Daydream fund challenge part 4

Davesnave

alfie_1 wrote: »

phew ! I saw the pic before reading below and was about to hide my head in shame at what my garden looks like at the moment !!
how did they get that grass like that in this climate !!??

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I don't think they let anyone on it till today. If you look right in the centre at full resolution theres a rope across one of the entrances and several others are blocked off too.

They have dozens of staff + helpers. During the 90 minutes we were in there, two of them mulched just 6 trees. I know 'cos I counted! :whistle:

DaftyDuck

The Bagot babies have arrived! Haven't slept for two nights, what with checking the progress of the mums, so I stink and need a snooze before I fall over. Now, I thought the lambs were cute... They were not! These are just... unbelievably gorgeous!!! In fact, more!! required.

I will post photos. But this is my "barn tablet" and it struggles to do anything whatsoever, it's so old.

I need tea, a shower, tea, a snooze, tea and a cuppa. Then I can do other stuff. ... ...... Actually, I'll just slip back to the barns for an hour or two.

Bagots are the best!

Viking_mfw

Oh what a wonderful thread to find! A smallholding has been my dream since I was a teen. Unfortunately my job (which I love) is in one of the most expensive places to live in the UK and we have just moved to a house with a reasonable but not huge garden, which has been well tended but very much with a view to tidy and low maintenance rather than produce. We're going to be here for at least 20 years, barring a lottery win. One of my best friends is completing on her dream smallholding in the Peak District next week. Got a little bit sad and jealous about that and then decided last night I was d*mn well going to make what we've got go as far as possible. So today I have been out sorting out where the vertical strawberry bed using milk bottles is going to go, cutting back an unloved shrub to replace with fruit trees, planting the quince from a tub we brought with us into the front (seems less likely a candidate for being pinched by passers by) and making plans. Microholding may be the only way forward.

So if I can join in the daydreaming and the chat that would be excellent.

DaftyDuck

Size doesn't matter, my wife always tells me, and I know you can do a lot with a little - in a smallholding sense!

(off to check if there are any more emergents.... back in a mo ...)

Nope, no more... So another night of going out every two or three hours... ah, livin' the dream, just not getting any dream time!

Back last century, when I was a student, my now-wife and I rented a small Victorian terrace with tiny back garden. I grew enough veg and fruit in it to make a substantial contribution to what we ate, especially growing the more expensive varieties - and herbs galore - to flavour the rest of the cheap rubbish we survived on. I had growbags on top of the coalshed and old outside loo (our landlord did, kindly, provide an indoor one ), and hanging baskets all along the fences. The neighbours were, at that stage, still all the elderly "locals", who thought I was sweet, and humoured me, (I did look like I was about thirteen), and encouraged me to fill the shared rear passage with herbs. Smelt wonderful, rather than smelling of bins.

I actually worked very long hours, so had to do much of the gardening by torchlight in winter, adding to my (utterly undeserved) reputation as an eccentric.

We put jobs first(ish) for the next thirty years until we got fed up. Wifey got a working from home contract, I told my employers I'd turn up one day a week if they were lucky, and they foolishly accepted. So, we now live on a small farm, pretend to work on our computers, but actually spend the time playing in the mud. Occasionally we put in an appearance but, given my wife works three hours drive away, and I either work two hours drive, or four hours flying, depending on which hat I pretend to wear, we rarely turn up.

Oddly, we are each the most productive members of our team/department by far..... which is truly scary given our "dedication"...

But, never be put off by lack of space. Two years ago I had a reasonable garden. It was a fluke choice that meant we ended up here, where there is rather too much space for a hobby farm. That didn't stop me buying a bit more land last autumn... idiot!

I'm rambling... sleep deprivation.... if I could work a real computer, I'd upload photos, but that will have to wait. Slumping on the sofa is all I can manage... Can't even drink a drop, or we will crash out for the night, and we need to check the last nanny for kids.

Then the Boreray kick off, then the golden Guernseys have a go.... Oh, sleep, I miss you!

Zzzzzzzzzzzz

DaftyDuck

Here's today's results.... Top most is one set of kids at about twenty minutes old, already after their first feed. The mum in the middle is more interested in her own grub than the kids... until the first bleat, then she responded.

The bottom collection worked out sitting on mum was warmest, but I missed getting a photo.

They are so, so lovely... Despite those horns, they're quite happy for us to help, check their kids over, dry them, have a snuggle. Then, when mum has had enough of us, we get a quiet bleat, and a little warning head nod/bob.. we parcel the kid back, and they are happy. Brilliant mums.







I think some of these are blurred... but it might just be my vision! I also think there will be two more overnight, so I'll be up at 2:00, 4:00 and 6:30.

Probably!

alfie_1

oh they are soooo gorgeous !


I cant wait [but have to !] for "Kingston" and will no doubt do a show and tell too

Davesnave

Viking_mfw wrote: »

Microholding may be the only way forward.

That's what I had in my first 30' garden. Rows of raspberries, strawberries, some other soft fruits and a few pots of toms.

Then I met Dear Wife, who somehow reorganised my garden, so there were mostly flowers in it and just one bed at the bottom for produce.:undecided

That's been the story ever since. 37 years later, I'm still trying to get that productive garden back.....:(

I think I could really like goats, Dafty, but our present set-up where someone else does the sitting-up half the night still has quite an appeal!

Viking_mfw

Thanks Dafty and Dave.

Kids! Totally gorgeous.

On a much more prosaic note today has mostly been about getting the compost heap up and running since I have been very lazily using the food waste bin since we moved. Going to split compostables from non compostable food waste for a bit but we do have one of those exciting Japanese sounding microbial systems to set-up which I understand will munch anything into usable soil.

DaftyDuck

Phew! Last of the Bagots has now kidded. They are absolutely magnificent animals. Within ten minutes of birth, the young are cleaned, nearly dry, and feeding. It took two days for one of the young boys to try humping his sibling. All (bar one slightly weak one) are doing well, and we hope that one will pull through with a bit of the bottle.... after all, that helps me recover!

The mums have been so gentle with their kids, and with us when we intervene. They could do some serious damage with those horns, and they know how to use them... they can even undo knots with them!





Sedate boss and her two acolytes



These last ones are ten minutes old, can walk, and have suckled! Amazing they are so quick...


I'll be up again tonight, to ensure the kids are feeding well, and are warm, then I shall sleep for a full night.... One month until the Boreray sheep start, and those are seriously cute & cuddly!


Dave:

I think I could really like goats, Dafty, but our present set-up where someone else does the sitting-up half the night still has quite an appeal!

I'm not sure. To feel one of these tiny warm bundles, feel how vibrant it is at a few hours old, and to see mum - with those horns - eyeing you up and saying "watch it, mate, one false move and I'll kebab you"... no, I'll keep getting up. Mind you, I do think your better half might object even more at the threat to her flower beds... they LOVE the herb garden... not that there's much left!

It's really good to see some new blood poking up on this thread. It would be lovely to hear some more of you give us your tales, even if they are still daydreams. I haven't been on this thread as long as most, so things can change pretty quickly.

It is, after all, the title of the thread.

alfie_1

eat you hearts out !!


meet KINGSTON