Daydream fund challenge part 4

DaftyDuck

Haven't been updating for a while. Worst bit of the last six weeks was I got bad asthma. I briefly had a short burst eighteen months ago, but doc told me it wasn't actually asthma. Over the last two months I was puffing and coughing, so tried to make a Dr appt. after the New Year. Got one for fourteen days time. Thought I'd wait. Had a fairly coughy day when OH was working elsewhere, so phoned Asthma Society for general advice as to how best to deal with it. Nursey on the end of the phone was a bit more concerned. Admittedly, I could only get one or two words out and, luckily, doc from 18 moths earlier had left me with an inhaler. I realised it was real, proper asthma when asthma nursey on the phone said she'd call 999 herself if I didn't stop coughing and couldn't hold a breath after several more puffs. She left me with strict instructions to find a doctor straight away. Went off to see GP's nursey, who sent me to GP immediately...Three hours later, ended up in hospital on an acute care ward. I mean, seriously, I wasn't ill like all the others. Didn't want to hang around and catch their problems either, so scarpered the next morning. I am getting better - steroids and inhalers help. It's a bit of a bu55er, though. Absolutely no reason for it at all. Better get better soon...

In completely and utterly unrelated news, we've had the dog for six weeks. Speed doesn't come close. He can run round an eight acre field barely touching the ground. I've never seen a dog with such springs for legs. My sister has several lurchers, and they are fast (but not faster), but this mutt can (unlike them) just keep going and going and going and going.... (cough cough). Balls can't be thrown far or frequently enough, even with two of us working full-time at it. we flooded in all that rain, and every ball has to be placed in the deep puddle remaining. Luckily, I'm not the one who wears wellies, so she-who-wanted-mutt has to wade in... at which point a hurricane of dog's legs thrashes across to smother her.

Cats are infinitely superior.

This am we were hit by those winds (but no snow here). they came across at 80mph, and several trees came down. Worth being nice to neighbours; at one point three households were all helping, elderly ladies carting branches into the yard, while the aged gent opposite was throwing his chainsaw around like a Dervish! (luckily, he really does know what he's doing.. in fact, he knows more about everything landy than I do, and is much too polite to tell me so... until I'm fairly deep in doo-doo, at which point he rescues me with a grin).

Anyway my enormous log pile shall swell some more... Alfie, was it you with magnetic logs some pages back? Impressive!

I'm sure there's loads more news... knackered, so off for a shower and supper. I haven't even (yet) had a chance to read up on everybody elses' news. Hope it's mainly good. To those of you in the North, I hope your snow doesn't last. To all others, stay safe and healthy.

Healthy??? Everyone on this thread is either diseased, decaying or decrepit... and if they, themselves, are healthy, then their other half is falling apart. I thought the outdoor life was meant to be good for you, yet we all appear to be failing physically.

Miracle cures, anyone? I vote tea and whisky, with chocolate in close second place.

Stay (!) healthy, all. If that escapes you, stay happy instead!

alfie_1

hi dafty duck...
sorry to hear your a'puffin ....
have you had any disturbance in the walls/floor/ceilings in your house? I ask because a friend of mine had similar and it was these red spore things that was in the wood [she was having a floor replaced ]. she couldn't understand what was causing her symptoms but builder immediately stopped work when he spotted it and it had to be treated before he could continue... just a thought :-)

DaftyDuck

There's certainly (woof woof) something about (grrruff snuffle) but (woof snort) not a clue what's been different for the last six weeks....

choille

Well dafty I do hope that your cough goes forth soon. The dog sounds interesting - what is he?

Snow & more snow so couldn't get out to hospital appointment but pleased as it seems it's filled with people with flu which I would rather not get.

Just doing the basics is all I seem to be doing as out and about has frozen solid so takes ages to get up to the sheep and feed them.

I seem tired - think it's being so cold but as Dafty says - I'm knackered.

alfie_1

hiya peeps
well it is a wet miserable day here today !


I am still in my dressing gown slobbing around first day in yonks I don't have to "do something"...


the forecast was grim for today so yesterday I bedded down and stacked up hay for all the animogs..
I DID have a large hay net hanging in the tilly/sheep shelter but yesterday I was met by one of the Jacobs walking round most perturbed with a hay net [with small amount of hay] firmly ensconced on its head with its horns stuck firmly in the centre of it !! resembled "you know who" from that royal wedding hat fiasco;) :rotfl:


so having got it enclosed amazingly enough it just stood whilst I de tangled it ...obviously felt a tad embarrassed in front of its mates ...so NO MORE hay nets !!


my poor dad is now getting dementia and its sad to see. hes convinced he is still working but "off sick"... also that mum has run off with a traffic warden ??!! [she's 86 and her running days long gone ]


son has just replaced his car.. its now a posh'ish bmw something or other hatchback ... which looks great till it goes up and down our track...:eek: hence now invested in a jet wash machine :rotfl: it is smart and it is what hes been after for a while..


sons had bone marrow results back and no real nasties thank goodness... he just has a low white cell count thus an immunity problem.. so he has to avoid any infections as best as possible.


well, having seen that north of the border seems to be getting the sh*t weather, keep safe folks ...

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Hi, all,

Missed out on the annual Christmas stomping over the moors this year, thanks to every rail company, station owning company and Railtrack all deciding to coordinate their upgrades, repairs and closures to slot in nicely just before the unions went on strike.

