Daydream fund challenge part 4

choille

Hi Dave - you do get stuff done. I seem to be just treading water at the moment.

We have a covering of snow today and we had a lightening & thunder in the night - so looks like the thunder snow is starting again.

We can't really go out far but will have to make do - as you do.

Alfie has given me some good tips regarding Pup Pup, so will see how I get on. I don't let him run about when the hens are out but he slipped out of his harness - he was on a long line. I must discourage it as I hardly have any hens left after the Summer predator - whatever that was. But want to keep what I have.

Chesapeke - land varies in price considerably throughout Scotland - It's a country not a region. It depends on where abouts you are looking. I think Cornwall is very expensive. It's much more expensive to build here and materials are harder and more expensive. I wish you luck with it.

Off down the croft to see what tracks are about now we have a covering of the white stuff.

pink_poppy

Davesnave wrote: »

Last week, I built a 3.5m planting bed, walled in local stone, dry-style with no mortar. I thought it would take 3-4 hours, but it took me 3 days!

That is something I would love to do. I fancy doing a course or volunteering to learn how to do dry stone walling.


We quite often get Typhoons (??) going over where I live, what a racket they make. I think they get them (or something similar) going over Dumfries & Galloway as well, so that's something we're going to have to look into when we move.


Talking of which... still no further forward with the move. We have a lot of work to do in the house before putting it on the market, with zero motivation to do any of it. What's that phrase when you don't know where to start, paralysis analysis or something?? That's us.

Davesnave

pink_poppy wrote: »

I fancy doing a course or volunteering to learn how to do dry stone walling.

You'll notice I haven't put a picture up ! :rotfl:

I'm sure there is a 'proper' way to do it, but here the sandstone usually splits quite well along the bedding planes, so we get a lot of reasonably flat stones which go together OK. In Bath I had to use mortar to get anywhere at all.

I built this bed up against the elm hedge bank which separates our property from the private road, At this time of year, the leaves fall off and there are gaps which reduce our privacy. The original laid trees are over 100 years old, with roots that go every which way, so it's impossible to add more young elm to fill the gaps, because the competition's too much; it all dries out in summer and they die.

The bed is opposite the end of our conservatory and the plan is to fill it with tough evergreen shrubs and some rockery/ trailing stuff to go over the edges etc. So, in a year or two, no one will be able to see us living the high life through those gaps and the west wind won't whistle through them either!

Davesnave

pink_poppy wrote: »

We have a lot of work to do in the house before putting it on the market, with zero motivation to do any of it. What's that phrase when you don't know where to start, paralysis analysis or something?? That's us.

Is it worth it? Price-up the cost of the work and consider whether just marketing at that much below the usual price might get you where you want to be faster.

We tarted-up our last place. If we hadn't been delayed by that we'd have missed the recession.:mad:

Given the option, we wouldn't do it again.

pink_poppy

Davesnave wrote: »

You'll notice I haven't put a picture up ! :rotfl:

Aw, that's a shame, I was hoping you would I was admiring a new dry stone wall when we were stuck in roadworks in the Summer. I may have taken a photo

Davesnave wrote:

Is it worth it? Price-up the cost of the work and consider whether just marketing at that much below the usual price might get you where you want to be faster.

There's a big hole in the kitchen ceiling and a hole in the bath, which has been glued with araldite so that we can still use it. Both have been like that for months *embarrassed smilie*... I've already crossed a few jobs off my mental list of things to do, but those two are non-negotiable haha.

Davesnave

pink_poppy wrote: »

There's a big hole in the kitchen ceiling and a hole in the bath,

Pft! Minor details!

This is DD1's kitchen just after she bought her house:


The bath also needed a bit of work:



I know what you mean about bath holes though. DW was standing on a chair in ours, painting in our old house's bathroom, when there was a crash and a chair leg went through the bottom. Replacing that may have been the first time I used eBay, but for quite a long time before I got around to it there was a glassfibre patch, covered in car body filler.

DaftyDuck

Skinny dog arrived from local rescue home, snuggled on my feet. I am not happy...:mad:



....







