidding :mad:, but he was pipped at the end by a local. :beer::D
Now, if I put the proceeds together with my winter fuel allowance, what can I get....? Decisions, decisions....:cool:

choille

Rained heavy again today but took puppy face for a run on beach - which he loves especially if he can find other dogs to hang out with. Local lady there with her snarly evil dog so had to clip pup pup on lead & be pulled across the sand - which I had a sail board.

Tide really low so got round the three beaches and even though got soaked it was refreshing. Came home to all hens acting spooked and one little blue Orpington chick gone. She was lovely & looked beautiful. I still don't know what is snaffling them.

DaftyDuck

Not posted for a while, so sorry for the disorganised droning on. Reading about all you lot suffering rain, flood, wind and destruction makes me feel a bit guilty. That big storm that threw roofing at Maggie; mild and warm breeze here, 26°, lunch outside. Brian just wasn't even a very naughty boy. The leaves gently stir in the warm breezes, there are clear skies most days, and evenings are balmy and pleasant. Having said that, we are supposed to get an Arctic breeze this weekend, while the west stays mild. Then you can all laugh as my eyelids freeze!

In fact, that 26° day was when the newly-installed heating system came online. So, along with the warm weather, we had a 46kW oil boiler, plus one 12kW and one 17kW woodburner spitting out heat. The house nearly melted. All good though, and all systems work. It's running as a "dumb" system at the moment, with no thermal store plumbed in. When that's running too, we can melt radiators! That'll store and then throw out another 40kW/h or more!

I like your new guest, Dave. We have a couple of boys here at the moment, and a couple more arriving in a fortnight. Different breeds, different blokes. We are trying to stagger the bigger boys, just so things don't "kick off" if they all escape. Also, working around our and the lending rare breed centres' movement restrictions.



This chap is huge, both ends, and totally sweet. We have to leave him alone as, if we go out, he abandons his harem and follows us about for a scratch and ear rub. The girls follow him, giggling and hitching up their stockings.

There's a smaller chap in another field with some diddy sheep, and he's got an inferiority complex and pees himself when the big boy tells him to, and a Bagot Billy who has an IQ in three digits - outwits me, that's for sure. So, we are rolling in testosterone (them, not me). First time the farm has been properly active for about forty years - possibly even not since the 1930's. It actually feels right, in some odd way that doesn't quite fit with my logical, scientific background, but it does make me feel all warm and mushy. :rotfl: OK, most of what we are doing fits in the 1930's, (1830's?) but that suits me, and suits the wildlife.

We held a "faggot" day, and about ten of my neighbours collected two sizeable trailer loads of smaller branches and the like, and tied them up into decent firewood. There was well over three tonnes by the time we'd finished - took most of the day. We then felled a single not-very-big tree in one minute, logged and chopped it in under an hour, and had double the amount. Oh well, the day was fun, and everybody got plenty of wood for 2018. Once chainsaws were well stored, wine and cider came out. Never combined the two before. I never intend to again!

Mind you, one of the people helping later reported that someone from the other side of the village (who I don't think I have ever even met) was moaning to him that they hadn't been invited, and had pointed to a large and very healthy beech tree on our land saying; "It's not as if they haven't got spare wood"... I can see a permanent uninvite heading their way!:p I've got such lovely near-neighbours, it's rather a contrast to see such grabbing sulkiness. Oh well...

We have had a few interesting meetings with one of the wildlife trusts and, so long as things go to plan, we are going to be one of the release sites for a few rare and some reintroduced species. Nothing absolutely fixed at the moment, and they need to see how the water meadow and wood margins come round next spring, but it does sound really rather promising. Given that that area was used as a dumping ground only two years ago, it's made the hard work and pain worthwhile.

I bought a petrol auger for sticking fencing in. Wow! Compared with the fence bosher, it makes like very easy. Well, until it rips your arm off when it hits a stone. I can recommend it, especially if your soil isn't too stony. I alternate between Quasimodo back from the bosher and Herman Munster arms from the auger.

What else? Knackered and a bit bewildered; it's been two years here now, and this place has changed beyond recognition. I now know a bit about sheep and goats, can drive a tractor and a digger, have several chainsaws, and a bent back. I'm missing one thumbnail, and one toenail, and quite surprised that's all that's gone awol. I'm a bit fitter, a lot skinnier, and actually a bit happy and relaxed - some of the time. Which, given I have spent the last thirty years stressing out over work and the like, that's an even bigger change. I have made some really good friends, and they are enthusiastic to help me when I haven't got a clue - which is normally from breakfast time to bed time. My "real" work colleagues think I'm insane - aside from the fact that two of them have now started along similar lines, one doing poultry in his garden, and the other hunting for a smallholding!

