Daydream fund challenge part 4

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Himself has enjoyed civilisation (and heating, hot water and food) for the weekend, but is going back tomorrow . Hopefully, only for a couple of weeks at most (mainly because if he stays any longer, I won't have the money to get the beggar back again), as everybody is on holiday next weekend and nobody trusts the FIL not to try and make a break for his midden/flat if nobody's around.


Himself's definitely changed, though. Much thinner, having replaced a good couple of stone of insulation with exactly the same weight in muscle :eek:, a bit of his old accent creeping back - and he's not putting the TV, radio, a podcast and all the lights in the house on all the time.


I'm rethinking the idea of the flat. They're now muttering about selling it with tenants in situ to get a bigger house for themselves and I don't fancy going through that only to be given notice shortly afterwards by the new owners so it can be turned into another Air BnB. [sigh]


Himself will be dispatched back to the moors with instructions to actually talk to people he knows down there about jobs and rentals with long term contracts. And some warm socks, hat, gloves, my waterproof jacket...

Davesnave

Just let the snails have their way with the hostas now, Fay; it'll be less to transport! :rotfl:

It all sounds pretty positive anyway. Fingers crossed.:)

Hope you can soon be living down this way Jojo, but I agree, you need something permanent-ish sorted before burning your bridges. It's cheap down yer, but it ain't free!

Considered the weather forecast and decided to make my one fishing trip yesterday, rather than today. Got that right. It was lovely down there, but a total waste of time for anything piscatorial, the water was so low and clear.

But I was in for a couple of surprises....While hiding behind a tree stalking non-existent trout, I got a huge shock when something hurtled past my face and let out a loud screech at the same time. It was two dippers, apparently racing each other upstream, and one must've had a fright, seeing me, so it let out that screech as it passed!

Normally, dippers are unobtrusive. They just slip quietly away, but these two weren't that fazed. A few minutes later, they returned, still in close formation, going like the clappers, but giving me a wider berth. I wonder what it was all about?

Anyway, I carried on fishing, behaving well, for me, but eventually the rough conditions on my side of the river forced me to cross over and I somehow lost a fly. Sitting down in the long grass, tying another on, the sound of an ATV getting closer was suddenly rather worrying ...Heck, I was on the wrong bank! :eek: I crawled into the even longer grass and scrub where I knew I'd be invisible.

Then I heard the dog!:mad:

The farmer was preoccupied with something and took the dog away from the river for a minute or two, so I did more crawling, got into the river and made my way upstream behind some trees. I couldn't get back onto 'my' bank because it was still sheer and full of bushes, but at least I was on the right side. I thought, "Maybe the dog won't smell me now I'm in the water."

No chance! Huge, very pale coloured Lab suddenly appeared, going bonkers, closely followed by farmer, who must've thought I was a deer or other wild animal! :eek:

Farmer was actually very apologetic. "Don't worry, he's only a puppy!"

Really?

I explained I was fishing on the ticket water and I'd got stuck in the river because it was like the Amazon jungle on my side. He said I was the first fisherman he'd come across in years and he wasn't surprised, as "tis just a wilderness over there."

Hmmm... I rather like wildernesses.:cool: When I looked into the box when dropping off my nil catch return an hour later, I could make out a couple of other tickets, the top one dated 5th August. It had been over 6 weeks since anyone else had set foot there.....No wonder the dippers behave as if they own the place!

alfie_1

hi all


anybody else want money from me ? ... the well is dry ! :eek:


dolly's op will be another 1k
teeth are 3x's that !!
and I balked at £63 for a bit of metal splash back behind the cooker ! so I will find a metal merchant and get an offcut
I scrounged a long oak plank today for in the kitchen so just have to "find some brackets" now


I am selling some antique furniture I have had or been given ... slowly selling !


got to replace my car windscreen AGAIN ! tiny chip has gone awol like the boot of Italy across the screen ... 2nd one this year....so far


got 10 BIG squares of hay coming Thursday...prices at a premium cos of shortage but gardener got me a good deal with a local chap


so I am officially , grandly , spectacularly SKINT and will be for the foreseeable future


weird weather here.. very cold at night then overcast in the morning then .... could be roasting or cool ...looks like rain but doesn't ....beautifull orange sunsets ...then back to cold


hope all the house moving bods get it cracked

Davesnave

alfie_1 wrote: »

I am officially , grandly , spectacularly SKINT and will be for the foreseeable future

I think we will be too, very soon; the new en-suite will take care of that and we still have the conservatory floor to sort out.

