Daydream fund challenge part 4

Davesnave

Aaarrrrgggghhh! Up in the night with leg cramps! :eek:

Serves me right I suppose for doing lots of physical and not drinking enough in the heat.

Hey, CTC that's a great growing space and your sales area is looking good too. :T :beer: We will have to up our game here!

Things have been quieter on the dog front lately, but the jury is still out. They will be up here in under 3 hours for a good morning bark in the field, which fits in with us fine, though some of the other residents could probably manage without 6am reveille!

At least Mr Dog seems totally reformed:A so I've been letting the hedging near him grow back. Ten minutes anger with a chain saw takes years to undo, but soon he'll be able to enter/leave his house unobserved, provided he's also stopped chucking bottles in our field....Pete says we're making hay this year. :j

My physical challenge this week has been to sort out the mess left by BiL, who needed to make his caravan pitch wider to accommodate an awning. He achieved his goal, but left us with tonnes of soil on the patch we'd had Pete 'level' roughly with the digger for a plant standing-out area. I'm slowly sorting it, sifting-out the larger stones and trying to spread it evenly over 75m2 of slightly sloping ground. The dryness is helping there. Really could have managed without tho!

The money for the plants continues to baffle us; we were almost £5 over yesterday, so someone came back to pay their dues....:A

Best news is that the Greenfinches are back. We counted 5 on the geranium phaeum seed heads last night. They vanished a few years ago, thanks to a disease, but hopefully numbers may rise again till we have the small flocks of yesteryear.

Rubbish picture:






Right, back to bed.......:D

choille

Busy as ever Dave.

The green finches is great news. The photo is fine. Not so fine is the having to level the ground. Back breaking stuff.

Yesterday was hot ....again. Tried moving the Gunnera - well, a little off shoot. It's never done well beside the burn - too shaded I think. I hope it manages in the bed I've created beside the house. I haven't ever had much to do with them - a tap root affair which I didn't quite get all of it out. I must keep watering it in this weather. I also planted some seeds I had that looked infested with moths that were in the caravan. I hate waste so worth a punt. Planted out some mini Morning Glories that were not long through in the mini poly house. Hens decided to scratch them out so they may not survive.

Overcast this morning so will be infested with midges out there - it's bin day, so off to do the neighbour's. Ours doesn't need doing as I throw little out - hence the horder's paradise/horder's mess I call home.

alfie_1

well, I got son off to SA at heathrow this morning...
running around like a loon ever since as leaving 5am for appelby
got a call 7pm saying mum was in hospital !
so dashed over after speaking to nurse..
rang brother [he was coming down from kent tomorrow as a meeting at dads nursing home ] and asked him to stay over night [Friday] if mum gets out of hosp tomorrow... after him doing much huffing and puffing and me snapping at him he agreed !! honest to god, bro and sis 1 are good at saying "oh well done, what would we do without you helping mum" well now one of them can bl**dy well find out ..


I feel bad going away now but mum insisted and said she would be upset if I didn't.. rang sis 2 and she straight away said she could come over for Saturday and sunday to cover if need be ...
at least I will not worry then when im away... im sure she will be fine but want all angles covered !!


I think im jinxed with this trip .... we will see !
if I get trampled by a horse and cart I will try and let you know


4.5hrs to go and hello M1 ... :eek:


have a good weekend peeps xx

choille

Oh Alfie - poor Mum, Poor you.

Good that you got things organised and you must get a good break away.

It will be of benefit to you. Good that sis & bro are there. Will be good for them to be at the sharp end.

I'm off to a thing in Cromarty at the old brewery Arts centre - don't you know. Well, what a skiver I am. Just for a couple of days but I feel that guilty I've just sat down trying to clear the decks and get stuff sorted here for going. Poor Mr Choille will have to tackle the evil puppy head & all the other stuff.

Can't wait.

Davesnave

Glad alfie got away OK in the end, and it's good to see you having a naughty weekend too choille!

Lots going on here, some of which I can talk about, like the fact that the quietness has continued with only occasional hiccups.:j Someone must've said something and it's worked. We can hear the birds again.

Also, the new dog has been to her first class, is responding well and has calmed down. When I met her today, I could see from her eyes that she wasn't freaked-out. I think introducing her to a new place, two cats, two other dogs and a couple of horses was probably too much! She isn't all GSD either; more GSHeinz57.

The stall has been going very well and we did the Market too yesterday, so the money's rolling in, but no one will want to know us come the school holidays.:undecided It's such a short season, and with the heat things are going over quickly.

Met a lovely lady in the village this week who has a big, old rambling house and 3/4 acre out at the back, which she is trying to tame. Felt quite a lot better after seeing her plot. We did some plant swapsies and then she handed me a huge wodge of envelopes stuffed with seeds, all allegedly under a year old.....I've only just got rid of the last plants another friend asked me to grow for her, but I think these are 'do what you like with them' seeds. Hope so, germinating one packet of 10 seeds at £5.99:eek: for this other friend was a real worry! They all came up, thankfully. In fact, I had 11 plants....a miracle!

Hmmm...spied on the neighbour who's playing fast & loose with the council's planning dept last night. It's as I thought; quite a bit more work not notified on t'other side of the house. Pictures to follow. They aren't harming anyone, and neither are we, but if we have to follow the rules, so should they.

There's more. I shall have to be discreet, but all is not well nearby and we'll be contacting social services. No more to add about that, or this will sound like a script for Emmerdale!

Oh, hang on, it already does!

Davesnave

Looks like there's a little respite coming from the sky-high temperatures we've been having, but still little prospect of useful rain for those of us in this neck of the woods.

