Daydream fund challenge part 4

choille

greenbee wrote: »

sounds to me as if she's the one in danger of catching kennel cough alfie...

That is so funny.

Massive hail showers along the beach and a biting wind so feel all power washed about the cheeks.

Good to get back indoors and a bowl of soup down.

lucielle

Hope the animogs get better soon, Alfie.

L

lucielle

Well its been very wet and windy here. Still trying to get some prices for topsoil but seem to be chasing my tail.

Trying to get caught up with everything. We've been approached by Amazon to open a shop with them, so currently looking at that.

Sciatica is loads better, can even put my own socks on. Shoulder is still very painful. I've got full range of movements but it aches all the time. Physio said I needed an injection in it, which is booked for Tuesday. Looking forward to it but dreading it at the same time as OH has had one and said it hurts.

DD2 is currently working on a beef and pheasant farm in NZ. They had a helicopter doing some work and at the end of the day the pilot took them for a flight. They also used the chopper to bring some fencing materials into a canyon where they couldn't get any vehicles. DD1 has just applied for her visa to go, so that'll mean both DDs gone. I'm dreading it but you've got to let them go.
L

greenbee

Wet and windy here too.

You're obviously going to have to plan a holiday to NZ lucielle

I'm trying to work out whether the holes in my lawn are rat holes or water vole holes. I think they're voles, but a little bit of paranoia makes me worry that some of them might be rats. Not that I can do much about it because of the voles.

alfie_1

did all of you peeps have the gales yesterday ??


oh boy did it blow here .. like a train going through, numerous trees / branches down ..
supposed to have been giving a riding lesson yesterday morning but horses hate having a tail wind and way too dangerous for young girl...
sun is out today ...so far and ive mowed my top lawn twice this afternoon ,so nice and short to kick off the spring .
puppy is fast asleep now having been belting round like a loon while I mowed !
dogs seem to be on the UP now, just the odd huff .... thank goodness !


sorry if ive not kept up / commented on vital posts , my head is somewhere else at the moment .... memory like a goldfish !!

DaftyDuck

I've been a bit quiet on here since the New Year began... I've actually had to do some work in the "real" world, thanks to the "B"-word, and all the success and investment that's bringing to UK research. But, sorted now and, with our new funding all arranged (and, incidentally, the legal registration of all results now being in mainland Europe, so that's great for the UK...) and funding levels a bit higher than they were in Blighty, it's back to playing on the farm. Luckily for me, all my work has been based in Germany for a couple of years now, even though I spend my days here. My other half reports to the USA, but also works from home. Great stuff, this interweb innit? It means all that cash can flow abroad...

So...


(windows out, and up with the Escher ladder conundrum!)

.. with the warm weather we were having, it seemed an ideal time to take out some sash windows, and strip the roof! Well, the windows are back in, sill replaced in that one, along with casings, parting beads, re-puttied, and a couple of panes replaced. Two others are also back, but they weren't in as bad a state, so they were repair, not rebuild. The roof is mainly(!!!) back on, and well-tested by Gareth. The bits that are finished held out perfectly... where the ridge isn't back on leaked a bit! Well, buckets were needed, shall we admit... It will be 100% waterproof by tomorrow night, when Gareth has passed, usefully.

I'm more pleased by my woodwork on the window (it's the one on the left of the other picture, back in and shiny) than by my roofing! Given part of the roof was untouched since 1828, it held out quite well. Doubt my bit will last as well!

Other news in brief: the barn owls are setting up territory on the water meadows, and are using three of the nest boxes, so I guess that's six. Good news... except for the new bank of water voles that I'd got established! We now have little and tawny owls setting territories as well. The wild flower meadows should be good this year; last year's heatwave was great for seed-setting.

I have planted around five acres of mixed coppice, using locally-sourced native trees, and that joins the three acres that's been there since time immemorial. Along with the odd bits of coppice dotted around the place, that alone keeps us in fuel, fencing and bits for eternity.