I thought it'd take five years to get this place straight(ish), and that the work would then diminish a bit. OK, I now reckon it will never be straight, and it will take at least ten years to not even get there, but there is progress. That's enough for me for the moment.

And more than enough drivel. Stay safe in the storms, warm in the freeze, and happy as you can.

Davesnave

Glad you feel it's all worth it, Dafty. I can remember being 2 years in....just about.

8 years on, I have a sort of strange love/hate relationship with our place. On the one hand, I think what else we might have done in those 8 years, and on the other, I know this is what defines us now and we'd be lost living somewhere 'normal.'

It's like Pete, who went on a week's mini holiday recently. When I asked him how he enjoyed the break, he said "Oh, lovely, but I was ready to come home, Wednesday!":rotfl:

Had one of those 'wish I'd done it sooner' jobs to do yesterday and today. It involved digging-up the floor of our internal corridor, which is decorated and awaiting carpet.:eek: Unfortunately, a trial run told us the previous occupants' efforts to patch-up after removing a wall could still be felt, even through good underlay, so it was either be eternally irritated or....

So I shut myself in there, put rolled-up towels across the door thresholds and went for it with a demolition drill. An hour later it was all dug out and I just needed new lungs.....:(

Anyway, filled it in today and nothing is actually damaged, save for a bit of wall that needs some touching-in where the cement screed misbehaved briefly .

Here's a picture:

I think yesterday might have been our last 'summer' day of 2017. When not in the corridor, I was outside painting and it was ridiculously warm for October. Today, different story!

Chesapeake

Ey up, thanks for the detailed update Dafty, I love that you are volunteering to have species reintroduced on your land. The site we are getting married at next year has just released the first wild beavers into Cornwall... hope they don't chew down the tree we are meant to be getting married under!

We've just got back from wandering around a local farm where they have pick your own fruit, a good size farm shop & butchery, on-site restaurant and a bunch of very friendly animals that love a good fuss from the visitors. It was great seeing all the piglets and goats and geese and cows and sheep and donkeys and...and...and...and... I just want to go out and buy the first bit of land I find now haha.

My other half was looking at online courses this week to see if there was anything she could do to help her get a job in animal handling/agriculuture and we found some very heavily discounted ones. She is now doing a diploma in Farm Management and a diploma in Goat, Poultry, Bee & Worm farming which should keep her busy during the dark winter months. Not bad for £74.

alfie_1

hi all..


love reading all the exploits !


ive come to the conclusion that living in an all guns blazing house now has its pitfalls no fences to fix, animog pens to restore, barns to fill / empty ,log chopping etc.
and ive got a bit lazy ! I work during the week and do my airport runs etc but actual heavy manual work has declined ...


THAT is my excuse for putting on a bit of weight ! well, im not as toned .. lugging 30ltr fuel containers [generator] and swinging the axe kept my muscles going


it is decidedly cold here this evening, think its going to be a first real frost tonight !


I went down to check on the horses this afternoon, then fed the koi, then went frog/newt hunting in next doors swimming pool ... they haven't moved in yet and are waiting for pool to be fenced and covered. im paranoid a deer will end up in there ! so check every day..
the frogs/newts all seem to make a bee line for it. I get my net and fish as many as possible out and re release them in another pond... a few don't make it im trying to think of a floating island type thing that they could climb on but not sure if they are too thick to see it as their salvation !


I have seen a desperately poor looking pony in a field and am trying to find out more about it, don't think it is just old... I put some hay over for it and it got stuck in.. watch this space

Davesnave

Chesapeake wrote: »

The site we are getting married at next year has just released the first wild beavers into Cornwall...

There's been stuff about this on the local TV news. I think there's already a colony on the River Axe in East Devon.

Back in the summer, when I was getting paranoid about otters, I had a dream that Pete's farm had been chosen as a beaver release site. I'd gone there to fish and there was all this wood piled up in the river...:mad:
:rotfl:
Maybe I told you about this already? Can't remember!

choille

Good job on the floor Dave - Well done you on tackling that one.

I think it could well be an otter who is coming up the burn and snaffling my hens!

Davesnave

choille wrote: »

Good job on the floor Dave - Well done you on tackling that one.

I think it could well be an otter who is coming up the burn and snaffling my hens!

It was one of those jobs we should have done several years ago when the whole place was thick with dust, but there was always something more urgent.....you know how it is!

Glorious day again after close-to-a-frost this morning. DW has cut the beech hedge between us and next door and I've been mowing....as usual. There's something very satisfying about an autumn clean-up. It won't be long now before the postman does our road hedges and Pete does the internal ones. He's coming on Friday to smooth-out the garden area with his digger.:j

I guess it could be an otter with the hens, though the ones here are very timid and wouldn't go near buildings etc. Most people never see them.

Had a tax rebate today. Total shock, but a nice one!