Back at work for a fortnight with the various [strike]feral beasts[/i] Cherished Offspring of the Parish and already dealt with their competing for a Darwin Award by vandalising the electricity supply for the stage lighting booth whilst throwing around huge cartons of drink and dumping litter and old costumes over the sparking mains cabling. Oh, and having a stand up row with the Site Manager about how 'I'll give those sockets a quick test and they'll be fine' isn't satisfactory when they are metal boxes that expose wires and the switches are all broken. He's getting an electrician in to replace them properly, as I went from our 'discussion' straight to the big boss and went ballistic about it.


I'm minus a molar this afternoon, thanks to a combination of autoimmune disease, non existent ongoing dental care for the associated dental issues - and a surprisingly efficient, professional and kind natured emergency dental surgeon who diagnosed an abscess that, by my reckoning, I'd been complaining of at previous surgeries for at least eight years and been dismissed as being my imagination (but if I was unhappy with the NHS provision, I was apparently very welcome to see them as a Private Patient in case there was *something else* they could do). And all for just twenty quid. Seems like I'll be on tins of soup for a bit, but seeing as the anaesthetic has definitely worn off and the post extraction pain is nothing like the pre extraction version, I think I shall survive quite adequately.




Have spotted an opening for my sort of job at a posh school on the right side of the moors. It's only a year and they seem to be expecting somebody planning to become a teacher/considerably younger than me, but it's worth applying for, just in case they think I'm so wonderful, they offer it as a permanent position.


Garden looks foul. Except for the Rainbow Chard - but even that isn't enough to persuade the feline residents to step a paw outside over the last month, anymore than the little black cat that's visiting the back garden is; Idiot Cat is sticking to yelling through the glass door at it. I'm living in hope of finding a little nest of tiny black kittens in the shed, but I think our visitor is, sadly, male.


Himself is being punted out for work against his wishes - he's already been put forward for invigilating external examinations as it's money for old rope, recent experience in schools over and above helping me out at the Christmas Carol Service and gives him a free DBS. His response has been to update his 'professional music teacher/musician' web page. Yeah, like that's going to cut any ice with me.



Still waiting for a gap in the weather to be able to burn off the garden stuff from November, but, as I still had Nasturtiums until a couple of days before Christmas, I'm not expecting it to dry up soon.

greenbee

Part of the kitchen has been done - electrics, plastering and floors. The old cooker and a couple of bits of furniture have been put back in but I have hardly any sockets as those are waiting for the kitchen to be fitted.

I got home today after a couple of days away expecting the utility room to be put back together and I'm somewhat underwhelmed... the DW, sink, fridge, freezer, washing machine and dryer are all in there... but no work surfaces have been put back in. However, my biggest issue is that they've stacked the dryer on the washing machine without anything to secure it. The old stacking kit clearly didn't fit - but I'm not convinced that it's safe to run the washing machine with the dryer just standing on it, and I can't lift it off by myself, so I'm not sure what to do. It's my first day back at work tomorrow, and I'm travelling for the next two weeks so I desperately need to do laundry.

They also appear to have knocked off at 3.30pm on Friday and not done any of the useful odds and ends that would have made life with very little kitchen and utility room bearable, like putting up the blinds and coat racks. So I'm somewhat fed up and a bit stuck as to what to do. The laundry is the most urgent issue

lucielle

Hi All


Been up to the house to get it ready for the season, chimney swept and boiler serviced etc. The boiler did play up between Christmas and New Year when we had people in but we did the best we could and gave them an extra day.


It was stunning driving back through the snow. People were parking so badly in Glencoe, literally just abandoning their cars. Loads of deer about but didn't see any goats, did on the way up.


Hoping to put a stove in but that won't be until next year. Starting to get prices and book the trades people as things get booked quickly.
L

Davesnave

There's been snow from top of the country to somewhere mid-way, but down here it's just gales and wetness. It was about 12c this afternoon, so no chance of a Devon white-out, even on the moors. The pattern of warm, wet and windy may well be established for this winter now, down in the south.

The ground's saturated and the rivers are bursting their banks, with Pete's place being right in the heart of the current warning zone. Now we'll see how well his re-profiling of the banks worked! I have a suspicion nature will win.....;)

Here we're having a few problems keeping some of our newer shrubs upright and in the ground thanks to the sodden state of it. When things return to something like normal, I'll have to prune and support. The 60-70 trees we planted in 2013/14 are OK, fortunately, but most of them have broken their ties, or the stakes have failed now. I don't think we had the extreme winds that Dafty had though; it's just the relentlessness of it.

Sorry I can't do your laundry for you greenbee, or be the tooth fairy. I had a tooth break yesterday, but when is a mystery. I expect the dentist will just say leave it to crumble, like she did the last one, so long as it doesn't show. When it does, it'll be a big bill for 2 crowns.:(

I reported the blocked road drains here on-line and received a reply last week: "All checked and OK."

Not so; they hadn't done a thing! So now I shall be sending them a photo:

greenbee

Have you tried using a tooth repair kit Dave? I've used them for temporary fillings when I broke a tooth and they at least make it more comfortable. I ended up with an implant, which was a BIG bill.

I decided to give the washing machine a go - so it's on a cleaning cycle and I've been doing hand washing (towels are now in the dryer, testing that). The machine seems much quieter and gentler than the old one, so fingers crossed.

I'm hoping my cleaner will be able to help me put up a coat rack and some blinds on Tuesday as I'm fed up with the builders ignoring the stuff I want done and doing what they think is the priority. They're wrong.