More goats have joined us here, and there will be more sheep in the autumn. Other stuff has probably happened - oh, yes, a stand-up row continues, between the Environment Agency and the Environment Agency... one of my banks is too close to the river, and shall be moved... one of my banks is now listed as important habitat, and may not be touched. Ever. Yep, same bank. I'll leave them to argue, and just carry on.

I'm glad that my (and mainly my OH's) youthful hard work now allows us to bum around on the farm, "doing" wildlife and rare breeds. Seems comforting. Entertains the village too, and they do join in with our crazyness.

Anyway, I'm enjoying (not the right word in any context) watching the collapse of Tessa and her disappearing voice, and waiting to see if there is any plan for the next three weeks. Given we sorted out our ten-year plan for research (despite the UK's best efforts to help) in a five day meeting in a (very nice and expensive) hotel, and all agreed at the end... it's a little disappointing to see our national representatives be so utterly useless!

I shall change the buckets over in the attic, have a cup of tea with a bun, then tend to the flocks and whatever. Should be just in time to see the UK descend into a Dante-esque Circle of Bu99ery-Updom!

Oh well, at least I am a dual citizen of another EU country...

I'll be a good boy and admit to a few of my more recent spectacular !!!!-ups in the next few days... unless embarrassment takes hold!

choille

Very rough here with sleet, torrential rain & gale force winds.

Collie Wobble didn't want a beach walk today as it was blinding with sand hitting you in the face no matter which way you turned so off we went to the wood.
Someone is camped up next to a storage container in the car park. Little dome tent sheltering in its lee. I'd be in the bird hide further in if I was them.
No one in sight other than me & Collie Wobble.
Horrid weather.

You've been busy dafty. No one seems to know what on earth is going on with the 'B' word and we are all losing the will to live.
We have wild goats coming up along the shore - big black brutes all rather handsome but they do bark the trees. I'm scared to let dog out on his own as he'll herd them up and keep barking at them all day, all night if I let him.

greenbee

How are you managing to get the coppice and goats to co-exist peacefully Dafty?

If you want some watervoles, I think I might have a few to spare judging by the state of my lawn. They seem to have tunnelled through most of it for some unknown reason. I might see whether the local conservation group would like to trap some and move them further down the river.

I work for a scandinavian company, so work should be OK, but it'll be interesting to see what happens with my European travel. I'm assuming it won't impact the US/Canada/Asia/ANZ element, but who knows?

Sensible dog not wanting to go to the beach Choille! I hope whoever is camped in the carpark is OK tonight. Wind dropped here this afternoon, I suspect it'll be getting up again later.

I need to get my handyman back to put up some blinds, finish the utility room and clear his rubbish out of the garage so I can get on with the garden in peace.

Davesnave

Very little of substance to report here, apart from winds that are probably nothing on what choille has to cope with and the occasional biblical deluge. The grass is growing well now and most of my seeds are germinating happily, as are the weeds.

Do any of you have problems with 'sticky weed,' cleavers,or Galium apartine, if you want its latin name? I've noticed a marked increase in it here, and not just in the hedges close to the house,where the cats might spread it. I pull it before it seeds in the places I might call 'garden,' but it seems to return in greater numbers with each passing season. :mad:

The B thing will probably turn into even more of a B farce yet. It's too important an issue to be left to politicians, so perhaps the security services will have something in mind, like they did before, but that didn't work out too well.....

alfie_1

regardless of who voted for whatever ...
I honestly think that those , I honestly CHOKE on the words "in power" did not for one moment think the vote would go the way it did ....
I think they all peed their pants when they realised they had no back up plan or even a mere suggestion as to what to do next when it went the way it did go !
headless chickens led by dinasours .
reminds me of someone trying to walk across the m25 ...


I hate politics but I really hate politicians more ... jumped up over paid , underworked tw*ts .......


ive always believed a bunch of housewives could do far better ,


ooops fell off my soap box