I'd forgotten how much nervous dogs fart!

Good job I don't smoke, or we'd both explode....

He's sweet, took fifteen minutes for the cats to sort out they were boss (they had no doubts at all), he then fell asleep on my feet, so I can't move, so wifey has to go out in the rain to put farm to sleep, while I suffer from warm feet and snoring.

He's so relaxed compared with three hours ago, when he was a nervous shivering jelly.


Paaaarp!



Oh jeez, wish I was out in the wet!

Davesnave

DaftyDuck wrote: »

I'd forgotten how much nervous dogs fart!

.....Oh jeez, wish I was out in the wet!

From what I remember, dogs don't need the excuse of being nervous. Cats are so much more refined.

Wet? We've had a glorious day here, though we pre-paid for it with a harsh frost last night. Probably another tonight too. If it kills the white fly in the polytunnel, it'll be worth it.

I'm not coping well with these short days. There's so much I'd like to be doing, but it's just not happening. By the time all the routine stuff is out of the way, the light's fading fast.

Standing in a flooring shop the other day at about 15.30, we could hardly tell one sample from another. It's a place with large windows...so much better than artificial lighting under normal circumstances, but now nothing's normal.

Yesterday I thought I'd squeezed in an hour, but then Pete turned-up to give the sheep yet more shots, so it was back to more human herding, there being no sign of the new sheepdog.......:undecided

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Himself has a temporary job with a relatively well known group on tour. The pay is good and if all goes well, they'll have him back for their next couple of tours which he could travel to easily enough. I might see him for a few hours each weekend when he pops back until he finishes the job, a couple of days before Christmas.

Other things have slotted into place financially whilst he's been away - pay rise, backpay, a couple of old liabilities cleared, etc, etc.


We technically have enough in the bank to move to a rental property and pay the bills for a full six months before getting a job would become Something That Should Be Done Fairly Soon.

Nothing being advertised that is 'right', but the average rents seem to have decreased by about £85 a month from summer.


I wonder whether we might just do it in 2018?

alfie_1

morning all


having averaged minus 3 at night here and no more than 6 during the day, I could say its a tad chilly !! ponds have a light freezing on , koi have stopped feeding and the wild birds are eating me out of house and home !
I get through a 15k bag of seed and a tub of 140 fat balls and a 2k bag of nuts ...A WEEK :eek:
I have a neighbours cat [one of many well looked after ] that has moved into my summer house ,having left a window ajar.... so being daft, im fitting a cat flap so theres not the draft in there from window and put a sheepskin on the armchair for cosiness ....:o owner finds this hilarious considering their cats live in a virtual mansion... I told him this cat is obviously "finding his roots"
this cat is HUGE, white and has no ears [had to be amputated due to skin cancer] and resembles a white badger stalking through the field ... had my brother in law convinced hed seen a rarity !


TILLY IS IN FOAL :j so its panic stations to be prepared as its going to be an early foal.. due anytime from mid January to mid march but I think the earlier dates more likely. we are going to put a 3ft bed of straw in the shelter in the corall and cross fingers .....


im still rescuing frogs and newts from next doors swimming pool although temperatures are proving fatal


I have just hauled out the usual array of xmas lights from my cupboard .. THEY WORK ... but somehow lost 2 transformers ..
im setting up 2 xmas trees either side of my cattlegrid and will decorate the outside of house...... tastefully ! no leaping/waving/nodding santas/penguins/snowmen
considering I live up a track off a rural road I rather light up like a bolisha beacon in the darkness [no street lights ere in the forest :rotfl: ]


off to visit my dad today, his speech and attention are now poor but he always asks how my son and the dogs are...
mum has had the dreaded lergy so ive had to keep her supplied with meds/food ... she said she could go to local shop but I did get her to remain in the warm !


son is still keen on getting a rottweiller pup. we almost bought one but owner changed his mind and decided to keep this one :mad: .... I saw the most gorgeous AKITA the other day and im trying to sway him over to the "other" side ...


right , well keep safe/dry/warm peeps


xxxx