Yesterday, we were supposed to be visiting a rather fine nursery darn sarth, t'other side of Exeter, but a quick Google at the last minute showed us it was closed on Mondays, so we planned a different route.....only to find another local nursery was also shut.

Soooo...e headed off to National Trust Knightshayes instead, where we found we were supposed to pay to park just to visit the plant sales. :eek: We didn't, of course, but we bought a few plants that were reasonable value and nicely presented. :A

On then to another nursery, which was especially interesting, as we went there around 9 years ago as potential purchasers of the whole outfit. It was then being run by an utter madman, who tried unsuccessfully to pretend he had all his stock 'protected' under fleece, but there was nothing there at all except old cardboard boxes. He'd also built the house, which was exactly what a mad person would have built, and he made all sorts of outrageous claims about it and the business.
e.g "You can get another storey up there in the roof" It was a chalet bungalow, olde worlde style. :huh:

I remember poor DD2 was in such agonies from suppressing laughter during that visit she had to leave the scene.:rotfl: I wrote to the agent to say that if his business was in any way reputable, he'd never have arranged an owner-guided viewing. He responded by telling us we were 'blacklisted.' They went out of busines the following year.:p

Anyway, the guys who are running that nursery now are really trying hard, but fighting a real uphill battle with all those who have tea rooms & restaurants. They've done their best with the house too. More plants bought and home.....:D ....where everything had flopped in the heat!

alfie_1

hi all


well... mum stayed in hospital all weekend and ended up having a pacemaker fitted on Monday !
I , in my wisdom, decided I would drive back earlier though the night from sunday evening ... so did half the visitors to appelby !
left at 10.30pm and arrived surrey 5.30am !! [was dropping friend off] would have been an hour earlier but on entering Guildford found nearly every road with a CLOSED sign ?? we ended up doing a massive detour just to get to the other side of the town !
sat nav was having a nervous breakdown with me following it fast ....
im not convinced the signs weren't a practical drunken joke tho....:D


so apparently I sat on friends sofa at 5.30am and just fell sideways into a comatosed sleep :rotfl: I came to about 9am ,still in a bit of a stupor but after a brekkie I set off for home... then to be stuck on the M3 for an extra hour in a que ...
FINALLY got home about 1.30pm ! called into a local pet shop enroute to pick up some owl fodder and spoke to the lady in front of me and by fluke they had just returned from appelby too ... they had left at 8am !!!!
so my grand plan went a bit awry ...:o


fetched mum from hospital yesterday.. she's very low and tired and im a bit worried for her. its really knocked her this time..
saw dad today who told me a nurse had bought him some "senior service cigarettes" and they were in his jacket in the shed ! he hasn't smoked for 40 years..:rotfl: bless him,


took mum some nice ready meals and sat with her this afternoon but she seems a bit confused and cant remember words .... im hoping its just tiredness ...
my boss has given me the week off with pay to look after her xxx


apart from all that I had a brilliant time away, fab cottage, plenty of full English's and generally stuffing my face
but ive concluded that if I went again I will break the journey with a stop over mid way ..


will catch up on all the news soon so sorry if im just having a grumble rather than commenting on others

choille

The weather has broken but is just raining so gales as yet. Temps down considerably.

Picked up a mountain of rubbish left at the beach yesterday & had to get help to carry it across the three beached back to the car park. How come people think that putting glass bottles on a bonfire on a beach frequented by bare foot people with toddlers and animals is a good idea?

Just been soaked walking the road here with some one driving at a deep puddle & soaking me and collie wobble - he got such a fright he lay down and started shaking. I'm now home & dry - it's a weird world out beyond the safety of the croft.

Davesnave

Grr....rrrrrr! lost my post when Firefox stopped responding. :mad:Had to give myself a poke as well...:rotfl:

Anyway it said glad you had a great time at Appleby, alfie, now the rest will do both Mum and you good! I have two friends with pacemakers and they're completely cured of having those 'funny turns.' :A


I made some grumpy comment about tourists and thir waste products too, choille. :mad:


We've at last finished levelling the new plant standing-out area, so now we need posts and windbreak netting...:j


Meanwhile, as promised, here is a clicky-piccie of the 'machinery and apple store' down the lane, taken from the other side. As you can see, those apples need another door and a first floor deck in case of fire (or ship-wreck?:D) Also another first floor deck on the ancilliary barn.....do you think it might be more than 0.3m above ground level? :whistle:

alfie_1

ooooo that's a bit naughty ! dave, I bet they will wait the xyz amount of years and apply for retrospective planning permission ? if no one notices before that of course


it is gaulling when it is such a BIG alteration and jo blogs gets the third degree over a small alteration !
everyone tries secret teeny additions but anything as big as that is taking the pith....


well mums much better today ...so am I


got the cobs injected for feather mite [horses leg feather] on Tuesday , as they were starting to nibble at their legs... not CHEAP :eek: but saves a lot of time .
got the farrier Saturday 9am to trim as many as his back will allow him to do ... the mini's mean he is almost bent double !


Kingston the foal is MASSIVE ! she is almost ear high with her mother at 4 months old... will get some pics of her to show you


im still dog sitting this week and am surrounded by my 3 plus 3 flopped out in a heap on my sofa .... me included :rotfl:


choille... it always amazes me what enters the minds of the people who leave their litter ! do they just dump it in their own homes and gardens ?? I followed one car having retrieved their junk and when they stopped at the train gates I got out and returned it to them ... they went bright red and I told them I had their car reg and if I saw so much as a matchstick come from their car I would report them ... hope it worked anyway !
our problem on the forest is the tin box barbeques that they just leave to burn out, forest pony kicks it and then a forest fire if unlucky...

right I had better get my butt into gear ... cant be an "Alfie of leisure" for too long