But another expense is going to be a new secondhand car. The garage has sorted the old jalopy we have for now, but it was only a stop-gap a year ago and we've just hung on to it, rather than bite the bullet.

Not a lot going on here; just a gradual slide into autumn and more visitors! Sat patiently waiting for the last one to go to bed last night, only to find they had actually slept through the whole of Question Time! :undecided

alfie_1

hi all...


well yesterday was 6 degrees, pee'ing with rain, blowing a hooley and like winter .... TODAY 15 degrees , suns beaming , no wind ???? :cool:


so confusing !


every time I plan to do horse things it rains then when im doing other indoor stuff the sun shines !


mum and I are off to jersey for xmas .. she didn't fancy being here this year so I get to be chaperone ... 4 nights of being fed and watered doesn't sound bad to me ..
flight is only 45 minutes so by the time we sit down it will be time to get off...:rotfl:
mum is SO excited ! bless her.


my fish from my little pond by my house have disappeared ! either an early morn heron OR lily cat [from next door] but they always stayed quite deep so cant see the cat getting them ?? mystery..


im hoping to get to mow today later on when the grass is dry [heavy dews at the mo ]

tori.k

Im oddly officially turning into my contractors worse nightmare, with the gradient im using a engineering team, they are used to having more structured plans with landscaping projects, sounding very pretentious but I work on feel for a space as much as i've dictated materials and a general brief its up to them to have some fun with it and give me the space.
In the process of this I kinda upset a landscaper friend as I didn't ask them to quote on the job but this is due to me being totally bonkers the civil engineering is an odd one, so I needed a more specialised person they will be fine it's just a tiny hit to their ego.
Due to my bonkers ideas im joining those in the broker then a broken thing. Luckily i've managed to talk DH around to the cost by drumming into him that this newish built house has no character other than being a good size so the theater has to start on the doorstep and adding an extra parking space makes financial sense as its pretty much expected that a three bedroom house has designated parking for two cars.

In the house we are almost done for the time being, the green colour we've ended up with in the living room isn't quite right, but the colour I really want doesn't exist outside of my head so it will do, carpet is being laid on the 24th and my new sofa is in so hopefully can get that delivered on the 25th. then im not doing another thing until January im so sick of painting and DIY. I just want to sit back and appreciate what we have for a while, not like we can afford to do much else anyway

Davesnave

Like alfie, we had a potty weather weekend, but maybe lots of others did too. Friday night it was 18c in Crediton town square, where we sat eating fish & chips in T shirts, but by next morning it was almost freezing here with a wind chill that needed more than a wooly jumper to counteract. :eek:

Visitors are all gone though , so yesterday it was back to digging my way across the last of 'Afghanistan.' There, under the chosen route for the path, I discovered 3 plastic land drains converging; no wonder it was kinda soggy there! I knew about two of them, but the third is a mystery. I'll be putting in my own drain to get water away from there anyway.

In other news, a local lad got into Mr Dog's house a couple of weeks ago. He was discovered by Mrs Dog, still sitting in their best room, considerably worse for drinking Mr Dog's booze!:rotfl:Typical sort of daft crime that happens here. I think she just kicked his @r$e and sent him packing!:T

Grandson, Sam, fell of his bike on some gravel in a Brum park yesterday and broke a small elbow bone, which is going to need surgery today. Then it's 6 weeks in plaster and 2 years of follow-up.:(:( Hospital was brilliant.:A

Tori, our front garden is still, "at least 2 years away" according to DW yesterday. I'm breathing a sigh of relief.

greenbee

Tori - I suggest telling your friend that you don't mix business with friendships as you value your friendships. I certainly wouldn't want to employ a friend on a job where my requirements might test their professionalism

tori.k

I'd love to have that excuse but it's someone I've worked with before and would recommend to most people, if it was basic heavy landscaping they would be ideal but this is something that needs a bit more precision, they are not overly cheesed off as they know the details, I think its more a ego thing it would have been better if I enquired if they could do the job and been told no, then already knowing they wouldn't have been able too.
I do have to curb the spending im 2.5K into labour at mates rates and with certain materials that have to be used to maintain the aesthetic we will be close to breaking the ceiling price for the area when the extension is done, I don't really care about stuff like that but DH likes to remind me that I want to retire as soon as I can and doing stuff like this keeps me working.

alfie_1

I believe I must have my very own guardian angel


I have just been unexpectantly handed some £s to cover the costs of dolly daydreams operation !!!


so I can now breath easy that she will be all repaired and cancer / tumour free :j:j
weather is gorgeous here again so good all round